Pop-rock veterans Train deliver a crowd-pleaser with special Sydney surprise

The Age

25-05-2025

Say what you will about American pop-rock veterans Train, but they work hard to get the audience on their side.
In third song If It's Love, frontman Pat Monahan pulls out his phone and begins filming the room, asking the crowd to go crazy for the clip he'll post to Instagram.
During an extended Meet Virginia, which gives guitarist Taylor Locke an opportunity to show off his chops, Monahan takes a break from singing to lob Train T-shirts into the masses.
The cleverly constructed set-list also plays its part with staples such as Hey, Soul Sister, Play That Song, a spirited Save Me, San Francisco and a beautifully tender Marry Me peppered with several moments tailored for the Sydney audience.
First is a cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know, with Scottish artist KT Tunstall – who earlier delivered a hugely entertaining support set – singing the parts made famous by Kimbra, before duetting with Monahan on the slick country pop of Train's own Bruises.
The other surprise guest is INXS' Andrew Farriss, who wanders onstage and dutifully makes it his own for renditions of INXS classics Never Tear Us Apart and Don't Change.
The band even cede the spotlight before the latter so that Farriss can show off an abbreviated country-rock version of the song, which proves to be more puzzling than anything else.
Oddly, though, it's in these moments that the show really comes to life, with Tunstall providing an injection of joyful energy, and Farriss an element of spontaneity, that are otherwise largely absent.
There's no faulting the band, their musicianship or the smooth precision with which they perform hits such as Drive By or rousing finale Drops of Jupiter, every vocal harmony immaculate.