Hey Pop! readers.
Here’s a guest review from a certain music aficionado:
By Tracey Rauh
Managing Editor for Features
If you head to the Traveling Circus and Medicine Show with an open mind and no expectations for a traditional Counting Crows show, you probably will leave satisfied with somewhat expanded musical horizons.
If, however, you are a diehard fan and buy tickets to hear all your favorites from The Counting Crows, you probably will leave frustrated.
Wednesday night at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, both types of ticket-holders were apparent. Yet even with a first half of a three-plus -hour show that featured few hits and heavy doses of rap and hard rock from the two bands performing — quite literally — on stage with the Crows, the crowd was wiggling and wowing by the end of the night.
Heck, this stage-full of rock dudes even pulled off a rousing rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” following Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz’ heartfelt appeal for voter registration.
For the Traveling Circus and Medicine Show, the Counting Crows tour with Augustana and swap in a third act, at the Casino rapper NOTAR.
Nobody opens and nobody owns the night. Band members walk on stage together and leave that way, too. And while each group gets a chance to perform alone, the majority of songs are played featuring varying mixtures of the musicians at hand — like somewhere between 15 and 20 of them.
Augustana is a better fit than NOTAR. (If you don’t think you know Augustana, think “Boston” — as in, “She said I think I’ll go to Boston… think I’ll start a new life.”) NOTAR’s rap and pounding rock is in sharp contrast to the headliners and likely didn’t appeal to a number of the people who plopped down their money to hear Duritz’ poetic musings and American rock sounds.
What is most cool about his concert, though, is all the diversity and the sheer volume of performers. Envision a whole bunch of guys playing guitars, basses, piano, keyboards, drums, accordions, harmonicas, maybe even the spoons: ‘Cuz who knows? It was hard to keep track of them all.
Despite the chaos, no Crows fan left entirely disappointed: Early on Augustana and the Crows teamed up for “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby” and “Omaha.” Later, the circus crew took on “Rain King” and “Mr. Jones.” And when Duritz finally broke into “Long December,” his devoted followers undoubtedly felt like they’d arrived home.
The Counting Crows deliver a big surprise with this tour: new format, new sounds. And since the band hasn’t come out with any new music since the March 2008 release of “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings,” that may be just what the doctor ordered for this Traveling Circus and Medicine Show.
