Counting Crows — Double live!

Counting Crows

To preview his upcoming interview with Adam Duritz in the May issue of Illinois Entertainer, we shipped Jaime de’Medici to a pair of outposts to catch Counting Crows getting intimate.

It makes a certain level of sense that Counting Crows would come back like this. The group, who all but fell off the map years earlier, save for a better-left-forgotten Shrek 2 contribution, just recently returned with a creatively reenergized new album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, which is actually a double album. Except that it’s on a single disc, essentially presenting the group executing two different personas. So, when the Crows made their return to Chicago last week after a lengthy absence, choosing to play two distinctly different shows over back-to-back nights, it shouldn’t have come as too big of a surprise.

WTTW Soundstage, Chicago
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The group first hit Chicago last Tuesday night for a performance on WTTW’s “Soundstage,” set to air later this summer. With a crowd drawn primarily from Crows fanclub members, radio contest winners, and Mastercard holders, the atmosphere was one of surprising intimacy, even if the following night’s Apple Store set would manage to bring the group even closer to their fans. Still, the small theater build of the room and smaller studio audience set-up with a modest number of attendees both provided at least the impression of a closer proximity to the band than one would normally find at most commercial venues.

The Soundstage set found the Crows more or less performing Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings in its entirety, with the band racing through the more charged Saturday material with surprising immediacy. Opening with the jaunty and uneasy “1492,” the tone was one of urgency and impact, as the group were out to make their return known in no uncertain terms. It was a tone that continued through material like “Hanging Tree,” which found Duritz jumping and falling over himself, as well as “Insignificant,” with Duritz balancing himself on speakers and amps at the front of the stage. The latter of which, Duritz commented, is about a man with nothing left, hoping to feel something, and deciding to do so by flying — a “big fucking mistake.”

The group’s Sunday Mornings Soundstage songs may have been comparatively stripped down, but at their best weren’t any less engaging. Strong points like the sparser “Washington Square” was inarguably wistful, but held its own against the group’s louder songs, with a harmonica interlude from multi-instrumentalist Charlie Gillingham elevating the song midway through. And Sunday songs “You Can’t Count On Me” and “Come Around” both demonstrated an energy above the rest of the more downtempo set.

Unfortunately, not all Sunday songs fared as well. Over the course of both nights, moments like “When I Dream Of Michelangelo” and “On Almost Any Sunday Morning” came off as slight and inconsequential, leaving no real impression. And “On A Tuesday In Amsterdam Long Ago” is unfortunately Duritz at his most self-pitying, practically on the verge of lapsing into self-parody as he repeatedly pleads for an absent love to “come back to [him].”

Thankfully, the group redeemed themselves for an encore that not unexpectedly comprised two of the band’s most recognized and beloved hits, “A Long December,” and the epic “Round Here.” Both songs veered into variations throughout their performances, also not entirely unexpectedly. While “December” incorporated lines from August And Everything After closer “A Murder Of One,” “Round Here” included a few time-tested alterations, including elements of Recovering The Satellites track “Have You Seen Me Lately?” Both songs were reminders of what drew in many Crows fans in the first place, and managed to end a night of new music on a familiar note.

The Apple Store, Chicago
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

It was a note that continued the next evening at the North Michigan Avenue Apple Store, as the seven-man outfit took to what could favorably be described as a cozy (if not packed-to-the-gills), second-floor presentation theater to perform a set of primarily Sunday Morning songs, as well as offer a chance for an audience Q&A. As the venue was a notably smaller set-up than the previous night’s TV studio, the group opted for a primarily unplugged/stripped-down/folk-oriented approach to the evening’s songs. Wisely, the group opened with a few older songs, including a cover of Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run The Game,” itself not uncommon for past Crows sets, as well as Hard Candy‘s “If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead).” Closing out the first of what would be many three-song mini-sets, the group broke into a revamped “Mr. Jones,” featuring, among other interesting tweaks, an accordion.

From there, much of the night echoed the Soundstage Sunday Mornings set. There were, however, a few instances that separated the two sets. The challenging and winding “Le Ballet d’Or”‘s mysterious and almost Arabian-tinged tone seemed best suited for a lush interpretation in a smaller venue, and the acoustic version of “Come Around” seemed more celebratory.

The real draw of the night, however, would have to be Duritz’s Q&A sessions between the group’s many brief mini-sets. The animated and dreadlocked frontman shared anecdotes, both humorous and self-deprecating, as well as the stories behind his songs, with the audience. Questions ranged from the more typical, such as Duritz’s favorite drinks (piña coladas), to whether he would ever appear on a Rock Of Love-type reality program, to which he replied “I have so much trouble being around one girl,” before adding “What the fuck happened to VH1?!”

It was an answer that made sense coming from Duritz, as his band was a mainstay on the once adult-alternative music channel back in the early ’90s. But, like VH1, times change. And while the Counting Crows of 2008 might not be the same as they were in 1993, it’s clear the group today, despite the occasional misfire, is once again committed to the level of output and performance that they once displayed a good 15 years ago. It’s a welcome return, and it’s about damn time.

— Jaime de’Medici

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly