I would be lying if I didn't tell you the truth - Counting Crows

Sometimes you discover a band who completely changes your life. I'd thought I had found that when I discovered the Beatles, but then I found Counting Crows. This is a band that I could go on and on about all day, a band that I could write a 100 page graduate thesis paper on (ok, maybe not, but it sounds cool.)  There is just something about this group of seven guys: Adam Duritz, Dave Bryson, Charlie Gillingham, Dan Vickrey, David Immerglück, Jim Bogios and Millard Powers, that to me, is magical. I'll try not to make this post too long, but I have a lot to cram in. I do warn you though, that this will be one of the most honest posts I'll write, well, maybe until I get to writing about the Beatles (not that I'm not honest in the other ones, maybe honest isn't the right word. Lets just say that I normally don't tell people much about what really goes on in my head, but here I kinda have to.)

I think I've always been a Counting Crows fan, I mean what person in the early '90s didn't love Mr. Jones? But my real fan-dom started on 3/27/08 when I downloaded my first full, and arguably my favorite, Counting Crows record: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. Before that, I had only a few Crows songs in my collection, the basics: Mr. Jones, Round Here, Rain King. It wasn't until 8/29/2011 that I acquired my second full length Crows album, August & Everything After: Live at Town Hall. In those three years I was a fan, but nothing special. They hadn't yet secured a spot in my top 5 bands (now head to head with the Beatles for #1), or had a record on my "Desert Island Records" list. But that has all changed.

It has only been in the last 6 months that I have really, and I mean really gotten into this band. A month or so ago, a friend asked me "why now? What changed?" In early January, something flipped a switch, something in me was triggered and I became a full blown Counting Crows fan. I credit this to a dream I had in early January. In this dream Adam Duritz and I were in a pet store, shopping for rabbit food. Nothing special about the dream, it wasn't unusually weird, but it caused me to scour the interwebs for videos of live Counting Crows songs. It was then that I found this video (yes, that is Adam Duritz in a bunny costume. Bunny food, bunny costume... my brain weirds me out sometimes) --->



So this video is what got the ball rolling. But not what really cemented them as my current favorite band. This came a week or so later. By February, I had purchased all of the Crows' studio albums (August & Everything After, Recovering the Satellites, This Desert Life, Hard Candy and Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation) when it came out in April) and also the live albums New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall and Across a Wire: Live in New York City and downloaded a bunch of bootlegs. The second week of January was particularly difficult for me this year. I was having a bit of a spat with my little brother, something which I was really bummed about, and it was also the one year (though I hate using this word,) anniversary of my Grandma Brinkerhoff, to whom I was very close, passing away. So needless to say, I wasn't feeling my best that week. So when Recovering the Satellites arrived near the end of that week, I put it in the cd player and pushed play. The intro verse of Catapult was exactly what I needed to hear:
       All of a sudden she disappears / just yesterday she was here / somebody tell me if I am sleeping / someone should be with me here / cause I don't want to be alone
(Incidentally, Recovering the Satellites is my second favorite Crows album, with the others all tied at third)

I often refer to my rock stars as my "friends" because they are always there when I need them, and always know exactly what to say. This is completely spot on with Counting Crows. Adam Duritz has a gift; he writes the most amazing songs, songs that are so relatable on such a personal level to so many people, including me. As Roberta Flack once sang: "Strumming my pain with his fingers / Singing my life with his words / Killing me softly with his song / Telling my whole life with his words / Killing me softly with his song" Adam Duritz gives this true meaning, he does all this and more. He gives you songs that grab you and suck you in within the first line, and leaves you begging for more. For instance, the leading line from Hard Candy (the song and album): "On certain sundays in November / When the weather bothers me / I empty drawers of other summers / where my shadows used to be" That one line pulled me into the album, that one line helped cement this band into "good gourd, I LOVE this band" status, the one line (along with dozens of others) that made me fall in love with this band. (The other song that really did this is August & Everything After, which in my opinion is one of Adam Duritz's most lyrically beautiful songs ever.)

Musically the band is amazing too. They have two phenomenal lead guitarists: Dan Vickrey and David Immerglück. Immer not only rocks on the guitar, but also kills it, or should I say, is immerific, on the mandolin and steel pedal guitar. Messrs. Immerglück and Vickrey are now in my top 6 favorite guitarists of all time (Harrison, Clapton, The Edge, Buckingham, Immerglück, Vickrey.) Charlie's piano/organ skills are masterful, and you can't help but get excited when Charlie pulls out his accordion (I mean come on, what other mainstream band routinely uses both a mandolin and accordion?) Dave's rhythm guitar is great, and he's just so damn adorable. Jim gets so into the drums, you can see it in his face as he plays; he's brilliant. And Millard, well Millard is Millard. He plays bass superbly, kills it on acoustic guitar on the track Hospital from Underwater Sunshine and plays the piano too!

I have seen Counting Crows live (so far) three times: July 16, 2009, September 22, 2011 and April 13, 2012, each time more amazing than the last (especially the most recent show, as we were only like three feet away from the stage.) For those of you who have been lucky enough to see them live, you know how amazing their shows are. I liken their shows to those traveling Jesus shows, you know, the ones with the preachers who spit out scripture and say things like "you are healed" and speak in tongues and stuff? Where sometimes the preacher goes into some sort of trance? That's a Counting Crows show, only WAY more awesome, and without snakes. If you look up at Adam Duritz during a show, you'll wonder where he is - he is IN the song; he becomes part of it, entranced in the music, the lyrics, the emotion, the moment. Their's is one of those shows where you get so wrapped up in the music that you forget all about the thousand other fans standing behind you. To me, all that exists in that moment is Adam, Immer, Dan, Charlie, Dave, Jim and Millard, and maybe my concert buddy, only when I break my trance with the band.

Counting Crows shows are not shows that you simply walk out of - you float on the reverbs of Dan, Dave and Immer's guitars and Millard's bass, are carried on the beats of Jim's drumming, and the budduh bum bum of Charlie's accordion lifts you back up as you're falling. The high from a Counting Crows show keeps you going for weeks afterwards, well at least they do for me anyway. I've said before about seeing Tom Petty live, that even if he stood on stage for two hours singing Old McDonald I'd still go see him, same with Counting Crows. I don't care if they don't play any of "the hits", their catalog is chocked full of awesomeness that I wouldn't mind at all if they didn't do Mr. Jones or Rain King. Honestly, they could all just stand up there and pass around a phone book, each reading a selection of names, and I'd still be in awe with the band (but when you're done with the phone book, please play Cowboys for me. Seriously, I love that song. The guitars are incendiary.) Just remember, it's not over until Adam Duritz leads the California Dreamin' sing-a-long.

I love everything about this band: Adam Duritz's amazing lyrics, the music, the melodies, the harmonies, Adam Duritz's hair, Dan's hat. I love that they all seem like they are genuinely having fun and enjoying what they do with this band. I will freely admit that Adam Duritz is my celebrity crush. I don't think I have really ever been more in love with a band (not even the Beatles.) I would love to meet these guys, just hang out with them and talk about music, to interview them for the blog (but get ready for the most random questions ever!)

I could go on and on about how amazing these guys are, but I think I'll stop here, well until Part 2, when I talk about their new record Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation), which you should all go buy, if you haven't already, coz it's really, really, really good.