For a complete collection of pictures, visit http://pics.omnux.com/Missouri-MannheimSteamroller2006Tour

Last year (2005), just a couple of days before Christmas, some college friends and myself went to a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert in St. Louis. This year, we decided to go to see Mannheim Steamroller (hereafter known as MS). The MS concert was December 3, 2006 at 7pm in the evening. Brian got the tickets back in early October when they first went on sale to the general public. They ended up being about $56 apiece with all the cuts that the ticket places get.

On the 3rd, I left Champaign about 1pm and headed for St Louis. It takes about 3 hours to get to Brian’s place, and he wanted people there between 4 and 5. Actually, I thought it took closer to 3:15, but it ended up only taking me about 3 hours. So, I got there shortly after 4. Brad showed up a bit later, and then Bill. We chatted for a while and the talk then turned to supper. After some pondering, we decided on Casa Gallardo. So, we piled into Bill’s car and headed out. The MS concert supposedly allowed cameras, so I had my Rebel and 3 lenses that I took with me. At Casa, I got the Ultimate Combo #2, which included a chicken burrito, a beef taco, and a cheese enchilada, with rice, refried beans, a dollip of sweet corn cake, and a free serving of Fried Ice Cream for dessert.

The food was excellent. I figured that it would be way too much for me, but the serving size ended up working out well. The fried ice cream was the icing on the cake, and I left satisfied, and ready for some Christmas music courtesy of MS.

We headed downtown on I-70 and made it into the downtown area about 20-25 minutes before 7, which is when the concert started. Traffic was pretty bad around Kiel/Savvis/ScottTrade center, and we finally ended up parking in the Union Station parking lot and walking a block to get to the venue, which was no big deal. We got to the doors at about 7:10. So, we had missed a tiny bit, but nothing major.

Walking inside, the guy standing there wanted to see in my bag. I told him that I had a camera and he asked how big the lens was. Well, I had the three lenses. I assumed he was interested in the biggest one, which is a 100-400 zoom, so I said it was a 100. In its configuration in the bag, that’s exactly what zoom it was at. He hemmed and hawed for a bit, and called over his manager. She looked in the bag, which had the 100-400 on the bottom, the 28-135 above that, and the camera, with the 10-22 lens on it, and asked me how big the lens was. I said again that it was a 100. Well, come to find out, they were wanted to know how many inches long the lens was. Anyway, she held her hand down to the camera and “measured” the lens, which apparently seemed OK to her, because she said, “oh.. ok.. go ahead”. I’m rather confident that if they had looked at the 100-400 I would have had trouble. But, they didn’t, and everything worked out fine.

The doors we went in were very close to the section we were sitting in, so
we quickly found the doors to where we needed to be and entered the
arena. Chip Davis was just finishing up the introductions of the major band members and mentioned the music that they would be playing. He said that the first half would be Christmas music. He then said that the second half would be Christmas music. And, in a very funny twist, he then commented that the third half would also be Christmas music. The entire arena erupted in laughter that didn’t die down for at least 3 or 4 minutes. Yes, I’m kidding. So, we made it to an area and Brian sat down. We didn’t think we were in the right seats, but there weren’t any lights telling us where we were. We were down a row and not on the right end. But, we were immediately behind Brian’s mom and dad, who were also at the concert. So that was cool. For about 2 minutes, after which time the people who actually had those seats showed up and kicked us out. We hadn’t went to our exact seats because it was obvious that other people were in our seats. There wasn’t any way that we could easily get over to them without disrupting a bunch of people, so we worked our way back out, walked around a bit and came in another door that was closer.

There was a large section of empty seats down a bit lower, so we just took 4 of them. We never did actually sit in our assigned seats, but no one ever showed up to take the seats we had, so it all worked out fine. We were expecting to be supplanted, but it never happened.

So, we were there. I gave the camera while to warm up to room temperature before taking it out of the bag. While that was happening, we listened to the music. This was the program for the evening:

  • Celebration
  • Deck The Halls
  • We Three Kings
  • Good King Winceslas
  • Christmas Lullaby
  • Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
  • Traditions of Christmas
  • Away In A Manger
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sang
  • White Christmas
  • Faeries
  • Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night)

Intermission

  • Hallelujah
  • Gagliarda
  • In Dulci Jubilo
  • Wassail, Wassail
  • Carol of the Birds
  • I Saw Three Ships
  • God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
  • Little Drummer Boy
  • Winter Wonderland
  • Carol of the Bells

Encore

  • Something, Something
  • Stille Nacht / Silent Night

Over the course of the evening I managed to take 191 pictures. I used all the lenses and took a lot of pictures of the same thing, because I knew that the low light situation would test the camera to the max. Most of the pictures were taking at ISO 1600. A few at 800, and a couple at 3200. At that ISO rating the average shutter speed was probably 1/10th of a second. To be really crisp picture without bluriness you need a time of about 1/150th of a second at the zoom lengths that I was using. So, I took a lot of pictures, hoping that I’d get a couple that happened to be crisp.

The stage was set up at one end of the floor area. There were a bunch of round tables with red and green table covers on them. They were for the people that had paid a hundred bucks or so to get wine and cheese over the course of the evening. Behind the tables there were a few normal seats, and then there was a large display of a winter town that MS had set up. (Brian has been to several MS concerts and said that they had the winter town each time). At different points in the concert they would light the town with different colors and the train would run, and once they had fake snow falling on the town.

For the main stage they had a large video screen, with a couple of smaller video screens on the side. Sometimes they had the same video on all three. Sometimes they had a different video on the larger center screen. The evening basically consisted of the main MS players playing underneath the large center screen, and they showed a video or slide show on the video screens. Periodically they would shoot some fog down from the upper corners of the main video screen and they changed the colors of the lights that were shining on the players.

After about an hour, they had an intermission. The lights came up and people started filing out to do their standard intermission “stuff”. The Christmas town was well lit at that point, and four men dressed in Toy Soldier costumes came out and positioned themselves on each of the four sides of the rectangle in which the town was contained. I presume that they were there to guard the town from people who might choose to investigate more closely than needed.

Brian’s mom and dad made their way over to where we were at, and we had the opportunity to catch up. It had been a long, long time since I had seen them. We chatted about the snow, Champaign, and a few other things. They also took a picture of the four of us. At the end of the intermission, the four Toy Soldiers formed back up and made their exit. The lights went down, and the second half began. Near the beginning of the second half they had a long video of a middle ages feast in a castle. This actually covered several songs, and the MS players were more “relaxed” during this stage. No drums; they were sitting around more. That sort of thing.

At the end of the standard list of songs they did their standard bowing and hand waving, and things went dark. Luckily, they didn’t make people wait too long before the expected encore. They came back out and played a few up-tempo songs and then they ended the evening with Silent Night. After that the lights came back up and the show was over. Brian said that they always ended with Silent Night.

We made our way back to the car. It was rather cold that night, so we made pretty good time. When we had originally parked in the Union Station parking lot, they didn’t have anyone there handing out tickets, and the ticket machine wasn’t dispensing tickets. So, when we left, the man (very kindly) asked us how long we had been there and calculated how much we owed, rather than just charging us the maximum.

Commentary:

I’m glad I went to see Mannheim Steamroller. I want to say that at the beginning. There’s always something cool about seeing people perform the songs that you’ve heard for so many years.

Having said that, I doubt I’ll pay the money to see them again. Their live concert just isn’t impressive enough. They basically sit and stand on the stage and play, with a video or slide show in the background. For a live concert, this isn’t enough for me. Last year, when we went to see Trans Siberian Orchestra, they put on a much better show. Their show had lasers, they very actively used the lighting, and there were even explosions. For TSO, I really felt like I was getting something for paying the money to see them live. I didn’t feel that as much with Mannheim Steamroller.

According to Brian, he had seen several of the videos that they showed before (including the long middle age’s castle one), and they apparently have the same Christmas town each year. I’m all for using something as much as possible, but when the entire novelty of the show depends on those two items, it seems like it would be good to “change it up” each time to keep people coming back.

When we first got there, Chip was introducing the band members. The next bit of talking that we heard from one of them live was at the beginning of the encore, where Chip quipped, “I guess this is the third half”. I don’t need a lot of talking during a concert. After all, the music is what I’m familiar with and want to hear. But, talking makes a connection with the band members that sits a concert apart from listening to a CD. That live communication would help make the monetary expenditure feel more justified.

Groups like Mannheim Steamroller and Trans Siberian Orchestra are at a slight disadvantage in live concerts. If I go to see a famous musical group, I likely feel like I “know” the primary singers, whether that be Bryan Adams, Britney Spears, or Wayne Newton. (how’s that for an eclectic mix?) So, I have an instant connection with them. I probably know a little bit about their history and their antics. MS and TSO don’t enjoy this level of popularity. I’d suspect that many of the people at the concert basically knew that Chip Davis had a beard and wore glasses, and had been the brain child behind MS…. But probably not a whole lot more. So, that makes it even more important for the group to somehow make a personal connection with the audience during the course of the show, and I just didn’t feel that this was adequately accomplished.

Again, to summarize, I’m glad I went to see them. I just think it could have been a better experience. If you have to choose, spend your money and time seeing Trans Siberian Orchestra, but don’t hesitate to see MS at least once!