Counting Crows

Los Angeles, Amsterdam, & London

1994

First Appeared in The Music Box, February 1995, Volume 2, #2

Written by John Metzger

I was having quite a bit of difficulty picking a tape to review this month. I guess I've become a little more critical since starting this newsletter. Not that I still don't enjoy every single tape in my collection — I just want to pass along the word on only the absolute best tapes out there.

I was beginning to go crazy, thinking I'd never find a single tape to review when I received a package in the mail from an old tape-trading friend. Inside was an excellent quality tape containing a compilation of live Counting Crows that was culled from four separate dates. These are: two shows at the Roxy in Los Angeles (3/17-18/94), one show at the Melkweg in Amsterdam (4/14/94), and one show in London (8/7/94).

Counting Crows is far from a fluke, easily capturing the magic and emotion first revealed on its debut August and Everything After. A number of the songs from that outing appear on this tape and further prove that this is singer Adam Duritz's band. Borrowing heavily from the vocal expressions of Van Morrison, Duritz twists and turns each note into an emotional outpouring of stories about loneliness, isolation, and fleeting love. However, although this may be Duritz's creation, he's pulled together some excellent musicians that add everything from the funky guitar of Round Here and Mr. Jones to the tender Sullivan Street.

While the first side of the tape contains more traditional versions of Round Here and Anna Begins, the true gems are the pair of these tunes at the end of the tape which are shaken up a bit and given very pretty acoustic treatments. This only adds to the dynamic emotion that drips from Duritz's every word. Murder of One also goes through a bit of rearrangement and comes out sounding even better.

Four unreleased songs also appear, all of which will hopefully make to an album sometime soon. The best of the new batch is a pretty lullaby of sorts titled Goodnight Elisabeth and befittingly played at the Melkweg.

Set List

Side 1: Round Here, Mr. Jones, Rain King, Anna Begins, Sullivan Street,
Goodnight Elisabeth, Marjorie, Four More Reasons, Ghost Train

Side 2: Wise Blood, Time & Time Again, Murder of One, Anna Begins,
Round Here, Einstein on the Beach

August and Everything After is available from
Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!