Here's Joseph's review of a recent show.

On Febuary 23 I saw Counting Crows for the third time. The show was
held at Music Hall in Cleveland Ohio. I saw the band in Toronto in
November, I enjoyed the show in Cleveland considerably more than
Toronto.

Fiona Apple opened the show promptly at 7:30 p.m. highlights from her
set included the songs "Criminal, "Shadowboxer", and "The First Taste".
Her set lasted approximately 50 min. At roughly 9:00p.m. The lights
went down, and the "Mamas and the Papas" "California Dreamin". The band
hit the stage with the New single "Catapult", then launched into
"Angels of the Silences" and "Daylight Fading". followed by "Rain
King", with the only changed lyrics being "Goodnight Elizabeth, I am so
sorry now" added at the end of the song. After "Rain King" the band
took a moment and the crew rolled out a Bass Drum, with a Hi Hat
attached. Charlie picked up his accordian and the band launched into
"Mr Jones" significantly different from the way I heard it in the
summer of 1994. Following this the band performed "Recovering the
Sattelites", "Anna Begins", "Children in Bloom" "Perfect Blue
Buildings", and the "Murder of One". Charlie Gillingham was featured on
a fantastic harmonica solo on the song "Mercury". The Band closed the
set with the song Goodnight Elizabeth", the band thanked the crowd and
left the stage. Approximately Five minutes later they returned with the
song "Round Here" with much of the song "Barely out of Tuesday" added
in the middle. In my opinion it was was the highlight of the entire
show, at the end of the song the band recieved a standing ovation. Adam
then sat down behind his Piano, and the band performed " A Long
December". The last song was "Walkaways" Adam introduced everyone in
the band, said goodnight and left the stage.

In retrospect I enjoyed this show much more than in Toronto, but the
show in 1994 is still the greatest show I have ever been to. But this
one was close to the top. Rumor has it that they will return to
Cleveland in the summer. To play an outdoor venue, that in my opinion
is the best place to see Counting Crows play.

Here's Matt's review of the show in Columbus. Enjoy!

I saw them here in columbus on the 22nd. A fantastic show. Fiona
Apple Opened, and she was pretty cool...came on right about 8..more
on time than any other opening band Ive ever seen. Counting Crows
came on about 9:10- 9:20 right after "California Dreamin'" By the
mamas and the papas was played.

They had this cool simple backdrop with just the falling star logo
from RTS..the star lit up with flashing lights during the opening
song "Recovering the Satellites". They followed with Angels of the
Silences, (adams leg must be all better, he was bouncing around like
a maniac." The setlist after that is as follows..

Daylight Fading
Anna Begins
Rain King
Im not Sleeping
Mercury
MR Jones (Acoustic with big bass drum)
(after this it appeared adam's mood changed..he was all up and shit,
but then he got real down and sang the next couple songs sitting on a
box in the middle of the stage)
Goodnight Elizabeth
Children in Bloom
Time and Time Again
Catapult
A Murder of One (absolutely rocked!)

For the Encore, they did a version of Round Here that was
amazing...With lyrics from Barely Out of Tuesday and Private
Archipelago mixed in...wow..women were crying, I was mesmerized, I
didnt want it to end. They followed with a Long December, and
finally Walkaways....

The atmosphere was absolutely perfect...The crowd was filled with die
hard crows fans who sang along to EVERY song, the place never left
its feet, we had great seats as well....amazing..I am seeing them
again on March 9th...

Here's what Tony had to say about a recent concert.

Bloomington, IN
Feburary 20th, 1997
Indiana Universty Auditorium

Opening Act: Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple hit the stage at 7:30 coming out to a largely unknowing
crowd. She played her piano based rock for 45minutes. Her music is
powerful and the piano is the right instrument for this young, barely
twenty year old. After a few songs playing and singing from
her piano she stepped out and sang letting one of her band
memebers play piano. Noticible absence was the gutiar, she didnt
have a guitar plare in the band.

Her music stood pretty strongly on its on. Her tourtured performance
helped intensify the feeling of the songs. She seemed pretty
comfortable with the crowd, saying a few witty remarks that
got a good response from the sit down crowd

She was off stage as 8:15 and the roadies quickly cleared the stage

A little bit about the venue. The IU Auditorum is a theater, it is used
mostly for theater plays and other more artsy events than your
standard rock concert. It has all seats and a balcony which did not have
any tickets sold for the rock show. Securty is very laid back, with the
exception of not allowing smoking or eating/drinking in the theater.

The stage it self is very deep, with a oval coming out past
the main wall where the speakers were mounted, which provided the edge
of the stage. The oval extened out about 15 feet from the wall where
the speakers were. The bands instruments and monitors were set up
to be even with the wall, but that didnt keep the band from moving
forward to the edge of the stage, a mere 3 feet from the seats.
Fans were uncommonly close to the stage, the front row could put their
feet up on the stage.

After a very long break at 8:50 Califonia Dreamin (All the leaves
are brown) came on over the PA and the band came out. The 6 piece band was
looking quite spiffy and quickly took the spots and readied to play.

Opening up with the title song of the new album, Recovering the Satellites
they played with all the fire and emotion their records have come
to be known for. Following up with the very hard rocking Angles of
the Silences got the crowd involved and alive. Playing the next
consecutive song on the album, the country-esque Daylight Fading following
with Another Horsedreamers Blues.

The show now shifted gears to an acoustic portion featuring many
ecletic instruments such as mandolin, acordion, mellowtron and an
entirely different drum kit including many strange looking drums.
Saying it was acoustic is not complete true, there was electric
guitar mixed in as well, perhaps a better term was that it was an
eclectic set.

The acoustic set included Omaha, Mercury, Mr. Jones, an awesome stripped
down version that went over very well. Ending the acoustic set with
Goodnight Elizabeth. By this point of the show lead singer Adam Duritz
had abandoned the traditional spot for the mic and had moved up to the
edge of the stage and was singing directly into the eyes of the crowd.
Moving around judging response and generaly putting in a very emotional
performance (this author was lucky enough to have 2nd row tix), and the
guitar players frequently got up to the edge of the stage to solo.

The band regrouped to begin their fully electric attack including
Children in Bloom and an excellent I'm Not Sleeping. They then closed
the set with Catapult and an incredible A Murder of One. This writer
has seen his unfair amount of shows, and this version was one of the best
versions of any song I have ever heard. It was amazingly moving and
rocking.
The song really summed up the Crows. It started off rocking, then had a
segment where the band got really close to the crowd and Duritz sang
some ad libbed lyrics, then ended with an intensely rocking ending.
The band gave their thanks and left the stage for 5 minutes.

The band came back to a complete dark stage and began Round Here. The
song was greatly extened with a long improv section to a deadly slient
crowd who were basking in Durtiz's ramblings. The song was flawlessly
played and clocked in at 10minutes. Duritz then moved to the back of
the stage to his piano which brought on the obligatory performance of
A Long December, very well recieved by the crowd.

The band sat down by the drums as Duritz sang the final song, which is
also the final song on the new cd, with accompnyment by the lead guitar
played. The final song, the very short and acoustic Walkaways.
The band graciously thanked the crowd and left after a 80minute show.

The show in general was an excellent one. The band played very well
and the show was well recieved by the crowd. Plus who knows how long
a band with the success that the Crows have had will play small
theaters like the IU Auditorium which holds barely a few thousand.
Overall a great show and time was had.

Here's a review of the Bloomington show courtesy of Adam.

This is a short review of last night's Bloomington, IN (IU) show. I will
mail the setlist later on as well as more of a discussion on the songs.
I met Adam about 2 1/2 hours before Fionna Apple went on stage...Adam was
satnding outside of the auditorium just reading and so I just walked over
to him and talked to him. I had brought a copy of the "barely out of
tuesday" lyrics for him to sign, which he did. He asked where I got them
and I said off a friend's webpage. He said he'd have to tell the girl he
wrote the song with about it already being out there. We talked about
"chelsea", "goodluck", and "aaea". He said they had a great recorded
version of him on the piano for "chelsea", but the horns didn't work to
well. He said he loved those songs too much to put them on as
b-sides...he just doesn't know. As far as "aaea" he said he could care
less about those songs and they were supposed to place it on the end of
"rts" as a hidden track, but the record was just too long....but that
song would be more likely to be a b-side (but not on the "catapult" single).
He talked a little about the demo and how he hated most of it 'cause the
songs just weren't honest (assuming the ones we never hear live like
"lightning" and "bulldog"). Adam then eventually said he was hungry and left.
After the show I had the oppurtunity to chat with all the band members
for about an hour (each seperately as people were getting things signed)
and they all had some neat stuff to say. Charlie I talked to the most and
he actually hated "chelsea" and said they also have never played "aaea"
as a whole band. We also chated a little about sports 'cause they all
love sports. Later I talked a little to Dave. I also talked to Adam again
and when I gave him a "Tales of G.I. Joe #12" to sign, we talked a little
bit about some sci-fi movies and how we were such geeks...then we shook
hands and I said I hope to see ya in Indy!!! I had all of them sign a
comic book just to be stupid, but they had fun picking out characters to
be, Ben just opting to draw himself in as a fish. They were all so
friendly and personable...it was great!!! well I'll talk about the music
tommorow which was just, well......as good as ever!!! and then some!

Here's a review from another Adam. He was at the Atlanta show on Feb 13th.

I have been to many concerts- but this may well have been the coolest I've
ever seen. Forget the fact that someone behind me kept letting out
high-pitched shrieks during Round Here (On the bootleg, you can clearly hear
me telling her to fucking stop). Forget how crowded it was. The show was
absolutley amazing.
Most of the setlist was from AAEA, surprisingly. The version of Rain King
ended with the tag "Goodnight Elisabeth- I'm So Sorry" heard on some
bootlegs, which was interesting because I didn't think he still used that
line. There weren't any covers or unreleased songs, except for Barely Out of
Tuesday in the middle of an imcredible version of Round Here. Another
highlight was the "slow" version of Mr. jones, which was a different tune
altogether, introduced as being a song "about me and my friend marty" A lot
of the crowd didn't like this, because a lot of the crows was just people who
had liked Mr Jones off the first album, and weren't paricularly big fans- the
crowd sort of sucked, as a matter of fact. But that didn't keep the show from
being amazing.
Adam looked particulary beat up and depressed- in the early part of the show
he eerily resembled Jim Morrison circa 1969. You could tell his knee was
hurting him. The rest of the band, however, looked to be enjoying themselves
throughout the show- and for some reason Charlie Gillinghma kept looking
about like Robin Hood.
If you haven't seen the Crows play live yet- do so! The set list/style
changes every night, making them worthy of following around on tour, or
collecting every single bootleg (yes, i taped the show. I've listened to it
innumreable times by now!) Raise a toast to Duritz and the rest of the
greatest band touring today- they put on a great show!

Here's a great review of a great show from my friend Laurie Thompson. She went to the Feb. 17th show in Richmond and here's what she had to say about it. Enjoy!

Hello again, everyone. Since most of you already read the huge letter I sent
about the first Counting Crows concert in Charlotte, I have to tell you
about the Richmond show from last night. *OH MY GOD!* It was just the most
unbelievable concert I have ever been to in my life. My seats this time were
approximately in the 11th row, center, and we could see *everything*. We
were so close. Fiona Apple opened again, as and we had expected, she gave
the same sorry speech she gave the last time and her whole performance was
very repetitive. I don't care for her much. At any rate, Counting Crows
started playing around 9:00. They opened with Recovering the Satellites and
then played Angels of the Silences. Both were incredible. Then they played
Children in Bloom, Rain King (awesome!), elizabeth, and Omaha. Omaha kicked
ass. They didn't play it in Charlotte and that was one of the songs I wish
they *had*. After that, they played Mercury (I love that song!) and Mr.
Jones. Mr. Jones was played all sad and melancholy, just like last time. It
was so beautiful. Then they played Catapult (another song that I wished they
had played in Charlotte but didn't), Daylight Fading, I'm not Sleeping, and
A Murder of One. They ended with Sullican Street (yet another one they
didn't play in Charlotte). The first time they came out for an encore, they
played Round Here with excerpts from Barely Out of Tuesday and Sordid
Humor's Private Archipeligo. It was so amazing. A Long December followed.
They even came out for a second encore, and this time David Lowry, the lead
singer from Cracker, sang Wiseblood with them!! The ended for the evening
with Walkaways. The whole thing was just so absolutely incredible, I can't
even describe it. After the show I stuck around a little to see if maybe I
could get a drum stick or a set list or something, but they were all gone. I
tried to get a bootleg, too, but they guy that taped it kept telling me he
couldn't give it to me because they're illegal. Well no shit! They're
bootlegs!! At any rate, I atleast know that *someone* bootlegged it and
there's a copy floating around somewhere out there. I need to get my hands
on it. I am on there so many times, first off because I was standing so
close to the soundboard that it would have been hard *not* to pick up my
voice, and second because I yelled a few things right during the quiet parts
that I *know* everyone heard. Damn, I wish I had the bootleg.

The best is yet to come, though. My friend Brian and I went to leave, and
were driving down the road in Richmond past the Landmark Theater (where they
played), and I noticed a few people standing around where the tour buses
were. So Brian and I parked the car and went over the check out what was
going on. We were all standing there waiting for Adam and the guys, and for
some strange reason, I happened to be right up front. Matt Malley came out
first, and he was all sweaty and gross and everything, but I told him what a
damn good show it was. He said "Thanks" and shook my hand, and we talked a
little more. I told him I wished they had played 40 Years, and he said that
they didn't like that song very much anymore. (My loss, I suppose....) I
asked him to sign his autograph for me (which he did), and then we shook
hands again and he got on the bus. About 10 minutes later Adam came out, and
he said he'd be right back out to talk to everyone and sign autographs and
the such. He came back out and was wearing a really cool hat. When I got up
to him, I told him they played an awesome show and that I liked the end part
of Round Here where they added the Sordid Humor stuff. He smiled and said
thanks and I left (with his autograph, of course). Then I went over to
Charlie Gillingham, shook his hand, told him it was a fantastic show, got
his autograph, and left. That's it, folks!

But it was just an overall amazing performance, night, everything. If I
didn't actually have the autographs, I might have thought I dreamed the
whole thing.... ;)

Thanks Laurie!

Here's Shelley Kennon review of the 2/13/94 show in Atlanta.

Well, the version of Round Here was just... I don't know how to describe
it. The only way it could have been cooler was if they had played that
song as the only encore to leave us with it. The long interlude in the
middle of the song was about "Leave the light on for me" and was truly
amazing. He also sang the "Private Archipelago" tag near the end like he
did on the Hollywood Grand concert boot.

They sang Catapult, Ghost Train, Mr. Jones (slowed down, also great),
Recovering the Satellites, Walkaways, Sullivan St., Goodnight Elizabeth,
Anna Begins, Children in Bloom and maybe another I can't remember.

It was truly a great experience. I felt bad for Adam, though, because
you could tell his knee was hurting him throughout most of the concert.
You could tell that he was trying not to bounce on it too much (like in
the videos). I think he cut the encores short because of it. When he
finished playing Long December and was getting off the piano bench to
walk to the mike, he had to pull his leg up first.

He didn't talk much between songs, just went from one to another most of
the show.
All in all, the only complaint I have is that it wasn't enough. But then
again, with Counting Crows playing live, 12 hours straight wouldn't be
enough.

Here's what i thought of the 01/31/97 Memphis show.

i went to memphis friday and new orleans saturday to see the crows.

twas a neat experience and i have yet another show to see tuesday. i taped the new orleans show so i didnt bother writing the set list down but i have the one from memphis. here it is.

Recovering the Satellites
Angels of the Silences
Mr Jones
Catapult
Daylight Fading
Rainking
A Murder of One
Goodnight Elisabeth
Mercury
Time and Time Again
I'm Not Sleeping
Round Here
----------1st Encore-----------
Ghost Train
Anna Begins
A Long December
----------2nd Encore-----------
Wiseblood
Walkaways
This was a rather neat show for me as it was in a beautiful theatre. On the second song ben mize busted a drum head or somethign and they had to switch up the seatlist and they performed catapult acoustically. it was so gorgeous. if somebody taped it we need to talk. after tehy played it adam said, "ok...the drum thing is fixed and we're ready to play and you got a special treat." it was just two acostic guitars, accordian, bass, and a small drum kit. it made the show. i enjoyed the lyrics to barely out of tuesday..i'm going to try and find them on the new orleans tape i made although it's bad quality.
a murder of one was disappointing but good nonetheless. he sang these lyrics in the slowed up part, "i've been to paris, i've been to rome, i've been to germany and i 'm all alone."
it was neat but short.

Here's a review of the Dallas show courtesy of Joam@juno.com.

In September I sat around just like every other Counting Crows fan. I
was waiting. Waiting for an album that was advertised in the Rolling
Stone magazine. Under the add it said the new album, and suddenly my
mind started counting down the days until October. After getting the
new album I was a bigger fan than ever, and my mind told me that I had
to find out when they were coming to Dallas. I surfed the net
as much as I could to find out the "Counting Crows" official tour dates.
JANUARY 25. Ticketmaster was my next call. For a month and a half I
waited. When the day came I got to the music complex five hours early
and sat and waited where ever they told me. Finally, I was in the door
and I headed straight to the front. In one hour I would see the show I
had waited four years to see. Fionna came out and with her keys hanging
from her belly button. She sang beautifully, but she whined about what
had been thrown to her everyday of her life. So I kept looking at my
friends and wondering when the hell she was going to get off the stage.
Here I was, three feet from the stage, front row, standing pressed
against the guard rail wainting for my idol to sing every word that I
know by heart.

I could see the crows behind the stage and I was ready. The lights
went out and the spot lights shot out of the dark when the speakers rang
out with "Gonna get back to basics." Green lights fell and red lights
floated on the Counting Crows. There they were, Adam three feet
straight in front of me and the band playing the music I loved. It was
so great and unbelievable to me that it seems like a dream today. They
played Angels of the Silences, the 15 minute Round Here, and the
(Sittin' in the out in the rain soakin' and I don't give a damn wet
version) as I like to call it, of Mr. Jones. Adam added "When everybody
loves you I think you can never be lonely. He then peared straight into
my eyes and sang "I want to be someone to believe but you should not
believe in me." My ears heard it but I refused to do what he said
because I believe in Adam and that he is a great musician. During
Goodnight Elizabeth was the song that the Crows put the most feeling
into next to Mr. Jones. It was great, Adam looked at me many times
throughout the concert and so did the other members in the band because
I was front and center. When we called them back for and enchore they
played Ghost Train and Adam sat down on a speaker and I could stretch out
my arm and shake his hand if I wanted to. But I didn't because I didn't
want to be like every other fan in his eyes. (Always wanting a piece of
him) And during half of the song my idol looked at me as I stared and
wondered what made him hate being famous. It was a question I guess I
will never know the answer to. During Catapult I held my lighter up the
whole time because the words mean so much to me. (but that is another
story) And during the laid back version of A Long December, thanks to
Adam forgeting the piano part, I did the same. The world seemed to stop
for the 2 and a half hours the greatest musicians in the world were on
stage. If you've never seen a show, GO! It will mean so much to you.

"This is the last song we will do," Adam said. "Someday, I'm gonna
stay. But not today." Don't leave my lips moved but the words never
came. I guess I knew they had to. I wanted to give them something
from me. I threw my lighter towards Adam. It hit the floor and rolled
over to Charlie. They looked at me and laughed but they didn't pick it
up. OH WELL, I tried I told myself. My friend, Ben, followed my lead
and chunked his towards Ben Mize who was now sitting down on stage
listening to Walkaways. When he felt the lighter hit his boot he looked
down, picked it up, put it in his pocket, gave my friend a thumbs up and
walked off the stage with the rest of the band. We hung around for a
long time because I knew, Ben knew, and my other friend Steven knew this
is where we wanted to stay. I tried to catch Adam's Gatorade bottle ( I
don't know what I would have done with it) but I almost got knocked out
when it hit my left hand and someone elbowed me across the head reaching
for it. Ben got a setlist and the world was alright. For two and a
half always all the world was right.

ALL THE WORLD WAS RIGHT
Overall, the Dallas show was the unbelieveable. My ears rang three
times because of the volume but the band was into the show. There isn't
much more to say except I am a Counting Crows fan. And anyone else
who is, is "alright with me."