Counting Crows & The Graham Colton Band

I have a certain chemistry with the Counting Crows. I got the demo tape of August and Everything After my freshman year in high school. My dad and I would listen to it every day as he drove me to school. Seeing them — regardless of the type of music I listen to on a daily basis — is like second nature.
The Counting Crows recently played eight shows at the Warfield in two weeks. A very impressive thing about this whole situation was the opening band, The Graham Colton Band, out of Dallas. Colton, lead singer and rhythm guitarist, led the band with the confidence of someone much older than his 20 years. The band was comprised of five guys who traded off instruments and backed Colton perfectly. They have this touring thing down, though. It’s their fourth year touring with the decade-old Crows, and the experience has helped the quintet with their on-target harmonies and their adept skill of playing straight forward rock and roll…with soul.
The Graham Colton Band was able to play a full hour set, due to Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers (the other scheduled opener) being sick. About halfway through their set, David Immergluck, guitarist for Counting Crows (formerly of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, both SF bands), came out to sing Cracker’s hit “Low” with the band. The song was led by Colton’s strong vocals and Immergluck’s token wanking on the axe.
Soon after, the Crows came on to a beautifully lit stage; very fitting for the type of music you knew you’d be hearing. First you got Adam Duritz on the baby grand and Immergluck on the acoustic playing “Have You Seen Me Lately,” and they were soon joined by the rest of the band with Dan Vickery on banjo and Matt Malley on an electric standup bass. They started playing as loud and hard as they could. There’s nothing better to watch than a good band who is enjoying playing.
They then launched into “Hard Candy,” followed by the sing-along inducing “Mr. Jones.” One thing revealed by these first few songs was how well the band read each other. All Duritz had to do was raise a hand or lower it — a simple gesture that you knew meant the band was improvising — and the tone and music changed. Even though the band has played together for so long, the songs didn’t seem old, boring or worn out. With Duritz’s strong voice and sense of dramatics, the show was non-stop, the musicianship fabulous and the dialogue in between songs great. They were having fun playing a hometown show and the energy from the audience proved that they knew it as well.
The encore was a stellar production that began with just Duritz onstage playing the song “August and Everything After,” which has only been performed live once before. Then they all came on and played Woody Guthrie’s “California Stars.” Then they rocked “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel like it’s never been rocked before.
Duritz then selflessly let the openers play one of their songs, while he sang backup. They finished the encore with “Hangin’ Around,” for which Colton took over lead vocalist duties (again, a sight to see!) and the show was over…
Until they all came back. Adam spoke of how much it meant to them and how exciting it was to play at home, then said “We wanted to play more.” They finished off with a cover of a Big Star song and a track off Hard Candy, “Holiday in Spain.”
In all, I’ve seen the Counting Crows countless times, but this one was the best by far. The synergy between the Crows and Graham Colton was fun to watch, the set list was a perfect balance of all four of the Crows albums, and the delight in watching a band that loves to play was immeasurable.
– Laney Erokan
– Photos by Pamela Morgan

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