Counting Crows and friends at the Tent
Counting Crows calls their latest tour the Outlaw Roadshow.
Now bear in mind that The All Music Guide described Counting Crows’ debut CD as “modern music for people who don’t like modern music” – and that was almost 20 years ago. So “outlaw” is maybe overstating things a bit. The Crows mostly play it safe, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.
The July 19 show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent featured three opening acts, which is definitely a bit out of the norm.
Brooklyn-based We Are Augustines, the trio that opened the show, sounds like an Americana-version of “Joshua Tree”-era U2 with a huskier-voiced singer. On a ballad, lead singer Billy McCarthy’s vocals were in the general neighborhood of early Tom Waits. The band’s CD, “Rise Ye Sunken Ships” is worth a listen.
Next up: Kasey Anderson and the Honkies, who come across as a grungy version of the Wallflowers, with a bit of a cowpunk/garage vibe on one song. When they slowed it down on “Your Side of Town,” the song could have passed for a Drive-By Truckers ballad. The band’s “Like Teenage Gravity” is one of the tunes that Counting Crows recorded for a recent CD of cover songs, but the Honkies drew the biggest response with set-closer “Two More Bottles” (chorus: “It’s alright / It’s midnight / And I have two more bottles of wine”).
Out of the three strong opening acts, it is Field Report that has the most potential. In concert, they sound like Jackson Browne fronting an ultra-mellow Wilco (on recordings, singer Chris Porterfield’s vocals are more like David Gray’s, but again, a lot more mellow). The six members create a captivating groove. Porterfied used to be the pedal steel player in a band that also included Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), but I won’t hold that against him. Field Report got major buzz at this year’s South By Southwest, and I’m eager to hear the band’s debut CD, coming out Sept. 11.
The Counting Crows’ 85-minute set covered most of the group’s career, with the odd exception of the band’s most recent CD of original material (“Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings,” which came out in 2008).
Four songs came from the band’s latest disc, “Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation), a collection of cover songs. One of them was a lively version of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.” Head Crow Adam Duritz had brought out the guys in all three opening acts for “hanginaround,” the closing song of the main set and they all came back out for Dylan song, the first of two encore songs, which had about a dozen people crowded around the microphones.
The other three covers were “Start Again” by Teenage Fanclub, “Hospital” by Coby Brown and “Untitled (Love Song)” by the Romany Rye – and you’re really keeping up with things if you’re familiar with all three of those performers. All in all, Counting Crows did a good job on “Underwater Sunshine” (and in concert) of putting their own sound on a wide-range of covers, but for the most part, the covers were less satisfying than the band’s originals.
And what is the Crows’ sound? The band’s debut came out when Nirvana and Pearl Jam were in their prime. For people who preferred the Band and Buffalo Springfield, the Crows’ debut was “modern music for people who don’t like modern music.” That quote sounds like it could be an insult, but it’s really just a clever description. Counting Crows’ debut was a bit of a throwback, but it was a throwback to some classic stuff.
Lyrically, the Crows can be a little too focused on waiting and traveling, and sunlight and rain. But their vibe on the upbeat songs is spirit-lifting; their vibe on the downbeat songs is perfect for repeat plays on dismal days (whether it’s the weather or your mood that’s bleak).
Musically, the Crows draw back on some classic folk-rock sounds, but they were also a little ahead of the their time, or maybe right on time, with an alt-country sound that’s not too far from Uncle Tupelo or the Jayhawks, bands that had more of a hip factor. They might not have the most original sound, but two decades later Counting Crows are still putting together a mighty good roadshow.
Counting Crows set list:
Intro (“Lean on Me” by Bill Withers)
“Untitled (Love Song)” (The Romany Rye cover)
“High Life”
“St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream”
“Hospital” (Coby Brown cover)
“Black and Blue”
“Catapult”
“Start Again” (Teenage Fanclub cover)
“Omaha”
“If I Could Give All My Love -or- Richard Manuel Is Dead”
“Children in Bloom”
“Goodnight L.A.”
“Hanginaround”
Encore:
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Bob Dylan cover)
“Holiday in Spain”