Review: Are Train, Jewel and Blues Traveler better now than they were in the ’90s?

Train’s Pat Monahan had just belted out the opening chorus to “Meet Virginia,” his band’s 1998 hit, when he paused mid-song Thursday night and posed a question to everyone at PNC Music Pavilion.

“Anyone here old enough to remember this one?” the 53-year-old lead singer teased.

By then, the packed crowd had listened to Jewel, whose debut album was released in 1995, and Blues Traveler, whose first hits began playing on the radio (yes, the radio, not streaming!) in 1990. The median age of those in attendance was almost certainly north of 40.

Yes, they remembered.

Pop culture and fashion of the ’90s is back in style, and Thursday’s performance of three of the biggest acts of that decade served as a reminder of what makes the eclectic music from 30 years ago so memorable.

It was, in essence, a nearly four-hour mini-music festival that reinforced to everyone who could remember when “Meet Virginia” came out what the bluesy, folksy, poppy music was like back then (and, to the handful of those in attendance who weren’t around when it was released, why they should listen now).

Except it all came with twists that showed how far everyone has come in that time, too.

Jewel’s voice is stronger and better than it was when she came onto the scene 27 years ago — even she admits that. Closing out her set, she launched into her 1995 single “Who Will Save Your Soul” with a caveat concerning how she felt about the original recorded version.

“I was so embarrassed because I sang like Kermit the Frog,” she said. “I go back and listen to this record and I was like, ‘Who will saaaa-aaaave your soul?’ Very embarrassing. But it ended up being embarrassing all the way to the bank.”

Blues Traveler lead singer John Popper is still a big guy, but he’s significantly slimmer than he was at the height of the band’s popularity, when he once said he topped 400 pounds. He’s reportedly a couple hundred pounds lighter these days — but hasn’t lost any of the power that makes his harmonica-playing (why don’t more bands play the harmonica?) so forceful and toe-tapping.

And Train has amassed a catalog of catchy hits over the last 30 years that has collected more and more fans in its wake. The Gen Xers sang along to “Drops of Jupiter” (from 2001) while millennials (and even some Gen Zers) knew every word of “Hey, Soul Sister” and “Drive By” (2009 and 2012).

Popper set up the show as soon as he walked onto the stage as the people still were filtering into the venue at about 7 p.m.

“We’re going to play a little bit and then Jewel is going to come out and lay a piece to your skulls, in a kind of pulverizing motion,” Popper said. “Then Train will come out after that and take your pulverized brains, pack them into sausage casings and sell them by the roadside. Don’t worry. You don’t have to do anything physically. It just means they’re both going to come out and kick a--.”

Popper, 55, is not your typical frontman, clearly with his own quirky and literary view of the world. But a simpler translation might be: They were going to all have fun playing the music they loved, and you were in for a treat.

Transporting the crowd back to the mid-90s, Popper (minus all his hair), guitarist Chan Kinchla (minus his long locks and plus a lot more gray) and their bandmates launched into a collection of their classics. Kinchla, notably, grinned and danced his way through their set, seeming genuinely happy to be on stage. Their 2021 album “Traveler’s Blues” was a compilation of the band’s hits, and their 46-minute set stuck to a handful of their top songs interspersed with some lengthy jam sessions that showed off their instrumental skills — particularly Popper’s deftness with that harmonica.

It all led to when Popper reached the tongue-twisting, scat-like section of “Hook,” as the crowd roared its appreciation. He could have been back in 1994, belting the song out with the same rhythm he did back then:

“Suck it in suck it in suck it in

If you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn …”

Who knows what it means, but he sang it with inflection, as he promised in the song’s opening verse.

Precisely at 8 p.m., Jewel took the stage and proceeded to mix her old and new songs to show how she has moved forward from her hits of the ’90s and early 2000s. Since her 1995 debut “Pieces of You,” she’s been nominated for four Grammys, been married and divorced, had a son, and most recently won Season 6 of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” in December.

Her first new album in seven years came out in April.

“I called my album ‘Freewheelin’ Woman,’” she said, “(because) I am a free woman. It feels good. I get to roam about my career and life as I see fit. I fought very hard for this. It’s really nice to be 48 and a mom and a musician. You don’t see a lot of us.”

Her new song “No More Tears,” in particular, was bluesy and meaningful and showed off her vocal range beautifully.

During her trademark “Yodel Song,” she showed off her yodeling abilities in an octave so high and at such a lightning speed that it sounded almost cartoonish. And later, improvising with her guitarist in the midst of “Who Will Save Your Soul” in a call-and-repeat manner, she hit notes (that truthfully sometimes just sounded like high-pitched screams) that he repeated note for note.

“What, you see this s--- every day?” she scolded the crowd when they didn’t cheer loudly enough. “Let’s get some applause!”

The most touching highlight might have come when her 10-year-old son, Kase Townes Murray, joined her on stage for “You Were Meant for Me.” With sandy hair to his shoulders and large earmuffs to block out the loud band, Kase sat behind the drums as Jewel scooted her microphone closer to him.

“I move here so he can see my foot,” she explained. “I keep my time with my foot, and this way he can see.”

Kase focused so intently on her foot that he almost seemed as if he didn’t realize anyone else was around. It was a sweet moment in the midst of a lovely song that showed how much Jewel has changed — while her simple song about eggs and pancakes and appreciating love remains deliciously innocent.

By the time Train made it to the stage just after 9 p.m., the full ’90s-appreciation vibe was in effect — and Monahan capitalized on the buzz by engaging with the crowd at every turn. He proved he knows what it takes to be a pop-rock star, and precisely what it takes to remain at the top of the music charts for decades.

After kicking off the show with “AM Gold” from Train’s new album — complete with a rain of confetti falling from the pavilion rafters to signal it was truly a party atmosphere — the rewind to “Meet Virginia” resulted in Monahan dashing off the stage in the midst of the song. He returned without the black jacket he’d been wearing, sporting a gray T-shirt that read “Meet Virginia” in simple black letters.

And he had a surprise gift: handfuls of T-shirts that he tossed in the crowd to share with the fans. One of the two that he launched, football-style, bounced off my leg as someone nearby scrambled to claim it. He got his bandmates to sign the shirt he was wearing — all while continuing the song — and eventually tossed that one into the crowd, too.

One song later, as Monahan began crooning “If It’s Love,” cellphones were tossed on stage at his feet and he began taking selfies with the crowd. It’s unclear if all of it was planned — it seems unlikely that fans would randomly be hurling their phones on stage — but when two were launched toward Monahan at once, he cringed while trying to juggle all the photo requests.

At some point, someone released enormous, white bouncy balls — the size of exercise balls in gyms — and smaller, gold inflatable balls for fans to punch into the air, and the true festival feel was on.

While Monahan danced around the stage crooning and ensuring the crowd was engaged, he was short on personalizing the concert or interjecting off-the-cuff comments.

“Thank you for always being our favorite place to come to every summer and always treating us great,” he said after encouraging a singalong with “Play That Song.” “We really hope you’re having as much fun as we are.”

Still, the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Not when he used his own phone to broadcast his view from the stage on the big screens, or when he grabbed a video camera to do the same. Not when he encouraged the crowd to compete for who could sing out the best version of the line “Oh, hell no!” from “Save Me, San Francisco.”

Train played for just over an hour and a half, with Popper reappearing on stage to sing “Love the One You’re With,” and Jewel joining for “Turn the Radio Up” and a mashup of “Dancing Queen” and “Listen to the Music.” By the time Monahan got to the band’s earworm hits, the performance morphed into a fast-turn singalong.

“When I Look to the Sky,” was followed closely by “Calling All Angels,” and then “50 Ways to Say Goodbye,” “Hey Soul Sister” and “Drive By.” Closing out with a cover of “Dream On” (where Monahan hit a high note I wasn’t sure he was capable of) and, of course, “Drops of Jupiter.” Whew!

It was a lot to cram into the final 30 minutes or so of the set. But everyone sang along, dancing in aisles and appreciating songs they loved most from the last few decades.

It was the kind of concert that leaves you reminiscing and smiling. For my husband, that meant recalling the time he saw Blues Traveler in 1994 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, on the same night the Chicago Bulls beat the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals (I know, the details he remembers!) when Scottie Pippen famously refused to re-enter the game at the end. And he remembered how Popper mentioned all that to the crowd mid-concert 28 years ago.

For me, it’s a simpler, vaguer memory of listening to Jewel’s “Pieces of You” CD in my now-husband’s apartment in 1996 when I interned in San Bernardino, California, and how that was the summer I really started to fall in love.

We’re old enough to remember when most of the songs came out the first time, and appreciate all the ways everyone has changed in the time since.

SET LISTS

TRAIN

AM Gold

Meet Virginia / The Joker

If It’s Love

Get to Me

Running Back (Trying to Talk to You)

Play That Song

Bruises / Love the One You’re With (with John Popper)

Save Me, San Francisco

Turn the Radio Up (with Jewel)

Dancing Queen / Listen to the Music (with Jewel)

It’s Everything

Marry Me

When I Look to the Sky

Calling All Angels

50 Ways to Say Goodbye

Hey, Soul Sister / Vacation

Drive By / Hey Jude

Dream On (Aerosmith cover)

Drops of Jupiter

JEWEL

Standing Still

Hands

Long Way ’Round

No More Tears

Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone

Alibis

Intuition

You Were Meant for Me

Yodel Song

Foolish Games

Who Will Save Your Soul

BLUES TRAVELER

Carolina Blues

Funky B---h

Run Around

100 Years

Dropping Some NYC

But Anyway

Hook