Pop Music Review : Train Twists and Pulls on the Folkie-Rock Tradition

Brooding like Counting Crows, jamming like the Dave Matthews Band and emoting like Live, San Francisco’s Train recalled a variety of neo-folkie rock acts during its Mayan Theatre concert on Tuesday. Although the quintet offered some twists on the genre, it ultimately wasn’t innovative enough to leave much of an impression.

A budding success story in the grass-roots tradition of Hootie & the Blowfish, the 5-year-old group gained attention with the sprawling singles “Free” and “Meet Virginia,” which are respectively featured on the teen-TV tear-jerkers “Party of Five” and “Dawson’s Creek.”

Performing adeptly and confidently for just over an hour on Tuesday, Train highlighted these and other tunes from its 1998 self-titled debut album. The pensive darkness of such bluesy numbers as “Blind” was leavened by bouncier bits such as “Meet Virginia,” an oddly fetching anthem for those unafraid to dream big.

At times the players mustered a sonic maelstrom not unlike Counting Crows at full live bore, displaying some old-fashioned arena-rock tendencies in one Zeppelin-esque digression. But mostly they maintained a mid-tempo rollick with little instrumental flash, despite the inevitable guitar and drum solos and percussive jams. Frontman Patrick Monahan’s expansive gesturing evoked a goofier, less self-aggrandizing Adam Duritz or Bono, but his cliched patter was tedious at best.