By CHRIS PETERSON
Wednesday night Counting Crows, along with the Wallflowers and Gigolo Aunts, played to a crowd of fans at the Delta Center in Salt Lake.
The Counting Crows and Wallflowers' tour has been on the road since the begining of summer. Adam Duritz, lead singer for Counting Crows, avoided the use of the word 'opening act' when refering to the Wallflowers. Duritz, instead, called the tour a combined tour, giving thanks to the opening band Gigolo Aunts.
The Wallflowers followed the opening act, performing nearly every song off their current release 'Bringing Down The Horse.' Son of legend Bob Dylan, Jakob Dylan brought the crowd to its feet even while performing the Wallflowers' moody hit '6th Avenue Heartache.' Dylan and his cohorts played for close to an hour, finishing off with their 'rocker,' 'One Headlight.' The crowd wouldn't let them end so easily and requested an encore which the Wallflowers happily supplied.
Counting Crows took the stage to play what some concert-goers described as a more mellow Counting Crows. Being out on the road for a year on the Recovering the Satellites tour, along with a year and a half of touring for their debut CD 'August and Everything After,' Duritz has had plenty of time to adapt and rearrange songs the band has been playing for years. Duritz, at times, actually spoke the words to his songs with poetic flare.
'You stood there counting crows. One for sorrow. Two for joy. Three for girls and four for boys. Five for silver. Six for gold and seven for a secret never to be told,' Duritz spoke over the music. He displayed his love for story telling through his lyrics by acting out the songs' ideas through hand gestures and facial expressions.
Half-way through the set, the band turned its focus to an acoustic set that included the use of an accordion, a steel guitar, a mandolin, acoustic guitars and a percussion set which drew the drummer out from behind his traditional drum kit. The band played a mellow and moody version of its upbeat hit 'Mr. Jones' during the acoustic set.
The second half of the set showcased some of the more hardedge songs on the latest album 'Recovering the Satellites,' such as 'I'm Not Sleeping' and 'Have You Seen Me Lately?' Counting Crows ended its encore with the ballad 'Long December.'