03 May Counting Crows Reborn
Perhaps “reborn” isn’t the right word, because they’ve been here all along. But last night Counting Crows seemed to step from 1994 directly into 2012.
Their 80-minute set spanned the Berkeley band’s entire 20-plus-year career, a career that exploded with the much-loved August and Everything After album—one of the fastest-selling of the ’90s—and plateaued shortly after. But Counting Crows has always emphasized its live performances, and last night’s first-night headlining set at SunFest saw the band in vintage form. They delivered their rootsy, hard-driving rock with the authority of a veteran band and the energy of a group half their age.
Perhaps that youthful jolt was by Mean Creek, the Boston quartet that opened SunFest and has opened Counting Crows entire current tour. Lead singer Adam Duritz raved about the band from the stage—”How fucking good are they? This is their first tour ever!”—before going into “Holiday in Spain,” which ended the set.
They launched into the show with “Round Here,” their second-biggest hit, almost as if they were dispatching the song in order to dig into new material from their recent album of covers, Underwater Sunshine. (Notably, the band never played “Mr. Jones,” its most famous song.) The second tune, for instance, “Untitled (Love Song),” is a cover of California band the Romany Rye, and its chorus, “Throw your arms around my neck,” felt fresh and achingly romantic in the warm night air. They interspersed other songs from Sunshine like—”Hospital,” “Like Teenage Gravity,” “Return of the Grievous Angel”—throughout the set.
For the entirety of the performance, Duritz—who sported the Sideshow Bob dreadlocks he’s had since the Clinton administration—was a solid, unwavering presence center-stage. His voice was plaintive and reflective on “Wish I Was a Girl” and more cathartic on crowd favorite “Rain King.” Flanked by longtime guitarist David Bryson, he played an upright piano stationed next to the drum kit on the song “A Long December.” New-ish additions Charlie Gillingham on accordion and David Immergluck banjo and mandolin provided Americana jangle reminiscent of the Band, whose singer/pianist Richard Manuel they commemorated mid-set with the song “If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead).”
Intoxicated equally by the night air, powerful music, and copious cocktails, the crowd socialized and celebrated as much as it tuned in and listened. But after the band finished the encore—which included “Washington Square,” “a song about home,” he said, and “Hanging Around,” which he described as “our lullaby to you”—Duritz remained center-stage, leading the departing crowd in a singalong of “California Dreaming,” played loudly over the stage PA. It was a sweet sendoff after a warm, welcoming first day.