It's been an awfully long time since I've had a show to blog about... I guess a week at the shore combined with too many hours at work can have that affect sometimes...
Tonight, I went to the Susquehanna Bank Center to see the Counting Crows, but first, Sara Bareilles was starting the show. She is one of very few artists I've found out about in the last ten years by seeing a music video (yes, they're still on TV in the middle of the night and during top 20 countdowns). Somehow, I saw her Love Song video quite a few times until it finally grew on me enough that I decided to buy her album.
To start the show, Adam Duritz came out and talked about how this was the third show in a row that they were playing in New Jersey, but this was the best selling show of the tour so far. After his short intro, he brought out Sara Bareilles to start the show. She was accompanied by three other band members playing guitar, bass, and drums, while she played piano. They started off the set with Bottle It Up, then Sara explained that she wrote her next song for one of her ex-boyfriends back when she still liked him, and they played Morningside. Before the next song, Sara explained how she likes to drive up the California coast, just thinking, so her next song was about that called Many The Miles. During the song, Sara introduced her band members, then when they finished the song, they went right into Love Song, which got a great reaction from the crowd.
When they finished Love Song, Sara came out from behind her piano and came to the front of the stage. She talked a bit about how happy she was to be on this tour and what a great show the other bands put on every night. She then said that she wanted to sing a song by one of her other favorite bands, the Beatles, and they covered Oh! Darling, which was the only song that Sara did not play piano on. After the song, Sara mentioned all of her band members again as they left the stage. Sara then finished the set by playing Gravity by herself.
I thought Sara put on a pretty good show. I'm not a huge fan of her CD, but I thought she picked the best songs for her set. I really just bought it because of Love Song, and I was kind of disappointed by the rest of it. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like her set that much, but I was pleasantly surprised by it.
For some reason, I was pretty sure that Maroon 5 was supposed to be playing next. I don't really know where that came from... Maybe when I bought the tickets, Counting Crows were listed first or maybe I just decided that because I think the Counting Crows are better, they should go on last. Anyway, when the Counting Crows took the stage, I was sure it was Maroon 5 so I wasn't really paying attention. Even when I recognized the beginning of the first song and Adam Duritz started singing, my first thought was "wow, Duritz is playing with Maroon 5?!?" Not long after that, I figured out that Counting Crows was actually playing next, which was a good thing for me because that meant I was going to get to go home early!
The Counting Crows started off with Omaha, which was a nice start to their set. They followed that with Daylight Fading, then played Rain King. The band usually changes up the sound on a log of their songs, but Rain King sounded really strange. The beginning was mainly just drums and Adam singing, and it took me a while to figure out what it even was. They ended up getting it back on track later, but I didn't really like how the song started very much.
The band's next song was Colorblind, which is okay but one of my least favorite songs. They followed that with If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead), then went right into Mr. Jones. That is usually a song that they change up a lot when they play it live, but they seemed to stay pretty true to the recorded version, which was a little disappointing.
Before moving on, Adam talked about how they've been friends with Maroon 5 for a long time, and they're happy to see them doing so well. He continued by saying that radio stations and friends may try to tell you that certain bands are good and others are bad, but the bands themselves just want to see each other succeed. He then went on to explain that his girlfriend was having a birthday party tonight, so as soon as the Counting Crows were finished, he was going to get on the bus and go up to New York to see her. Adam proceeded to introduce the next song by talking about the band's new album and said that they were going to play the first song from it, 1492. I don't have the new album, and I wasn't really that impressed with the song, but it might grow on me once I get the CD.
The band moved on with another new song called Sundays, which I liked more than the song before it. They then moved right into Hard Candy, which sounded pretty cool. After that, they played A Murder of One, which is always a great song. It gets soft and slow in the middle, then it really picks and ends with a lot of energy, which really got the crowd going. As the place was going nuts, the band left the stage to a great ovation.
The lights went out as the crowd continued to cheer. Eventually, the band came back, which is somewhat unusual for a band that is not closing the show, but the band clearly left the stage early for a co-headliner. When they came back, Duritz took a seat at a piano that was brought out to the front of the stage. When he got out there, he talked about how he had hurt his ankle, which he mentioned earlier in the show as well, so he shouldn't be jumping around the stage so much. He also said he didn't have anything to numb the pain, but when he got into the music, he couldn't help himself. He mentioned again that he was going to see his girlfriend after the show was over, and said he was playing the next song for her, Goodnight LA. When he finished that song, he went right into A Long December, which got a good reaction from the crowd. Toward the end of the song, he added in some lyrics from A Murder of One.
Before finishing the show, Adam took some time to talk about the charity that the band sponsors (Grey Bird, I think), and mentioned some local sponsors that were at the show. Once he finished talking about the charities, Adam sang Walkaways while one of his guitarists (Dave Immergluck, I believe) played. It was a nice, short ending to their set.
I was hoping for a more high energy close to the show, but I did really like the Counting Crows' set. It was just too short to me, but I knew it probably would be since they were sharing the bill with Maroon 5. Hopefully, they'll come around on their own headlining tour sometime soon so I can see more of them...
I don't know why, but for some reason, I decided to stick around for Maroon 5. I don't really have any interest in them, but I thought I'd give them a chance. They started with one of their big singles, This Love, but I just wasn't that into it. Early in their second song, I finally decided that I just didn't have any interest in seeing the rest of their set, so I headed for home. I just wish I had made that decision sooner rather than waiting through the set change.