Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Train pulls into the station


One of my favorite songs is Drops of Jupiter (it won a grammy for best rock song in 2001) by Train. I was excited (early this summer) to hear that they were coming to Memphis, so I bought a ticket to see them.

The group put on a terrific show. The music was tight and amazing. Train provided high energy -- excitement was in the air. It didn't hurt anything that the weather was great with temperatures in the low 70s.

Train related well to the audience. Two different times the group brought members of the audience to the stage to participate. A young lady co-sang Bruises and some others were mermaids for a song of that name.

Some singers hide behind their band, but lead singer Pat Moynahan wasn't afraid to sing (at times) with minimal accompaniment. His distinctive voice is strong enough to stand alone. I particularly liked Hey, Soul Sister where (mostly) a ukelele supported him.

The near-capacity audience was enthusiastic and cut across different age groups and both genders. The band had many of the audience singing along on many of their songs.

One thing the group did that I appreciated was how they did their encore. Instead of going backstage and waiting for a big ovation to bring them back, they just announced they were going to do two final songs. Nice. No waiting around for no reason.

If Train comes around the bend, I will have to go see them again.




Photos taken with my point-and-shoot.

7 comments:

  1. Nice to see that Train is still around.
    Never a huge fan of the band but the singer is a pretty cool guy. Lives in (or used to) Erie PA and I would occasionally see him slumming it at the local bars when Train wasn't touring.

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  2. This was an outdoor concert, right? Is there a city noise ordinance? The last outdoor concert I saw had to finish by 11 pm sharp due to a Chicago noise ordinance.

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  3. Drops of Jupiter is one of my fave songs, too. He has a great voice.

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  4. Good shooting. I suppose I'm showing my age, but I've never heard of this group (or most other groups, either). Did they do any Sinatra? :-)

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  5. @lightning36: The amphitheater is outside, but on an island (actually a penninsula) in the Mississippi River. You can take a mono-rail or walk over this long bridge. See here.

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  6. I'll listen to any type of music from Train to" Last TRAIN to Clarksville".

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  7. Saw them in 1997. They opened for Ben Folds Five. We had back row seats. Columbia Mo. Went to box office. Asked for any other seats. They had just released the front row handicapped $30 later we were in the front row.

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