This a big year for Train. Even though there wasn’t a new album released, the band continues to stay busy. They are getting ready to release a new DVD called ‘Train Live at Royal Albert Hall’ on July 26. They just celebrated their 15th anniversary of ‘Save Me, San Francisco’ a few weeks ago. They also sold out their ‘Sail Across the Sun’ cruise back in March. Lastly, the band is currently on tour with Reo Speedwagon and Yacht Rock Revue. They took a detour from that tour to headline their own show at Artpark in Lewiston, NY this past Friday. This was the bands first appearance at Artpark.
Train took to the stage at at approximately 9:15pm and went into one of their biggest hits in “Calling All Angels.” Led by the only original member in vocalist Pat Monahan, he and rest of the band seemed in great spirits! Next up was “If It’s Love” off of ‘Save Me, San Francisco.’ This has now become the song where fans toss up their cell phones so Monahan can take a selfie with them and toss them back. This set was definitely different from any other set I seen the band do in the past. They incorporated a lot of snippets of other songs into their own songs. It started with when they did “Meet Virginia.” They did a snippet of the Steve Miller Band classic “The Joker” within the song while tossing out inflatable Train balloons. Monahan got his start singing in a Led Zeppelin cover band so why not pay homage and add a track of theirs called “Over the Hills and Far Away” into the set? Oh, and why your at it you can have your 12 year old son come on and take over signing the song after the 1st verse and blow away the audience, while you’re take over on drums. Yes, it was that kind of show. Monahan was alone acoustic wise for “Marry Me” as the rest of the band departed the stage. For Bruises, Monahan got up close and personal with some lucky members in the front row as he climbed down into the pit and went along the barricade and sang some of the song with them. For the cover “Hotel California,” the opening band joined Train on stage as Monahan again took his place behind the kit to finish the song out. Of course, the set wouldn’t end without the band playing the Grammy award winning “Drops of Jupiter.”
Monahan’s voice was solidly consistent throughout especially on songs like “Get to Me” and “We Were Made for This.” In our review from the bands 2022 show, I thought it was one of the most entertaining shows of the year. This one may just rival that one as well. Kudos to Train for another spectacular show!
Setlist:
Calling All Angels
If It’s Love
Get to Me
Save Me, San Francisco
Meet Virginia/The Joker-snippet (Steve Miller Band cover)
Free/Hold Your Head Up-snippet (Argent cover)
Over the Hills and Far Away (Pat Monihan’s son Rock Monihan’s on vocals)
Play That Song
Parachute
Angel in Blue Jeans/Too Sweet-snippet (Hozier cover)
50 Ways to Say Goodbye
Marry Me
Seven Bridges- 1st verse (Steve Young cover)/Bruises
Hey, Soul Sister/Come and Get Your Love -snippet (Leon Redbone cover)
Drive By/Hey Jude – outro (The Beatles cover)
We Were Made for This
Hotel California (The Eagles cover with opening band Yacht Rock Revue)
Drops of Jupiter
We would like to thank Jordan Ament from Full Coverage PR for the credentials to review the show.
