Counting Coyotes

Last Tuesday night was the Counting Crows concert. It was a good show, though not the best I've seen them put on. The way it was done was most interesting, however.



The current tour is billed as the The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Travelling Circus & Medicine Show. The venue was the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. I'd been there once before for a Phil Lesh and Friends show, and I really like the venue, but don't care much for the parking situation. They'll park cars down the middle of the street heading out, and on the grassy areas on either side, front to back with no way out until the cars ahead of you are gone. The theater is nice, though, small enough that most every seat is pretty close. The tickets I got were in the second row of the side terrace, up a bit but pretty much even with around the 12th row. Mine was the seat on the very edge, and I had a great view of both the stage and the concessions stand, just below the terrace.

Along with Counting Crows was Augustana, who opened for them last time I saw 'em, and Spearhead featuring Michael Franti. I'd never heard of the latter, but I overheard a girl walking into the concession area telling her friend that "They are the shit!!!" Now, the Counting Crows website they have a notice about how they're doing this show, when the curtain goes up, EVERYONE will be on stage, doing a few songs together, then one or the other will open, and the other will close out the show. Sure enough, they have the circus logo curtain up in front, and Adam steps out from the side and pulls the rope that raises the curtain. I don't know a lot of the songs by the other two groups, but I'll attempt to compile a list here of what they played. Most of the first half had at least most of the members of Spearhead and Augustana on stage, and Counting Crows for most of that half, too. Here's what I was able to get:

1. (everyone) Caravan (Van Morrison cover tune)
2. (Spearhead) Hello Bonjour
3. (Counting Crows) A Long December
4. (Counting Crows) Hanging Tree
5. (Counting Crows) Omaha
6. (Augustana) (Didn't quite make this one out, but it was good...)
7. (Augustana) Fire
8. (Augustana) Sweet and Low
9. (Augustana) (Didn't quite make this one out either, but I think Adam joined 'em again on it, and I know they segued into the Dead's "Casey Jones")
10. (Spearhead) (Dunno)
11. (Spearhead) Rude Boys Back in Town
12. (Spearhead) Stay Human
13. (Spearhead) (Don't know what this one was either, but it was very sexy... segued into "Tainted Love"
14. (Augustana) Sound of Sunshine Going Down?
15. (Augustana) Got Love For You?
16. (Augustana) ???

Intermission

17. (Counting Crows) Another Horse Dreamer's Blues (with an awesome wailing sax!!!)
18. (Counting Crows) Mr. Jones
19. (Counting Crows) Washington Square
20. (Counting Crows) Miami
21. (Counting Crows) Goodnight L.A.
22. (Augustana) ???
23. (Augustana) ???
24. (Augustana) Boston Segued into Raining in Baltimore
25. (Counting Crows) Why Should You Come When I Call
26. (Counting Crows) Hangingaround
27. (All) Cecilia
28. (Spearhead) Hey World Remote Control Version
29. (Augustana) Raise A Ruckus
30. (Counting Crows) Rain King Segued into A Little Help From My Friends
31. (All) This Land Is Your Land

So, as you can see, I didn't know all the songs, but you get A LOT of music for your money at this show!!! The energy was great, and all the groups worked well together. Many of the songs different singers would sing different verses. Next to the last song they pulled some young kid up on stage, around 12-14, and had him shaking maracas. They put him on the microphone between songs, and he said this was the first concert he'd ever been to, he wasn't expecting this. I notice that they played as many songs off August and Everything After as they did from Hard Candy. This bolsters my contention that Hard Candy, while not as widely played, is one of their best discs.

Oh, and the coyotes... Left from the venue, actually found the car without much difficulty, sat down and opened up the windows and sunroof and sat in her for a while, then as our row starts moving I go to fire her up and she doesn't even crank, so I finally reach AAA (cell phone reception is quite poor) and they're sending a tow truck, and it takes almost an hour before it shows up, and almost all the other cars are gone and coyotes are coming down out of the hills (I actually only saw four, and only two of them at the same time so it might have just been the same two several times and I have to call AAA back several times to before the truck even gets into my area, I'm flashing my lights and honking my horn but he doesn't see me or acts like he doesn't and I finally tell the dispatcher to have him stop there, and put her in neutral and coast down the hill to right behind his truck and he asks me what the trouble is I tell him its the starter he asks how I know and I tell him trust me, I know this car and he checks it out a bit and finally agrees and then asks if I tried beating on the starter, and I say no, he pulls out an 18" breaker bar whacks it a few times and she fires right up and I took the starter out last night and put a replacement in today and its all OK now but that made for a long night!!!