|
 |
| |
The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show
| September 5th, 2009 @ Merriweather Post Pavilion |
| |
by Courtney Campbell
| |
| |
So the Circus came to town last night - well The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show that is. What is that you say? Let me explain. That is Augustana, Michael Franti & Spearhead and Counting Crows. Okay so it's a concert, right? Yeah but not one like you have ever witnessed before! Here's what Adam Duritz of Counting Crows posted on the website:
Dear Everyone-Who-Happens-To-Read-This,
I know you’re all used to showing up at 8:30 or 9PM for concerts that started at 7. It’s understandable. You’re there to see YOUR band and you’re showing up when you think they’re gonna play, right? Well, starting on Thursday July 16th at Marymoor Amphitheatre in Redmond, Washington, that’s all going to change.
Ladies and Gentlemen, at 7:15PM, when the curtain goes up on The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show, Augustana AND Counting Crows are all going to be walking out onstage together and that show is going to start with EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US onstage singing and playing our brains out. We’ll do a few songs together and then it may be Counting Crows that plays the first set alone. I don’t know exactly how the shows going to run every night. It’ll definitely be different a few days later in Friant, CA when Michael Franti & Spearhead join up. It’ll probably be different every night. The only thing I know for sure is that EVERY show on this tour is going to start with EVERYONE onstage together and we’re going to all be running on & off stage all night playing on each others songs and playing songs all together and basically just playing whenever we feel like playing. So you get my point, right?
GET HERE ON TIME!
Cuz when the curtain rises…THE CIRCUS BEGINS
ad
And that's exactly how it was. Well, almost. So around 7 pm Adam and David of the Counting Crows came out from behind the curtain and proceeded to perform "Ghost in You", the Psychedelic Furs song that the Crows have covered in the past. Adam explained that they were going to do a couple of songs that weren't going to be performed that night. The pavilion was slowly filling up at the time, probably a third full at the time. I don't think most had read the memo about the show starting with all the bands together - their loss, our gain. I find it a treat when a band performs a song stripped down and tonight was special because of that. Plus, it's home for Adam, at least it used to be - he was born in Baltimore.
The show itself kicked off with all three bands on stage with a cover of Van Morrison's "Caravan". There were probably 20-25 people on stage and one would think that they would be tripping over themselves and others but they weren't. From there the group went into Michael Franti & Spearhead's "Hello Bonjour". The third song in belonged solely to the Counting Crows and this is my favorite Crows song - "Murder of One". Adam's voice and energy were on point and one wouldn't have known that this song was from 1993. Three and a half hours later after trading off songs back and forth as well as band members, the show ended with a encore that included a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia" as well as ending the night with "This Land is Your Land".
This was more of a revival than a circus as I think of a revival as a new way to show something and that's exactly how it was. Or one could compare it to a musical review. If you were coming to just see one of these bands, you might walk away a bit disappointed but with an open mind you would walk away from an evening of fun. This format broke the barriers of what a traditional concert format is and in the end you either liked it or you didn't.
| |
|
 |
|
|
