They don't come over to the UK all that often, but I have seen Counting Crows live 5 times. Cool, eh? Anyways, here are the "reviews" I wrote at the time...
University of London Union, London, England — October 13th, 1999
Firstly the important news for UK fans:
- CC will *not* appear on TFI — they have cancelled.
- We get TDL before the Americans!!! The UK release date is Nov 1.
- CC will do a "proper" tour of the UK in February next year.
And now the review.
Got to the ULU atr about 5:15. Doors opened at 7:30 and went inside. Right at the front! At 9:15, after more than an hour an a half listening to the Beach Boys, Magical Mystery Tour fires up and on come the crows.
Mr Jones — Charlie staRTS with that familiar acordian intro and Adam sings the So you wanna be a rock'n'roll star line, in the classic acoustic style. Then the others come in and they play a full electric version! Excellant.
Children in Bloom — If the crows played it this well on RTS, I wouldn't fast forward it (well, not as frequently at least). I'm not a huge fan of this song, but it was the best version of it I've heard. Ben Mize was almost in tears by the end.
Daylight Fading — Longer intro than is usual. Not much more that I can say about this song — they played it almost the same as on RTS.
St Robinson and his Cadillac Dream — I'm not very familiar with this song, having only heard it a few times before. They played this during their soundcheck too.
Anna Begins — Long intro with loads of slide by Immergluck, other than that, quite similar to the album version. Loads more passion in the last verse though.
Mercury — As the album version, but infused with the lines This isn't a song about Love, it's a song about Addiction
. Adam started with this line and I was like "They can't be doing a new version of Love And Addiction!?!?!"
Omaha — Usual excellent acordian from Charlie. Much the same as usual.
Round Here — I didn't time it, but I'd say about 8 or so minutes. The insert was something I didn't recognised and also bits of the Byrd's So You Wanna Be a Rock'n'Roll Star. Excellant. Imnergluck played a horizontal slide guitar in this (it's like an electric guitar resting on a table, which you play with a built in slide). Dan retuned his guitar part-way through this song, which I thought was kinda cool.
I Wish I Was A Girl — Adam introduced this saying it was the first time they'd ever played this live, becasue it was so fucking difficult. Not a terribly memorable piece, but still very good.
Hanginaround — The usual this is our single — go out an buy it
speech followed by orders to clap along (because they can't do it, because they have other things to do!). Much the same as the live versions I have heard of this. I think it was this song in which Dan's e-string snapped. Could have been another though.
Rain King — Everyone was well up for this. Pretty much the same as usual, except that Adma kept mumbling some line over and over in the middle. I can't remember what it was though.
A Murder of One — Semi-epic I suppose. Longer than the album version, but they've done it even longer before. No huge deviations from other versions.
Then they left the stage. WE WANT MORE!!!! Counting crows return to huge applause.
Another Horsedreamer's Blues — Adam says they don't play this live much either, for the same reasons. Very much the same as on RTS. Adam begins announcing that they're gonna play a song they discovered in Sth Africa byt an American called....
rudely interrupted by Immergluck who whispers something to him. Adam turns back to the audience.... actually we're not. We're gonna play a song from our new album. That's really ruined the mood.
I think it was about this point that Adam introduces Dan's hat (a bowler)
"The Hat Song" — not really a song. A few lines of improv'ed jazz from Charlie and Dan in honour of his hat.
Speedway — According to Adam, Ben suggested the name Get the Fuck Outta Here, or something like that. Anyway, same as I've heard on other occasions.
The Return of the Grevious Angel — the real song they learnt in Africa. Luckily Lisa sent me a tape of this which I recieved yesterday evening (thanks, Lisa :-)). Excellent song. A bit too "folky" for me I suppose, but still excellent.
A Long December — It was about time Adam actually played some piano (I play piano... and I sing like a hummingbird... might make that my sig). Very much the same as the usual version. Got to shake hands with Charlie at the end of this song. Well chuffed. He plays a mean acordian.
Walkaways — Classic way to end a set really. Louder, more powerful guitar than on the album, but otherwise unchanged.
Then I shook hands with Dan and went home. That's about it.
Oh, one last thing... to all you Americans reading this... ha ha... we get the album a day early!
--Toby Inkster
Royal Albert Hall, London, England — February 22nd, 2000
OK, can't be bothered to do a "full review" so I'll just highlight the key points. First off, the setlist:
- Murder Of One
- IWIWAG
- Angels of the Silences
- High life
- Omaha
- 4 Days
- St Rob + his CD
- Mr Jones
- Amy Hit the Atmosphere
- Round Here
- Mrs Potter's Lullaby
- Rain King
- Hanginaround
Encore:
- Time+Time Again
- Kid Things
- A Long December
- Walkaways
Round Here included the lyrics I walk along the hillside in the summer, 'neath the sunshine...
etc from the album version of A Murder of One, then Adam went on about Sit Up, Sit Up, Sit Up, Sit Up, Get Up, Get Up...
for a while then There's a girl in the car out in the parking lot, she said, man come on and take a shot, can't you see my walls are crumbling down, can't you see my sky turn black and brown
etc like on AAW2. Then, to top it all of, he ended on the first two verses of Private Archipelago!!!
Rain King, I think he added Thunder Road, but I'm not sure. Most of the other songs were pretty much how you'd expect. Opening with Murder Of One... that has to be a first time, right??? Most of this tour they've opened with:
Mr Jones
Angels of the Silences
IWIWAG
High Life
Omaha...
Adam had some announcements...
- Gil Norton (producer of RTS) has just had two kids. Adam says he
admire[s] his potency
. - Adam says that the BBC is trying to turn GLR (Greater London Radio) into a talk station - ie no music. GLR and XFM are the only two stations in London you're likely to hear CC on now. So he says phone the BBC up and complain about their plans.
- Also, XFM sponsored and recorded the gig, so they should be broadcasting it soon!
Arid were OK. My girlfriend wasn't too impressed with the though. I think they sounded a bit like a mopey version of James. Not as mopey as CC though! I'm sure their last song was a cover of a Backstreet Boys one or something... There's a BSB/5ive song which has an "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!" bit in it. It's been playing quite a bit on the radio here recently. Anyway, their song had the same bit in it, so I think it's the same one.
Ummm... that's about all I have to say, except that I hope a decent bootleg comes out of this, cos it was the best show ever... and includes any other crows shows... even one's I wasn't at!
--Toby Inkster
"Hey Eliza, now what do you want?
I play piano and I sing like a hummingbird,
And oh I forgot that... hummingbirds don't sing.
It doesn't matter really... you know what I mean." -CC
Wembley Arena, London, England — June 16th, 2000
I can't seem to find any review of this. Maybe I didn't do one?
Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset, England — June 23rd, 2000
It should be noted that the BBC was supposed to show their performance on TV, but they didn't. Instead, Zoe Ball (one of the presenters) decided to verbally bash the band. Jamie Theakston (the other presenter), despite being a CC fan, did little to defend them. The BBC made up for their mistakes by showing Hanginaround on their Christmas-time Glastonbury highlights show.
Hey people,
Just got back an hour or so ago and have read everyone's angry BBC comments.
I'd just like to say (ducking) that you didn't miss that much. As Crows shows go it was fairly average, although I am disappointed that the BBC did not show any of it.
For those who are interested, I recorded nearly the entire set on MiniDisc (last minute or so of Hanginaround was chopped off due to disc running out). I doubt I'll be ready to trade it for a couple of weeks. If you check back, I'll post again when I am.
Setlist was:
- Angels of the Silences (D quality recording - dunno what happened!)
- Mr Jones (this onwards is an A/B grade recording)
- IWIWAG
- All My Friends
- Omaha
- HYSML?
- A Murder of One
- Live Forever/A Long December
- Round Here (She Doesn't Exist Anymore)
- Mrs Potter's Lullaby
- Rain King (Thunder Rd)
- Hanginaround (end snipped off, but he did the "Don't get up early in the morning" alt)
Turn out was good for the show — I'd say the Pyramid Stage Field was pretty much as full as it got that day, although it must be said that there wasn't much else on at the time of any quality!
Live's performance was excellent too. Am definitely gonna get myself a ticket to one of their shows next time they're in my area. Didn't recognise all their songs but they played Lightning Crashes, The Distance, Dolphin's Cry, Shit Towne, I Alone and All Over (Me/You/?).
--Toby Inkster