Written by Dave Clements

Loved the Byrds, Wings were great, and the Eagles were amazing. Counting Crows, however, were unknown to me until they recently headlined a concert at The Woodlands Pavilion. It was generally a positive experience although nothing close to those early birds (and bird parts) who preceded them.

Hollis Brown, a rock and roll band made up of five guys from New York City, opened the evening to a nearly empty venue. They performed, though, as if it was a standing room only crowd. I thought this was a real testament to their obvious professionalism. Enjoyed their sound, loads of talent.

Next up was Clarence Greenwood, stage name Citizen Cope. He certainly didn’t seem very interested in trying to ‘fire up’ the trickling in crowd. What he did seem interested in was focusing on his music, song after song, and showing us a unique, diverse set of tunes. The Counting Crows fans, finally making it to their seats, seemed to enjoy what he was offering. One of my fellow photographers commented ‘the guy is pretty strange but one of my favorites.’ He must be pretty special given that this lady really knows her music.

By the time 9:00 pm rolled around the covered, reserved seating area at The Pavilion had about 3,000 people in their seats. I’m guessing that there are way more Counting Crows fans than that in the Houston area. It’s just that this band hit town on the same night the Texans were playing badly against Indy’s Colts at NRG Stadium, and The Astros were winning their playoff game against KC, and the Cougs were clobbering SMU, and our Houston Rockets were playing the Mavs on TV. That’s some serious competition!

Even so, when the Counting Crows hit the stage with the sweet sound of Bill Wither’s Lean On Me playing in the background, it was all about the audience. Lead by front man and vocalist Adam Duritz, I saw no sign from him or his bandmates that this crowd size was a factor. They gave their fans two fairly non-stop hours of music, with some in-between chatter that didn’t seem overdone. If you were a Counting Crows fan, no doubt you got their best effort. And I definitely appreciated the efforts of Adam to provide me with many interesting ‘photo ops’!

They kicked off their set with Sullivan Street, then followed with Elvis Went to Hollywood, and then played the only song I really knew of theirs, Mr. Jones. They ended their performance with Palisades Park, Rain King and Holiday In Spain. In total they did 20 tunes and gave these loyal fans everything they came for. A big thumbs up for these guys!
Until next time please remember there is no time to kill, support live music tonight!