Adam Duritz (left) must have imbibed a bit too much before his band’s disappointing, self-indulgent set at Fiddler’s Green on Wednesday. Photos by .
I found out Wednesday evening that Adam Levine’s voice sounds just as good outside of an amphitheater as it does when you are actually seated in front of the PA. My 14-year-old sister and I bitter-sweetly discovered this while attempting to find the correct entrance at for the concert, as we enjoyed from outside the concrete walls.
Of course, part of Maroon 5’s appeal is Levine’s handsomeness, so getting inside was imperative. We wandered through the amphitheater dotted with teetering drunken couples and found our seats just as the band was finishing “”Sunday Morning.” Maroon 5 stood like sexy soft rock miniatures against soaring LCD screens paneling the stage, washes of florescent visuals running 20 feet in the air and dropping with the last measures of the song.
The stage dimmed and two spotlights encased Levine and guitarist James Valentine while they performed a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” accompanied by minimal keyboards. The remaining members of the band re-appeared for “She Will Be Loved,” and as the last few bars played out, Levine grabbed a guitar, strummed a chord and dramatically slammed it down on the ground. Levine then handed the damaged instrument to a smitten front row fan and Maroon 5 filtered off the stage to raging applause.
I remember seeing and liking Maroon 5 in their previous incarnation as Kara’s Flowers long ago, and the little I caught of their set at Fiddler’s was a nice refresher. They were cute and played well to their expectedly younger audience, a crowd who became slightly thinner once their show was over and preparations for Counting Crows’ appearance began.
While the set was being deconstructed, Counting Crows lead singer, Adam Duritz, came out to engage the audience with some information on the Crows own charity, the GreyBird Foundation. I admired his attempt to speak to the distracted and mildly rowdy crowd about the work Safehouse Denver and the Colorado AIDS Project do, but I don’t know if anyone was actually listening.
Maroon 5’s LCD screens were replaced by a massive faux building front, windows made of projection screens and a large opening at the bottom the size of a movie theater screen, flanked by two levels of antique street lamps perched on a multi-tiered sets of steps. “Lean on Me” played from the speakers and 12 band members milled about, a mix of Counting Crows and the opening act I sadly missed, .
They opened with Van Morrison’s “Caravan,” the multi-vocal harmonies of the conjoined bands coming through the PA beautifully. Pixilated snow began to fall from within the window screens down onto the virtual Hollywood hills being projected, and Duritz sat down at the piano for “Long December.” The members of Augustana gathered in clusters on the steps and watched the band play around them.
This version quickly got old as Duritz went off on a wandering tangent, eventually realizing that he had already sang the verse he was mid-way through singing again. This was the first sign that maybe Duritz had indulged in just a little too much pre-show drinking. The band played likable and soothing versions of “Hanging Tree” and “Black and Blue,” members of Augustana filling in for some of the Crows who were at home with familial obligations.
Pulling the set from a slow and dragging start with “Shame,” Duritz dry-humped the air and spun around before falling into the mic stand. “When I Dream of Michelangelo” and “Come Around” came and went, and life was breathed back into the set when Augustana re-appeared for a much-needed version of “Hangin’ Around.” The 12-piece did a hearty version Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia,” Augustana’s lead vocalist Dan Layus shining through as the composed and graceful star of the evening.
The evening ended with “Rain King,” Augustana starting the song with a radiant Appalachian a cappella rendition before the Crows joined in. Again, the harmonizing of the unique group of voices resonated gorgeously over the keyboards, piano, bass, drums, guitars, banjos and mandolins.
In an inadvertent and right-on statement about the odd pairing of the teen-friendly Maroon 5 and soft-mom rock of the Counting Crows, my little sister asked me why Duritz insisted on using the F-word so much during the set. His swearing, along with drawn-out and self-indulgent versions of normally pleasant Crows songs made the evening feel like a bad date with an old boyfriend who wasn’t totally wasted, but just drunk enough to think he was being poetic.
In reality, he was just being pathetic. Thankfully, Maroon 5 and Augustana’s performances were brilliant enough to cover for Duritz’ inebriated slip-up of a performance.
is a Denver-based writer and regular Reverb contributor. Check out her and .
is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Denver photojournalist and Rever contributor.
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Counting Crows
