Spring 2000
 
Monday, June 11?
we're in Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast in Australia today. we've been here since saturday. we played another show at the hard rock in sydney on friday night. this one was the grand reopening for the "real people", not the media and was a really good time. saturday we caught a flight up to the gold coast and performed our first ever headlining show in australia at the hard rock cafe and get this...it was sold-out! turns out the people in the gold coast area have been diggin' on the "meet virginia" and they all came
out to see what the train is all about. it was a really fun, high energy set. the crowd even sang along on certain songs like they do in the states. we were very surprised and happy. yesterday was a day off. it rained, but most everybody got out and did a bit of sight-seeing in the area. the crew, pat, jimmy and rob went out for some australian sushi last night. very good and incredibly cheap. today was basically another day off with the exception of some interviews. pat and jimmy walked to the beach, noticed a very large crowd and saw the olympic torch run by. the crew (jeff, little buddy and thomas) went to the koala sanctuary and got their picture taken with some kangaroos doing the wild thing. we'll have to post that one on the website for y'all to see. it's pretty funny.
 
anyway, tomorrow we fly down to melbourne for a show tomorrow night. wednesday is a media day for us and then we fly home for a nice break on thursday.
 
we'll talk to you soon.
train
 
Friday, June 9
G'Day Mates! we're in sydney, australia where the summer
olympics are to begin in 99 days. the torch arrived in
town yesterday. and yes, for those of you in the states,
it is friday here (we're about 15 hours ahead of y'all).
 
anyway, it sure is a beautiful city! and the people are
treating us very kindly. we arrived here on tuesday evening
after completing seven shows in four days in the states and
flying from new york to LA to sydney (about a 25 hour affair).
we're staying in a very fine hotel in a very nice area of
town. we've pretty much done nothing but press, mostly phone
interviews and radio stuff, since we've been here. our goal
on this trip is to alert the media as to who we are, so that
we can come back in the summer (it's winter here right now -
about 65 degrees, if you can call that winter) and do a full
scale tour. surprisingly, most everybody seems to know who
we are already! "Meet Virginia" is doing quite well at radio
and some stations have even started playing "Free". there
seems to be a nice buzz about the band, so hopefully our being
over here will help seal the deal, so we can come back and
play some shows with AC/DC or Midnight Oil or someone like
that.
 
last night we played our first show here. it was a big industry
only shindig for the grand reopening of the hard rock cafe here
in sydney (it burned down a year ago). it was a red carpet
affair complete with searchlights and australian celebs. it was
good as industry type shows go. tonight we play the same place
for the grand reopening for the general public. should be a
little less stuffy. we shared the stage last night with an
australian band called "Taxiride", who opened for us once in
salt lake city a while back. good guys they are.
 
we're doing a bunch or television stuff today...MTV (australia),
the today show and a popular australian show called "House of
Hits". tomorrow we're off to the gold coast for a show tomorrow
night.
 
we'll drop you a line later in the week.
 
bye,
train
 
Saturday, June 3rd
we played the big KISS radio festival in boston today in front
of about 20,000 people. it was alot of fun. 24 bands! each
played about 20 minutes. we were in between the goo goo dolls
and bon jovi. other bands today were macy gray, third eye
blind, sinead o'connor, mandy moore, jessica simpson, savage
garden, don henley, britney spears, sugar ray and a whole bunch
more. tom hamilton (aerosmith bassist) was hangin' around
backstage with his son (who was there to see eiffel 65, that
"i'm blue" song) and doug flutie (buffalo bills quarterback)
was there, too. it was a really nice day.

yesterday we performed in new york city at the ed sullivan
theater for the annual WPLJ radio show live from the ed sullivan
theater with vertical horizon, ninedays, us and a few others.
david letterman had the week off. it was pretty cool being in
that building and performing on the same stage that the beatles,
elvis, the stones and so many other great bands have played on.
that was in the afternoon. then we headed to atlantic city for
a headlining show at the trump marina last night. that was a
very fun show, too. it was a completely seated audience, so we
took advantage and played a few different songs ("hopeless",
"something more" and "rat"). bonnie was right there in the front
sitting at a table with our old pal, ethan. we're going to miss
her in australia!
 
so, the day before yesterday (thursday?) we also played two shows.
the first was a private party for the launch of a new website
company called gigabeat in new york. then we hopped in a couple
of rented planes and flew to new hampshire for a radio concert
(our friends splendor played earlier in the evening). we got
there just in time to hit the stage. it was a good one.
 
tomorrow we also have two shows to do. these are officially the
last two US shows of the tour before we fly to australia on
monday. we'll perform in connecticut at a marine sub base in the
afternoon and then head to providence for another big radio concert
tomorrow night.
 
we'll try and drop a line from the land down under. we'll be pretty
busy. lots of press stuff and radio and tv performances. it'll
be exciting for us, though, to bring our music down there.
 
talk to you soon.
train
 
Monday, May 29?
we're in new york city today and tomorrow for some r&r. it's
kinda nice, since we're usually incredibly busy whenever we
visit new york. we're gearing up for a very busy conclusion to
our US tour this week and then we head to australia. sorry we
haven't written in awhile. we've been flying alot this past
week. the shows have been good and we've played with some good
friends in the past week (collective soul, tonic, vertical horizon,
mr. big). highlights (for us) were jackson, mississippi at the
big jubilee jam show (lots of fun people at that one, probably
about 15,000) and jacksonville, florida (very hot day, but a great
crowd and a fun show for us). allentown, PA was fun last night,
too. oh, to the girl from birmingham who was at the show last
night and mentioned that someone from the sound company was rude
to her...our crew wanted you to know that it wasn't any of them,
it was somebody from the festival production company who was not
employed by train. our crew is a reflection of us and we feel
that they're the best in the business and expect them to show the
same respect and kindness to our fans that we think we do. they
felt really bad about your treatment when they heard about it.
after we whipped and beat them they asked us to post this note to
you begging your understanding and forgiveness.
 
ok. enough of that. we'll talk to you soon.

dig ya.
train
 
Wednesday, May 17
we're in cincinnati today for an outdoor show. it kinda looks
like rain. we're keeping our fingers crossed. jimmy's family
is doing the tailgating behind the bus thing today.
 
last night we were in grand rapids, michigan for a really good
show. we played "Hopeless" for the first time of this tour.
a guy named chad came onstage and proposed (very nicely done,
by the way) to his gal, amy before we broke into "Meet Virginia".
it was pretty cool. they stayed on the side of the stage and
danced. pat forgot the words again. friends from the Verve Pipe
and Papa Vegas were in the house.

we play in memphis tomorrow for our very first time and we're
scared that nobody is going to come (like when we played every
other city for the first time), so if you read this and you live
in or near memphis...come on out!!

talk to you soon.
train
 
Saturday, May 13
well...our show in greensboro got rained out tonight! we got
about halfway through our show and in the middle of "Ramble On"
as Pat sang "and now i smell the rain..." the lightning struck
and the rains came. they made us wrap it up after that song due
to the lightning. it was the first time in years that we've not
played "Meet Virginia" at a show. sorry, Greensboro! we'll come
back soon. it was a good day, though. we got to see all of our
friends in Vertical and Splendor and made some new friends in
Ninedays. we heard that one couple got kicked out for having
sex in the middle of the crowd of about 10,000. and we saw these
two big guys get into a huge brawl in the middle of "Free" and
then they hugged and were best buddies. strange. should you
be kicked out for having sex at a concert? throw some cold
water on them or something. lend them a blanket maybe, but let
the kids see the show that got them so worked up! don't you
think?
 
talk amongst yourselves...
train
 
Saturday, May 13
we're in Greensboro, North Carolina today. it's very hot.
we're headlining the big hoohaa radio festival featuring us,
vertical horizon, gran torino, splender, nine days and emma
gibbs. it's going to be a really fun day, but hot. did we
tell you how damn hot it is here? lots of bathing suits out
there in the crowd of probably 10,000ish. our air-conditioned
bus never felt so good. we're parked right behind the stage,
so we can watch the other bands from the comforts of home.
 
last night we played a really fun show in Norfolk, Virginia.
it was a big outdoor thingy. about 10,000 people showed up.
we had a great time. the crowd was awesome! probably one of
the best large shows we've been a part of. Virginia rocks!
 
anyway, we'll talk soon.
train
 
Thursday, May 11
we're in philadelphia today. new york last night at irving
plaza, which turned out to be a really fun show for us considering
the crazy day we had. first of all, we didn't get any sleep the
night before (coming from pittsburgh) due to the bus having to drive
super fast to get us to new york for early radio. when the bus
goes that fast you pretty much need velcro pajamas to keep from
falling out of your bunk! so that doesn't make for a good nights
rest. we had to do satellite radio shows from a new york studio
to 15 stations around the country starting at 7AM. each station
got to spend 20 minutes on the air with us. we tried to keep our
energy up for each interview, but some were better than others.
that lasted until about 1PM and then we headed off to the oxygen
network for a live television performance. we kicked off the show
at 4PM eastern time with "Meet Virginia" and as soon as we finished
we all headed to the dressing room and passed out on couches and
chairs to be awakened by the producer an hour later to perform
"I Am" at the shows close. then we were whisked off to soundcheck,
dinner and then it was showtime. needless to say, we all slept very
well last night on the drive to philly. a day in the life...
 
talk to you soon.
train
 
Tuesday, May 9
in pittsburgh today. we're a bit worried that our show tonight
could take a beating from game 6 of the Penguins/Flyers series
in town. you know what we say to that....hockey-schmockey!
come on out to the train show!!

anyway, whew! what a hectic week we're having out here in
america. we had a pretty crazy, sold-out show in washington
d.c. sunday night. we did something a little different in the
middle of the set and let the crowd choose which song they
wanted to hear between "idaho" and "swaying". they chose
"idaho". we may do more of that sort of thing, because we
sometimes have a difficult time deciding which songs to play.

we spent our day off yesterday in New York City taping a
showbiz today segment for CNN that will air this friday at
4:30 eastern time. the we headed over to VH1 to tape an
interview that we're not sure when it will air. tomorrow we
head back to new york for a morning of interviews and an
afternoon of taping a television appearance on the oxygen
network, which we're not sure when that'll air either.
then we have a show at irving plaza in the evening. our crew
spent the day in yankee stadium. good for them.

phoneboy (scott) lost his phone again in new york last night,
so keep your eyes open for it. we don't really call him
phoneboy anymore, since everybody has gone cellulor now, but
man, when he loses that phone he is one lost puppy! his sister
and some friends came out to see us in rochester the other night
and tailgated (cooler, lawnchairs and all) all day behind our
parked bus. we all thought that was pretty cool. pat's family
and friend(s) will be joining us in pittsburgh tonight unless
they decide to hang out at the sports bar next door and watch
the friggin' hockey game. whatever.
 
talk to you soon.
train
 
Sunday, May 7th
we're in Washington D.C. today. it's been a good weekend
so far. after having a four day, mid-tour break last week
we picked back up in Providence on friday night - hot, but
good. then we played another hot one in Rochester last night.
we played "Heavy" for the first time of this tour. there was
a sign language person onstage with us for the entire show.
she was positioned on the front stage left corner. pat went
over and danced with her during the solo break of "meet virginia".
believe it or not (we've only played the song about 25,000 times)
Pat forgot the words to the second verse of Virginia last night!
the crowd knew it well, though, and he got right back on track.
it was a fun show.

hey, we'll talk soon. we've got a very busy week of press and
television and shows this week, so forgive us if you don't hear
from us. we love ya.
train
 
Wednesday, April 26
we're in Davenport, Iowa today. last night we were in Indiana
for a show at Depau University. it was Stir's last night of the
tour. our crew joined them onstage for a rendition of Kiss' "Rock
and Roll All Night" (complete with Paul Stanley stage banter from
our tour manager, Thomas O'Keefe). they toilet papered us during
our encore of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". after the
show we all got together on our bus to watch game 7 of the
Blues/Sharks hockey series (they being from St. Louis and us from
the Bay Area). we (the sharks) won! anyway, we'll miss those
Stir guys. they're a great band (that can play just about any
cover song in the world) and a great bunch of lads. good luck and
safe travels to you guys. we wish you the best. a really good
band called the Gas Giants will start touring with us today. they
have an ex-member or two from the Gin Blossoms. we've heard alot
about them and are looking forward to meeting them and seeing them
play tonight.
 
monday night we were in Chicago for a sold-out show at the house of
blues that may have beat out the Denver show as our new favorite of
the tour. there's something about Chicago that gets us going.

so, we'll play tonight in Iowa, tomorrow in Detroit, Friday in
Cleveland (where we'll be treated to a private tour of the rock
and roll hall of fame where the original hand written lyrics to
"Meet Virginia" now reside.), Saturday in St.Cloud and Sunday in
Charlotte and then we fly home for a four day, mid-tour break.
 
we'll start back up again on May 5th in Rochester and tour the
states until June 4th when we'll fly to Australia for our first
tour of the land down under. we're excited about it.
 
oh, and it's Jimmy's birthday today. he's like 50-something.
just kidding. Happy Birthday, Jimmy!
 
talk to you soon.
train
 
Saturday, April 22
we're in Madison, Wisconsin today. it's a beautiful day here.
we had great shows in Minneapolis and Milwaukee the past two
nights. tomorrow we have a day off in Chicago where we'll play
the house of blues monday night. all is good. everyone is
healthy and happy. we've been hangin' out with the Stir guys
quite a bit. they're very cool guys and their crew is really
nice too. anyway, happy easter everyone! we'll drop a line
next week.
train
 
Wednesday, April 19
we're in omaha today for a day off. we'll travel to minneapolis
tonight for a show tomorrow. it's been a fun week so far. we
had a great show in salt lake city on monday and probably the
best show of the tour (so far) last night in denver. we played
"Rat" last night for the first time on this tour and were called
back for two encores ("Sweet Rain", "Idaho" and then "My
Generation").

assuming that somebody had to stop the bus in the middle of the
night to go "number 2", we woke up this morning to a big note
saying "this bus will not stop until it gets to omaha" and baby
diapers thrown all over the floors and taped to the walls. not
really sure what that was all about.

last night was also our last night of having "Wood" out with us.
we're really going to miss those guys. super nice Brits and an
awesome band. they went over really well with our crowds. check
out their CD on columbia records sometime. we'll see you guys
soon. safe travels.

there is a rumor of a big bowling match between Train and Stir
this evening in omaha. we'll let you know the outcome.

oh, and did we tell you that Bonnie has been following us around
again? yep. she's only missed a few shows. she's awesome.
always in the front row.
 
we'll talk to you soon.
train
 
Friday, April 14
we're in Las Vegas today for a festival show at UNLV. our old
friends Better Than Ezra will be performing today as well.
 
we've had a very busy week so far. we played shows in Sacramento,
Los Angeles and San Diego. the shows have been great. the set
list has stayed basically the same this week. we played "Swaying"
instead of "Blind" in San Diego last night. the encores were
"Eggplant", "My Generation" and "Something More" in Sacramento,
"Sweet Rain", "My Generation" and "Something More" in LA, and "Sweet
Rain", "My Generation" in San Diego.
 
remember that contest a while back where you could win a performance
by train in your living room? we did that yesterday, too. the
winner was a nice gal named Theresa in Capistrano Beach, California.
we went to her house and played songs that she requested (eggplant,
free, ramble on, she's on fire, train and meet virginia) for her and
about 40 of her friends and family. we supplied a bunch of pizza
and drinks, signed some autographs, took a few photos, kissed some
babies and had a really nice time perfoming in her parents front yard.
jimmy got a bit too much sun on his head.
 
anyway, have a good weekend. we'll be in vegas tonight, phoenix
tomorrow and then we head east.
 
bye for now,
train
 
Friday, April 7th
we're in portland, oregon today. the tour is going great. after a
couple of days off we met our crew and bus in spokane on wednesday
(a great sold-out crowd - thank you!) and then went to vancouver
yesterday (we ran into a huge snow storm on the way to canada and
barely made it.) for another really good show. and today we're in
portland where we've already done two live radio shows and had a
wonderful lunch. the new songs continue to be very well received
and the new lighting and stage set looks really awesome. both of
our support bands (Wood and Stir) are really cool and the crowds
seem to really be digging them. what else...oh, we heard that the
LA show at the house of blues will be simulcast over the web at
hob.com, so check it out.
 
that's all for now. we'll check in soon.
train
 
Sunday, April 2nd
wow, what a great start to our tour! we're three days and four shows
into it and things couldn't be going better. we started in Marquette,
Michigan on thursday. we were a bit nervous, being opening night and
all, but the crowd of about 2,000 made us feel right at home. it was
probably the best opening night we've ever had.
 
friday we were in Athens, Georgia at the legendary 40 Watt Club. it was
probably the smallest venue of this tour (about 900). it was packed,
sweaty and loud. just the way we like it. a bit more relaxed than the
night before and again, alot of fun.
 
yesterday was just plain crazy! we were going on about three hours of
sleep and showed up for a noontime concert in Atlanta's Centennial Park
to a crowd of about 25,000 people. it was a really beautiful day and an
awesome way to wrap up our month long stay in Atlanta.
 
we had to leave immediately following our performance in Atlanta to
catch a flight to Houston, Texas where a crowd of 35,000 were waiting
for us after being entertained all day by Vertical Horizon, Smashmouth
Edwin McCain and the Goo Goo Dolls. we showed up just in time to take
the stage and had the greatest time. that was the craziest crowd
we've played to in a long time! sorry we couldn't have played a
longer show, but some of the earlier bands ran long, we showed up a little
late from atlanta and the city had a sound curfew of 6:50, so we had
to wrap it up. we'll come back and play a full show for you soon.

we haven't played the same set list twice yet, but they've been similar
give or take a few songs. here's a sample from athens on friday night:
 
It's Love, Free, Homesick, She's on Fire, I Am, Ramble On, Days, If You
Leave, Blind, Respect, It's About You, Train, Whipping Boy, Meet Virginia
encores: Something More, Idaho
the night before in Marquette we played Swaying and Sweet Rain instead
of Idaho and Blind. we'll try and mix it up.

we flew home this morning for a couple days off before hooking up
with our new bus in Spokane, Washington on Wednesday.
 
bye for now.
train
 
Wednesday, March 29
we finished two days of tour rehearsals late last night in
atlanta. it was fun to freshen up on some of the songs we
haven't played in awhile and to learn how to fit some of
the new songs into the set. we're pretty excited about the
show. our road crew flew ahead to Marquette, Michigan today
to get things in order for opening night tomorrow night.
we're going to spend one more day in the studio today working
on a potential hidden track for the new record called "Sharks
Live on the Elevator". we'll finish around dinner time, get
to bed early and fly to Michigan early tomorrow morning.
 
Let the games begin!

we'll look forward to seeing you all soon.
train
 
Saturday, March 25
we're just about finished with the record. we finished all of
the singing and overdubs today. scott has to create a little
drum thingy for "Mississippi" tomorrow and then we're done.
our friends Fleming & John came from nashville to visit us this
evening. we asked the beautiful Miss Fleming to sing a bit on
"Mississippi". she obliged in a most excellent way.

Brendan treated us to a very nice celebratory dinner last night.
the recording went by so fast! all of the sudden we find ourselves
getting into tour mode. we're going to miss Brendan, Nick, Ryan,
Carl, Maureen and Mike at Southern Tracks. it's really been a most
wonderful and inspirational experience making our second record with
these people. brendan will mix the record in a few weeks while we're
touring. we still haven't discussed album titles or artwork yet.
Scott thinks we should call it "Scott" and put a big picture of Scott
on the cover. it's kinda catchy, but...

our road crew will be coming to atlanta on monday for two days of
tour rehearsals and then we're outta here. returning to action will
be tour manager/babysitter Thomas O'Keefe, front of house sound god
Jeff Caler and everyone's favorite Little Buddy (we figure he doesn't
use his real name because he probably tells everybody that he's on
tour with KISS). he'll be taking care of the guitars and the stage.
we'll have a new bus driver on this tour along with a new lighting
tech and a new merchandise manager. we'll tell you their names after
we meet them next week.

so, what will win 'best picture' tomorrow night? we're all pulling
for "American Beauty" with "Sixth Sense" running a close second.
they're all good.
 
have fun.
 
train
 
Thursday, March 23
we're finishing up the record this week. unfortunately, you
probably won't be able to hear it until the fall. we'll play
a bunch of the new songs on tour.
 
yesterday we flew to nashville to record a string section
(four violins, two violas and two cellos) on "something more".
it sounds beautiful. Beck's dad was the arranger/conductor.
the studio we were in was an old church built in 1850 that was
used as a hospital during the civil war.

congratulations to our friends Vertical Horizon on their gold
record! we'll see you in houston.

what's up with our message board?! we'll find out for you
today. we think they're rebuilding something.
 
talk to you soon.
train