Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of Travis
October 8th at the Swedish American Hall, San Francisco

I’ve had countless conversations with friends about what it would be like to see an arena-sized band in a tiny club. While the discussions would generally center around slightly bigger names like Springsteen and Dylan, when I saw that songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Fran Healy and guitarist Andy Dunlop of Travis—a band that has recently performed for upwards of 100,000 people—were touring the states playing at intimate venues, I jumped at the chance to see their retrospective set at the Swedish American Hall.

Admittedly, I got to the Travis party quite late. An ex of mine introduced me to them in 2003, four years after the released of the ubiquitous The Man Who. Over the next couple of years, I gobbled up their back catalog and have followed the Glaswegians ever since.

The show was presented in the mold of a VH1 Storytellers episode, with Healy stopping often to give us candid stories behind the songs, from where he wrote them to who or what he wrote them about. Armed with a disarming sense of humor and a low-key, down-to-earth personality, it was fascinating to hear him share personal, light-hearted stories about the songs that mean so much to so many people. His singing voice is still as dexterous and graceful as ever, even though he had to really reach for some of the high notes.

The songs came chronologically, opening with a favorite Travis B-side, “20.” Healy laughed about how “20” was the first real song that he wrote, and how he probably hasn’t written anything better since—a hell of a sentiment from a man who penned a number of Top 20 UK singles. After only two songs from their debut Good Feeling, Healy and Dunlop moved on to the big one, The Man Who. Beginning with a stirring version of “Turn”, the duo rolled through more than half of their multi-million seller with crowd-pleasing versions of “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?”, “Writing to Reach You”, “As You Are”, “Blue Flashing Light”, “Driftwood”, and my personal favorite, “The Last Laugh of the Laughter.” The material from The Man Who really illustrates Dunlop’s stunning guitar work and ability to tastefully add guitar lines that glide over and deftly highlight Healy’s delicate melodies.

While it was fantastic to hear stripped-down versions of those classic songs, due to the fact that they spent so much time on The Man Who, they ended up glossing over some respectable later albums. One of those casualties was The Invisible Band—a brilliant indie-pop record in its own right. Honestly, I was surprised the group only elected to perform two songs from it: “Flowers in the Window” and “Sing.” While it’s hard to complain about the set list of a two-hour plus show, a retrospective performance like this seemed incomplete without a longer look at their second-best LP.

The duo only performed a total of four songs from their next three albums, 2003’s criminally underrated 12 Memories, 2007’s The Boy with No Name, and 2008’s Ode to J. Smith. Again, songs like “Re-Offender”—a powerful, lucid take on domestic violence—and “The Beautiful Occupation” were surprising omissions, not only because of the songs’ merits, but also because they represent an important stage of the group’s career. Healy and Dunlap rounded out the set by treating us to a new song called “Holiday”, which was followed up by Healy’s classic solo cover of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” After asking for requests for a closing song, the duo came full-circle by performing another popular B-side, “Coming Around.”

While I do have some gripes about the set list, it was a quite a privilege to see two musicians who wrote such special songs—and still very much in their prime—play in a venue like the Swedish American Hall. It was a truly special night for Travis fans, which hopefully foreshadows a bright future.

Watch: Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop, “Sing” [at youtube.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

MV & EE at Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco

Bon Iver at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco