Gin Blossoms / Spin Doctors at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2026-09-15)

Follow You Down
Hold Me Down
Learning the Hard Way
Mrs. Rita
Lost Horizons
As Long as It Matters
Until I Fall Away
Hands Are Tied

(rest of set was cut for weather reasons)

Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven
What Time Is It?
Off My Line
Still a Gorilla
Jimmy Olsen’s Blues
Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong
Purple Rain (Prince cover)
Two Princes

Sep 17 Riverbend Music Center Cincinnati, OH*
Sep 18 Allegan County Fair Allegan, MI*
Sep 19 Turtle Creek Stadium Traverse City, MI*
Oct 9 Sound Bites Music & Food Festival Gilbert, AZ
Oct 10 Morongo Casino Cabazon, CA
Oct 11 Bel-Aire Backyard Las Vegas, NV
Oct 29 The Guild Theatre Menlo Park, CA
Oct 30 The Guild Theatre Menlo Park, CA

* = Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms w/ Spin Doctors

Storm clouds were on the horizon, but anyway, would the show run-around the impending inclement weather, and go on as planned? … the answer be a ‘yes’, but with an asterisk.

The ‘90s-centric summer touring package of Blues Traveler with Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors made a stop under the stars at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, as part of their 35-date encore outing running July 6-Sept 19.

The show got off to its regular start with Spin Doctors playing to an enthusiastic crowd filled with Millennials and Gen X’ers, and Gin Blossoms followed as normal, as skies above turned grayer and clouds swirled. Gin Blossoms’ set was interrupted by the tour manager taking the stage to stop the show, as lightning was seen nearby and headed closer.

What began as a short weather delay, unfortunately turned into continued lightning and heavy showers as attendees were sent to their cars. We waited just over an hour, then left during a downpour, but came to find out that after two hours, skies had cleared enough and Blues Traveler did play a shortened set for the faithful- our apologies that we weren’t able to stick it out (BT keyboardist Ben Wilson did come out to play with both opening bands, so there was at least that).

Tempe, AZ band Gin Blossoms has confirmed an anticipated follow-up to their most recent 2018 album, Mixed Reality, is in the works. But in the meantime, regular touring has kept them musically loose and still at the forefront of fans’ minds. Additionally, next year, they will celebrate forty years as a band.

Their set began on a high note, with the lead single from 1996’s Congratulations… I’m Sorry, ‘Follow You Down,” with singer Robin Wilson soon giving one of his tambourines, to an energetic audience member, to play along with and help cheerlead the crowd for the rest of the set. He recited the “…and we’re all out of bubble gum” famous line from John Carpenter’s 1988 film, They Live, and the band were fired up and on their way.

As expected, there was a heavy helping from breakout album, 1992’s New Miserable Experience, including “Hold Me Down”, “Mrs. Rita”, and a smooth ”Lost Horizons” which opens that album and still resonates thirty-five years later.

Except for the drummer, the band’s lineup has been complete for decades, which has helped with their longevity- bassist Bill Leen played with a presence and was sporting a reporter’s style brimmed fedora like he was trying to get to the bottom of things (yeah, we said it), guitarist Scotty Johnson mostly stayed near the sidelines until it was his time to roar, and guitarist Jesse Valenzuela played with confidence, switching between Fender and Gretsch Jet guitars, depending on the song.

Right after a rocking “Hands are Tied”, singer Wilson said, “We’re about to play your four favorite Gin Blossoms songs”; and as bad luck would have it, the tour manager emerged from stage left and promptly stopped the show, due to lightning strikes in the vicinity.

Their hands were tied when against Mother Nature and the crowd unfortunately ended up missing “Found Out About You”, “Allison Road”; “Hey Jealousy” and “Til I Hear It From You”…which kinda were our four favorites, so a bit of a downer, but we were glad to see and hear the songs we did.

Longtime NYC alternative band Spin Doctors got the evening off on the right foot, celebrating the 35^th anniversary of their 5x Platinum debut album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite.

This, we didn’t know until a little research- the band began in the late ‘80s from the roots of Trucking Company, a group that included Blues Traveler’s John Popper and SD singer Chris Barron, who were high school friends in Princeton, NJ. When Popper left to continue with BT, this band changed their name and re-filled their lineup to become Spin Doctors.

The lanky Barron seems as limber as ever and engaged the crowd from their beginning “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven”, the second single from their Face Full of Cake album, released last year.

A couple older favorites followed, then it was back to the new with “Still a Gorilla”, another 2025 track and about what it is to be human, featuring on stage an actual dancing gorilla (ok, a roadie in a gorilla suit) playing air guitar next to guitarist Eric Schenkman– an odd and funny sight to witness, that also had the band laughing.

Hits “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” and “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” got the early crowd up and dancing and a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” found hands in the air, swaying left and right.

Speaking of ‘prince’, the band would end their set with the Grammy Award-nominated and Billboard Top Ten hit, “Two Princes” (which, ahem, was written as something different on their setlist), making for a strong ending to a fun set.​

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