Features
Bigger In ’07
The group will split into two touring productions again this year and visit arenas in more than 90 cities across the U.S. and Canada through the first week of January.
The journey gets rolling with four shows November 1-3 at Chevrolet Center in Youngstown, Ohio. TSO will perform both an afternoon and an evening show November 3 and at about a third of the other venues on the tour.
Other stops on the massive itinerary include Giant Center at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania (November 4), Phillips Arena in Atlanta (November 8), the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. (November 11), EJ Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio (November 14-15), US Airways Center in Phoenix (November 17), HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. (November 21), the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev. (November 24), GM Place in Vancouver (November 30), Allstate Arena in Chicago (December 2), Pepsi Center in Denver (December 6), Wachovia Center in Philadelphia (December 8), Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa (December 13), Target Center in Minneapolis (December 15), Conseco Field House in Indianapolis (December 17), Ford Center in Oklahoma City (December 22), Alltell Arena in Little Rock, Ark. (December 29), OnCenter in Syracuse, N.Y. (January 4), and Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis. (January 6).
Presale tickets go on sale to TSO fan club members beginning September 6.
Just before last year’s tour, TSO tour and production director Elliot Saltzman told Pollstar all about the specifics of coordinating such a massive undertaking.
Saltzman said the planning for the production side of the tour begins in late August or early September each year.
“Our West Coast tour manager, production manager and production coordinator, as well as the East Coast tour manager, road manager, production manager and production coordinator come to New York City and we start doing the tour, production-wise,” Saltzman told Pollstar.
He said the key to keeping things running smoothly and on schedule once the tour hits the road is having two identical set ups and checking both out during rehearsals, which usually start at the end of October.
“We actually have both systems – sound, lights, stage production, everything – set up at once,” he said. “Basically, we have 16 trucks full of sound, lights, pyrotechnics and lasers in one venue. Then, we check everything for a long time, because once we hit the road, there’s no room for any mistakes or any problems.”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s 2006 outing charted at No. 17 on Pollstar‘s Top 100 Tours of 2006, grossing $37.3 million and moving nearly half a million tickets in just under two months.