Yes. THAT Train.

by contributor Wendy Gordon
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki

Ladies and gentlemen:  We give you Train.  No, We aren’t raising funds for Amtrak.  No.  We aren’t talking WMATA.  We’re talking the San Francisco based GRAMMY winning band.  Yes.  THAT Train.

On Wednesday evening the FRESH 94.7 morning ‘Tommy Show’ team of Tommy McFly and Kelly Collis hosted a private, invitation only acoustic concert at Hamilton Live which included all three current band members in an intimate setting—you might say it was kind of a ‘fresh idea.”

Kelly Collis and Tommy McFly in Neon

Current band members Patrick Monahan vocals), Jimmy Stafford (guitar, vocals) and Scott Underwood (drums, percussion) regaled the enthusiastic crowd with a 45 minute set that was replete with old favorites including the GRAMMY award winning Drops of Jupiter, Hey Soul Sister and Marry Me (swoon) as well as tunes from their latest studio album California 37 including the country inspired Bruises--a song the band has been heard to describe as a ‘career maker’ for them (hello, Train?  You’ve won awards and gone platinum…you need a career maker? We think perhaps that train has left the station) and a little ditty entitled 50 Ways to Say Goodbye, a humorous ode to explanations for a break up based on the untimely demise of the other party, including dancing “to death in an East Side night club” and being hit by a “crappy purple Scion.”  Darkly amusing. 

Have to hand it to them, not only was the music sing along worthy (the crowd finishing Hey Soul Sister on perfect pitch), but Monahan himself, along with fellow Train members,  was charming, amusing and familiar with the fans, playfully pointing out the lack of etiquette by a front row cell phone chatting guest, to the wolf-whistling talents of an attractive concert attendee in the off-to-the-side ‘nosebleed’ section. 
 
But let’s face it, we have to love them.  They have wine.  Train created the Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co. and collaborated with Concannon Vineyard to craft a Petite Syrah labeled “Drops of Jupiter” and a Chardonnay aptly entitled “calling All Angels.”  Train donates a third of the profits from wine sales Family House in San Francisco, which provides temporary housing to the families of sick children.

  
McFly & Collis, thanking the crowd for ‘Flipping to FRESH,’ in signature convivial fashion, presided over a brief Q & A between tunes.

 
California 37 which includes the bonus track "To Be Loved," and other Train albums are currently available for purchase on iTunes with a complete album download.  The Tommy Show can be heard weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on FRESH 94.7 FM.