Blues band travels down memory lane

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

From left, Brendan Hill, Tad Kinchla, John Popper, Chan Kinchla and Ben Wilson make up the Blues Traveler band. Christian Lantry Blues Traveler 7 p.m. Saturday Waikiki Shell $30-$40 ($25 advance for grass seating) 591-2211, 526-4400 Also, on the Neighbor Islands: Maui: 7 p.m. today, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, $37.50 ($30 advance); (808) 242-7469 Big Island: 8 p.m. Sunday, Hilton Waikoloa Grand Ballroom, $50 ($40 advance); 526-4400 on O'ahu Kaua'i: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Kaua'i Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom, $40, $50, (808) 245-5050; 526-4400 on O'ahu

Before an affirmative 'uh-huh' can leave this writer's lips, Hill warbles an explanatory off-the-cuff chorus of Thomas Dolby's trippy 1983 synth-pop hit from MTV's Halcyon days. And for the next 30 minutes, Hill is an effortlessly chatty, refreshingly candid tour guide on a journey back to the so-called neo-hippie jam band's own early years.

First destination? Princeton High School, Princeton, N.J., in the fall of 1983. A morning band class and the first meeting of Blues Traveler co-founders Hill and John Popper.

"About a month into the school year — my freshman year — the teacher ... says, 'OK, we've got somebody special coming in today and he's going to do a solo,'" remembers Hill. "And John comes in with this camouflage vest, sunglasses, totally John Belushi-ed out, hooks a microphone into a bass amp, and rips a solo of ('Science') on the harmonica."

Hill begins singing the chorus again, laughing at the memory.

"It was jazzy. It was Hendrix-y. And was like nothing we had ever heard before."

Eighteen years, seven albums and a couple of unfortunate (though ultimately band-strengthening) crises later, Hill, vocalist/harpist extraordinaire Popper and the rest of Blues Traveler — guitarist Chan Kinchla, bassist Tad Kinchla and keyboardist Ben Wilson — continue to tour and record on the strength of the inspired musical friendship that followed Popper's humble band class debut.

A monthlong break ends this weekend with the band kicking off another leg of touring in support of its April release "Bridges" with a whirlwind four-island concert tour, tonight through Monday.

But first, there's more reminiscing.

"John was sort of an outsider, as I was," says Hill, about the high school roots of his relationship with Popper. "You know, the rebel types that hung out in the parking lot."

Finding much in common musically and personally, Hill asked Popper to join his and his brother's basement blues band The Establishment, changing the group's name to Blues Band soon after. Chan Kinchla and original bassist Bobby Sheehan joined the group shortly before Hill's 1987 high school graduation and a newly renamed Blues Traveler's relocation to New York City's fertile club circuit. Guided by a hard-driving work ethic and Popper's powerful harmonica prowess, Blues Traveler by 1989 was playing to increasingly packed houses and a loyal following.

"We were playing five nights a week," Hill says. "It was just ridiculous. We kept a copy of The Village Voice from back in the day where you can actually count our name listed 22 times. We did that for a good year." All in addition to playing weekend gigs at small clubs, and the occasional frat house, up and down the East Coast.

A double dose of good fortune occurred that same year when an A&M Records scout caught several Blues Traveler live shows at the same time uber promoter/manager Bill Graham received a demo tape of one of the group's concerts. Contracts with both soon followed. Within a matter of days, says Hill, Blues Traveler moved from playing "a beer-soaked frat gig" to "The Great Lawn in (Washington) D.C. for 500,000 ... between Tracy Chapman and Jefferson Airplane. We were, like, 18 or 19 years old and thinking, 'Whoa, this is cool!'"

The band's self-monikered first album, containing the exuberant rock-radio staple "But Anyway," was released in 1990, followed by "Travelers and Thieves" and "Save His Soul" in 1991 and 1993, respectively. Heavy touring and Popper's 1991 launch of the Blues Traveler-headlined H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) Tour for then-burgeoning jam band peers such as Phish, Widespread Panic and The Spin Doctors only added to the band's growing fan base. Then came "Four."

Released in 1994, "Four" would eventually slow-build to sales of more than 6 million on the strength of the singles and videos for "Run-Around" and "Hook," both blanketing radio and MTV in the summer of 1995. "Run-Around" even netted Blues Traveler a 1996 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. "Four" remains the band's biggest-selling album.

"When it hit we were kind of flabbergasted," Hill says. "This was the mid-'90s and grunge was still definitely king. All of a sudden, we were MTV darlings. Something we never really expected."

A concert set, "Live From The Fall," was released in 1996, followed by "Straight On Till Morning" in 1997, both charting million-plus sales. The band's hard-driving touring schedule continued unabated through 1998.

After a self-imposed year-long break from touring aimed at quelling the appetites of Popper (fighting a lifelong struggle with his weight and a growing food addiction) and Sheehan (whose endless partying resulted in a 1997 arrest for cocaine possession), the band returned to the road in the summer of 1999 full of hope. By the end of the summer, though, Popper had undergone an emergency angioplasty for his overburdened heart, and Sheehan was dead after a drug overdose in his New Orleans home.

"It was crazy," Hill says. "It was like one thing after another. The break had made it difficult for us to look after one another. And John and Bob, left to their own devices without Chan or I ... looking in on them, were able to go into self-destruct mode."

The band debated calling it quits several times over the next few months, but by the end of 1999 decided to carry on with Chan's brother Tad on bass, and Wilson on piano and keyboards. In 2000, Blues Traveler entered the studio to record its first album without Sheehan, aptly titled "Bridge." While Hill has appreciated the "fresh, clean slate" afforded the sessions, he describes the recording, and many occasions for the band since, as bittersweet, at best.

"Everything that we've done since getting back together has been difficult," Hill says. "There's still a lot of 'first times' of doing things without him that are still hard."

Still, Hill finds comfort in a newly trim (thanks to gastric bypass surgery), somewhat more health-conscious Popper's newfound positive outlook on life, and a "still-strong" friendship between the two.

"Musically, we could follow each other anywhere," assures Hill.

No opening act is scheduled, so Honolulu fans should expect a full evening's buffet of music spanning the group's entire musical oeuvre.

"We write a different set list every night," Hill says. "Whether it be songs that we haven't done in a while, or have something to do with the place that we're playing, or covers we like."

Lately, the band has been particularly fond of covering group favorites like Beck's "Loser" and The Violent Femmes' "Blister In The Sun," re-working each, Blues Traveler-style.

"We're also doing (Led) Zeppelin's 'Fool In The Rain' and a couple of other fun songs that we always wanted to play while we were in high school," Hill says.

We can hear the Waikiki Shell crowd demanding "Science!" in unison already.