Counting Crows / Lucy Rose

Lucy Rose's merchandise includes T-shirts, bags, tea and jam. Sweet. Her vocals are as sweet as said jam, and the practically sold out crowd can’t get enough of her. The young lass from Warwickshire has already worked with Bombay Bicycle Club, played at the Hop Farm on the same bill as Bob Dylan and had her music appear on Skins and Catfish: The TV Show. And she has blended her own 'Builder's Grey' tea. Keep an eat out for her and her wares.



The Counting Crows are back in the UK after 4 years to end a two month tour that has taken in Australia and Europe, before the Californians head home to tour the US with The Wallflowers. And you can tell people have missed them, the place is packed to the rafters (I can see this well, as I spend the evening next to the spotlight operators.) The lighting for the show I must say is amazing, building up from orange beams when singer Adam Duritz plays solo piano to flashing white lights for the build-up during 'Round Here'.

There is no talking until a good third of the way in, when Adam tells us of this tour and how he is a little homesick but loving it all the same. The banter takes a funny road when guitarist Dan takes a little bit of spotlight during the pre-mentioned solo piano part, making Duritz loose his place in 'A Long December', much to the crowds amusement.

The band have a great knack of taking their own tunes and improvising them to make a completely different tune, with the same lyrics (listen to their VH1 Storytellers disc from double live album 'Live On A wire: Live in New York City'), or alter the lyrics and keep the melody. Tonight's 'Rain King' has the same vibe as this recording, slower and with a more country sound. 'Round Here' is spoken more and extended quite a lot, but keeping the original melody. Some may say the band have a lot of members (seven at present) but this number gives a beautiful layering sound and pays off no end with these alternative arrangements.



There's no 'Mr Jones' but no one here cares. There are a lot of covers of various styles of music from artists as diverse as Romany Rye, Coby Brown, Grateful Dead, Kasey Anderson and Gillian Welch. The intro and outro music is Bill Wither's 'Lean On Me' and the Mamas And The Papas 'California Dreaming' (helps with the homesickness that!).

My favourite song 'Omaha' is also a huge favourite with all of the crowd, as is anything from 'August and Everything After', like 'Sullivan Street' that kicks the show off. The rest of the setlist covers their back catalogue, an impressive collection of six studio albums including the new 'Underwater Sunshine', and we are treated to four of these albums tracks tonight ('Untitled (Love Song)', 'Hospital', 'Mercy' and 'Like Teenage Gravity').

Let's hope we're not counting not another four years until they fly back over here.



Sullivan Street
Untitled (Love Song)
I Wish I Was a Girl
Hospital
Black & Blue
Omaha
Mercy
Miami
Acoustic
Mercury
Friend of the Devil
When I Dream of Michelangelo
Electric
Round Here
All My Love (Or Richard Manuel Is Dead)
Like Teenage Gravity
Look at Miss Ohio
A Long December
Rain King

Washington Square
Hanginaround
Holiday in Spain

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.