Counting Crows playing new songs live

[PryTo]

They do a mean Borderline and Crazy For You (yes Madonna) cover too.

Agreed. I wish they'd do more stuff like this again. There are never any shortage of covers with the release of the Sunshine album, but it's fun to hear them step way outside of their comfort zone and kill it.

[BigRedLedbetter]

They do a mean Borderline and Crazy For You (yes Madonna) cover too.

Agreed. I wish they'd do more stuff like this again. There are never any shortage of covers with the release of the Sunshine album, but it's fun to hear them step way outside of their comfort zone and kill it.

When I did the meet and greet Adam was wearing a Joy Division shirt. I love them as well and I asked if he'd ever thought about covering Love Will Tear Us Apart. He said he had thought about it but it was a perfect song so why touch it. It was so surreal talking music with them for 10 minutes. Their music really helped me get over my sister passing away.

[PryTo]

They do a mean Borderline and Crazy For You (yes Madonna) cover too.

Agreed. I wish they'd do more stuff like this again. There are never any shortage of covers with the release of the Sunshine album, but it's fun to hear them step way outside of their comfort zone and kill it.

When I did the meet and greet Adam was wearing a Joy Division shirt. I love them as well and I asked if he'd ever thought about covering Love Will Tear Us Apart. He said he had thought about it but it was a perfect song so why touch it. It was so surreal talking music with them for 10 minutes. Their music really helped me get over my sister passing away.

Great story, Big Red. Must have been cool to meet AD in person. Their music has gotten me through some tough times, too.

Back when I was a music journalist, I interviewed Charlie. Super nice guy, but of course everyone wants to know about Adam, which is weird for the rest of the band, I think. I tried not to focus all of my questions in that direction. You'll appreciate that when I asked him what his favorite CCs record was, he immediately said Recovering the Satellites. I think I read an interview with AD where he said the same thing. This was probably at the height of my CCs fandom, so it was a fun interview -- and fun to tell him how much I loved and knew aboiut their music.

[BigRedLedbetter]

They do a mean Borderline and Crazy For You (yes Madonna) cover too.

Agreed. I wish they'd do more stuff like this again. There are never any shortage of covers with the release of the Sunshine album, but it's fun to hear them step way outside of their comfort zone and kill it.

When I did the meet and greet Adam was wearing a Joy Division shirt. I love them as well and I asked if he'd ever thought about covering Love Will Tear Us Apart. He said he had thought about it but it was a perfect song so why touch it. It was so surreal talking music with them for 10 minutes. Their music really helped me get over my sister passing away.

Great story, Big Red. Must have been cool to meet AD in person. Their music has gotten me through some tough times, too.

Back when I was a music journalist, I interviewed Charlie. Super nice guy, but of course everyone wants to know about Adam, which is weird for the rest of the band, I think. I tried not to focus all of my questions in that direction. You'll appreciate that when I asked him what his favorite CCs record was, he immediately said Recovering the Satellites. I think I read an interview with AD where he said the same thing. This was probably at the height of my CCs fandom, so it was a fun interview -- and fun to tell him how much I loved and knew aboiut their music.

Thats great. Yeah they were all super nice when I met them. I was surprised how personable Adam was. Took a bunch of pics and signed some stuff. Dan remembered giving me a pic in Lawrence 4 years earlier. I was shocked. He reached in his pocket and gave me a few more.

[Bammer]

Upon further reflection... Opening with something a little more upbeat (mainstream hit) probably would have helped energize the crowd a little more at Counting Crows the other night.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Upon further reflection... Opening with something a little more upbeat (mainstream hit) probably would have helped energize the crowd a little more at Counting Crows the other night.

I love when they open with Round Here. It's a well known song and it has a lot of energy and gets the crowd into it.

[PryTo]

Saw CCs at the Greek in San Francisco last night. Show #39 of a forty-show tour. (They close things out at the Greek in LA tomorrow.) Being a hometown show, I figured we might be in for a treat, maybe a setlist that really shakes things up. Instead, we got the core tunes the band seems to have played this entire tour (yawn) and, as a nice treat, a good chunk of songs from the new album. I’m not sure they’ve played another show on this tour that featured new material so heavily.

Things kicked off with an amazing Round Here. This is a big hit and a song that they play a lot. I’m somewhat agnostic about it at this point, but last night’s performance was one for the record books. Probably not the best performance I’ve seen them do, but top shelf all the way. My brother and his wife were seeing them for the first time and they were stunned at how good AD is in concert.

And it deserves mention that AD sounded fantastic all night. This guy has really taken care of his “instrument.” His voice has really held up over the years. Contrast this to someone like Ed, who’s about the same age and has just trashed his voice. AD sounded fantastic last night, from beginning to end. He really deserves credit for being an incredible singer and charismatic as hell. He starts singing and you know you’re in the hands of a pro.

After one hell of a start, the show started to go downhill a bit. I love Untitled and saw them do a killer version of it a couple of years ago in New Orleans. It might be my favorite track on the covers album. But somehow it just fell flat and never seemed to click.

Next up was Elvis Went to Hollywood, a new song that I’m not fond of. A lot of bluster that goes nowhere. Moreover, the lyrics are awful. “We are aliens on motorcycles.” Are we? Really now. This song also seemed to go nowhere and garner faint applause from the crowd. They needed to turn this show around because it was losing steam quickly.

So of course, they play the hit. Mr Jones seems to be a song AD is bored with. It got the expected pop from the audience, but AD sings the song like he just wants to get it over with. He hasn’t added anything new to it in years. Same old, same old. Maybe this got the audience back into it, but they lost me even further.

I’m not a big fan of Colorblind, but they killed it. It seemed like AD was super into the slow songs last night and just sort of phoning in the faster material. Everyone sounded bored, like they were churning out this same crap one more time. And that’s kind of the case. The setlists on this tour have been distressingly similar. I know I’d be bored. But Colorblind was fantastic, and I don’t say this lightly because it’s not a song I like very much.

Richard Manual and Miami came next, two songs I love that also failed to take flight last night. Next up was God of Ocean Tides, a new song that’s awesome. Really like this one and the band seemed much more engaged. Next was Friend of the Devil, a cover that’s never done much for me. AD introduced it by saying something like “This is an old song from back home … Or here, because this is home.” It was as if he was just saying the same old introduction he gives in other parts of the country and suddenly realized that phoning in the stage banter doesn’t work because, oh yeah, he’s playing to a hometown crowd. AD sounded great last night, but he really seemed bored and to be phoning it in. There were also technical problems throughout the show that seemed to be pissing him off. (At one point, Charlie’s entire piano rig lost power for an entire song. He had to run across the stage, back and forth to AD’s piano, which he eventually used. AD was half-jokingly yelling at the crew to get things fixed once and for all.) So Friend of the Devil was fine, but rote. Omaha was rote, too, and there were serious sound problems all night. AD’s voice was clear as a bell (thank goodness) but Dave was undermixed, Emmy was mixed so loud it was comical, the accordion on Omaha was buried and impossible to hear. And so on. So that didn’t help either.

AD said something about how the next song had been dropped from the setlists but it was about his favorite song in the world to sing. Washington Square, which was great. Again, when AD got engaged (usually on the slow songs) he was pure magic. Recovering the Satellites was okay. I love the song but the audience seemed pretty listless, as did the band. Scarecrow is the worst of the new songs, and probably the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard AD write. I would be quite content to never hear it again. Ugg. Sessions was next. Again, okay, but they’ve been trotting this one out all tour. Possibility Days was phenomenal. This is top shelf material. An instant classic that I’d say sits comfortably with their very best material. It’s awesome that the band can continue to come up with material this good at this point in their career. Outstanding.

A Long December is another warhorse that seemed to get the rote treatment. The audience loved it, of course, and sang along and all that. Cover up the Sun was another new song that suffered from bad lyrics and didn't really go anywhere. The main set closed out with Hanginaround, a popular tune that I’ve never liked, and that they play all the time. Another rote singalong. Yawn.

The encore is the same one they seem to have been doing all tour. I like Palisades Park. Rain King (Pale Blue Eyes alt) was fine, but I’d like to see them mixing things up a lot more. Holiday in Spain is another song I love, but they seemed to be going through the motions.

In all, I expected more for a hometown show. AD was in great voice and the venue was stunning. But the band seemed to be tired, at the end of a tour where they’ve played a lot of the same songs over and over. They need to mix up the set lists a lot more. I liked some of the new material, but some of it was almost offensively bad and brought down the momentum. Regardless, it’s always fun to hear new stuff. I just wish the band had been more interested in playing the old stuff or digging into the well a bit deeper so they had some songs that were more inspiring. They seemed tired, distracted, and somewhat bored. My brother and his wife didn’t notice. They thought it was an amazing show. And really, AD is a pro and even phoning it in is a consummate professional. On a good night, he’s hard to beat. On this night, meh.


Round Here
Untitled (Love Song)
Elvis Went to Hollywood
Mr. Jones
Colorblind
Richard Manuel is Dead
Miami
God of Ocean Tides
Friend of the Devil
Omaha
Washington Square
Recovering the Satellites
Scarecrow
Sessions
Possibility Days
Long December
Cover up the Sun
Hanginaround

Palisades Park
Rain King -- Pale Blue Eyes alt
Holiday in Spain

[BigRedLedbetter]

Saw CCs at the Greek in San Francisco last night. Show #39 of a forty-show tour. (They close things out at the Greek in LA tomorrow.) Being a hometown show, I figured we might be in for a treat, maybe a setlist that really shakes things up. Instead, we got the core tunes the band seems to have played this entire tour (yawn) and, as a nice treat, a good chunk of songs from the new album. I’m not sure they’ve played another show on this tour that featured new material so heavily.

Things kicked off with an amazing Round Here. This is a big hit and a song that they play a lot. I’m somewhat agnostic about it at this point, but last night’s performance was one for the record books. Probably not the best performance I’ve seen them do, but top shelf all the way. My brother and his wife were seeing them for the first time and they were stunned at how good AD is in concert.

And it deserves mention that AD sounded fantastic all night. This guy has really taken care of his “instrument.” His voice has really held up over the years. Contrast this to someone like Ed, who’s about the same age and has just trashed his voice. AD sounded fantastic last night, from beginning to end. He really deserves credit for being an incredible singer and charismatic as hell. He starts singing and you know you’re in the hands of a pro.

After one hell of a start, the show started to go downhill a bit. I love Untitled and saw them do a killer version of it a couple of years ago in New Orleans. It might be my favorite track on the covers album. But somehow it just fell flat and never seemed to click.

Next up was Elvis Went to Hollywood, a new song that I’m not fond of. A lot of bluster that goes nowhere. Moreover, the lyrics are awful. “We are aliens on motorcycles.” Are we? Really now. This song also seemed to go nowhere and garner faint applause from the crowd. They needed to turn this show around because it was losing steam quickly.

So of course, they play the hit. Mr Jones seems to be a song AD is bored with. It got the expected pop from the audience, but AD sings the song like he just wants to get it over with. He hasn’t added anything new to it in years. Same old, same old. Maybe this got the audience back into it, but they lost me even further.

I’m not a big fan of Colorblind, but they killed it. It seemed like AD was super into the slow songs last night and just sort of phoning in the faster material. Everyone sounded bored, like they were churning out this same crap one more time. And that’s kind of the case. The setlists on this tour have been distressingly similar. I know I’d be bored. But Colorblind was fantastic, and I don’t say this lightly because it’s not a song I like very much.

Richard Manual and Miami came next, two songs I love that also failed to take flight last night. Next up was God of Ocean Tides, a new song that’s awesome. Really like this one and the band seemed much more engaged. Next was Friend of the Devil, a cover that’s never done much for me. AD introduced it by saying something like “This is an old song from back home … Or here, because this is home.” It was as if he was just saying the same old introduction he gives in other parts of the country and suddenly realized that phoning in the stage banter doesn’t work because, oh yeah, he’s playing to a hometown crowd. AD sounded great last night, but he really seemed bored and to be phoning it in. There were also technical problems throughout the show that seemed to be pissing him off. (At one point, Charlie’s entire piano rig lost power for an entire song. He had to run across the stage, back and forth to AD’s piano, which he eventually used. AD was half-jokingly yelling at the crew to get things fixed once and for all.) So Friend of the Devil was fine, but rote. Omaha was rote, too, and there were serious sound problems all night. AD’s voice was clear as a bell (thank goodness) but Dave was undermixed, Emmy was mixed so loud it was comical, the accordion on Omaha was buried and impossible to hear. And so on. So that didn’t help either.

AD said something about how the next song had been dropped from the setlists but it was about his favorite song in the world to sing. Washington Square, which was great. Again, when AD got engaged (usually on the slow songs) he was pure magic. Recovering the Satellites was okay. I love the song but the audience seemed pretty listless, as did the band. Scarecrow is the worst of the new songs, and probably the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard AD write. I would be quite content to never hear it again. Ugg. Sessions was next. Again, okay, but they’ve been trotting this one out all tour. Possibility Days was phenomenal. This is top shelf material. An instant classic that I’d say sits comfortably with their very best material. It’s awesome that the band can continue to come up with material this good at this point in their career. Outstanding.

A Long December is another warhorse that seemed to get the rote treatment. The audience loved it, of course, and sang along and all that. Cover up the Sun was another new song that suffered from bad lyrics and didn't really go anywhere. The main set closed out with Hanginaround, a popular tune that I’ve never liked, and that they play all the time. Another rote singalong. Yawn.

The encore is the same one they seem to have been doing all tour. I like Palisades Park. Rain King (Pale Blue Eyes alt) was fine, but I’d like to see them mixing things up a lot more. Holiday in Spain is another song I love, but they seemed to be going through the motions.

In all, I expected more for a hometown show. AD was in great voice and the venue was stunning. But the band seemed to be tired, at the end of a tour where they’ve played a lot of the same songs over and over. They need to mix up the set lists a lot more. I liked some of the new material, but some of it was almost offensively bad and brought down the momentum. Regardless, it’s always fun to hear new stuff. I just wish the band had been more interested in playing the old stuff or digging into the well a bit deeper so they had some songs that were more inspiring. They seemed tired, distracted, and somewhat bored. My brother and his wife didn’t notice. They thought it was an amazing show. And really, AD is a pro and even phoning it in is a consummate professional. On a good night, he’s hard to beat. On this night, meh.


Round Here
Untitled (Love Song)
Elvis Went to Hollywood
Mr. Jones
Colorblind
Richard Manuel is Dead
Miami
God of Ocean Tides
Friend of the Devil
Omaha
Washington Square
Recovering the Satellites
Scarecrow
Sessions
Possibility Days
Long December
Cover up the Sun
Hanginaround

Palisades Park
Rain King -- Pale Blue Eyes alt
Holiday in Spain

I have always wanted to see a show at the Greek. Pictures just look wonderful. I agree looking at the setlist I was a bit surprised. Thought they would change it up a little. I'd love to hear Wash Square and RTS though and Richard Manuel is always fun. Loving God of Ocean Tides and Possibility Days. This new album should be solid at worst.

How many CC shows have you been to? I have been to 6. It's interesting taking people to a Crows show for a first time. It's usually not what they expect.....in a good way. Love or hate AD I totally agree he has taken care of his voice wonderfully. He sounds as good as he sounded 20 years ago in my opinion. Sounded really great this tour.

Not sure what my favorite track on the covers album is. A lot of people I know hated on it but I find it to be really fun. They were incredibly engaged on that tour as well.

Dude....we are totally aliens on motorcycles. You didn't know? I think AD gets high sometimes when he writes lyrics.

I see why they would be bored with Mr. Jones. I don't dislike it like most hardcore CC fans but it's not even in the top 1/2 of my fave CC songs. I could probably create two separate dream set lists and it would miss both of them. I do really love the acoustic version of it they did in 2003. That whole tour there was a lot of fun arrangements and a fun folky feel. That was also the first time I saw them and I saw them three times that tour. Good memories.


Colorblind is a good song but I feel like I always hear it live so I can take or leave it. It's a song the band loves playing so that's cool.

Immy usually kills it on the guitar when I see them. I do agree AD seems more into it on the slower songs. I think this is why the 2003 tour was so good. Just folky wonderland goodness.

Sessions is one of my favorite songs they have ever records and they played it almost every show this tour except for the one I went to. Uuugh. Those are the breaks. I really need to see them 2-3 times on their next tour.
Seeing CC and not hearing Long December always makes me uneasy. I just love it. Makes me think of my sister who passed seven years ago and she loved it.

Really loving Palisades Park. It's the closest thing to Potter's (which is in my CC top 5) that they have recorded.

Thanks for the write up.

[PryTo]

I’ve seen them 7 or 8 times, I believe. First time was in 1999 on the Desert Life tour. They were just amazing back then and I saw a bunch of shows. Then I saw them in 2004 in Chicago and had to stop going for a while. At that point, they were pretty much doing “greatest hits” setlists and I was bored. I didn’t bother until 2012, when I saw them in New Orleans. They were great, having fun onstage, and seemed to be back to mixing up the setlists again.

This is the setlist from the show last night in L.A., the tour closer. 15/21 songs were repeats from the night before. (Even the “Pale Blue Eyes” alt re-appeared.) Same three opening songs. Same three closing songs. Most of the other songs in the same place as the previous show. Yawn City.

Round Here
Untitled (Love Song)
Elvis Went to Hollywood
Hospital
Mr. Jones
Colorblind
Omaha
Earthquake Driver
Miami
Goodnight Elisabeth (with "Pale Blue Eyes" snippet)
Scarecrow
Sessions
God of Ocean Tides
Recovering the Satellites
Goodnight L.A.
A Long December
John Appleseed's Lament
A Murder of One

Encore:
Palisades Park
Rain King
Holiday in Spain

One of my big criticism of the CCs is that they’re lazy. Five albums of original material in twenty years? Lazy. Touring the shed circuit every summer and taking the rest of the year off? Lazy. Playing the same songs every night and ignoring the Saturday Nights album almost entirely? Lazy. So they seem to be in lazy mode again. I’m sure I’ll see them live again at some point, but I’ll be checking the setlists in advance to see if they’re putting some thought into them or just phoning it in and cashing the checks.

[BigRedLedbetter]

I do wish the setlists were different sometimes. As far as execution I really have few complaints. Even the worst show I have been to has been fun. I have preferred seeing them indoors (Liberty Hall 2008 right after SNSM came out, Mid America Center in Council Bluffs in 2003, first show back in the states after being overseas) instead of outdoors. Though two years ago in Lincoln was phenomenal. I really loved the Outlaw roadshow. I have been a huge Field Report fan since that day. It was a fun idea I hope they do again.

[PryTo]

Even back in the day, they had tremendous shows and they had shows that never really took flight. On a good night, they're phenomenal but even on a "bad" night, they deliver. Four of the songs I saw at the Greek were tremendous.

Round Here
Colorblind
Washington Square
Possibility Days

And there were plenty of songs that were fun or interesting to hear. Glad to have seen a show at the Greek -- what a fantastic venue!

[BigRedLedbetter]

Even back in the day, they had tremendous shows and they had shows that never really took flight. On a good night, they're phenomenal but even on a "bad" night, they deliver. Four of the songs I saw at the Greek were tremendous.

Round Here
Colorblind
Washington Square
Possibility Days

And there were plenty of songs that were fun or interesting to hear. Glad to have seen a show at the Greek -- what a fantastic venue!

Good lord look at that. Just perfect.

[PryTo]

Nestled into the hills, surrounded by trees, etc. There's a small (I think) lawn, which would probably be pretty sweet too. We were about 20 rows back, right of center. Didn't seem to be a bad seat in the house.

[E.H. Ruddock]

This would be better if it was the Black Crows

[4/5]

ignoring the Saturday Nights album almost entirely? Lazy.

This is just good sense.

[Strat]

This would be better if it was the Black Crows

[BigRedLedbetter]

This would be better if it was the Black Crows

Nah.

[spike]

or russell crowe

[BigRedLedbetter]

Cameron Crowe maybe

[LetMeSleep]

Stone The Crows even