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:
Round Here
Untitled (Love Song) (The Romany Rye cover)
Four Days
Hospital (Coby Brown cover)
Colorblind
Perfect Blue Buildings
Children in Bloom
Start Again (Teenage Fanclub cover)
Omaha
Los Angeles
Mrs. Potter's Lullaby
Mercy
Like Teenage Gravity (Kasey Anderson cover)
A Long December
Return of the Grievous Angel (Gram Parsons cover)
I Wish I Was a Girl
A Murder of One
Washington Square (encore)
Hanginaround
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.
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.
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.
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,
