As I Stood There, Counting Crows...

I’m driving down the road in my baby blue 1983 Mercury Lynx (it’s 1995 by the way) dealing with the perils of High School life. Questions plague my mind like, “Did I pass my Geometry test?” “Will I have a date to the Band Banquet?” “Are collarless shirts still cool?” Mr. Jones is playing on the radio and I’m singing every word.

I’m running up the stairs to my third floor dorm room in Jennings Hall. I’ve just sat through the most boring class ever, but it’s all ok because I’m about to hook up with my friends and go have some fun. I walk into the doorway to the sound of A Long December, my friends look at me and give me the quick upward head jerk that means what’s up in guy body language, and I know I’m home.

Chilling with Tripp, Matt & Ernie in the Booker-Beaver Mansion playing Playstation (the first one). We mute the volume on the TV and sing along with High Life.

I decide it’s time to attempt a movie with the kids. We buy our tickets, get our drinks and popcorn, and find our seats. We get settled in as the room goes dark. I was expecting the movie to be entertaining, but it’s still a cartoon. As the opening sequence begins, all of a sudden I hear that familiar voice. I think to myself... “This is the Counting Crows. On Shrek 2. And it’s a good song.”

The Counting Crows have been an integral part of my life for about half of my life. I own all of their albums, studio and live, on CD. I have one on vinyl. I have seen them live three times. I know every member of the band by name. Not only do I know what instruments they play, I know what instruments they play on most of the songs. David Brown and I have sat around for hours discussing songs, stories, and other minutiae. I really don’t have a hardcore fan personality. I’m not obsessed. I just love really great, emotional, and vivid songwriting expressed through incredibly clean, creative, and inventive music. There are not many groups that accomplish both of those, much less do it as well as the Counting Crows. Another thing I love about this band is that they are always evolving. I don’t mean evolving from album to album (although they do that too), but constantly. I have heard Round Here performed live at least twenty times from various concerts and it was never the same. Each version is completely different, but at the same time totally familiar.

Recently I had the opportunity to shoot their concert in Dallas. It was a great show (I wasn’t surprised), and it was a lot of fun to enjoy it from that perspective. I’d like to thank David and his friend Alicia for the “hook up,” I hope we can do it again sometime.

On to the images.

We'll start with one of Charlie rocking the accordian on Omaha.



Adam.









Charlie playing accordian, Adam playing piano, Immy on mandolin during A Long December.





I got some nice shots of Dan.











Dave and Adam.