---

FOXBORO - Blues Traveler is a band that has undergone considerable transformation over the past 20 years, from a high school garage band cobbled together by New Jersean John Popper and his buddies to a popular road-going jam band and then to a polished top-40 crew whose faces became familiar on late night TV.

These days the boys are back on the road again and as popular as ever - if far removed from their hottest years in the early 1990s with sales of millions of albums and a single, "Runaround," that became a compulsory feature of any best-of-the-20th-century hit list.

The Blues Traveler that showed up at the new Showcase Live at Patriot Place Tuesday, Oct. 21, was partly all of those bands - but mostly the gregarious, audience-pleasing quintet that gets on easily with its peeps and thrives off their energy.

Popper, backed by Chan Kinchla on guitar, Tad Kinchla on bass, Brandon Hill on drums and Ben Wilson on keyboards, kept the upscale nightspot thrumming to a mostly uptempo, blues-influenced beat that kept a majority of the audience enthralled. Popper, with his ever-distinctive voice and impossibly complex harmonica solos, sounded like the frontman of old through a procession of oldies and new tunes off the group's brand new disc "North Hollywood Shootout."

Only briefly did the playing devolve into jamming and solos of no particular significance, apparently so that Popper could enjoy a compulsory smoke break. No matter. The midweek audience cheered lustily after every song beginning with the band's hard-hitting opening blues that segwayed into a rendition of the ever-reliable "Runaround." Fans responded enthusiastically to that tune and the band's other top hit "But Anyway" as well as a creative version of Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia" with Popper's fiery harmonica subbing for Daniels's smoking fiddle.

The band also treated the crowd to many of their favorites off past Blues Traveler albums and received a respectful response for offerings off the new disc including the love song "It Only Remains."

Popper chatted up the audience throughout, offering up toasts to the New England Patriots ("Hey, you had a hell of a game last night, huh?") and members of the audience. The singer also tossed out souvenir harmonicas.

Chan Kinchla capped one solo by jumping off the stage and strolling through the audience as he riffed.

Some in the audience took advantage of the opportunity to take home a recorded souvenir of the night's affair. Blues Traveler records all its live concerts and offers recordings for sale to attendees.