June 6, 2003
4:34 PM
4:34 PM
A good night just got better.
Oh, cool. I just got word that the band opening up for Counting Crows and John Meyer at their DC show in August is a group called Wisechild. Off I went to their site to see how they sound, and it turns out they're sort of folk-rock, a great acoustic sound with nice harmonies and fiddles. Excellent. Man, I thought I was looking forward to this show before...
Very cool. I'll be seeing them the night after you, so I'll look forward to your review.
If what the Crows have been performing in England is any indication, this ought to be a great show. They've been doing a lot of covers lately, as indicated by the interview and setlist right over at users.ox.ac.uk/~scat1825/interview.htm, and that makes me really happy. I love it when bands don't just play their new album, a couple of old hits and then saunter off the stage. I want to hear their takes on other tunes, or new stuff, or really different alternate takes on their existing music. That's why I love Counting Crows shows -- some of the ten+ minute versions of "Round Here" floating around out there are spectacular. I heard one in Columbus where they went into this big "radiation" variant during their encore, and it was utterly amazing.
The only exception I would make to this preference (of alternate versions vs. album versions) is the occasional far-out performance delivered by Tori Amos. I went to a performance of hers (way back on the From the Choirgirl Hotel tour, or maybe it was the Dew Drop Inn tour) where I didn't recognize a single song, she'd remixed them so much. I appreciated the concert, but I kept getting confused when I tried to figure out what exactly it was she was performing -- a situation amplified by a crap sound system. Still a great concert, though.
Oh, I am SO jealous. What a great combination--Counting Crows and John Mayer, that is. I am a big fan.
And, yes, I realize that I spelled his name wrong. Whoops...