Jenny Pacillo
There are many holiday traditions that are looked forward to every year, and one of the best is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra winter tour. This year the band will be celebrating their 30th anniversary with a reimagined production of “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” at the DCU Center for two shows on Nov. 28. We had the opportunity to connect with TSO drummer Jeff Plate, who has been with the band from the very beginning and has seen it grow into a tradition for millions of fans.
Plate actually lived in Worcester for a few years during the mid-80s, and the city continues to have a special place in his heart. He recalled seeing Judas Priest at the Centrum during his time here. “I remember sitting in the “watching Priest and thinking, ‘Man, I want to be up there. That’s what I want to do right there.’ When we actually came back and played the arena with TSO, I remember going up into the seat or in the general area where I saw Judas Priest. And here I am, all these years later, actually playing the arena, and I’m sitting here looking around the room, going, ‘Wow, it’s actually happened.’ It’s all pretty cool,” he shares.
After Worcester, Plate stayed in Massachusetts and played in metal bands, including Wicked Witch, before joining Savatage, where he met the band’s producer, the late Paul O’Neill. Savatage’s single “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24,” from the album “Dead Winter Dead,” became an instant hit in the United States and was the catalyst for O’Neill to create TSO. O’Neill went on to write and produce TSO’s albums, dreaming up the holiday rock opera that has become a tradition for millions of fans, and Plate was behind the drums for the band’s first tour in 1999. Though O’Neill died in 2017, Plate still speaks of him as the heart of everything TSO does. “Christmas music was always kind of nice and tame and safe, then here comes TSO, bam! It’s like here’s some Christmas music for you,” Plate laughs.
TSO’s very first tour in 1999 came off the heels of their first two highly successful albums “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” in 1996 and “The Christmas Attic” in 1998. “People loved what Paul was doing, but we never took it on stage until later, till the end of the year in 1999,” Plate explains. Their first shows started out with one box truck. “We had a star curtain behind us and some fog machines,” Plate says. “As this thing became a success and as these tours grew, Paul kept adding to the production. He wanted to fill up that stage and make it bigger than life.”
“The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” 30th anniversary tour promises to impress. This iconic rock opera will debut new backdrops, reimagined staging with elevated lasers and pyro that will leave audiences in awe. Tickets start at just under $60, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Worcester County Food Bank and the Lupus Foundation New England. One dollar from every TSO ticket sold is donated to a local charity. “There’s such a variety of charities that we’ve contributed to over the years. Right now it’s close to, if not over, $21 million that we’ve donated over all these years across North America. It’s always going to a good place and helping people out, and that’s the main thing,” Plate says.
Ultimately, it all comes down to giving the fans an experience they will always treasure, and Plate is quick to share his gratitude for their support. “You know, it always sounds so cliche. We can’t do this without the fans. But that’s just the truth,” he says. He also credits his friend Paul O’Neill for his vision, talent and creativity. “TSO is part of the holiday fabric. When it first started, nobody really had an idea what the heck was going to happen. But Paul, I think, was probably the only guy in the room at the time that could see down the road as to what the potential was for TSO, and he pursued that and made it happen,” Plate says, adding, “Fans are showing up. Fans are bringing new fans, and we just can’t thank the people enough for supporting what we’re doing.”