The Rock Orchestra: One Giant Mistake

I'm an idiot. The good news is, I'm smart enough to know that I am an idiot, and I am also not ashamed to admit when I am wrong or when I screw up. I know a lot of us here on HIVE try not to spend too much time on traditional social media, but if you have family/friends you want to keep track of, or you follow one of the many groups on Facebook, you know it is kind of unavoidable. If you have spent any amount of time on Facebook, you know that occasionally targeted ads fill your feed. Usually more than the actual "useful" content that is out there.

Over the course of the last year we have been seeing ads for these Candlelight Concerts that take place all over the world. The ads make them look pretty spectacular, and @mrsbozz expressed an interest that she would like to go to one of them. I remember hearing from @steevc that he had been to one of the concerts and it was a bit underwhelming, so I was kind of hesitant about setting things up, but the wife wanted to go, so I set to it.

When I saw notice a few months ago that The Rock Orchestra was coming to a local venue, I quickly jumped on the chance to buy tickets. They were a bit more expensive than I expected, but like I said, the wife wanted to go, so I made it happen. A week ago last Tuesday was the date for the show. It didn't start until 8 PM which is actually pretty late for us on a school night, but the venue was close enough to home, so I didn't really mind. Plus the chance to scratch another thing off her bucket list was fine by me.

Our tickets were in the right side of the balcony which gave us a pretty good vantage point of the stage. This venue is rather small compared to even a small arena, so really there isn't much of a bad seat in the house. It's part of the reason we really like going to shows here. As you can see the stage was set up with a very deathly vibe, which leaned heavily into the metal that we were about to be delivered.

I want to say good things about the show, but ultimately I can't. As I said though, that is mainly my fault. Long story short, it wasn't what we were expecting based on the ads we had seen, but that's only because I bought tickets to the wrong show. To be fair, the ads for the two events were quite similar. They had orchestra instruments and that whole candle light vibe, but where this was more of an overly produced broadway show, I think the actual Candlelight concerts are more about the music and less about the production.

Just to recap, the bad would be the fact that it wasn't what we were expecting (mostly due to me getting the events mixed up), and the fact that it was kind of over the top with the drama. It wasn't all bad though, the music was good, the performers were exceptional at playing their instruments, and there was a lady who could sing like crazy.

I was definitely thinking of our friendly Australian musician @bengy when I took the photo above.

The group played hits from artists like AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N Roses, Evanesence, and even My Chemical Romance. We ended up leaving after about the first song of the encore. Like I said, it's not that it wasn't good, it just wasn't what we had been expecting and again, I now realize that was totally my fault. For the price of tickets, I can't recommend that you spend your money on this show. I've never seen them live, but I would compare this more to Mannheim Steamroller or the Trans Siberian Orchestra than a simple candlelight concert.

Unfortunately, in looking at their website, the actual Candlelight Concerts don't seem to be at any venues as close to home as this one, but they do seem to have much better pricing than The Rock Orchestra.

I should also point out, the rest of the audience seemed to love the show. To be fair though, the whole row of people behind us were drunk, so I think they would have enjoyed anything at that point.

I'm not telling you not to go to The Rock Orchestra if you get the chance, but just know what you are getting into and make sure you get tickets for the right show...