What an interesting and entertaining 3 days up in Vancouver over the weekend. This was not like any other convention we have been to, it was much more intense and subversive into the the whole vibe and “family” of the show and fandom. The fans were certainly all involved and thoroughly engaged in everything that was happening and the show organizers had things planned from early in the morning until late at night. The days were full with of course the panels where all the stars of the show took questions and told very funny stories of themselves and the show . They had karaoke night on Friday night and a late night concert with the house band Loud and Swain.

Most of the weekend was with the starts getting close to the fans the of course the personal autographing sessions, photo ops and meet and greets. We didn’t tale advantage of any of the photo ops or meet and greets, but we certainly spent a fair amount of time in lines waiting for autographs. The first night Nicki and I waited from around 5:00pm until after 9:00 to get Osric Chau (who played Kevin), Gil McKinney (who played Henry W.) and Tyler Johnston (who played Alfie). On Saturday, Toni and I waited from around 5:30pm to around 9:30 to get autographs from Misha Collins (who plays Castiel) and Mark Sheppard (who plays Crowley). We didn’t want to wait an extra hour plus to wait in line to get Theo Devany (who played Gavin MacLoud, so unfortunately missed his signature. I was however able to get Ruth Connell (who plays Rowena) who was super cool and was in my opinion one of the major highlights of the weekend. She was just so perky and fun. It was her first convention, but I know she will be back as she was certainly a crowd pleaser. The third day was busy with Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) with a morning panel just for the gold ticket holders and their full panel in the afternoon and autographs in the evening. I was also able to get Richard Steight Jr (who plays the Trickster/ archangel Gabriel). Richard was by far the highlight of the whole weekend in my opinion. He was the master of ceremonies and put on a great panel with Matt Cohen (who played young John Winchester) and Rob Benedict (who played Carver Edlund/ Chuck Shurley)..I got his signature on Sunday as well. He has such a great sense of humor and kept everyone laughing and engaged with everything he said.

All in all, this was a real fun show.

Ryan and Nicki with Motionless in White

Well, another VIP, this time a meet and greet, Q&A and soundcheck with Motionless in White. What a great group of guys. Chris has such a great personality and way of communicating with the fans. The soundcheck was very cool watching the guys jamming to portions of many great songs… what a treat!

At the show we also saw ICE NINE KILLS and New Years Day, who we have seen before and just love. The only problem with this show was that the venue was just way too small and way over sold. We scored a great spot on the upper level riser away from the front of the stage, but along a railing, but the problem was we were pushed against the rail by all the jammed in people that it was just as crowded as being at the stage rail with the exception of the mosh…it was just too much for us and we had to leave before Motionless actually came on stage…At least we were able to meet and talk with them, and we have seen them perform a bunch of times before…we knew what we were missing, but could not deal with the crowd.

Well, I missed the first show on the calendar for 2015 due to my stupid day job! At least Toni, Nick and Ryan were able to go and meet the guys from Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens.

We went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra at Key Arena last night. This has become a regular holiday tradition for our family for the last three years. The first time we saw them in 2010 we were blown away and all decided right then that we would make this an end of the concert year tradition. We were (and still are) blown away by their incorporation of classical, orchestral, symphonic, and progressive elements into rock and heavy metal music.

Tonight’s show did not disappoint, and in fact we thought that it was the best TSO show that we have ever seen.

This was the last performance of the “The Lost Christmas Eve”, their show, which is based on the album released in 2004.

The stage set-up seemed much bigger than in previous years as well with side platforms and more projection area in the back of the stage. Of course they had the spectacular elevating platforms both in front of the stage as well as in the back of the arena where the performers would raise above and over the crowd while playing…very cool.

The show opened up with a few great instrumentals showing off the amazing talents of the guitarists Angus Clark and Al Pitrelli; String, Asha Mevlana and Keyboardists Vitalij Kuprij and Jane Mangini (who do an incredible dualing keyboard bit)

The show then transitions into the story portion of the Lost Christmas Eve, which starts out with a narration and set-up of the story followed by the band kicking into more of their signature sound. The story line is a musical tale of loss and redemption. A story of a business man who forty years prior had abandoned his newborn son to a state run institution, and how there is something about Christmas Eve that allows people to correct mistakes they have made in their lives…pretty emotional stuff, but mixed with great rock!

Following the story, they played another fairly lengthy set of their hit songs and the groups founder Paul O’Neill even came out and performed for much of the last part of the show. The stage show really picked up in the part of the performance. They broke out all of the lighting, lasers, pyrotechnics (felt the heat from the fire from where we were sitting) and a few members of the band even walked through the crowd while playing, stopping periodically to jam in the audience.

If you haven’t see Trans Siberian Orchestra perform, you absolutely must experience them at least once. You too will be blown away by the music, story and stage show.