Train Makes a Connection

Rock stars notice things. They can often feel changes from stage, sudden shifts within the audience, as the band Train discovered in the days after terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. The music somehow mattered more.

The song “Free” suddenly had new patriotic meaning to fans, and even Train’s version of Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On” earned extra cheers during the lyric, “My freedom I hold dear....”

“I’ve never felt anything like it, and I’ve been touring with this band for a long time,” says Train guitarist Jimmy Stafford. “There’s a togetherness and a vibe from the audience, and you just feel like 15,000 people are all on the same page. It’s an electricity in the building. It’s goose-bump time.”

Much the same reaction is expected at Friday’s concert at the Arrowhead Pond, where Train opens for Matchbox Twenty. Recent shows also coincide with accelerating fortunes for Train, whose blend of pure pop melody and classic rock flavor has earned radio hits with the songs “Meet Virginia” and “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me),” the title track of the band’s new album, which is nearing 2 million in sales.

The band’s songs tend to focus on small human events, frequently drawing drama and emotion through layers of strings and uncomplicated folk rock. The 1998 breakthrough hit “Meet Virginia,” from the band’s million-selling self-titled debut, was noted for celebrating a strong female character, which singer Pat Monahan says was inspired by the examples of his wife, mother and sisters.

“Somehow it seeped through me that there’s something beautiful about all of them that wasn’t necessarily part of simple [physical] beauty,” he says.

“The reason people enjoy music is because it is a reflection of their own lives,” adds Monahan, 32. “It somehow makes sense to them, as music did with me. When I was listening to the music that inspired my life and made me drive my car fast or cry because of a girlfriend or get [angry with] my parents and lock the door of my room, those songs meant a lot to me. And that connection between a song and an individual has always been a goal: to somehow make people feel the way other music has made me feel.”

The July debut of Train’s album in the Top 10 suggests a deepening connection with fans, fueled by the gospel-flavored title track. The lyrics to “Drops of Jupiter” are uncharacteristically surreal, though the song reflects the emotional flavor of ‘70s-era folk balladry.

The basic song came to Monahan as he was drifting off to sleep. “I remember the first time he brought in a real rough little tape of him just singing along to a bad piano part,” Stafford, 37, says with a laugh. “It was the worst demo I’ve ever heard. It was out of time. You could barely follow along. But the lyrical content was so good, you could just hear through it, ‘Man, we can make this into something.”’

The album was already finished and had been turned in to Columbia Records three months earlier under the title “Something More.” But the new song was recorded in just two days, with orchestration by Paul Buckmaster, who performed the same service on early Elton John hits.

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Monahan’s career began in the late ‘80s in a series of cover bands in Erie, Pa. One night, guitarist David Shelley, on tour with Cher, happened into a club where Monahan was performing. He suggested that the young singer move to Los Angeles.

“I needed to hear that from somebody,” Monahan says, “especially someone who was successful at what I wanted to be successful at.”

In Los Angeles, Monahan met guitarists Stafford and Rob Hotchkiss and other members of the Apostles, a local club band in the early ‘90s. After the Apostles broke apart, Monahan and some of its members began what would become the Train quintet.

The musicians moved to San Francisco, where most of the band still lives. The “Drops of Jupiter” album has at least demonstrated that Train is not a one-hit band, though inevitably it’s also meant that Monahan spends more time on the road and away from his wife, his 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

“When our music comes on, my daughter gets excited and goes ‘That’s my dad!”’ says Monahan, who still divides his time between Erie and the Bay Area. “My son, I think, is ready for me to change careers so he can have somebody to play some baseball with. My wife told me there’s a new gig at a pet store that pays $250 a week, and she wants me to look into that.”

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Matchbox Twenty, Train and Pete Yorn, Friday at the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 7 p.m. $35 and $45. (714) 704-2500.