On the warmest November night in 105 years, Winnipeg got its first snow of the season.

The skies won't deliver, but last night at the MTS Centre, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra did. Early into the TSO's three-hour show, a vocalist proclaimed "let it snow," and it did: The arena's air was suddenly filled with sparkling fake flurries.

It was a delightful effect in this curiously snowless city, but it wasn't the only visual magic that the U.S.-based TSO wove last night.

Despite being one of the top touring acts in North America (they sold 1.2 million tickets in 10 weeks last year), the TSO is known in Canada primarily through a handful of popular YouTube videos.

Here's what it was like in real life: Imagine spending Christmas inside a spaceship decorated by a colour-blind Metallica fan. In other words, in concert the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is sometimes gaudy, sometimes garish, but always totally out of this world.

Among the visual goodies were a digital backdrop that turned an entire wall of the MTS Centre into a shimmering night sky (gorgeous), an enormous, fully mobile lighting rig that rose up from the stage to open the show (and changed positions many times thereafter), and jets of colour-changing flame that spewed in time with the music.

Oh right, the music. There was loads of it, and it was what one would expect: expansive, keyboard-heavy symphonic rock, divided roughly into two thematic halves.

The first half was their holiday set, while the second was laden with classics by folks like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

The first half, heavy with Christmas cheer and quiet narration about angels, was probably wonderful for families. But it was frustratingly slow for those hoping for an over-the-top rock experience. (They had to settle for a short, tongue-in-cheek cover of Led Zep's Kashmir.)
That demographic finally got their wish at 9:30 p.m. After a mid-set break for personnel introductions, the TSO launched into a dazzling, more instrumental medley that married its jaw-dropping visuals to familiar symphonic classics.

There were hellacious walls of flame, clouds of smoke and pulsing red lights everywhere. (A special bravo to the Winnipeg office of Epic Production Technologies for the perfectly timed strobing lasers during the dizzying string lines on Flight of the Bumblebee.)

In scope and style, this show wasn't like anything we've seen before. It was huge, enormously ambitious, and yet rich with humour. It's also trying a little too hard to be everything to everyone, but if I'd spent that much cash on lighting rigs, I'd want my money's worth out of it too.

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