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Changes in song styles something to Crow about
« on: Aug 20th, 2006, 10:56pm » |
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...oddily enough i feel like i posted this before...haha....
it seems very familiar....sooo if i did i am sorry....
Changes in song styles something to Crow about
By NICK ROGERS
A&E EDITOR
Published Sunday, August 20, 2006
The four likeliest complaints from a reasonable chunk of the 8,012 attending Saturday's Counting Crows concert at the Illinois State Fair Grandstand: no "Mr. Jones," "Round Here," "American Girls" or "Accidentally in Love."
It's a fair beef, as the first song is what made so many fall in love with Counting Crows and the last was the most recent reminder of the band's sharpness at writing great alternative pop.
Despite hits that went unheard, the band still understood the way its cinematic songs resonated with its audience - enough so that they could musically re-construct nearly every one of them in a captivating way while making their feelings seem achingly familiar.
In a style similar to the band's recent live album, "New Amsterdam," the opening "Rain King" shifted from a romp to a stomp. Mid-tempo mandolin underlined dreadlocked yowling frontman Adam Duritz's scat-singing breaks and stream-of-consciousness jumps into "Raining in Baltimore." All these detours still led back to a soaring sing-along with the refrain
of “I belong in the service of the Queen.”
Limberly jumping atop the monitors during “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby,” Duritz remembered his rock-god poses, along with the song’s inspiration - falling in love with a girl on a movie screen. (Remarking how “stupid” that idea is might have been a wink to his past notable superstar loves.)
The Crows’ version of “Big Yellow Taxi” was reconfigured into a jazzy, folksy swing. “Goodnight Elizabeth” was meshed with Sheryl Crow’s “Pale Blue Eyes” as two halves of a whole about jilted love. By comparison, “Omaha,” “Time and Time Again” and “A Long December” were straightforward arrangements, although half-beat switches here and there kept “December” crisp.
The band closed its regular set by churning the crowd up in a loud-rock frenzy for “Miami” and “Hanginaround,” before a slowed-down encore of “Holiday in Spain.” The band arguably could have risen its raucous energy a little earlier, but the intoxicating show felt loose and spontaneous.
Prior to the Crows, the crowd thinned a bit after the Goo Goo Dolls performed a set more focused and energetic than on a previous Grandstand visit in 2003. Even if their new material all sounds like the buildup segments of better older songs, the live setting sparked to life tunes like “Stay With You” and “We’ll Be Here (When You’re Gone).”
Although not to the degree of Counting Crows, the Goos made a handful of changes to make its radio hits like “Slide,” “Black Balloon,” “Name” and “Iris” sound more muscular. Frontman John Rzeznik jovially joked with the crowd about the glut of fried fair food and humorously brushed off a pair of tossed-up panties on which had been written “Wanna trade?”
Kicking off the evening was exceptionally talented singer-songwriter Eliot Morris with a 20-minute set that, because of technical difficulties, was an acoustic one. (He and his band later came out for “Hanginaround.”) Soulful ballad “Anyway” drew heart-signs made with
fingers from the crowd.
Nick Rogers can be reached at 747-9587 or [email protected].
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/93840.asp
Stay True & Rock On!
Triest
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