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Counting Crows - August And Everything After: Live From Town Hall (2011)

Posted By: Melaron

Date: 8 Oct 2011 08:11:22

Counting Crows - August And Everything After: Live From Town Hall (2011)
DVD-9 | Runtime: 121 min. | 6,94 Gb | Copy: Untouched
Video: NTSC, MPEG Video at 7 037 Kbps, 720 x 480 (1.778) at 29.970 fps | Audio: English, AC-3 2ch. at 224 Kbps, AC-3 6ch. at 448 Kbps, DTS 6ch. at 1 510 Kbps
Genre: Rock, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock | Label: Eagle Vision | Subtitles: French, English, German

I've seen Counting Crows live several times. I admit fully to being a fan and there are several reasons for that. (See how "Mr. Jones" is already slipping into this piece?) I was quite pleased to receive a copy of the Counting Crows' concert DVD, August And Everything After: Live At Town Hall. This particular concert is unique because for this one show, the set list was the album August And Everything After, (and is there a fan out there who doesn't love this album?) played beginning to end. After watching this DVD, I think I would have given my right leg to be at that show. I've always loved Adam Duritz's lyrics because his metaphors have always spoken to me.

Sitting at home listening to a Counting Crows album makes me want to write. But watching Duritz and the Counting Crows perform is an entirely different experience. This DVD captures their phenomenal performance experience in a way I didn't expect. Duritz is amazing on stage and I'm always blown away by the depth and range of emotion he can project while performing. He is at times tortured, angry, melancholy, exuberant, or playing the clown. And it never feels practiced because I have literally seen him in concerts play one song incredibly angry and then at another performance sing the same song full of sorrow. But this concert is not solely an Adam Duritz act: the musical adeptness of the band is astounding. Counting Crows is a band known for its improvisation on stage, which they do extensively in this concert, and the way the band can keep up with Duritz' change-ups is impressive. But more than that the inherent joy the band obviously feels performing this concert simply leaks out of the TV screen and infects the viewer.

The DVD opens with a stunning and poignant mashed rendition of "Round Here" and "Raining In Baltimore" and that primes you for the rest of the concert. Which takes you on a rapturous journey that ultimately celebrates not only the album August And Everything After, but the journey of the band's experience from the album that started it all, through the growth and changes that were added over the years, to where they are today. The DVD also includes an in-depth interview with Adam Duritz and Charlie Gillingham that provides some not-so-surprising insights into the tumultuous creation of the album and how maintaining their creative freedom was the best decision they made.

As much as I highly (highly!) recommend this concert DVD to anyone, not just Counting Crows fans, I still feel like this review is falling short. It is just really hard to capture the complexity of the performance that is the Counting Crows. There is almost a serendipity to how this band comes together, almost accidentally, to create something amazing.

Counting Crows - with their angst-filled hybrid of Van Morrison, the Band, and R.E.M., Counting Crows became an overnight sensation in 1994. Only a year earlier, the band was a group of unknown musicians, filling in for the absent Van Morrison at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony; they were introduced by an enthusiastic Robbie Robertson. Early in 1993, the band recorded their debut album, August and Everything After, with T-Bone Burnett. Released the fall, it was a dark and somber record, driven by the morose lyrics and expressive vocals of Adam Duritz. The only up-tempo song, "Mr. Jones," became their ticket to stardom, and Counting Crows enjoyed a significant amount of success throughout the '90s and beyond.

What made Counting Crows unique was how they were able to balance Duritz's tortured lyrics with the sound of the late '60s and early '70s; it made them one of the few alternative bands to appeal to listeners who thought that rock & roll died in 1972. Recovering the Satellites followed in 1996, and "A Long December" was a Top 10 hit on both the Modern Rock and Adult Top 40 charts.

The band issued the two-disc Across a Wire: Live in New York in 1998, and the following year saw the release of Counting Crows' third studio album, This Desert Life. In the midst of recording and collaborating with Ryan Adams on his sophomore album, Gold, Duritz joined his band in the studio as well. The fruit of those sessions was the Steve Lillywhite-produced fourth album, Hard Candy. The next year saw the release of the best-of Films About Ghosts, and in 2004 Counting Crows reminded fans of their ability to write a hit single with "Accidentally in Love," which appeared on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Two years later, New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, recorded from a show on February 6, 2003, was made available to the public. Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings appeared in 2008.

Tracklist:
01. Round Here / Raining In Baltimore
02. Omaha
03. Mr. Jones
04. Introduction To Perfect Blue Buildings
05. Perfect Blue Buildings
06. Anna Begins
07. Time And Time Again
08. Rain King
09. Introduction To Sullivan Street
10. Sullivan Street
11. Ghost Train
12. A Murder Of One

Features:
- Direct Scene Access
- Interactive Menu

Bonus feature:
- Interview: “In Depth With Adam Gurvitz & Charlie Gillingham”