NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
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Train, those hit-makers from the aughts, are on tour! If you haven’t been paying attention, the popular rock band from San Francisco, led by vocalist Pat Monahan have never gone away. Granted there is more time between studio albums (numbering eleven now) and their singles don’t make the impact on the charts like “Drops of Jupiter” and “Hey Soul Sister” once did. But they keep making great music, go on tour every year and do their annual “Sail Across the Sun” cruise. I can still remember an amazing free show at Chelsea Pier in NYC back in 2011, sponsored by Lipton and Pandora (yeah, I don’t get the connection either). I don’t know what I did but Monahan burned me when he called girls to the stage to dance. Funny guy.
Currently, Train is on a co-headlining tour across North America with REO Speedwagon and support from Yacht Rock Revue, with some shows where Train is the only headliner. Their stop at ArtPark Amphitheatre in Lewiston, NY was one of the solo headlining shows, which means a longer set from Train. On a beautiful evening in western New York, it was sure to be a magical time.
Train kicked off their set with “Calling All Angels” from their 2003 studio album “My Private Nation”, a number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart. Then, during the next song “If It’s Love”, Monahan accepted cell phones from the crowd to take selfies. It got a little crazy as fans started throwing their phones at the stage, some missing badly. It was highly entertaining though. And it seemed like for much of the show, Train had something fun going on. Monahan took a 360 degree video during “Save Me San Francisco” and posted as a story on Instagram (here’s the link if it’s still up), threw t-shirts into the crowd (including one signed by the whole band) during “Meet Virginia”, had his 12 yr old son Rock come out and sing a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away” while he took a turn at the drums, and sent a whole bunch of pool balloons into the crowd! He even teased the fans with a brief intro to “Hey Soul Sister” before telling the crowd that we weren’t ready for it!!
The setlist itself was heavy on tracks from “Save Me San Francisco” and “California 37” with no tracks from their 2022 studio album “AM Gold” and just one new song “Long Yellow Dress” that Monaham threatened to perform on replay if we didn’t like it! I was hoping against all reason that they would perform “Bettin’ on Me”, my favorite track from “AM Gold” but it was not to be. Nevertheless, it was a spectacular show with everyone singing along and dancing. It’s funny that the opener Yacht Rock Revue is a cover band but it felt like all of Train’s set felt like old hits as well, with nostalgia setting in! I think that as long as Pat Monahan is up there singing, entertaining, and making wise cracks, you can be sure there will be a big crowd coming to see them.
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