Although SAVATAGE has played just one official concert — a co-headlining appearance at the 2015 edition of Germany's Wacken Open Air festival — since the end of its world tour in support of 2001's Poets & Madmen", several of the group's songs have been prominently featured over the years in live performances by TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, whose two touring troupes feature a number of SAVATAGE alumni. This year's TSO tour — which kicked off yesterday (November 13) — is no exception. In addition to "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" — the 1995 SAVATAGE song that was re-released the following year under the TSO moniker — the band is once again performing "Believe", the closing track to SAVATAGE's 1991 album "Streets: A Rock Opera". TSO has performed the song in the past and even re-recorded it for the 2009 double album "Night Castle", but yesterday's performances of the song were TSO's first since it shared the stage with SAVATAGE at Wacken. Fan-filmed footage of "TSO East" — which features onetime SAVATAGE bandmates Chris Caffery (guitar) and Jeff Plate (drums) — performing "Believe" with vocalist Robin Borneman can be seen below, as can footage of "TSO West" (which includes longtime SAVATAGE bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and mid-to-late-'90s lead guitarist Al Pitrelli) playing the song with vocalist Nate Amor. In addition to members of SAVATAGE, TSO's touring troupes also include a number of other notable hard rock and metal musicians, including guitarist Joel Hoekstra (WHITESNAKE), vocalist Russell Allen (SYMPHONY X), vocalist Dino Jelusic (ANIMAL DRIVE, DIRTY SHIRLEY), drummer Blas Elias (SLAUGHTER) and vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (SONS OF APOLLO, SOTO). This year's TSO tour — during which the band is expected to play before more than one million fans — sees the group performing its triple-platinum 1996 debut album, "Christmas Eve And Other Stories", for the first time since 2011. For a list of their remaining tour dates, visit www.trans-siberian.com.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
