LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors in Boston, MA (08.14.26)
There are certain concert lineups that feel like somebody opened up a 1990s radio station and dumped the entire thing onto a stage. That was pretty much the deal at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston last Friday night, with Spin Doctors opening at the unusually early time of 6 p.m., Blues Traveler taking the middle slot, and Gin Blossoms headlining.
I was mostly there for Spin Doctors. They have been one of my favorite bands for years, and they also happen to be responsible for the first real concert I ever attended. In 1993, when I was a 90s kid at the height of the band’s fame, my mother took me to see them at the Beacon Theater in New York City. So seeing them again more than three decades later was a pretty cool bit of musical time travel.
I was also a huge Blues Traveler fan back in the day and have seen them probably more times than I can count since around 2000, all over the East Coast. Gin Blossoms were more of a casual relationship for me. I certainly knew all the big radio songs, but I never considered myself a particularly devoted fan.
Spin Doctors came out early and delivered exactly what I was hoping for. Chris Barron sounded good, looked comfortable onstage, and was loose with the crowd. The band ripped through “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven,” “What Time Is It?,” “She Stands Alone,” “Still a Gorilla,” “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues,” “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” a surprisingly great version of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” and, of course, “Two Princes.”
Eric Schenkman remains the secret weapon for me. That dude is one hell of a guitarist. His grungy, slightly grimy guitar tone is basically a living artifact of everything I loved about 90s guitar music. There is something wonderfully unpolished about his playing that makes the Spin Doctors sound like the Spin Doctors. I do still miss the original bass player, though. I understand why the band moved on, and I’m not arguing with the reasons, but his presence was always a big part of the band’s identity for me.
The real surprise came at the end of their set. “Hard to Exist” turned into what was essentially a Spin Doctors/Blues Traveler jam session, with members of both bands drifting in and out of the lineup. What started as a song stretched into roughly 10 to 15 minutes of musical free-for-all, and it was easily one of my favorite parts of the night. Rather than simply having one band finish and another start, the Spin Doctors set melted directly into Blues Traveler.
Blues Traveler continued the party with the kind of loose, jam-heavy performance you’d expect from them. John Popper looked good and generally pretty fit, and, as always, the guy absolutely knows his way around a harmonica. “Run-Around,” “Carolina Blues,” “Hook,” “Regarding Steven,” “Love and Greed,” “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “But Anyway” were all highlights, with “But Anyway” being the one that really got me.
There is something about seeing Blues Traveler live that makes you remember why they were such a huge deal in the first place. The musicianship is ridiculous, but they never seem overly interested in making a production out of it. They just play. And they play a lot.
Then came Gin Blossoms.
I’ll admit it: I wasn’t expecting them to win me over as much as they did.
I knew their hits, obviously. If you lived through the 90s and early 2000s, you basically had no choice. “Follow You Down,” “Hold Me Down” and the rest of their catalog are permanently lodged somewhere in the brain alongside every other radio earworm from that era. I always thought of them as somewhat of a bubblegum-pop-rock band from that period, but seeing them live reminded me that there is some legitimately good songwriting underneath all those ridiculously catchy melodies.
“Follow You Down” was an early highlight, and I’m glad they played it near the top of the set. Somewhere around the middle of their performance, they also unleashed what sounded like an absolutely epic rock jam. There was also something amusingly strange about the production throughout the night. None of the bands had particularly elaborate stage props or backdrops. Gin Blossoms had their logo on the curtains behind them, but there were no giant video screens with elaborate moving graphics or imagery.
The lack of big screens and elaborate visuals was particularly noticeable at a venue like Leader Bank Pavilion. The whole setup almost felt temporary, as if somebody wasn’t entirely sure how long this particular arrangement was going to last. Like, we’re not sure if we’re going to be doing this forever, so let’s just project a logo on a curtain and see what happens.
But honestly, the music didn’t need much decoration.That was probably the best thing about the night. Three bands whose biggest cultural moments happened decades ago came out and simply played their songs. No giant nostalgia production. No attempt to recreate 1994 in a theme park. Just a bunch of musicians who still know how to play.
For a lineup built almost entirely around songs that have been rattling around people’s heads for 30 years, it was refreshing to hear these bands prove they still have some gas in the tank. Maybe the 90s really are back, but judging by this show, they never completely left.
Photos – Gin Blossoms, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on August 14th:
