Counting Crows at Chateau St Michelle

We were at the concert at the Chateau St. Michelle winery lat night for the Counting Crows with the Wallflowers. As usual the Crows were awesome! What else was awesome was that we were lucky enough to do a meet and greet with the band as well see their sound check session before the concert.

They were totally cool and stayed around for pictures and signing. The things I got signed by the band:

• The CD Booklet for August and Everything After
• The CD Booklet for Hangingaround single (with the single August and Everything After)

The Wallflowers was first and they played for about 45 minutes. I remember when they used to be headlining shows and we actually saw them when they were at Marymoor several years back. Not a bad opening act. 

The Crows sang an assortment of tracks from all of their albums with a several from their latest album, Underwater Sunshine. Their setlist:

1. Round Here 
2. Untitled (Love Song)  (The Romany Rye cover)
3. Four Days 
4. Hospital (Coby Brown cover)
5. Colorblind 
6. Perfect Blue Buildings 
7. Children in Bloom 
8. Start Again (Teenage Fanclub cover)
9. Omaha 
10. Los Angeles 
11. Mrs. Potter's Lullaby 
12. Mercy 
13. Like Teenage Gravity (Kasey Anderson cover)
14. A Long December 
15. Return of the Grievous Angel  (Gram Parsons cover)
16. I Wish I Was a Girl 
17. A Murder of One 
18. Washington Square  (encore)
19. Hanginaround 
20. Holiday in Spain 

We sat in the general admission area and had lawn chairs to the left of the stage and sat only a few rows back. Unfortunately our seats had people walking past because of the corridor right next to us so we couldn't see the Crows with an unobstructed view, but they sounded great.

So I add Chateau St. Michelle to the list of concerts with the Crows that now include five. I am not going to rank them all as they were all special.

Counting Crows and The Wallflowers

The Counting Crows will be touring with The Wallflowers. Check out the dates and locations:

Date City Venue

June 14, 2013 Farmingville, NY Pennysaver Amphitheater

June 15, 2013 Big Flats, NY Tag’s Summerstage

June 18, 2013 Boston, MA Bank of America Pavilion

June 19, 2013 Hampton, NH Hampton Beach Casino (Counting Crows Only)

June 21, 2013 Mashantucket, CT Foxwoods

June 22, 2013 Belleville, ON Big Music Fest

June 24, 2013 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theater

June 25, 2013 Vienna, VA Wolftrap

June 27, 2013 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom

June 28, 2013 Buffalo, NY Buffalo Place Rocks The Harbor

June 30, 2013 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata

July 02, 2013 Verona, NY Turning Stone

July 04, 2013 Rochester Hills, MI Meadow Brook

July 06, 2013 St. Louis, MO Fair St. Louis (Counting Crows Only)

July 07, 2013 Chicago, IL Charter One

July 09, 2013 Minneapolis, MN Myth

July 10, 2013 Winnipeg, MT Centennial Concert Hall

July 15, 2013 Woodinville, WA Chateau Ste. Michelle

July 17, 2013 Livermore, CA Wente Vineyards

July 18, 2013 San Francisco, CA America’s Cup Pavilion

July 20, 2013 Las Vegas, NV Mandalay Bay Pool

July 21, 2013 Costa Mesa, CA Orange County Fair

Miami

Oh Miami. This song is a typical example of how The Counting Crows can take a studio version and perform a completely different versions of it.

Below are two different versions of the Miami in concert. Both have alternative lyrics and both have amazing intro of Adam talking about why he wrote this song.   Enjoy.

Dublin, Ireland, May 8, 2009 Fast Version

Manchester, England, 2009, Slow Version

Washington Square Meanings

I've been listening to Washington Square more often these days. It is a great slow melancholy song from Counting Crow's album Saturday Night and Sunday Mornings. I love the guitar melody and the support in the song to Adam's vocal. Haunting is an accurate word to describe the mood as is found so often in the music of Counting Crows.

From Admin from the album Live from SoHo album:

"This song I started right after I moved here,

I was kind of, I'd come back from tour and lost something, someone,

I was kind of faced with process of going back out again,

Seemed like a hard thing to leave New York behind,

So it's called, so we are going to play you most of Sunday Morning now

This is the beginning of Sunday Morning and it's called Washington Square"

What I found different about this song is that the song seems to have happy ending with Adam returning back to Washington Square as if he has found his resolution in his wandering that made him "walk out through the shadows of Washington Square." Happy resolutions couldn't be said for other songs such as Anna Begins or Sullivan Street, for example.

Goodnight Elisabeth Versions

The single guitar  introduction to Goodbye Elisabeth is unmistakable. The band plays numerous alternative lyrics for the song however it is difficult to find the versions on albums and performances that I can point to for you folks to look at it. These  below are the exception.

Traveling Circus 2009:

"All of the lights on Broadway go down 

and I watched the rain that fell down upon her face 

I saw the rain fall down through the lights of Broadway 

and I walked around at my pace

And I seen the snow fall down through the lights 

a millions stars reflecting on that sky 

All of the lights on Broadway light up for me 

sometimes I thought they would be mine 

I wanted the lights to light up for me

Someday the lights on Broadway might say my name 

just like the people on TV

So hey Ma, so hey Ma, 

hey Ma, look that's my name in lights

All of the lights on Broadway light up in my name starting across the New York sky

Me and my boys we rode the bus straight down Broadway in the village and I got off

I stayed up all night until the lights on Broadway faded away 

I knew the lights that lit up on Broadway just for me

They lit up just for me today 

So hey Ma, look at all the lights

hey Ma, look at all these lights 

hey Ma, look at my city lit for me"

Pinkpop 2003:

Waiting for summertime coming along

Wait for summer in this town

Got mysummertime coming long

Ain't no summer this time

All the leaves are brown

and the sky is gray

I went for a walk

on a winter's day

You know I would be safe and warm

if i were in LA

So I am California dreaming

I am California dreaming

I am California dreaming

So I am California dreaming

I am California dreaming

I am California dreaming

on such a winter's day".

Finally, an alternative can be found on the album New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall:

"Come on down, cover me with your eyes

You used to come on cover me with your eyes

and now you tell me everything is going to be all right

Now you tell me everything is going to be all right

You wanna make me think this its alright, while you're

Why can't it wait

You wanna tell me everything all right, while your're

Why can't it wait

You make me think that is all right, while your're

Why can't it wait

You wanna tell me tell me its alright for you  to treat me this,

Well it is not all right with me

Well it is not all right with me

No, it is not all right with me

No, it is not all right with me"