It’s only November, but there is no surer sign of the impending Christmas season than the announcement of the annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour.

An unlikely success story, the main founders of the band were once a part of the progressive metal band Savatage who had a song called “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” on their 1995 album Dead Winter Dead. That song was the basis for the idea behind TSO and gave birth to a winter tradition unlike any other. When you go to a TSO show, you get loud guitars, lasers, lights, a huge ensemble production, and best of all, you get infused with the Christmas spirit and the joy of the holiday season.

Even if your friends classify you as more of The Grinch type, the fun you have listening to original Christmas songs like “Christmas Canon,” “The Lost Christmas Eve,” and “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” as well as hard-rocking versions of Christmas classics like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “O Holy Night,” and “What Child Is This,” are worth the price of admission alone.

To cover the United States in the two short months they have to tour, the band is split into an “East Coast” version and a “West Coast” version. When TSO hit the stage at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum November 7, we will be seeing the “East Coast” version of the band featuring guitarist Chris Caffrey and drummer Jeff Plate of Savatage, guitarist Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake, and enough other musicians to fill the stage several times over.

To say that TSO is a large visual and auditory production is an understatement. It’s an experience that borders on sensory overload and it’s why fans, both young and old, continue to flock to their shows year after year.