Counting Crows live at SummerStage, NYC (In Pictures)

Any Counting Crows fans in the house? I can’t say I was a big fan of the band but while visiting family in New York last week, I received a call from my oldest friend Elvin who asked if I would like to check them out live at Central Park’s SummerStage concert series. His wife, you see, wasn’t able to make the show due to a foot injury. Now, I dig a few of their songs, particularly “A Long December” but I don’t own any of their albums and I could easily think of about a hundred bands (maybe 200?) I would prefer to go see live but time spent with a good friend is always time well spent, right? Right.

My friend is a big fan of Counting Crows, who formed in Berkeley, California back in 1991 and burst onto the music scene with the hit song “Mr. Jones” off their 1994 debut album “August and Everything After”. He’s seen them live seven times already and assured me they were a terrific live band. Turns out he was right.

The band, whose seventh studio album “Somewhere Under Wonderland” is due out late summer, put on a great show. Vocalist Adam Duritz was in full American Idol mode and the band rocked out for close to two hours. Oh, and the weather in New York that evening was glorious. Funny thing was, my teenage daughter had been humming “Mr. Jones” around the house lately(!) having discovered the band on Spotify. I told her I’d call her from the show when the band played the song so that she could listen in. Surprisingly, they never played it. Still a great show despite my somewhat disappointed daughter.

I mean, even if they had sucked, I got to hang out with my best bud; the same guy that sat next to me in kindergarten; a guy I get to see now only a few times a year. That the band was so worth seeing live was gravy. And, after all, what is one’s life if it isn’t made up of moments like these, right? Right.

Being the wannabe photographer that I am, I shot a few pics – hope you enjoy them. You can also check them out in hi-res over on my Flickr page…

Here are a few bonus pics of opening act Toad The Wet Sprocket (they were also terrific)…

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