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An enthusiastic crowd welcomed Counting Crows’ Banshee Season Tour on a hot and humid Friday night in Alpharetta, one of Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
The evening began with Dashboard Confessional, who found significant success in the 2000’s. Their name gives more than a nod to the “emo” genre of music, known for a conversational type lyric that, surprise, tends to confess emotions. Singer/songwriter Chris Carrabba fits the style perfectly, sounding vulnerable or pained as appropriate. That doesn’t suggest that a song, album or a live performance is depressing. In fact, Carrabba and the van were visibly excited to playing live, and he had a winner manner interacting with the fans in the crowd.
The band delivered a 12 song set, mixing their more familiar hits with deeper cuts from their catalog, such as “The Sharp Hint of New Tears,” “Belong,” and “Everybody Learns from Disaster.” They also played “Burning Heart” from their latest 2022 album which remains “emo” lyrically but sounded fresh. The band finished strong with Spiderman 2‘s “Invincible” and “Hands Down,” two of their major hits, which brought the growing crowd to their feet.
Setlist:
Additional photos follow
After a stage reset, the evening went from one Confessional to another. The Counting Crows’ lead singer, Adam Duritz, frequently introduced songs with a story and, in another context, stopped the band shortly into “Anna Begins” confessing he’d screwed it up. It stirred some laughs from the band members, as well as a repeat of David Immerglück’s splendid mandolin intro.
Singer/songwriter Adam Duritz has a fantastic stage presence, his impassioned vocals, expressions and stories bleeding sincerity and vulnerability. The band seemed “on” as well, perhaps in part due to changing their setlist each night. Guitarists Dan Vickrey and David Immerglück had ample and appropriate moments to solo, and keyboardist Charlie Gillingham (bonus note: … who has a degree in artificial intelligence from CalTech…) enjoyed centerstage playing the accordion on “Omaha.”
For notables from the setlist, the band played “Butterfly in Reverse” (cowritten with Ryan Adams) which they hadn’t played on tour for many years. They covered Joni Mitchell’s (and welcome back, Joni!) “Big Yellow Taxi,” a song they had also recorded for 2002’s Hard Candy. “Round Here” got an extended treatment, and while some of the crowd’s energy diminished during “Palisades Park,” everyone was back on their feet for the final two songs of the set, “Rain King” and “A Long December.” The encore included four songs to leave the crowd on a (very high) note, with members of Dashboard Confessional joining on “So Long, So Long.”
It was a great night for music lovers with very complementary acts. Check out their tour schedule as the band heads west.
Setlist:
Encore:
