The group of friends who make up the band Travis has been around, as lead singer Fran Healey shared, for 34 years – a remarkable feat. Rising in the early 1990s, the band led the post-Britpop wave, arguably setting the stage for bands such as Radiohead and Coldplay. In a career spanning 10 albums, the band has produced a catalog of solid, catchy pop songs and built a passionate fanbase.
Touring on the back of their recently-released album, “L.A. Times,” their first since 2020, the band demonstrated their humility, the sheer joy they find in performing live music, and their ability to connect meaningfully with an audience singing ably along with both old hits and contemporary releases. The show at Seattle’s Showbox on February 2nd featured a wide range of songs, not least a considerable number of older hits that were a testament to Travis’s legacy – including “Turn,” “Sing,” “Driftwood,” “Side,” “Writing to Reach You,” “Re-Offender,” “Flowers in the Window,” and power closer “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” The extensive setlist also included several songs from their new album, including “Bus,” “Alive,” “Raze the Bar,” “Gaslight, and “Naked in New York City,”
This reviewer has seen Travis numerous times, and they’ve always been a great rock band that knows how to put on a great show. Their songs are tight, they engage with the audience, and it’s hard not to love the various personalities of the band – Dougie with his fashionable and suave bass playing, Fran with his rock-star energy and engaging banter, Andy intensely focused on his guitar and often playing directly into his trademark Orange speakers, and Neil with his straight-ahead drumming and the look of a bloke with whom it’d be fun to grab a pint during a game. However, what stood out tremendously in this show was simply the deep friendship at the heart of the band. For years, their songs have addressed the various emotions of life – from parenthood (in “Flowers in the Window”) to death (throughout the years, not least in “Driftwood” and “Writing to Reach You”). All of these are stages through which every person naturally goes. If a person is lucky, they have deep relationships that go with them through those stages.
Watching Travis onstage, it’s clear that, at least at some level, the four band members have that kind of chemistry. Whether it’s the small smiles the band exchange with each other throughout or the way, Fran bounces near his colleagues – at one point leaning on Andy’s back as Andy plays, the guitar almost on the ground, at another standing in front of the drumset and playing seemingly directly to Neil – the audience can feel palpably that these are four guys doing something they love, with people they love. Through the strength of that connection, they bring in their audience, sharing an emotional journey that transcends the moment or the particular song and connects to something deeply human. This, perhaps, is the magic of the band Travis. They make good music, but more importantly, they help people connect to core human emotions.
