May 24, 2018

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Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Hall & Oates brought along Train to Quicken Loans Arena for an evening of blue-eyed soul on Tuesday evening.

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Train kicked off the festivities with a great set of pop-rock hits.  It's hard to believe that it's been over two decades since Train released their debut album.

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Frontman, Pat Monahan is a consummate professional;  he is engaging, entertaining and of course has a great voice.

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Throughout the show Monahan did a couple of different things that I have never seen before.  During "If It's Love," he grabbed several phones from audience members in the front row and took selfies from the stage. 

 

During another part of the show Monahan said "I feel like giving out some free t-shirts" and proceeded to throw out at least a dozen shirts to the fans.  Monahan was wearing a nice denim jacket with a Train patch on the front.  He then broke out a Sharpie and signed it.  He then went over to every band member and had them sign it too.  He then took it off, and pretended to throw it to the crowd but instead, dropped it on the stage.   He then found a young fan in the front row and gave it to her. 

 

The expression on her face was priceless.  

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The band treated the audience to their new single titled "Call Me Sir" and two great cover songs "Heartbreaker" by Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty's "Free Falling."

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Of course, the band could get way without playing their biggest hits, and they happily obliged.  

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"Meet Virginia," "Hey, Soul Sister," "Drive By" and the set closing "Drops Of Jupiter" were all sounded amazing and the audience sang along.

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Hall and Oates then took the stage to the classic sounds of "Maneater."

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The duo has been working together for almost fifty years and their vocal harmonies are still spot-on. 

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Having sold over 40 million records and having twenty-nine Top 40 hits, including six singles that reached number one, choosing the set list can be challenging.

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All fans were satisfied as most of the hits were played such as "Say It Isn't So," "Sara Smile" and "Kiss On My List."  They even broke out "Is It A Star" from 1974's War Babies album that featured John Oates on lead vocals.

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Midway through their set, Daryl Hall welcomed Pat Monahan back on stage to sing a couple of songs.  Hall noted that he first met Pat when they recorded an episode of Live From Daryl's House with Train a couple of years ago.  If you haven't seen their version of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" click here.  It's incredible. 

 

They played their new single "Philly Forget Me Not."  Then made "Wait For Me" a duet with Hall on piano.  Finally, the played the Train hit "Calling All Angels" which was the highlight of the show.

 

After Monahan left the hits kept coming.  "Private Eyes" closed the set and the band came back and encored with "Rich Girl" and "You Make My Dreams."

 

It was a fun evening of blue-eyed soul performed by two great bands.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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