While the early 90s are a distant memory, the music lives on indefinitely. On August 9, CMAC welcomed a trio of seasoned veterans to spark some memories, as Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, and Gin Blossoms brought their Summer Tour top to the Finger Lakes.
Alt-rock, pop-rock, or alt-pop. It doesn’t matter how you classify any of these bands, the sound was unique and greatly represent what the FM dial was like in 1993. Blasting “Hey Jealousy”, “Run Around”, or “Little Miss Can’t be Wrong” from the 2 speakers in your beat up Cavalier or Escort actually sounded pretty good, assuming you could still adjust the equalizer knobs.
Fast forward to 2026, there is still drama in Washington, and the world is seemingly on edge every day, but you find time to go to CMAC and enjoy some guilty pleasures to escape the world for a few hours.
Guilty pleasure number one is Spin Doctors, as they get the night started right at six pm. Casually strolling out on stage, Chris Barron gives me the all clear sign, and off we go. The eight-song set is a perfect warm up for the night. With classic hits like “Two Princes” and “Jimmy Olsen Blues” in the mix, Barron wastes no time in taking fans back to the early days.
This is 20th century rock and roll. No loopers, no computers, no fucking AI!
C. Barron on the music tonight
Pocket Full of Kryptonite, along with a spot on 1992 H.O.R.D.E. Festival, put Spin Doctors on the map, although they had been together for a few years prior. 1987 saw both Barron and John Popper of Blues Traveler playing in the band Trucking Company. Popper left to pursue his main project, and Barron kept Trucking Company together but changed the name to Spin Doctors. Looking back, this worked out well for all parties involved.
With a nearly packed lower bowl at CMAC, Spin Doctors had fans on their feet from the start. With a little banter between songs, Barron rolled through his set with ease, including a rendition of “Purple Rain”. While this wasn’t the level of Adam Levine’s rendition, Barron delivered a solid performance of the long version and fans were into it, belting out the “ooohhhh-hooooo’s” during the prolonged guitar solo. Rock on, Chris. Rock on.
Guilty pleasure, round two, is Gin Blossoms. Robin Wilson leads the squad out to massive cheers, as the seating area is pretty well filled. Not wasting any time, “Follow You Down” fills the air, as the jovial crowd continues to grow and get louder. Peering around the crowd at the photo pit barricade, women and girls of all ages are bouncing around with some of the biggest grins they have ever had. The respective guys are right there bopping their heads like Chris Kattan ala “Night at The Roxbury”. The 90s are back, baby.
Cracking an occasional smile, Wilson meanders around the stage having fun with other photographers. Give the middle finger ala Johnny Cash or shaking a tambourine. Surely he still enjoys what he does, almost 40 years later.
Rounding out their set were some of the biggest hits for Wilson and Gin Blossoms; “Allison Road”, “Hey Jealousy” and “Til I Hear It From You” with the latter being used on the soundtrack to Empire Records.
Rounding out the night of guilty pleasures was Blues Traveler. With John Popper at the helm, Blues Traveler has created a surreal sound that is not easily replicated.
Rocking the harmonica, one would think that Popper would be better suited for some Chicago blues. Make no mistake, he can rock the blues like the best of them, but his music with Blues Traveler has made him a household name that will live on forever. It did, however, take four albums get to that point.
With 1994’s aptly titled four album, Blues Traveler found immediate chart success with “Run Around” and “Hook”, respectively. To this day, they are easily the most recognizable and famous tracks.
Typically, photographers are allowed to shoot the first three songs in the pit and then we are done. With the band playing more of a jam session, it was a challenge to figure out if a song was over or just rolling into the next. It’s all good though, because this was John Popper in front of us, and we all had a great time with the unique set opening.
On this night, fans were treated to a classic blend of hits, covers, and mash ups. Yeah, we were treated to the aforementioned hits, but also a rendition of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”. A rendition where Popper tried to change Georgia to something related to Canandaigua, but could not muster anything and he wound up with “Devil Went Down To New York”, a move that he admittedly was very difficult.
One of the highlights of this set was “Champipple”, where Popper brought out Spin Doctors frontman Chris Barron. He rolled into a story of how Barron was watching Sanford and Son they were talking about homemade Ripple, so Barron wrote a song about it. While the two tried to make it themselves using ginger ale and champagne like Fred Sanford, the results were not worthy of bragging about.
Bottle for bottle, sip by sip, it tastes even better when it’s on your lips
Champipple
As the night winds down, the crowd has thinned out, but Popper and Blues Traveler continue on, finishing the set with 11 songs in total and about 75 minutes. As they finished “Hook” and thank the crowd, the remaining fans clap and cheer for the seasoned vets, yet nobody leaves the stage. Popper stares them down and claps back “I saved myself a bunch of steps by not leaving and you still have those three minutes”. With that, they bring out Robin Wilson and close the night with a perfectly slowed down version of Tom Petty’s “Breakdown” that fit Wilson to a tee.
There is still time to get your guilty pleasure fix, as Blues Traveler tour rocks on into September.
Spin Doctors setlist: Rock ‘N Roll Heavan, What Time Is It?/ Off My Line (w/ Ben Wilson), Still a Gorilla, Jimmy Olsen’s Blues, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, More Than She Knows, Purple Rain (Prince cover), Two Princes
Gin Blossoms setlist: Follow You Down, Hold Me Down, Learning The Hard Way, Mrs. Rita, Lost Horizons, As Long as It Matters (dedicated to Spin Doctors), Until I Fall Away, Hands are Tied, Found Out About You, Allison Road, Hey Jealousy, Til I Hear It From You
Blues Traveler setlist: Stand, Run-Around, The Devil Went Down to Georgia/NYC, But Anyway, Champipple (w/Chris Barron), Piano Jam, Regarding Steven, Carolina Blues (w/Eric Schenkmann), Drum Solo, Hook, Breakdown (Tom Petty and The Hearbreakers cover)
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