With their newest album, Somewhere Under Wonderland, Counting Crows continue their tradition of delivering uncompromisingly honest music grounded in pure feeling—even when the stories at the center of those songs are essentially fiction. “Palisades Park,” for instance, not only draws on Duritz’s teen years in the wilds of San Francisco, but also mines inspiration from his life as a musician “living outside the bounds of what everyone else does, and how liberating and terrifying that can be.” One of the most rewarding elements of Somewhere Under Wonderland’s point-of-view shift, according to Duritz: a joyful venturing into some less frequently plumbed corners of his mind. “I was talking to a friend who’s a songwriter, and I asked him if he thought the songs on the record were less personal than usual for me,” Duritz says of the making of Somewhere Under Wonderland. “And he told me, ‘No, they actually seem way more personal to me. I feel like in a way, you spent the past 20 years writing this epic tragedy about living with mental illness but that’s not all there is to you. You don’t walk around depressed all day every day. You’re funny. You talk a lot of crap and you have crazy thoughts, you make these twisted associations that other people wouldn’t make. It’s not all some big tragedy. I love those records, but this is more what it’s really like to be inside your head for a little while.’”
Their show was filled with all their classic hits from previous albums but they played a lot of the now material as well and the crowd responded with enthusiasm. I haven’t had the fortune or the ability to have seen them in over 15 yrs and did not know what to expect. What they delivered was a beautiful performance with the hot Southern California sun just starting to settle down on them. Their die hard fans all pushed to the front of the stage and were singing along with the band throughout their show. I was thoroughly impressed with the band and Adam’s voice was right on the number. I think it would have been even better had they had a night time slot but they were troopers performing during the heat of the day of what was record setting highs.
If your a fan of the Crows catch them on there tour now.
