Blues Traveler Isn’t Slowing Down — And Columbus Is About to Feel It

Ahead of the band’s May 3 stop at RiverCenter, bassist Tad Kinchla talks groove, road miles, brotherhood, and why Blues Traveler still hits.

Cover Image: left → right:
Chan Kinchla – Tad Kinchla – Brendan Hill – John Popper – Ben Wilson. Credit: TMC

By Monica Jones

Blues Traveler didn’t come and go. They stuck.

Their songs are tattooed into the collective brain of America — the kind you don’t realize you remember until they’re already playing in your head.

And the version headed to RiverCenter on May 3 doesn’t sound like a throwback. It sounds like a band still pushing air through the room.

If you weren’t lucky enough to experience them the first time around, here’s the quick version. They broke through in the mid-’90s with hits like “Run-Around” and “Hook” — songs that didn’t just land, they stayed. Big hooks, bigger choruses, and the unmistakable presence of frontman John Popper leading the charge.

Blues Traveler has never been just one sound. Alongside Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, drummer Brendan Hill, and keyboardist Ben Wilson have helped shape a band built as much on feel as it is on sound. You know the hooks. You know the sound. That part hasn’t gone anywhere. What’s changed is how it all lands.

For bassist Tad Kinchla, who’s been with the band since 2000, the story starts earlier than that.

The brother of guitarist Chan Kinchla, he didn’t step into the role by default. He earned it — coming up around the band, playing his own way, and carving out a place as a musician long before he officially joined.

When he did step in, it was following the death of original bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999, whose presence still echoes today.

That history still shapes the band — and it still shows up in unexpected ways. This summer, Blues Traveler hits the road with Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, artists Kinchla’s been connected to since those early years — a full-circle moment that says just as much about where the band’s been as where it’s going.

It’s not about reinventing anything.

“It’s about tightening the grip without choking the life out of it,” he said.

Blues Traveler still plays like a band that moves freely through its catalog. Songs stretch. Transitions blur. A set rolls forward, picking up momentum. One song ends. Or maybe it doesn’t. It just turns a corner. That’s where the live show earns its keep.

“What you don’t play becomes more powerful,” Kinchla said.

There’s more space now. More focus in where they go. When they lean in, it hits harder. When they pull back, you feel it.

“The golden rule is Brendan’s never wrong,” Kinchla said of drummer Brendan Hill.

That kind of trust is what keeps a band like this locked in. Small shifts in tempo. A drop in volume. A cue passed without saying a word. The audience hears the result, not the mechanics. That’s the difference between a band playing songs and a band playing together — and Blues Traveler has been doing that long enough to know the difference.

They’ve also been doing it long enough to outlast everything that usually breaks bands apart. Fame. Pressure. Lineup changes. The long stretches where the industry flips upside down. What’s left is simpler than people expect: they still like playing, they still travel well, and they know how to give each other space.

That includes family. Kinchla shares the stage with his brother, guitarist Chan Kinchla. It works without leaning on sentiment. They’re bandmates first. That’s what keeps it steady.

Chemistry like that isn’t guaranteed. Blues Traveler has it, and it’s part of why the band still works. Even still, it took time to lock in. It doesn’t just happen. It builds — over years, over miles, over the kind of repetition that turns instinct into something you don’t have to think about anymore.

That’s the thread running through this version of Blues Traveler. Not reinvention. Not nostalgia. Just dialing it in. And that version is what’s showing up in Columbus.

RiverCenter Executive Director Lee Foster sees that connection from the other side.

“It’s your stage. Columbus’s stage,” she said.

Blues Traveler isn’t built for a quiet crowd. Even in a seated theater, the energy leans forward. The music nudges. It builds. It pulls people out of their seats. Foster put it plainly — the band has a way of making you want to move.

For the band, stops like Columbus carry a different kind of weight. Not bigger. Just more personal.

“You feel like you actually get to know the town a little,” Kinchla said. “And when people show up and are into it, it’s a big deal.”

Columbus has been building toward more nights like this — shows that feel like something instead of just another date on a calendar. Blues Traveler fits right into that.

The songs are still there. The hooks still land. But the real pull isn’t just recognition. It’s the way the band still moves. The way the set breathes. The way a room shifts when everything locks in at once.

And on May 3, that room is RiverCenter.

Show up for the songs if you want.
Stay for the part that still kicks.

And when you do, make it count — tickets are available directly at rivercenter.org to make sure you’re in the room when it happens.