From the Front Row: Blues Traveler at Highline Ballroom

The Highline Ballroom was packed on Thursday night as everyone waited for Blues Traveler to take the stage. Their new album North Hollywood Shootout was sounding more their older albums with lots of humor; their song The Beacons starts with the lyric “When our toasters finally comes to kill us”. It’s definitely good to hear that they still have a great sense of humor along side the driving rhythms and mind-blowing harmonica skills of John Popper. I must admit, every time I see him play I feel like I’m witnessing a miracle. There were the classics you wanted to hear like Run-Around, 100 Years and Hook as well as some guest stars that made appearances. A friend of John’s, a woman named Faloo, sang on Mulling it Over adding an far-eastern flair to it riffing with John who following what she sang by mimicking it with his harmonica. And then at the very end, Chris Barron of Spin Doctors fame (and a personal friend of John’s as they went to high school together in New Jersey) joined opening act Lisa Bouchelle and the band for their rendition of  The Joker. All in all I can safely say that Blues Traveler is still one of the best bands to see live – click through for the setlist and more pictures.

Set 1
Sweet Talking Hippie>
Stand
Run-Around
How You Remember It
Defense & Desire>
Mulling It Over
But Anyway
100 Years
Back In The Day
Carolina Blues>
Dropping Some NYC>
You Reach Me>
Dropping Some NYC
I Want You To Want Me
Orange In The Sun
Trina Magna>
Regarding Steven>
Trina Magna
You, Me & Everything
Hook>
What's For Breakfast

Encore
Gina
The Joker

John & Chandler came in to the WNEW.com studio last week to talk about the new album and play a few new songs for us – that stuff is coming soon, so keep checking back for that. In the meantime, here’s some tour dates for the next few weeks – go to Blues Traveler’s website at bluestraveler.com to witness the miracle for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

10.21.08    Foxborough, MA
10.22.08    New Haven, CT
10.23.08    Poughkeepsie, NY
10.25.08    Annapolis, MD
10.26.08    West Chester, PA
10.27.08    Falls Church, VA
10.29.08    Pittsburgh, PA
10.31.08    Cincinnati, OH
11.02.08    Minneapolis, MN
11.05.08    Dallas, TX
11.06.08    Houston, TX
11.08.08    Austin, TX
11.10.08    Tucson, AZ
11.11.08    San Diego, CA
11.13.08    Anaheim, CA
11.14.08    Las Vegas, NV
11.16.08    West Hollywood, CA
11.18.08    San Francisco, CA
11.19.08    Monterey, CA
11.21.08    Eugene, OR

Comments

[Joey J.]

LOVE Blues Traveler - that Highline show was awesome. Popper's still got it. They should do the HORDE tour again this year: Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, Spin Doctors and Phish!