The 1990s now are 30 years in the past, the distance at which musical eras historically have been looked at as \u201coldies.\u201d Think of how 1980s New Wave often is presented these days.<\/p>\n
The concert Aug. 25 at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Bethlehem, featuring 1990s\u2019 chart-toppers Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, didn\u2019t seem like oldies \u2013 neither the performances nor the songs.<\/p>\n
The three acts took differing approaches at keeping them fresh.<\/p>\n
Gin Blossoms probably were the most successful, as the middle band in the lineup.<\/p>\n
The band leaned heavily on its best-known material, playing all of its hits in a 12-song, hour-long set. That meant eight of the songs came from its 1992 four-times-platinum album \u201cNew Miserable Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the start, those songs still sounded current, and the band performed them with urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here tonight to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and we\u2019re all out of bubble gum,\u201d lead singer Robin Wilson told the crowd before the opening song, the 1996 Top 5 hit \u201cFollow You Down.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just a joke. Throughout the set, Gin Blossoms\u2019 songs not only held up and sounded like they did 30 years ago, but the band played them like they mattered.<\/p>\n
Much of that was because of Wilson, whose voice is well-preserved. He also put in a lot of performance effort. He elevated \u201cHold Me Down,\u201d a lesser song from \u201cNew Miserable Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the \u201cnewest\u201d song the band played, \u201cLearning the Hard Way,\u201d the single from the 2006 album \u201cMajor Lodge Victory,\u201d now 20-years-old, fit well into the Gin Blossoms\u2019 lexicon. A slight disappointment was that the set left out good newer songs such as 2010\u2019s \u201cMiss Disarray\u201d and 2018\u2019s \u201cBreak.\u201d The Gins still are creating great music.<\/p>\n
Wilson also connected with the crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be back. We\u2019ve been here a bunch of times,\u201d he said of SteelStacks. \u201cIt\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the band kept things crisp, Wilson acknowledged its stage in life: He told the crowd before the 1993 minor hit \u201cMrs. Rita\u201d that Gin Blossoms is on its longest tour since 1994, which also was with Spin Doctors. \u201cSome things just make sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before the \u201cNew Miserable Experience\u201d lesser hit \u201cHands Are Tied,\u201d he introduced drummer Andy Herrin as \u201cthe only musician on this tour still in his 40s.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that song, they brought Blues Traveler keyboardist Ben Wilson on stage (Wilson also switched to keys) and, with long solos, stretched the song to eight minutes.<\/p>\n
Of course, it was the hits that connected most with the crowd of perhaps 3,000 that filled the Levitt lawn. Wilson said guitarist Jesse Valenzuela told him 2,000 tickets were unsold and his reaction was, \u201cWhere the hell would they put them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLost Horizons\u201d from 1992 was particularly poignant. Its meaning and sympathies still hit hard. The band\u2019s last Top 40 hit, 1996\u2019s \u201cAs Long As It Matters,\u201d featured Wilson on acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n
And in the cool air of a perfect night on the Levitt lawn, the 1993 Top 10 hit \u201cUntil I Fall Away\u201d floated, as Wilson seemed particularly invested in the lyrics.<\/p>\n
The set wound down with Wilson announcing, \u201cNow here\u2019s the part of the show where we play your four favorite Gin Blossoms songs in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, indeed, that was true. The 1993 No. 1 Alternative hit \u201cFound Out About You\u201d stood the test of time. The 1993 breakthrough hit \u201cHey Jealousy\u201d was equally good.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the Gins\u2019 best song, \u201cAllison Road\u201d is still great. The band closed with its 1995 Top 5 hit \u201c\u2018Til I Hear It From You.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was as if 30 years simply evaporated.<\/p>\n
Headliner Blues Traveler took a far different approach.<\/p>\n
The band opened with its biggest hit, the 1995 Top 10 \u201cRun-Around,\u201d and it immediately showed the band\u2019s strengths: Singer John Popper\u2019s wailing vocals and his amazingly speedy, intricate \u2013 and hot \u2013 harmonica playing.<\/p>\n
With just two high-charting hits, Blues Traveler\u2019s eight-song, 75-minute set leaned more on musicianship, with long, extended jams. The four-member band behind Popper was worthy of those excursions.<\/p>\n
A five-minute version of the title track from the 1993 gold album \u201cSave His Soul\u201d provided Popper with a long harmonica solo. The song segued into a 19-minute mashup of the band\u2019s 1990 song \u201cDropping Some NYC\u201d and Charlie Daniels\u2019s \u201cDevil Went Down to Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Popper was centric to the song. He reared back his head, hat atop it, to wail vocally. He left the stage for a long jam centered around bassist Tad Kinchla.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s 1990 first single \u201cBut Anyway\u201d sounded fresh.<\/p>\n
Popper made a local connection, telling the crowd he had lived near Quakertown \u201cfor like a decade\u201d and gave his tribute to the crowd: \u201cI appreciate it. You guys are \u2026 awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
He brought Spin Doctors singer Chris Barron to the stage. Popper said he\u2019s known him for 42 years (they went to high school together). Barron sang a five-minute version of his side band The Duskray Troubadors\u2019 song \u201cChampipple,\u201d and with Spin Doctors\u2019 guitarist Eric Schenkman for its 1997 minor hit \u201cCarolina Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band closed its main set with its second-biggest hit, 1995\u2019s \u201cHook,\u201d then for an encore performed Steely Dan\u2019s \u201cDirty Work\u201d with Gin Blossoms\u2019 Wilson.<\/p>\n
Spin Doctors, which opened the show, was perhaps least successful.<\/p>\n
Even with its five-times-platinum 1991 debut album, \u201cPocket Full of Kryptonite,\u201d the band had just three high-charting hits, and the songs it played to fill the nine-song, 48-minute set (all but two of them from that disc) didn\u2019t measure up.<\/p>\n
The opening \u201cRefrigerator Car\u201d was harder rock, rolling straight into \u201cWhat Time Is It?\u201d (both from \u201cPocket Full of Kryptonite\u201d), with Schenkman getting a cheer (egged on by Barron) on his first extended solo.<\/p>\n
Barron, gray but still impossibly thin, also was animated, performing high kicks above his head and, later, his trademark marionette dancing.<\/p>\n
Schenkman sang \u201cOff My Line\u201d from the same album in a raspy voice.<\/p>\n
Better was \u201cHow Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)\u201d \u2013 slower and lighter before it kicked in.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most disappointing was a new song, \u201cStill a Gorilla,\u201d from the band\u2019s latest album, \u201cFace Full of Cake,\u201d its first in a dozen years.<\/p>\n
Luckily, the hits held up well.<\/p>\n
The Top 10 hit \u201cJimmy Olsen\u2019s Blues\u201d was still irresistibly catchy, and Barron\u2019s voice is still good. Its No. 2 hit \u201cLittle Miss Can\u2019t Be Wrong\u201d is every bit as good now as it was.<\/p>\n
The band serviceably covered \u201cPurple Rain\u201d by Prince before its biggest hit, \u201cTwo Princes\u201d (get the joke?) The crowd actually was into the former, waving their arms above their heads.<\/p>\n
And the latter, while perhaps losing a step, is still a great song and was performed well, with the crowd singing along to most of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpin Doctors \u2013 old school, real music,\u201d Barron told the crowd. \u201cNo nukes, no computers, no —— AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
And certainly no oldies.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNESinger Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms getting closer to the audience at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks Aug. 25 concert.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNELeft to right: guitarist Jesse Valenzuela, drummer Andy Herrin, singer Robin Wilson and guitarist Scotty Johnson of the Gin Blossoms, Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNELeft to right: bassist Jack Daley, drummer Aaron Comess, singer Chris Barron and guitarist Eric Schenkman of the Spin Doctors, Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNESinger Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors, Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNELeft to right: Ben Wilson on keyboards, guitarist Chan Kinchla, drummer Brendan Hill, vocalist John Popper and bassist Tad Kinchla of Blues Traveler, Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEJohn Popper of Blues Traveler on his harmonica, Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, Aug. 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1990s now are 30 years in the past, the distance at which musical eras historically have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-273844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}