Train, REO Speedwagon rolling into Phoenix on co-headlining summer tour
Jan 30, 2024, 12:00 PM
(Getty Images File Photos)
PHOENIX – Train and REO Speedwagon, bands whose peaks were two decades apart, are teaming up on a summer tour that wraps up in Phoenix.
The “Summer Road Trip 2024 Tour” makes its final stop Sept. 11 at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre.
Presales for the outdoor concert in Phoenix start Wednesday, and tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday.
Yacht Rock Revue will open for the co-headliners throughout the 44-city tour, which starts July 8 in Somerset, Wisconsin.
“When I was younger I heard a band called REO Speedwagon and fell in love with their numerous, infectious hit songs,” Train frontman Pat Monahan said in a press release. “Years later I met Kevin Cronin, and thank goodness he’s as great a person as he is a songwriter. This tour won’t just be a great time with great people, but a tour that will have a ton of familiar songs to most generations.”
REO Speedwagon, Train come from different generations
REO Speedwagon was one of the biggest arena rock acts of the 1970s and ’80s, with a string of nine consecutive platinum albums.
The Illinois-born band’s peak popularity came with 1980’s “Hi Infidelity,” which spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart. The record featured the classic power ballads “Keep on Loving You” and “Take It on the Run.”
About 20 years later, Train scored its first top-20 single with “Meet Virginia” from its 1999 eponymous debut album.
The San Francisco group went on to reach another level of stardom with the top-10 hits “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” and “Hey, Soul Sister,” songs that earned three Grammy Awards between them.
“Pat Monahan and I have done several benefit shows over the years, and now we get to take out our bands for a summer full of music and fun,” Cronin, REO Speedwagon singer and guitarist, said in the release. “I love the idea of bringing together people of all ages, who share a common love for well-crafted songs and high energy live performances. The REO boys are stoked about this tour.”
Both co-headliners played concerts in the Valley last year. Train took the stage at at the Chandler Ostrich Festival in March, and REO Speedwagon performed at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix in November.