Before Train had a hit with “Meet Virginia,” they had a paying gig at a San Francisco pub called Mad Dog in the Fog. Pat Monahan remembers it as the first place that paid the band to play. More than three decades later, Train named its 12th studio album after the bar, shot the title track’s video inside it and threw a free block party on Haight Street.

Mad Dog In The Fog puts longtime collaborator Butch Walker behind the board and on guitar, with bandmates Jerry Becker and Matt Musty co-producing. The title track is a barroom singalong with Matt Nathanson on backing vocals and a couple of names worth listening for. Virginia turns up again, and so does Mr. Jones from the Counting Crows song. You can almost picture them on stools at opposite ends of the bar.

“Pennsylvania Turnpike” has the best backstory on the record. Monahan grew up in Erie, where the turnpike doesn’t run. His late friend Murray came from Philadelphia, and the song imagines the two of them making the trip west together. There’s a whole friendship in that premise, from the freedom of being young enough to take off across the country to the ache of realizing how much time has passed. “City Of Angels” picks up another piece of Monahan’s story, his brief stop in Los Angeles on the way to San Francisco.

“The Weekend” brings the album back to the present with a chorus built around the simple pleasure of putting down your phone and getting out of the house. It’s an easy idea to sing along with, especially coming from a band whose fondest memories here involve getting people together in one room. After a summer spent celebrating 25 years of Drops Of Jupiter, Train has a new chorus for the crowd. It just happens to come with the address of the bar that gave them their first paycheck.