So, once again, my membership with independent music radio station wnrn pays off with free tickets to live shows in the area. This time, it was a pile of 90s rock bands touring together; exactly the sort of stuff one would hear on the radio while I was in college and my early ’20s. Fastball, Tonic, Sugar Ray, with Gin Blossoms headlining.

Four solid, workmanlike, competent rock bands who know how to work the stage and please a crowd, each with a few top ten hits to their name. Exactly the kind of bands I enjoyed going to see playing clubs in Central Pennsylvania in the 90s, except these guys all got a bit luckier than The Badlees and The Clarks, and had their record deals stick, though at the time, every metro area in the country had one of these bands that scored a record deal and were hometown heroes, but a few of them had the luck to hook into the AAA charts and stuff, unlike my favorites…we had Live (who were assholes) and Fuel (who were pretty cool, but still in the bottom half of the pile), but if Matchbox 20’s deal with Atlantic would’ve fallen through, Pete, Jeff, Ron, Brett, and and Paul might’ve been on that stage on Saturday instead. Oh well.

In any case, there’s something about bands of this era, with their solid skills professionalism that hits me right – perfect for my lovely spouse and I to enjoy while sitting in lawn chairs with overpriced drinks in our hand for an evening that was all wrapped up by 10:30pm, because we’re getting older.

In any case, it was a good time – if this sort of package tour comes to your town, I highly recommen