Counting Crows Live in Edmonton July 14th 2017

Last Friday night my buddy Buzzard, Chat and Janis and I took advantage of another Ticketmaster Summer Seat Sale and went to Rogers Place for the "A Brief History Of Everything Tour" which was 90's nostalgia tour that included the Counting Crows and Matchbox Twenty. Now I had no interest at all in seeing Matchbox, but have always wanted to see the Counting Crows, you could call that band a guilty pleasure. Have always been a fan and never seen them before, so for 20 dollars I was in. This was a co-headlining tour, so each band took turns headlining. I was really hoping the Counting Crows would be the opener on this night and as luck would have it, I got lucky and they were, so there was no having to sit through a set by Matchbox.

The Counting Crows played a 75 minute set that was a good mix of old stuff and a few newer songs, and a cover of Joni Mitchells' "Big Yellow Taxi" that was featured on the Two Weeks Notice soundtrack. Of course the band wouldn't get away without playing their biggest hit "Mr. Jones" from their 1993 debut album August and Everything After. When they played this song I couldn't help but remember my buddy Geddy (RIP buddy), he used to sing this song with his own words to it, with him being a huge fan of The Flintstones, his version went like this, instead of Mr. Jones and Me, he always sang "Fred Flintstone and Barney", he ruined the song for me, but with how much that song was played back in the day you couldn't help but make fun of it, it sure makes me laugh like hell now. They ended the show with a great version of "Rain King" for the encore.

I've always found lead singer Adam Duritz's voice soulful and unique and one of a kind, and from what I heard, he still packs a punch with his voice. From where we were sitting which was the second last row of Rogers Place all the guys on stage just looked like little dots as there were no screens showing the band. And holy fuck is the upper bowl ever steep, felt like if I fell there was no stopping me until I hit bottom. So it wasn't til I got home and looked at the pictures I took did I notice that Adam Durtiz is one strange looking dude. There seemed to be a lot of empty seats during the Crows set, my guess would be a crowd of about 10,000 people. All and all I thought this was a great performance by the Counting Crows and well worth the 20 dollars. Good times!!!

Setlist.

The Counting Crows at Rogers Place.