John Mayer and Counting Crows live at the Shoreline Amphitheater - Mountain View, Ca Jul 14 '03 (Updated Sep 17 '03)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 Mai by Eri Sugai From $4 The Bottom Line bah... just read the review... Something about California in the summertime is perfectly suited for music. It's probably the way the warm, dry, sunny days give way to the cool, cloudless evenings, putting people in the relaxed mood for those songs that capture the spirit of the season. Fortunately, my vacation to the Pacific Coast this summer has coincided with the July 13 concert of John Mayer and the Counting Crows at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. I was visiting some longtime friends for the trip, and they were fortunately able to arrange for tickets to the show for us. (Thanks again, Kevin and Amy, you guys rock.) None of us had seen either act before, but we knew enough about them to expect a good show. I was particularly excited to see Mayer, as I've enjoyed his music since he first popped up two years ago, but I was a tiny bit apprehensive about Counting Crows. I was originally turned off to the group by their first few songs a few years ago. I originally found their first single, Mr. Jones, to be rather whiney and self-indulgent. I dismissed it as "wuss rock" and more or less wrote off the group after that. Fortunately, a few of their more recent singles on the radio showed some promise - enough so that I was willing to give them a shot, and it turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience. Counting Crows first took the stage at about eight o'clock, following a forty-five minute set from the opening act Maroon 5 and a fifteen minute break to re-configure the stage. As the group came out, Adam Duritz addressed the crowd, saying how exciting it was to beack in their home town for the evening. While the stagehands set the stage with a series of small trees that held artificial candles, the band took to their instruments and Duritz announced that they would begin with an acoustic set before moving on to an electric portion. Starting off with acoustic guitars, piano, bass, mandolin, and drums, the band players through a few energetic numbers with a laid back feel, due mostly to the instrumentation. I didn't recognize all of these numbers, but a few songs in they did get to Mr. Jones, whipping up more than a little excitement in the crowd. Their acoustic version of the song turned out rather well, and I found that I enjoyed it far more than the original version I was used to on the radio. They began their transition to the electric portion of the show with a pair of cover songs. First came a version of Friend of the Devil, which Duritz dedicated to hometown legends The Grateful Dead. Afterwards, the a few members of the group switched to electric guitars for their rendition of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. By this time, the sun was starting to go down, coming in low over the seats in the amphitheater and basking the stage in a warm glow. Counting Crows continued their way through the more electric potion of the show, playing songs both familiar and not so familiar, including a short, solo portion from Adam Duritz on the piano leading into Long December, and an extended instrumental jam worked into the middle of Rain King. As darkness fell over the amphitheater and the stage lights grew brighter, things seemed to building to a crowd-pleasing rendition of American Girls. It seemed as if the band had peaked with the next few songs, but with the last song of their full set, Counting Crows proved that they still had more to give. As a pair of disco balls dropped from the ceiling, Duritz invited a throng of longtime friends and family from the San Francisco area, as well as the members of Maroon 5, onto the stage for Hangin' Around. As the crowd gathered on stage, it was clear that it wasn't your typical rock crowd, but simply a crowd of normal people, several with toddlers in tow, ecstatic to be sharing the stage with a longtime friend. As the song drew to a close, Duritz lept onto the monitors at the front of the stage with his arms spread wide open, as if he wanted to hug the entire crowd. After a brief break offstage, the band came back to finish with Holiday in Spain, a fine low-key finish to their half of the show. By the time they finished, I was more than a little impressed with the band, despite my initial reservations. It was about a forty-five minute wait for the before the second half of the show while the stagehands cleared away the set pieces and backdrops that Counting Crows had used, setting up a much simpler, stripped stage for John Mayer. When Mayer and his band took the stage, it was immediately clear that the show's second half would have a much different feel from the first half. There were no set pieces and no backdrops. Almost all of the lighting was handled by narrow spotlight effects, rather than full stage effects. One of the only things that remained the same between the two halves of the show was the level of excitement amongst the crowd. Mayer, accompanies by his bandmates, took the stage, looking rather laid-back in jeans, a gray t-shirt, and black sport coat. He opened his set with the familiar hits Why Georgia and My Stupid Mouth off of his debut album. For all the tight, expert musicianship that Mayer and his supporting players displayed, Mayer seemed a little tense and uncomfortable at the onset. It didn't last long, though, and soon he seemed to let the excitement of the crown sweep him up. In addition to the well-known songs that fans of Mayer's debut album would certainly expect, he also pulled out a few new songs written for his next album, due out in September. Something's Missing came across as smooth and a little jazzy, giving Mayer the chance to pull out his electric guitar and show off his chops. The other new song, Come Back to Bed, way a heavy blues number with and extended blues jam at the end, Mayer even threw in a few guitar licks from You Can't Always Get What You Want, much to the enjoyment of older fans in the audience. As his half of the show progressed, Mayer let his penchant for doing extended jam versions of his songs get the best of him. He provided long, extended intros for No Such Thing and 3x5. For one of the last songs in his main set, he drew out a long instrumental potion from the second half of Your Body Is a Wonderland (which he prefaced by making it clear that he didn't have anyone in particular in mind when he wrote the song). After about an hour of playing, Mayer and his band left the stage, and Mayer soon returned by himself to play a solo acoustic version of Neon. The bare-bones performance was a perfect showcase for the complex rhythms and tight arpeggios that Mayer is capable of. Once this song finished, the rest of the band joined Mayer onstage for their last song, a fun, overly energetic performance of 83. As the song drew to a close, Mayer slipped into brief snippets of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Let's hear It For the Boy. Near the end of the song, a pair of panties came flying up onto the stage, and Mayer even managed to work the incident into the lyrics briefly. It was clear how much fun he was having by this point, and we in the audience were simply enjoying being along for the ride. Both of the headlining acts for the evening were enjoyable, and I can unconditionally recommend their current tour. When push comes to shove, though, I'd have to say that I enjoyed the Counting Crows portion of the evening a tiny bit more. It's not that there was anything wrong with Mayer's performance. Rather, he seems to have outgrown the ideal size of his shows. His stripped-down stage with no set pieces, no backdrop, simple, four-piece band setup, and attempts at intimate stage banter seems much better suited to smaller clubs that seat no more than a few thousand, rather than large arenas where tens of thousands come to hear his music. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the evening immensely, and would welcome the opportunity to see either of these acts once again in practically any setting.

Read all comments (5)|Write your own comment

Write an essay on this topic.