Fall 1999

Sunday, December 12th
the tour has ended! it was a huge success and we'd like
to thank the people who helped make it so...

our management (arnie, jay, mick, patrick and all) - you
guys are the best, everyone at columbia records, everyone
at aware records, scott clayton and all at PGA (our booking
agent), our amazing crew (Thomas, Jeff, Little Buddy, Ronnie
and Ethan) - these guys are responsible for making it happen on
a daily basis, our bus driver (Lynn, a.k.a."speedy"), the
promoters and venues that we visited, dianne (our travel agent),
rob thomas, fleming, vertical horizon, wood, old pike, def leppard
stir, verbow and all of the local bands who helped support us on
this tour, the kind folks at CNBC and the Jay Leno Show, all of
the radio stations who have been so supportive in helping to
advertise our shows and play our music, all of the locals who helped
lugging gear, hanging posters, etc., and most of all we'd like to
thank bonnie and brian (who are now headed home to portland until
our tour resumes in february) and all of our incredible fans who
attended our concerts and helped sell-out most of the shows on this
our first "official" headling tour...we'll never forget these shows.

so, friday night we were in boulder with a great crowd (only a few
short of a sell-out) and last night we were in salt lake city for
our final show with def leppard. we invaded their dressing room
after our set and took some photos and exchanged phone numbers and
stuff. they are the nicest guys! anyway, then we all jumped on
planes and headed home for a few days. pat sang the national anthem
at the 49ers/falcons game today and will sing at the raiders game
next sunday. we're all looking forward to a little time off for the
holidays and to new years eve in birmingham (and atlanta!).

from our family to yours, we would like to wish you all a very safe
and happy holiday season and a very happy new year!!! thank you
all for your support...we wouldn't be here without you all. we'll
see you soon...

love,
train

thursday, december 9th
we're in boulder, colorado today for a day off. it's beautiful
and snowy here.

anyway, we had a good week. pittsburgh on monday was sold-out
and alot of fun (sorry we went on so late). omaha on tuesday
was a blast! it was another def leppard show in a huge arena
and the crowd was awesome. last night we were in lawerence,
kansas for a sold-out show with special guests STIR and VERBOW.
it was a great night.

anyway, we have two more shows left of the tour before taking
a break for the holidays...kinda. tomorrow night in boulder
and saturday night in salt lake city (with def leppard). then
we'll fly home for a few days off. we're doing some television
things and a couple of radio christmas shows in LA next week
before taking a few weeks off for christmas. our only other
obligations this year are on new years eve. we'll post another
"notes from the road" in a few days and then sign off until
next year. happy christmas shopping everyone!! don't forget
how perfect those train cd's fit inside of a stocking! be safe.
train

Sunday, December 5th
we just arrived in pittsburgh for a show tomorrow night with
some old friends supporting us - oleander and stroke 9.
this is a great line-up, so get your tickets if you haven't
already!

anyway, guess who we opened for in phoenix last night...?
DEF LEPPARD!! and our buddies SPLENDOR were the support.
what a show! those guys can still rock the house. they
played all of their hits (most of us stayed for their entire
show) and were very cool to us...nice guys. we'll be playing
with them in omaha and salt lake city this week.

gotta go...rob needs to use the computer. oh, did we tell
you how much boston rocked on friday night? yep. it was
our favorite boston show so far. we played our aerosmith
cover for an encore. pat screwed up the words, but it was fun.

talk to you soon...
train

Friday, December 3rd
we're in boston today. we were in albany last night for a
really crazy show and in ottawa the night before for our first
sold-out canadian show!! we had a great time in canada and
will look forward to visiting y'all again soon...maybe in the
spring, though, eh?...it's gettin' kinda chilly up there.

we'll be flying to phoenix tomorrow for a show with def leppard.
yep, you heard us - def friggin' leppard! then we fly to
pittsburgh and then omaha, so we'll be in the air alot. you
might not hear from us much the next few days.

bye,
train

Wednesday, December 1st
well, we were pleasantly surprised in london, ontario
last night. the place was packed! it must have been
those Rage Against the Machine guys that stole our crowd
monday night in toronto. anyway, thanks for coming out
to see us, london. we had a great time.

we're in ottawa tonight. back in the states tomorrow.

see ya...
train

Tuesday, November 30th?
forgot to mention that when we woke up at the canadian
border yesterday morning about 5:30AM we got our first
snow of the year. there is some snow on the ground here
in london, ontario today, too.

anyway, toronto was not a sell-out. not even close, but
hey, it's our first ever headlining trip into canada. it
took about 20 months of touring the U.S. to start selling
out shows, so we're not the least bit discouraged. plus,
Rage Against the Machine was playing a few blocks away.
the people that were there had a really good time with us,
though. pat jumped off of the stage during "meet virginia"
and danced with a surprised young lady. scott broke a snare
drum head early in the show, so we played an acoustic version
of "swaying" while he changed it. we had a really good time
and hung out after the show. everybody was really nice to us.

mmmmm...that's all for now, eh?
train

Monday, November 29th
we're back in toronto, canada tonight. we drove from
pittsburgh last night where pat sang the national anthem
at the steelers/bengals game yesterday. he's a huge
steelers fan so it was a pretty big deal for him. they
lost.

anyway, we had a great thanksgiving weekend. we had a
show in new york on friday night. it wasn't sold-out!!
of all cities not to sell out! we won't hold it against
them, though, being thanksgiving and all...we had a good
time anyway. and maybe we were starting to get a little
spoiled from these sold-out shows. saturday in philadelphia,
on the other hand, was sold-out and we had a great time. if
toronto doesn't sell out tonight we're quitting. just kidding!

that's all for now. we'll talk soon...
train

Thursday, November 25th (thanksgiving day)
we're in new york city where we just finished watching
the macy's day parade from our 12th floor hotel rooms
overlooking broadway. we have the day off! some of us
have family in town, others are having dinner with friends.

we've had probably the two best shows of the tour so far
last night in falls church, virginia and the night before
in charlotte, north carolina. both were sold-out with
really enthusiastic crowds. our shows seem to be getting
tighter and more energetic as the tour unravels. the same
set both nights with encores in charlotte of "hopeless",
"rat", "i want you to want me" and encores in falls church
of "rat", "i want you to want me" and then "swaying", "idaho".

happy thanksgiving everybody!!!
train

Monday, November 22nd
both cincinnati on saturday and charlottesville last night
were sold-out! thank you. we had a great time at both
shows. it's hard not to have a good time with these great
crowds. last night we celebrated charlie's birthday, which
is today. pat brought him out a little cake with a lit
candle on it before the encore and had the crowd sing to him.
then we let charlie pick the encore songs - "sweet rain" and
"misty mountain hop". Happy Birthday, Charlie!

today is a day off for us in charlotte. absolutely nothing
to do for the next 24 hours!

bonnie and brian are still with us. bonnie is feeling better.
they hung out at soundcheck yesterday and had dinner with us.
actually, they were on the bus for the after show birthday
bash, too. those crazy kids! we love 'em.

jimmy took a break from the after-show signing party to put
the hurt on a couple of the Old Pike guys in a heated game
of foosball. they were on the bus later, too...drinking all
of our beer.

we have new t-shirts on order. pat's son did the artwork.
wait til you see it! the kid's a regular picasso!

ok. gotta go start our day off. see ya later.
train

Saturday, November 20th
we're in cincinnati today where we've already pre-sold
1,150 tickets for tonights show! the capacity is 1,300,
so it looks like yet another sold-out night for us!! wow.

last night in nashville was a blast. sold-out and then some.
very hot in that venue. our nashville friends came out to
see us. some of "my friend steve", "fleming & john" and
hank williams jr.'s daughter, holly. fleming joined us
onstage for our first ever country song, john prine's "in
spite of ourselves". charlie played a newly purchased
stand-up bass and jimmy simulated a lap-steel guitar with
the ole "les paul on the lap" trick. it was great. we also
played "the gas" last night. big thanks and hugs go out to
our booking agent, scott clayton, for taking us out for a
fine sushi dinner and to his wife, pam, for the awesome pecan
pie!

oh, and we have to tell you about our friends brian and bonnie.
these are two very cool fans (who are now our friends) from
portland, oregon who have absolutely nothing better to do than
to follow train around the country! that's probably not true...
they just dig us. anyway, they've been to a ton of shows
including this entire tour starting in winston-salem on the 10th.
they never ask for anything, buy their own tickets and just have
a good time every night in the front row. well, bonnie came down
with the flu and wasn't feeling good in nashville last night, so
we wanted to wish her well and hope that she's feeling better
today. it just won't be the same if they're not in the front
row tonight in cincinnati!

we'll talk to y'all later.
train

Friday, November 19th
we're in nashville today. last night we were in indianapolis
for another sold-out show. it was only the second double
encore of the tour. a great crowd and great venue. thank you!
the night before we were in chicago for what could be called
a sold-out show. it was a live acoustic radio gig at the house
of blues. only the first 300 people in line were allowed in
and there were supposedly a few hundred people that were turned
away...sorry. we'll come back to chicago again soon. it was
fun. kinda chatty with a dinner sorta atmosphere and the crowd
was a bit far away for our liking, but fun anyway. everyone
(and then some) stuck around afterwords to meet us, which was
very cool.

so, the word is that both tonight in nashville and tomorrow
night in cincinnati are looking like sell-outs, so if you're
wanting to come out you might want to get those tickets soon.
we can't tell you how overwhelmed we are by the response we're
receiving on this tour! it's really exciting for us. we look
forward to each show like it was our first.

gotta go to soundcheck.

bye,
train

thursday, november 18th
voice message from pat

wednesday, november 17th
we're in chicago today for an acoustic concert at the
house of blues. we arrived this morning and performed
on WGN's morning news program. it was fun. we actually
were feeling quite inspired from our lack of sleep and
wrote a few new song ideas during commercial breaks. those
of you who tuned in could probably hear them in the background.
oh, and we got to meet Bob Costas on our way out the door.

anyway, we played in st. louis last night and had a great
show. vertical horizon's van broke down en route, so they
had to cancel. old pike picked up the slack with a strong
set. the show wasn't sold-out (930 of 1,000 tickets were sold),
but compared to the 16 people who were at our last show in
st. louis it was pretty awesome! and it felt like a friday
night in that place! we thought we should do a short show
since it was a tuesday night and all, but nobody seemed close
to done when we wrapped up with "meet virginia", so we came
back out and played "days" and "i want you to want me"....
nobody left! so we came back out once more and played "swaying".
it was a probably one of our favorite shows of the tour so
far.

we'll talk to y'all later.
train

tuesday, november 16th
we're in st. louis today. it's a beautiful day. what's up
with the weather around the country?! is the gorgeous weather
just following us around or is it like this everywhere?

anyway, our hotel is right across the street from the venue
overlooking the mississippi river. the local radio station,
which we visited this morning, has dubbed this "train day" in
st. louis! we'll be doing a noontime acoustic performance for
radio contest winners that'll be broadcast live from a place
called "train wreck". and then we have what will hopefully be
another sold-out show tonight.

we had a great time in abilene, texas on sunday night. a pretty
enthusiastic crowd for a sunday. you guys were great! we did
end up playing the intro jam again and it worked better this
time. we also slipped "swaying" into the show.

we had a day off yesterday in tulsa, oklahoma. loads of laundry
were done, naps were taken, weights were lifted and families
were spoken to. it was a good day.

gotta go!
train

sunday, november 14th
well, we don't want to sound like we're getting big heads
or anything, but we DID have another sold-out show in
dallas last night!! is this just how it's going to be from
now on or what? should we stop mentioning it? it's all
pretty new and exciting for us, so please excuse our over-
enthusiasm.

it was a similar show last night to the atlanta show except
that we put "ramble on" back in the set (we also played
"misty mountain hop" as an encore) and we added a new
drum/bass solo/jam section. we opened up with the "improv
jam" idea again, but weren't too excited about it and probably
won't do it again tonight in abilene. and we're not going to
be disappointed if tonights show isn't a sell-out! after all,
it is a sunday night in a 1,000 seat auditorium. however, the
show is half sold-out already, so you never know!

our friend mark stepnoski of the dallas cowboys stopped by the
bus and hung out with us for awhile before the show. he had
an 11PM curfew for the big game today against the packers, so
he couldn't stay for the show. we wish him luck today.

it's a beautiful day here in abilene. some of the guys were
outside throwing a football around with the crew. others are
watching football on tv, taking naps and writing this. we'll
talk to ya later...
train

friday, november 12th
wow. three in a row!! another sold-out show tonight in
jackson. and it wasn't just "sold-out", it was SOLD-OUT!
this was no tiny room, either (about 2,000 capacity with a
few hundred extras squeezed in). we'll definately be coming
back to jackson soon for those of you who didn't get to see
the show tonight. and sorry to the birmingham folks who
didn't get in. come and see us on new years eve!

anyway, we enjoyed last nights' show in atlanta so much that
we pretty much played the same set list. there were SO many
people packed into the venue tonight and it was SO hot in
there that we cut the night a little short and ended with
"virginia", saving "if you leave" and "last child" (aerosmith)
as encores. thank you jackson, mississippi!

we're off to texas now...dallas tomorrow, abilene sunday.

have a great weekend everybody.

love,
train

friday, november 12
we're in jackson, mississippi this morning for a show tonight.
last night was our second show of the tour in atlanta and was
also the second sold-out show of the tour! we had a blast!
it was our first night with both of our support acts, OLD PIKE
and VERTICAL HORIZON. this is really a great tour to catch.

anyway, last night was a very special night. our friends from
MATCHBOX 20, SISTER HAZEL and the GIN BLOSSOMS came out to hang
with us. the show went a little something like this:

improv jam, eggplant, free, homesick, sweet rain, misty mountain
hop (a new led zep cover!), train (it was supposed to be train,
misty mountain hop, but rob had a temporary fit of dyslexia and
started us on the wrong song), blind, rat, i am, flatfoot,
meet virginia, if you leave, days. encores were: hopeless and
i want you to want me (featuring rob thomas on vocals!).

if the shows keep going like this our heads are going to explode!
thanks to winston-salem and atlanta for two sell-outs and getting
our tour off to a rockin' start. look out jackson!

love,
train

Wednesday, November 10th
we're back on tour! we all flew in to winston-salem today
from different parts of the country and just finished our
first performance. it felt really good to be back! a little
rusty, but alot of fun. and the crowd was awesome! sold-out.
tonight's set went like this:

improv jam, eggplant, free, homesick, sweet rain, train,
if you leave, blind, ramble on, i am, rat, meet virginia,
flatfoot, days. encores were: hopeless, i want you to want
me.

oh, and we have a new bus. it's huge! black and very plush.
and three new crew members...thomas the tour manager, chris
the lighting director and len the bus driver. we'll write
more later. we're in a hurry to get on the road to atlanta
for an early morning radio show and another sold-out performance
tomorrow night! it's great to be back!!

see ya,
train

monday, november 1
we're in san francisco for a nine day break! yesterday
was our last show of the tour in new orleans at the
voodoofest. it was fun. it rained, but that kinda added
to the vibe. we opened with "sweet rain". there were
alot of great bands/friends of ours performing yesterday...
jude (who joined us onstage with some dancing girls and
silly-string for "meet virginia"), marvelous 3, ben folds
and third eye blind. it was a really nice backstage scene
with everybody hangin' out in tents. most of us left right
after our set to fly home to san fran. charlie and scott
stayed in new orleans for the night.

anyway, we're going to sign off from the road notes until
our next tour begins on the 10th.

hey, did you hear that our record went gold! yep. we were
informed by our manager on saturday morning that we have
officially shipped over 500,000 units, which will entitle
us to one of those gold record plaque thingys for our mantle.
thank you all for supporting us and believing in us and for
buying all of those records! we love you and we'll get that
new EP out to you soon. we'll see you on the next tour...
train

Saturday, October 30
we had a really nice headlining show in erie, PA last night.
it went a little something like this...

days, eggplant, free, sweet rain, homesick, if you leave,
blind, rat, ramble on, i am, flatfoot, train, meet virginia.
encores were: i want you to want me (cheap trick), hopeless,
and idaho.

tonight is the last night of the ben folds five tour in
baltimore. tomorrow we fly to new orleans to perform at the
voodoofest and then fly to san francisco for a 10 day break!

see ya,
train

Friday, October 29
hi. we're in erie, PA today...pat's hometown. it's a
beautiful day here. the entire staff and security are
wearing train t-shirts. the show is sold-out and should
be alot of fun.

anyway, here is last nights set-list at princeton:
the highway, eggplant, free, ramble on, i am, hopeless
(an unreleased song, which features charlie on acoustic
guitar and rob on bass and will be on the upcoming EP),
train, meet virginia.

have a great weekend!
train

Thursday, October 28
we're on campus at priceton university in new jersey this
afternoon. this is a beautiful place here! anyway, we
were in new york city yesterday and this morning. they
always find things for us to do in new york! yesterday
we did a photo shoot for spin magazine, had lunch at the
record company while we listened to the mixes of our EP
and discussed the artwork, went to soundcheck and performed
at the hammerstein ballroom (an incredibly beautiful theater).
this morning we did a taped interview for CNN's "showbiz
today" (we'll let you know when it airs) and a lunch interview
with spin magazine. then we drove an hour and a half to
princeton for tonights show with ben folds.

next thursday (smack dab in the middle of our week off!) we
fly to LA to tape some sunday morning football show for the
fox network (we'll let you know when it airs) and the craig
kilbourn show (which should air that night). mmmmm...that's
all for now. we'll talk at you soon.
train

Monday, October 25th
we're in D.C. today. we just finished performing live
on DC101's morning show and are back at the hotel for
some rest before tonights show. last nights show in D.C.
was sold-out and alot of fun (for a sunday).

saturdays show in vegas was pretty crazy, too. it was
our first ever performance in las vegas and there were
about 5,000 or so people at this big fair/festival type
'o thing. we're really starting to notice the radio play
working, because these people knew our songs! there were
people holding up signs with requests and everything! it
was a great first visit and we'll look forward to returning
soon. after our show most of us went out for some terrific
sushi at the hard rock cafe where we ran into dave grohl of
the foo fighters and paula cole. they were in town for shows
(paula cole followed us at the festival thingy - the foo
fighters performed at the hard rock earlier in the day).
pat scored a ticket to the tyson fight (if you can call it
that). he was back at the sushi restaurant before we were
finished with our appetizers! an exciting night in vegas.

talk to you soon....
train

Friday, October 22nd
so, we went into to the recording studio with the
legendary "butcher brothers" yesterday morning in
philadelphia at about 9:30AM and came out at about
3:30 this morning with nine songs tracked for an
upcoming EP that we plan to sell at shows and online.
we recorded live acoustic versions of "free", "i am",
and "meet virginia" (one or two of which will make
the cd), an acoustic version of "ramble on" and live
electric versions of some previously unreleased songs
- "the highway", "hopeless", "counting on you", "the
cowboy" and "sweet rain" (three or four of which will
make the cd). it was an intense and very productive
session which featured scott playing a stripped down
semi-acoustic drum kit as well as his traditional
snare/case kit that he uses on radio, jimmy playing
acoustic (thanks ethan!), dobro slide and a newly
purchased 1965 gretsch hollow-body electric, charlie
played acoustic guitar on "hopeless", and rob played
a newly purchased gibson acoustic and jimmy's goldtop.
pat sang his ass off and played the pan-flute and some
percussion. there were three photographers and a video
crew documenting the entire session for future use. we
plan to release this as-yet-untitled cd at the start of
our november tour.

we woke up this morning and performed an acoustic set
in a downtown philadelphia record store in front of a
wonderful audience. we're heading over to the venue
to soundcheck for tonights show with ben folds as we
speak (write). we have to catch an early morning flight
to vegas for a big show tomorrow evening and then rejoin
the ben folds tour on sunday in D.C.

have a great weekend! hey, did you notice that our record
moved up to #81 in the billboard top 200 charts this week!!
yep. we're ahead of cher...do you believe?

bye,
train

Thursday, October 21st
last nights set in cleveland: swaying, sweet rain, free,
if you leave, rat, i am, train, virginia

today we're in philadelphia recording a six or seven song
acoustic ep with the butcher brothers producing. this will
be available for purchase on our next tour at our shows or
via the internet. it'll include one or two songs from the
album, one cover tune and three or four new tunes. we'll
fill you in on the details once it's finished. it's going
to be really cool!

see ya,
train

sorry packers fans, we meant that the lions beat the vikings
on sunday. although, didn't the lions beat the packers, too?
how about those lions!

Tuesday, October 19th
hey. we played a beautiful theater on campus in
bloomington, indiana this evening with ben folds.
it was a really fun show for us. it went a little
like this...

swaying, sweet rain, free, ramble, i am, flatfoot,
train & virginia.

pat sat in and played some sax with ben folds on their
opening song the other night in columbus. that was a
good show, too. oh, and we mustn't forget detroit on
sunday! y'all were just giddy, because the lions beat
the packers. anyway, we're really looking forward to our
headling tour that starts in winston-salem on november
10th and retraces alot of these ben folds' dates. we
seem to be making a bunch of new friends out here every
night. hopefully you'll all come back and see us again!

ok. we're at the hotel for a quick shower. about to
climb back on the bus, watch half a movie, go to sleep
and wake up in cleveland tomorrow morning. hey, sorry
about the indians, but at least you've still got the
browns! just kidding. we love cleveland.

nighty night,
train

Tuesday, October 19th
hey. we played a beautiful theater on campus in
bloomington, indiana this evening with ben folds.
it was a really fun show for us. it went a little
like this...

swaying, sweet rain, free, ramble, i am, flatfoot,
train & virginia.

nighty night,
train

Saturday, October 16th (happy sweetest day!)
last nights set-list in cincinnati's beautiful taft theater:

sweet rain, free, eggplant, swaying (which was featured on
this weeks episode of dawson's creek), ramble on, i am, train,
meet virginia.

we'll see y'all again on november 20th at bogart's!

Wednesday, October 13
last nights set-list in toronto was this:

days, train, virginia, blind, ramble, i am, sweet
rain (which pat sung "everybody here wants you" by
jeff buckley in the middle breakdown), and free

today we're in grand rapids for our own sold-out
headlining show with our old friends "19 wheels"
opening. it'll be a good one and it'll be fun for
us to stretch out and play for awhile tonight before
rejoining ben folds tomorrow night in chicago.

Monday, October 11
thanksgiving day in canada today. we're in toronto for a
show tomorrow night. today was a day off. everybody did
their laundry, saw movies and relaxed. jimmy had sushi for
dinner and sat next to kim bassinger at the sushi bar. he
said that she seemed very nice (looking a bit nervous every
time a camera flashed in the popular restaurant) and that
he's never seen anybody eat as much wasabi as she did! some
like it hot....

Saturday, October 9
we just arrived in boston for a big afternoon show at the
city plaza. we flew all night. almost crashed! taking
off from phoenix airport at about 11:30 last night our
plane lost an engine and started swerving all over the
runway. people were crying and getting into position...
we all pretty much slept through the whole ordeal. that
tonight show business wore us out. so we had to switch
planes and do it again about two hours later. we made
it, though.

so, how'd we look on tv last night? we missed it due to
our brush with death flight. our performance felt good to
us, though. and they gave us alot of plugs. we had a blast
as a matter of fact! jay came up to our dressing rooms after
rehearsal and met all of us and took a picture (we'll put it
on the website when we get it developed). he's a very cool
guy. we also got to meet the other guests; kirsty alley and
oscar de lahoya. we were pretty psyched that jay invited
us over to the couch after our performance. it's a classy
show...nice people.

anyway, we're going to take a quick power-nap and head
out to the gig. H-E-L-L-O BOSTON!!

see ya,
train

Wednesday, October 6th
tonight's set-list in columbia, missouri (which is a very
beautiful place, by the way):

sweet rain (pat debuted some sorta pan-flute thingy), free,
train (the entire song with a great jam in the middle/no
drum solo), meet virginia, days, i am (jimmy played his
burgundy les paul on these last two songs), ramble on and
the highway. charlie played the entire set with his brand
new orange gretch hollow-body bass.

see ya,
train

Tuesday, October 5th
tonight's set list in minneapolis:

counting on you, eggplant, free, train (the whole song, minus
drum solo), meet virginia, the highway, ramble on, i am

we'll be performing "meet virginia" on the tonight show with
jay leno this friday night! watch us!! the other guests are
kirsty alley and oscar de lahoya. sorry to those of you in
providence. we had to cancel your show to do this. we'll
make it up to you sometime soon.

peace,
train

Monday, October 4th
we're in omaha, nebraska tonight after a big weekend in
houston at the big fall jam show on saturday. we shared
the stage with lenny kravitz, collective soul, smashmouth,
and others in front of about 15,000 people or so...pretty
awesome. anyway, we flew into omaha yesterday to find out
that our bus had broken down (again!) and we weren't going
to have our gear in time for tonight's show. our only choice
was to do an acoustic show, which is usually a pretty nice
treat, but we didn't get a soundcheck and, well...we hope it
was ok for y'all. we had a good time. it just wasn't what
we expected, that's all. we'll come back to omaha in december
for a christmas show and we'll rock for ya.

so, we're back in the same bus that we ended the last tour
with (including sonny, the bus driver). we'll finish this
tour in this bus and then get a newer, bigger bus for the next
tour in november. we'll be fine.

talk to you soon.
train

Thursday, September Something
first of all, we don't get the chance to get online as often
as we'd like and we usually play about six shows a week and
don't always mention every single one of them here in the road
diary. that doesn't mean that we didn't have a good time or
don't like your city! we just get busy sometimes and a few
shows might go by without mention, that's all. we had a great
time in phoenix and at ferris state!

ok. so, we're damn happy to be back in a bus! we've got a
different driver on this tour. his name is jim. he's ozzy
osbourne's driver. we're in vancouver, canada tonight with
ben folds five. it was a really fun show. we've been mixing
up the set lists quite a bit on this tour. tonight's show was:
days, train (the entire song, minus the drum solo), meet virginia,
blind, ramble on, i am, the highway, and free. jimmy was
stage right with rob and charlie at stage left due to the small
stage and ben's big-ass piano. it was interesting.

we fly to houston tomorrow for a show on saturday with lenny
kravitz, smashmouth and buckcherry. then we fly to omaha to
meet our bus and rejoin the ben folds' tour on sunday.

have a great weekend!
train

Sunday, September 26th
so, last night we headlined the Big Spring Jam in Huntsville,
Alabama in front of about 30,000 people. it was one of those
big huge stages with the jumbotron tv screen for the people in
the back. it was a really fun night...crystal clear with a
full moon and a bunch of crazy train fans who we hope to see
in birmingham on new years eve! anyway, what they didn't know
was that we flew in from grand rapids, michigan that afternoon
and a certain airline that starts with a "d", ends with an "a"
and has "elt" in the middle decided not to send all of our gear
on the plane with us. it was a rather small plane, so they
decided (unbeknownst to us) to send half of our gear (including
three very important guitars) on a later flight that was to
arrive in huntsville at 9:30. we were due onstage at 10:15, so
needless to say things were a bit tense backstage before the
show. but luckily, the gear showed up just as Bad Company was
finishing their set at about 9:50 and we hit the stage at 10:25.
jimmy lost his slide and was just about ready to use a broken
beer bottle to perform 'blind' when an anonymous fan standing
on the side of the stage lent him a glass pill bottle (don't ask),
which did the job just fine, thank you mr. anonymous fan.

anyway, as the saying goes, "the show must go on". and it did.

we're in LA tonight for a sony international industry showcase
tomorrow morning (they're gearing up to release our record
internationally). it's private, so you can't come. then we're
off to portland to hop on our bus and begin the ben folds five
tour.
see ya!

Thursday, September 23rd
tonight was the final show of the DKNY sponsored tour. we
closed the tour in minneapolis in front of a very good crowd.
minneapolis is a great city and the people are all very nice
and really into their music. we'll look forward to coming
back on october 5th on the ben folds five tour. and you people
in chicago last night....jeez!....what a great time! we played
at the legendary club metro right across the street from wrigley
field where there was a cubs/cardinals game earlier in the day.
jimmy ran in to future hall of famer mark grace at a bar next door
after the show (which was completely sold-out...thank you!). in
honor of our return to the windy city we played our version
of "i want you to want me" by chicago's own cheap trick for an
encore. the crowd loved it and so did we. we actually played it
again in minneapolis tonight and may continue to whip it out every
now and then.

anyway, the DKNY tour was a success with the exception of the
miami show being cancelled due to the hurricane. "shooter" and
"splender" are both very good bands and nice folks as well...check
them out. DKNY gave us a bunch of cool clothes that we'll be
sporting on our upcoming dates...

oh, did y'all hear that VH1 has increased our video plays and MTV
added us to their playlist this week?...yep. how about that
"virginia"?! we're gearing up to release "i am" as the follow-up
single in a few weeks. somebody must have told y'all about it,
because everybody has been singin' along with that one at the
shows recently. we're excited about it. we did a little remixing
of it in philadelphia recently for radio...it sounds great.

anyway, we're off to big rapids, michigan tomorrow and then to
huntsville, alabama on saturday before kicking off the ben folds
five tour in portland on tuesday. we can't wait to get back in
a bus on tuesday! this flying everyday kinda sucks. oh, and due
to ben folds' grand piano, we may have to flip-flop our stage
set-up and put jimmy on stage right and rob and charlie stage left.
we'll check it out on tuesday.

signing off for now...

peace,
train