It’s possible that Train is the most joyful band on the road right now.
With over 30 years of music to choose from, the Bay Area band visited Phoenix on Wednesday to get a packed Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre up and dancing. Opener REO Speedwagon was forced to cancel their appearance due to illness so Train opened their set with a cover of “Keep on Loving You” so the fans wouldn’t miss out on hearing it.
From there, it was hit after hit from Train’s lengthy discography- starting strong with a passionate venue-wide sing along to “Calling All Angels”. The band also threw in covers of several of their current favorite songs, including Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” and snippets of Hozier and The Beatles sprinkled in.
The cameras found all the fans who showed up in their best “Long Yellow Dress” to celebrate the new single and one couple even got engaged during a heartfelt rendition of “Marry Me”, to the delight of singer Pat Monahan. He jumped down from the stage to get the front row singing along to “Bruises” and took endless selfies with the shower of phones that were tossed at the stage during the set.
The band adores their fans and makes them part of the structure of the show as much as possible and the audience always gives that love back tenfold. Hundreds of people raised their voices to “Hey, Soul Sister” and “Drive By” before Yacht Rock Revue piled onstage for a perfectly chaotic cover of The Eagles’ “Hotel California”. The final notes of “Drops of Jupiter” rang out into the night, ending the show up in space with the band’s timeless lyrics.
After all these years onstage, Train is simply better than ever- the instrumentals are stunning and Monahan’s vocals are as jaw dropping as they’ve ever been. The crowd was more than happy to sweat it out for this party and they’re sure to be back for the next tour.
