One Silent Night @ Palace Theatre 12/13/09

Neil Zaza never does anything by half. If we can play louder, he will. If he can play faster, he will. If he can play a double-neck guitar, he will. If he needs a chorus to beef up his sound, he'll work with the Singing Angels. And he did.

And if he needs a singer with the lungs to compete with his guitar histrionics, he'll bring in Akron's world-famous Tim "The Ripper" Owens to lift the lid on the Palace Theatre, which he did.

In the 21st Century, one cannot underestimate the popularity of our rock guitar gods, and believe me, Neil Zaza is a full-fledged leather-clad Rock Guitar God. The YouTube video of I'm Alright, an original instrumental composition, has been viewed over 1 million times. Let's put it this way, our hometown boi is huge in Korea, where he is apparently this generation's Eric Clapton.

But while Clapton and his generation took pains to authentically re-process (and blatantly exploit) the bluez, Neil's beatific smile and scintillating stage presence aim for nothing less (or more) than total connection with the audience, by whatever means necessary.

Which means blowing the budget on fog machines, computerized lights, and every rock theatre trick in the book, all to guarantee that every photo you may snap on your cell phone will be rock-star perfect. You simply can't take a bad shot.

And I would guess that Zaza never gives an underwhelming performance. He leaves it all out there on the stage, giving you your money's worth every time.

But it's Zaza's ability to morph every X-mas song in the songbook into a classic rock medley that will ensure that One Silent Night, now in its 6th iteration at The Palace, will have a long and successful run. So the U2 guitar-chugging intro to "Where The Streets Have No Name," becomes The First Noel, (trust me), and what starts out as A Whiter Shade of Pale, soon enough turns into The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

After a while you start playing a game in your head. "Oh, this is Dream On, and he's going to segue into O Come All Ye Faithful... No, it's What Child Is This... But it's a fun game.

Zaza has plans to take One Silent Night on the road. And no doubt fans around the country and around the world will marvel: "They really have some great guitar players in Ohio..."

Review and photo by Thomas Mulready, the creator of CoolCleveland.com.