Can you ‘Count on Crows’ for the ultimate gig?
In the build up to all good concerts, fans begin to trawl through their iPods/ CDs/ LPs (depends on your age!) in an attempt to remind yourself of the words to every song the band have ever written.
To me, the whole point of a concert is to sing along loudly and out of tune, whilst aimlessly bopping about. If all of this happens, and the music is loud enough, then I will walk away a satisfied fan with high pitched ringing in my ears.
When my friend phoned me two days before the Belfast Counting Crows concert, I instantly thrilled and muttered an excitable “oohh I love them! I am such a fan! It brings back such good memories” Of course I’ll go!!”…
However, when the time came and we filed into the Odyssey Arena for the big show last week, I was sorely disappointed.
Granted, I had never realised that Counting Crows were so musically talented. We counted and reckon that between the 7 band members they played around 20 instruments. Highly impressive if you are used to the modern day pop sensations, many of who barely know what an instrument is!
But this didn’t detract from the fact that even after being a (supposed!) “fan” since ‘95, I only knew 3 of the songs in the whole concert! Lead singer, Adam Duritz, has such a unique and interesting sound that has captured listeners since the group formed in 1993, so I was able to forgive them some unknown tunes. But I was very upset that I couldn’t sing the whole way through.
After the concert we reassembled and the consensus was that we felt cheated. It was only after much deliberation that we realised the album that we all owned and loved was their debut, and thus highly dated. Of their new work, I was only able to remember a pathetic 4/5 bars of the tune, and none the words at that!
It was at this point I realised I had only ever been a “half-hearted fan”. A true follower would have know each album, and the aim of the current tour: to promote their newest release. Needless to say, I felt ashamed.
First stop after the concert was iTunes store to download all the new albums and learn the songs………