Summer 1999
 
Saturday, September 18th
hi...sorry we haven't posted in awhile. we're just starting
to settle into this tour. it's going great so far, except
for the miami show that was cancelled due to hurricane floyd,
and we got stuck in new york city for an extra day as the
hurricane made its way north. no problems, though. we're
back on schedule and had great shows in columbia last night
and atlanta this evening. we played in front of about 5,000
people each night. pat kinda forgot the words to "if you
leave" tonight, but made up for it by doing a little crowd
surfing during "meet virginia". we signed autographs for a
long time at the best buy signing booth after the show, but
had to cut off about 100 people or so as we had to go do a
radio interview...sorry...we'll get y'all the next time we're
in atlanta. all in all it was a really good day, though. we
played with some great bands...bush, live, marvelous 3, joydrop,
verve pipe (we had dinner with a few of them), cake, vertical
horizon (who will be touring with us this fall), moby, lucious
jackson and more. it's pretty cool getting to play with such
good bands all the time. it's even cooler that they think it's
pretty cool to be playing with us! anyway, it's bedtime. we
have a 5:30AM flight to phoenix for a show tomorrow (sunday).
we'll talk soon.
train

Friday, September 10th
we're two shows into the tour and just arrived in sacramento
for show number three tonight. both shows (portland and
seattle) went really well. last night in seattle jimmy and
charlie hung out in a few neighborhood clubs after the show
and jammed with a couple of bands. jimmy played some blues
with seattle local faves 'mayfly' and then headed down the
street to another club where he met up with charlie. they
both sat in and played some improv with the house band (which
included singer dave andrews of 'calobo') and wrapped up the
night with an acoustic version of 'meet virginia' sung by
jimmy (and crowd). tonight is our first california show in
quite some time and tomorrow is our homecoming show at the
warfield in san francisco. we're pretty excited about the
whole deal. ok....gotta go. we'll talk at you soon.
train

Wednesday, September 8th
we're back! our vacation was great. everybody had a really
nice break and we're all very excited to be back on the road.
we started back to work yesterday in san francisco. we
performed live on KFOG's morning show (we played "i am" and
"meet virginia") and then on Alice's afternoon drive show
(performing "i am" and "free"). this was to promote our big
homecoming show this saturday night at the warfield. it felt
great to be together again and playing the tunes. we just
arrived in portland for our first show of the tour, which is
tonight at the roseland. we'll headline until the end of the
month (flying every single day and performing on rented gear),
then support 'ben folds five' (in a bus) until halloween and
then headline again until thanksgiving. we'll see y'all at the
shows!!
train

Tuesday, August 17th
thank you, philadelphia!!! we'll see you again soon...

Monday, August 16th
last night was our final show with hootie & the blowfish in
bethlehem, PA. they gave us the "silly-string" treatment
during "meet virginia" in front of about 10,000 people. they
just ran (mark rode a bike) right out onstage and completely
covered us and our gear with silly-string. we actually had to
stop the song to uncover ourselves before finishing the show.
pat sang a song with them during their set and scott sat in on
percussion for a song. anyway, we had a great tour with those
guys. the band are the nicest bunch of guys you'll meet and
their crew made us feel right at home...we might even have to
steal a few of them! we wish the entire hootie gang the best
of luck in your future endeavors and thank you so much for
taking us on the road with you.

ok. so, tonight is the final show of OUR tour. we're in
philadelphia for a sold-out show at the hard rock cafe. it's
a free radio show, so come on down even if you didn't win
tickets...you might be able to squeeze in. and we'll be
searching for silly-string at the door!

after the show tonight we'll be leaving our bus/home and going
our separate ways for some vacation time. we have a few fly-in
dates to do at the end of the month and will begin touring again
on the west coast in september. we'd like to thank our crew
for doing a great job on this tour for us...mike moran (tour
manager), jeff caler (sound/production manager), doug falsetti
(guitar tech/stage manager), ethan rightmeyer (stage hand), and
sonny (the bus driver). you guys are the best and we'll look
forward to getting back out with you again in a few weeks.

but, most of all we'd like to thank all of you for buying our
record and coming out to see our live shows. we wouldn't be
able to hire such a wonderful crew and travel around the country
in a nice bus if it wasn't for y'all. and as for our
future plans...we know that some of you have had this record
for awhile now and you're probably ready to hear something new,
but this record is really starting to do well on a national
(and hopefully international) level and we plan on releasing at
least one (probably two) more singles before recording a new one.
this'll mean that we'll probably continue to tour in support of
this record until springtime 2,000 and release a new record
shortly after. hang in there! once we get this thing off the
ground we'll record and release more music than you can handle!
in the meantime, we promise to keep slipping new material into
our live shows, so keep coming out to see us and bring your
tape recorders. thanks again everybody and we'll see you soon!
train

Sunday, August 8th
we're back in the states! we crossed the border at about 2AM
this morning and were rudely awakened from our cozy little bunks
by the united states customs agents (who weren't in the best of
moods). we had to get dressed and go inside while rover sniffed
around the bus for illegal substances. he didn't find anything
and we were "free" to go after being detained for about an hour.
we're in manhattan today and tomorrow for a big photo session.

anyway, canada was very, very good to us...thank you all! we're
looking forward to many more future performances. the canadian
radio stations were all very kind and receptive, too. we ran
into "g love" (of "g love and special sauce") at one of the
stations. he's a very cool guy with a great new record...check
it out. we're hoping to do some dates with them this fall.
and thanks to "roots" (canada's "gap") for sporting us some new
duds. jimmy wore one of your shirts on the conan o'brien show
friday night.

and speaking of the conan o'brien show...

what a blast! the staff and crew were all very cool to us. conan
was as nice as can be. we hung out with our good friend, jack
o'neil (of "jack o'pierce" and "american horse") after the show
and received a number of emails and phone calls (including one
phone call from our friends in "matchbox 20" - each band member
leaving his own personal message) congratulating us on our
performance. it was very nice and we thank you all for watching.

we have one more week of hootie dates left on this tour before
taking some time off. we'll be back in full force come september.

talk to you soon,
train

tuesday afternoon, august 3rd
we just got offstage in philadelphia (we're actually across the
river in camden, new jersey, but it's a philly radio feztival).
you people are CRAZY!! what a blast we had at our last gig in
the states (we're heading to canada in about an hour). i mean...
y'all were moshing and crowd-surfing and piled way up on the hill.
the radio people said that it was one of the best reactions they
had seen.

anyway, there are all of these tour buses lined up backstage...it's
pretty cool. our driver (sonny) fixed lucious jackson's bus for
them (their generator broke). sonny is the man! no air-conditioning
for lucious had there been no sonny in the house! also, we all got
to meet sean lennon, too. we were hangin' out with him backstage
right before we went on. he was showing us this really cool recording
device that he just bought...nice guy. he's actually onstage right
now as we write this. we're hanging out in his little dressing
trailor (which smells a bit peculiar...hash, maybe?...a pet skunk?).

we're off to canada. g'day mate...put another shrimp on the barbie...
never mind...wrong country. don't forget to watch us on the conan
o'brien show friday night!! we're pretty excited. and thank you
all for the song requests, but y'all KNOW what song they're going
to make us play! we'll see ya....
train

Monday, August 2nd
a day off in columbus, ohio today. some of us went shopping,
pat did laundry (no, he didn't send it out), scott hung out
with his family and most of us went to see "the blair witch
project" at the local mall.

anyway, our favorite shows of the past week were probably in
houston, indianapolis and columbus. nashville at the exit inn
was definately the most interesting. we drive to camden, new
jersey tonight for a show tomorrow and then we're off to canada.
it's our first time out of the country. you'd think we were
going to bosnia or something with all of the paperwork and
shipping and bus details and manifests, passports, etc.
we may not be able to post a note from these foreign lands...
know that we're out there, though, and will return triumphant
to our native soil.

happy august,
train

Friday, July 30th
hi...we've had a pretty busy week...sorry we haven't posted.

first of all...thank you HOUSTON!! we'll come back and do a
headlining show sometime this fall (probably october). we had
a blast doing that acoustic show on tuesday night. we all bought
new amplifiers in houston, too. charlie got an ampeg stack, rob
got a fender bassman and jimmy got a bogner half-stack and a vox
AC30....we're gonna sound REALLY good!

jimmy and pat both got to meet two of their childhood heroes...
jimmy met dan hampton (of the chicago bears) last night
in little rock and pat got to meet THE terry bradshaw (mr.
pittsburgh steeler) today in spring hill.

the hootie guys are all very cool. a few of them rode with us
on our bus from memphis to tupelo the other day. pat and sony
will probably become running buddies. jimmy and mark had a jam
session in their dressing room last night before the show. pat
joined them onstage (playing some percussion) for a version of
santana's "black magic woman". scott accidentally blew up one
of their monitor amplifiers, because he likes to listen to himself
WAY too loud!...sorry guys. we're going to open for them this
evening and then head to nashville for a headlining midnight set
at the exit inn.

our tour manager (mike) is all pissed off, because he sent the
band's laundry out to be cleaned yesterday and it cost us $360!
NEVER send your laundry out in little rock, arkansas! who do
they think we are....rock-stars or something?! the nerve...

anyway, we'll talk soon. thanks to everybody on the q&a page for
saying such nice stuff about us. we love to read that page.

peace,
train

Sunday, July 25th?
well, our show last night in jacksonville, north carolina with hootie
was cancelled due to thunderstorms. we were bummed, but what can
you do?...watch movies on the bus. we had a great day there, though.
we were at camp lajeune, a marine base on the ocean. we sat on the
beach and swam in the ocean all day. the marine's were all very
cool to us, too. we hung out and showered in one of the barracks and
watched some of the woodstock coverage on mtv. our tour is
off to a one outta three start and we're expecting rain in savanah
today as well. hopefully we'll be able to get a show in. it's not
our fault! oh, we had an awesome dinner on our way out of town
last night. a place called "hooters seafood and steaks" (not THE
"hooters") although there were some very nice ladies who took very
good care of us there....thank you...great fresh fish...check it
out y'all if you're ever in the area. mmmmm...what else....oh,
we stopped off at a fast food place the other night and met the
daughter of Tom (of "Tom's of Maine" toothpaste). we're all users
of tom's of maine toothpaste, so we were pretty excited to meet
tom's daughter. she was very cool and knew who we were and all (she
had just come from our show). hey, maybe we could work out some sort
of endorsement deal or something!

gotta go. hopefully we'll get to play some music tonight!

Friday, July 23rd
today was to be our first show back from our break with dave
mathews in dallas. well...there was a "mix-up"....the friggin'
company that was supposed to provide the PA system for us
somehow thought that the show was on saturday the 24th and
well...they didn't show up! we all flew in, excited as hell to
play our first big show with dave, and there was no equipment
for us to play on!! we were tired, hot, thirsy and pissed.
we love dallas and don't get to come here often enough and
were really looking forward to this gig, but...whatever...that's
why we didn't play last night. we'll come back soon and do a
really big show for y'all and we'll make damn sure that there
is a back-up PA system in the house!! oh, by the way, dave was
great. we're hoping that things run a little smoother for us
in houston. sorry to those of you who were looking to see us
last night. we'll see you soon.

love,
train

Saturday, July 17th
last night in dewey beach, delaware was our final headlining
show before going out with dave mathews and hootie (today's
show in baltimore was cancelled). it was a good one, too...
the fifth sell-out this week (well, pittsburgh was 22 people
shy of sell-out, but we had 35 guests, so we're calling it)!
thank you all for coming out to see us and thanks to Jude and
Gus for touring with us. we're taking a five day vacation
before kicking off in dallas with dave mathews next thursday.

bye for now,
train

Wednesday, July 14th
last night in charlottesville was our last night with Gus. he
is an awesome talent and a very cool human...we'll miss him and
will look forward to sharing the stage with him again soon. he
and members of train joined Jude onstage the other night in raleigh
for an interesting version of jude's "gay cowboy" song. yep.

what else....oh!....our website people are a bit behind on keeping
y'all updated on stuff, so allow us...

saturday's show in baltimore is cancelled, we've been added to VH1's
playlist, we're rumored to be doing a show in new york at Grand
Central Station on July 27th (a promotional kick-off to coincide
with "meet virginia" being released to top-40 radio), we're doing
the conan o'brien show on friday, august 6th, we've scheduled a show
in san francisco at the warfield on saturday, september 11th, and
it sounds like birmingham, alabama just might be the place to be on
new year's eve.

that's all. we're all good. the road is good. the shows are
getting better every day and so are the crowds...thank you!! we'll
talk to you soon.

love,
train

p.s. thanks to ethan for helping us out...you're a good friend.

Thursday, July 8th
we started our tour with Jude & Gus yesterday in hampton,
virginia. it got off to an interesting start due to a
huge thunderstorm rolling in right about showtime. Gus
was able to perform his solo acoustic set (and was great).
Jude took his band and headed into a side tent that had
been set up as a backstage area and performed an incredible
acoustic set for all who could pile into the tent. we (train)
headed across the street to the 2nd Street Bar & Grill
and performed an acoustic set for a very enthusiastic crowd.
it was just like the old days! we lit a bunch of candles and
everybody just sat around on the floor and on stools and we
had ourselves a little sing-along. it was actually kinda
cool and definately an unusual treat for those who stuck
around and braved the storm. later in the evening charlie
and gus joined up for a rousing, girls dancing on the bar
version of van halen's "ain't talkin' 'bout love"...you
should have been there. ah, sweet rain. anyway, we'll try
and come back to hampton and give y'all the real deal sometime
soon. thanks for being there with us! -
train

Tuesday, July 6th
we're kickin' it here in the sweltering heat of
Washington D.C.. we played the DC101 backyard
bar-b-que 4th of july show here and have had the
past couple of days off. we've been mostly keeping
cool in our hotel rooms, but we did catch the fireworks
and managed to get in some sight-seeing, laundry and
other catching up sorta stuff. we had some really fun
shows in greenville, greensboro and of course, D.C. on
the 4th, despite the hundred and something degree temperature.
we start our headlining dates with "Jude" and "Gus"
tomorrow in hampton, virginia. this is going to be a
great bill...we're excited. talk to ya soon...
train

Tuesday, June ?
ALERT!! we picked up a virus on our computer yesterday. it's
called "Happy 99" and was sent as an attachment. if you have
received any mail from trainline@earthlink.net within the past
two days you may have this attachment....DO NOT OPEN IT!! we
have just detected the virus and have cleaned our system. we're
sorry if we have unintentionally infected anybody else. let us
know if you need the url address for getting rid of this virus.

love,
train

Monday, June 28th?
we hit a deer this morning with our new bus....well, the deer hit us.
it just ran right into the side of the bus and bounced away. it's
ok, though...and the deer is ok, too...probably has a bit of a
headache this morning, but we're pretty sure that it survived.

anyway, we have the day off in harrisburg, PA today. we'll probably
do some rollerblading, see a movie and have some sushi for dinner.
we're heading to youngstown, ohio to start a few weeks of headlining
dates with "jude" and "gus" supporting us. we're really excited to
have these two great bands out with us, so be sure to come early and
catch them...you'll be glad you did.

see ya.
train

Sunday, June 27th
alright...we're really sorry that we haven't posted anything
on this page in awhile. now that we're on a bus it's kinda
tough to get online. we're going to have to get us one of
those cellular modems so we can keep in better touch with
y'all.

anyway, everything is going great. we're winding down our
dates with collective soul this week. they've been really
great to us and so has their crowd. we did a few headlining
shows this past week, too....birmingham on friday and chicago
on sunday...crazy, as usual.

highlights of the week were ethan (our new guitar tech from
philadelphia) getting some sort of intestinal virus and being
laid up for a few days. luckily we had a few days off in
hampton beach for him to recover. speaking of hampton beach...
rob got arrested for having an open container (a cup of wine)
outside of the bus. it was completely ridiculous as it was in
a cup and he was standing two feet from the bus door. regardless,
they cuffed him and took him to jail for a few hours until we
bailed him out (photos to come!). the rest of the band took
advantage of the time and went shopping on the boardwalk for
bus decorations. jimmy bought some rollerblades and will now
join scott, charlie and crew in forming a train rollerhockey
team that is looking forward to kicking some hootie ass on the
upcoming tour...well, we've still gotta get some sticks and
practice some, but it's gonna be good!

uh, that's about it. we love our new bus! oh yeah, we got rid
of the yellow bus after three or four days. it wasn't quite
cuttin' it. now we've got a beautiful light purple (mauve) bus
with a really cool old driver from south carolina named "hanks"
who we can barely understand due to his thicker than normal
southern drawl. he's a really good guy, though, who we trust
with our lives. we haven't been late to one show this week!

anyway, we're off to soundcheck right now for an outdoor show
in richmond, virginia tonight. we'll talk to you as soon as we
can get online again.

peace,
train