Counting Crows bring The Complete Sweets! Tour to Highland Park’s Ravinia Festival for a not-so-summery summer evening show. When the shows begin at Ravinia, it’s typically a sure sign that summer is here. However, this day might have been a slight blip in that forecast as it began with a slightly rainy morning which surely must have made those with lawn tickets a little nervous. Luckily, once it was showtime, the rain stayed away. Although frontman Adam Duritz was clearly taken aback by the lack of summer weather as he quipped “you guys haven’t sorted summer out yet,” while going on to joke that there’s online classes for that. He also mentioned his regret of getting on the tour bus with shorts as he wasn’t ready for this cool weather.
The less than summer-like weather did not put a dampener on anything as Counting Crows brought the hits both old and new. Each night on this tour has a completely different setlist so you never know exactly what you’re going to get before the show. What you know you will get is a fun night and a fantastic performance by some extremely talented musicians. Duritz proves once again that he’s a poet when it comes to writing lyrics. His voice sounds impeccable and the emotion he puts into performing each and every song truly brings these shows to life. No matter how many times you see them perform, from the very first notes of “Colorblind,” the audience can’t help but be transfixed and hanging on every word.
This is a band who have been together for a long time, and it shows. Despite changing the setlist every show, they work like a well-oiled machine. You could think that having three guitarists in a band like this could be over-powering and a setup best kept for metal bands, but this is not the case here. The combination of Dan Vickrey, David Immerglück, and David Bryson complement each other while each having their moment to shine. It’s always a treat when you see Charlie Gillingham pick up his accordion and come front and center as he did for “Omaha.”
Typically bands tend to keep their bigger hits to the encore, but that was not the case here with songs like “Mr Jones” and “Colorblind” making appearances very early on in the set. Hits “Round Here” and “Rain King” were saved until later in the evening. Not surprisingly, the majority of the evening’s setlist comprised of songs from Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets! which was released in May and is their first full-length album since 2014’s Somewhere Under Wonderland.
Throughout the evening, people could be seen on their feet either dancing or swaying depending on the sentiment of the song. While there were some songs where people would take a seat, it was fun to see when the music would take over the audience and they couldn’t help but jump to their feet to show their appreciation for the music.
Counting Crows have US tour dates running through until late August before they head to Europe in September. They have dates scheduled as far as November 1 when the tour will wrap in London. With this many dates on the books, you really have no excuse to miss this tour.
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