First, a note from Adam Duritz about the new tour:

A Note from Adam - Get Ready for the Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show
Dear Everyone-Who-Happens-To-Read-This,
I know you’re all used to showing up at 8:30 or 9PM for concerts that started at 7. It’s understandable. You’re there to see Your band and you’re showing up when you think they’re gonna play, right? Well, starting on Thursday July 16th at Marymoor Amphitheatre in Redmond, Washington, that’s all going to change. Ladies and Gentlemen, at 8:00PM, when the curtain goes up on The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus and Medicine Show, Augustana And Counting Crows are all going to be walking out onstage together and that show is going to start with Every Single One Of Us onstage singing and playing our brains out. We’ll do a few songs together and then it may be Counting Crows that plays the first set alone. I don’t know exactly how the shows going to run every night. It’ll definitely be different a few days later in Friant, Ca when Michael Franti and Spearhead join up. It’ll probably be different every night. The only thing I know for sure is that Every show on this tour is going to start with Everyone onstage together and we’re going to all be running on and off stage all night playing on each others songs and playing songs all together and basically just playing whenever we feel like playing. So you get my point, right?
GET Here On TIME! When the curtain rises, IT BEGINS

And that’s basically how it went. It was an interesting concept. It showed how collaborative music is with all of the bands singing and harmonizing together and it also basically forced the audience to show up for the entire night and not just for the Crows. I’m not entirely certain how I feel about that. On one hand, it’s great for the other bands to be able to play in front of an audience every night but on the other, I felt that there weren’t enough Crows songs. I’m sure that’s not true in retrospect, they did play a lot of hits, but the back and forth nature of the show created the illusion that you were not able to get enough alone time with the band you really came to see. And let’s be honest, when you buy a concert ticket, it’s like getting to go on holiday with the people you love. You want some quality face-time. You want to catch-up and talk about the good old days. And damnit, you want to hear ‘Mr. Jones’.

Which we did. Along with…

Caravan
Omaha
Good Night Elizabeth
Come Around
Mrs. Potter
Black And Blue
Hanging Tree
Washington Square
A Long December
Miami
Have You Seen Me Lately
Mr. Jones
Why Should You Come When I Call?
Hangin’ Around
Rain King

To name a few. The show ended just as it began, in a group singalong with the openers, Michael Franti and Augustana. They sang ‘This Land Is Your Land’, which I hadn’t heard since Inauguration and was a great choice.

Overall, it was a great show. I appreciated the out of the box thinking when it came to presenting a tour. It showed real passion and an effort to create community whilst still being conscious of entertaining an audience.

more photos after the jump