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Some quick notes on last night's Raleigh show:

• PNC Arena now charges $40 to park, even for events like Disney on Ice and hockey games.  Who are they kidding?  You can pre pay online for $30.  Make that $33 - don't forget those fees!  You can also park across the street at a school for free but it is too damn cold for all that walking.  So I started off on a sour note since I hate being gouged for parking. 
  
• Once again, the sound is so shitty.  Low, no balls, no bass, no crunch.  I don't know if it is just this arena but it ruins the show. 
  
• I am mostly there for Savatage stuff, being a lifelong fan.  There were a few 'tage moments but it's never enough.  
  
• No meet and greet.  I think they stopped doing it during Covid and it never returned. 
  
• It was great to hear Queen of the Winter Night live again which has to be very challenging to sing.  Cool new visual too which I will not spoil.
  
• There was also a new visual on the back of the floor.  Something new to burn but I am not sure where it fits in.  Will not spoil!
  
• My girlfriend and I were the only two losers with Savatage shirts.  Very light crowd.  Lots of grandparents and grandkids. 
  
• We saw lots of people leaving early.  I think many left during singer intros thinking this was the end of the show.  Checking Reddit's TSO page, this is apparently common.
  
• Based on the charity check, they sold less than 11,000 tickets.  PNC claims to hold 20,000.  Assume 1/3 is closed off since it is behind the stage, it does not sound like a sell out.  Most seats filled up eventually except for the ones on the extreme sides of the stage.  If I go again, I will sit there. More breathing room and a fresh perspective.  
  
• This show was centered around that terrible Hallmark movie which makes me cringe. 
  
• The huge nutcrackers with TSO hats were cool but they should sell them at the merch table.  Lost opportunity. 
  
• They started at 7:15 and ended at 9:30, perfectly choreographed to the second. 
  
• I feel like a spoiled asshole being bored with these shows but... I am.  They really invest in the visuals while the sound and setlist is flat.  
  

(12-15-2023, 02:08 AM)admin Wrote: [ -> ]Some quick notes on last night's Raleigh show:

• PNC Arena now charges $40 to park, even for events like Disney on Ice and hockey games.  Who are they kidding?  You can pre pay online for $30.  Make that $33 - don't forget those fees!  You can also park across the street at a school for free but it is too damn cold for all that walking.  So I started off on a sour note since I hate being gouged for parking. 
  
• Once again, the sound is so shitty.  Low, no balls, no bass, no crunch.  I don't know if it is just this arena but it ruins the show. 
  
• I am mostly there for Savatage stuff, being a lifelong fan.  There were a few 'tage moments but it's never enough.  
  
• No meet and greet.  I think they stopped doing it during Covid and it never returned. 
  
• It was great to hear Queen of the Winter Night live again which has to be very challenging to sing.  Cool new visual too which I will not spoil.
  
• There was also a new visual on the back of the floor.  Something new to burn but I am not sure where it fits in.  Will not spoil!
  
• My girlfriend and I were the only two losers with Savatage shirts.  Very light crowd.  Lots of grandparents and grandkids. 
  
• We saw lots of people leaving early.  I think many left during singer intros thinking this was the end of the show.  Checking Reddit's TSO page, this is apparently common.
  
• Based on the charity check, they sold less than 11,000 tickets.  PNC claims to hold 20,000.  Assume 1/3 is closed off since it is behind the stage, it does not sound like a sell out.  Most seats filled up eventually except for the ones on the extreme sides of the stage.  If I go again, I will sit there. More breathing room and a fresh perspective.  
  
• This show was centered around that terrible Hallmark movie which makes me cringe. 
  
• The huge nutcrackers with TSO hats were cool but they should sell them at the merch table.  Lost opportunity. 
  
• They started at 7:15 and ended at 9:30, perfectly choreographed to the second. 
  
• I feel like a spoiled asshole being bored with these shows but... I am.  They really invest in the visuals while the sound and setlist is flat.  
  

I stayed at a hotel up on Blue Ridge and walked to and from the show. Eight minutes down and ten minutes back (down hill to PNC and uphill back to the hotel). Not a bad walk at all.
The show was OK. You made a great point about having the Queen of The Winter Night to be shown on the big screens on stage. 
I was front row and had no idea what was going on until I saw some people turn to look back. I liked what they did with that though and who was singing it? Was it Natalia Rose? 
The nutcrackers were cool and there is a man and woman that have been going to Raleigh since I have been going wearing hats like those nutcrackers with red lighted lettering. Not my cup of tea but you are right about it being something to pawn off at an exuberant price...t-shirts are $40 and the line for merchandise was long. They are raking it in.
I was surprised at the low turnout as well. PNC can easily hold 16,000 for the show. They had 15,000+ last year...money is tight right now and everything is going up. It is such a rip off to pay $40 to park...when I first started attending it was $5 in 2005. Never going to see that again. 
Again, the show was ok but this is my last year until they decide to bring something new to the table. I would like them to go smaller, and what I mean is eliminate some of the visual stuff. I don't need to be entertained by lights, fire, smoke dancing musicians etc...Just rock the place with their talents.

I recently saw the UBS Arena show and I thought it was pretty good. The fact that they opened up the show and the second set with a Savatage songs shows me that they want to slowly incorporate more of them into the Christmas tour setlist, which hey, I'm all for. The question is, would Caleb Johnson or John Brink risk shredding their vocal cords trying to do Jon Oliva's screams? lol

In terms of setlist, I liked this one better than last year although I really REALLY wish they would just stop with the medleys and just go back to doing full songs. Thats what annoyed me about 2021 is that they did 3/4ths of Mozart and Memories and only 1/4 of The Mountain as the finisher when in 2011, they did both songs live in their entirety. Heavy songs like O Fortuna and The Mountain are always welcome, I love the fact they brought back Joy Of Man's Desiring/Angels We Have Heard On High/Angel's Share again as that one was always one of my favorites. And I know I was bitching about the medleys but combining Dreams Of Fireflies with Queen Of The Winter Night was a pretty genius move, plus Natalya absolutley fucking NAILED it, I've unfortunately heard clips of some singers from TSO tours past absolutley butchering Queen Of The Winter Night given the fact the original Queen Of The Night aria one of the hardest peices for a soprano to pull off. 

However, I will say, opening the show with a medley of The Lion's Roar and The Hourglass and opening the second set with Temptation Revelation did sound kind of redundant.

In terms of stage show, it was kind of an amalgamation of 2017's marquee drum riser with 2010's catwalks. I don't mind them reusing elements from past tours to save money, but I do hope that they'll change them up every so often.