And the Crowd Goes Wild!
One of my all-time favorite things is when a band plays the opening notes to a song (without announcing what the song is) and the audience recognizes it and goes wild. Mike and I were talking about this a few weeks ago when we were listening to Patty Griffin’s live CD. Patty’s crowds are a little more subdued than some others, but you can still hear them cheer for the opening notes of “Rain” and “Goodbye,” among others.
As far as experiencing that personally, the most vivid memory I have is when we saw the Counting Crows at the Myrtle Beach House of Blues in October 2002. I have seen them four or five times, but that was definitely the best. And when Dave played the opening notes to “Mr. Jones,” and the audience exploded, well, it was great. (So sue me. I still love “Mr. Jones,” especially live.)
I was thinking about that this morning because Mike made me a mix CD a few weeks ago, and one of the songs is the infamous Counting Crows song “August and Everything After” that has finally come to light. I like the song pretty well, though I definitely don’t think it’s one of their best. My favorite part is when everyone cheers when Adam sings the words “August and everything after” for the first time. It would have been cool to be there for that.
February 20th, 2004 at
I think my favorite such moment on a live CD is BNL’s “Brian Wilson” on their greatest hits disc. The live version completely ruined me on the studio version.
February 22nd, 2004 at
Huh, funny and amazing that you think the most memorable is “Mr. Jones.” Funny because when I read your first line, my first thought was of this last summer when I saw them do Mr. Jones. That and “American Girls.”
And it IS one of the most awesome things in the world.
February 22nd, 2004 at
The Counting Crows are pretty dang amazing live.
I don’t know very many BNL songs. I always like their stuff, but I don’t own any.
February 22nd, 2004 at
I love those moments on live CDs… my favorite is from the Dave and Tim bootleg I have during “Lie in Our Graves” — the crowd goes NUTS right before he says “I can’t believe that we would lie in our graves” for the first time and it feels like the music just EXPLODES out of that energy… so great