The day of July 15th was a nice day--though rather warm and humid. It must've been the hottest day of the summer. And it set the stage for maybe the hottest concert of the summer as well.
I arrived at the stadium around 6:15 after spending the entire day at Hersheypark-- I had to change in the car in front of thousands of people, which was interesting. Oh well. Anyway, my girlfriend wanted to find the EDGE van (the EDGE is a local alternative radio station that plays lots of great music, but too much crap at times) so she could get a sticker for her car. We found the booth, and there was a huge crowd right next to it. And amazingly, we looked toward the center of the circle and who did we see but Adam Duritz, the lead singer for the Counting Crows. That was incredible. What you would not believe is that this guy is SO pale. And he's really tall. And he likes to use profanity quite often. Anyway, we both got our tickets autographed by the lyricist himself--I muttered a timid "thank you" under my breath to him; I think I was just taken aback by the fact that a really famous person was standing right in front of me.
Anyway, this is a rundown of the show. The opening band, Bettie Serveert, sucked. Big time. They were absolutely horrible. I got four words for them: go back to Holland. Apparently they're pretty big stuff over there. They were just too damn obnoxious and loud. Though I did kind of like the song "Geek." That was their only song that was half-decent. The Wallflowers came on and pretty much played through their entire Bringing Down the Horse album. They were very good, but not great. The guitars were WAY too loud. I couldn't even hear the words. Finally they got it all figured out, and 6th Avenue Heartache was really great. I really liked Bleeders too, but I'm a little biased toward that song since it's my favorite Wallflowers song. At the end, for an encore, they did a "remake" of a Bob Dylan song. The hippies were out in full force that night.
These two bands set the stage for what we were about to see. In the intermission between the Wallflowers and the Counting Crows was some music by various bands that seemed to be being played from a radio station. I really still don't know where it was coming from. Anyway, they played a lot of good songs in the intermission. Most notably were "The Bends" and "Lucky," both by Radiohead, and "Radiation Vibe" by Fountains of Wayne. This would be important later. The Crows came on with a great set, sound and lighting were phenomenal, etc..... From the first chord of "Recovering the Satellites" I knew it would be a great performance. What I realized is that Adam Duritz likes to play around with his songs. "Anna Begins" was not really sung; instead, it was more or less read in dialogue form. That was a neat effect. Also, "Mr. Jones" was turned into a slow ballad. I couldn't even believe it. I didn't know what song it was at first. That was just plain nuts. The whole damn stadium couldn't believe it. And, last but not least came the live version of "Round Here." Oh my God. This song was 13 minutes long. And interspersed between the Counting Crows melodies were clips played live from all of the songs we heard during the intermission. I never thought that the last line of "Round Here" would be "There's a radiation vibe I'm groovin' on/Shine on, Shine on, Shine On/Shine on!" The stadium erupted in cheer. It was one of the most amazing things I've heard, ever.
Well, if you ever get the chance to see the Crows or Wallflowers live, do so. Especially the Counting Crows. As for Bettie Serveert, forget it.
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