Counting Crows In Maricopa, AZ

Jul 29, 2022

5 min read

BY SARAI KELLEY MOSS

Counting Crows brought The Butter Miracle Tour to Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino in Maricopa, Arizona and packed the 19,000 square foot venue from the stage to the bleachers!

If you haven’t heard of the iconic 90’s San Francisco formed alternative rock band, Counting Crows, you need to hop on Spotify and listen to every album now! The band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, bass guitarist Millard Powers, and guitarist Dan Vickrey. Their Butter Miracle headlining tour encompasses tracks from the bands latest EP, titled “Butter Miracle: Suite One,” their first release cooked up since 2014. Counting Crows first came to public eye in 1993 thanks to charting hits “Mr. Jones” and “‘Round Here” from the platinum-selling album “August and Everything After” and undoubtedly became one of the hottest alternative rock bands to come out of the 1990’s- Rolling Stone even called them the “Biggest new band in America” after the 1993 release.

Over the years, Counting Crows dabbled in various aspects of the rock industry. Weaving in and out of acoustic work to American-folk, whether you love them or not, they barreled through the hustle and bustle of the cutthroat 90’s music industry and curated music that became inspirations to the future generational bands we all love today.

Counting Crows made their way to Maricopa for their Arizona stop of the tour, a city just outside of the immediate Phoenix area with one venue large enough for band this size- Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino. You maze your way through the casino and find yourself in an all seated concert hall that doesn’t even seem like it should fit inside of the building it’s located in. Needless to say, it was far more than enough space to accommodate the 1,000 ticket sales.

I had never seen Counting Crows live before, but they were a bucket list band indefinitely and did not disappoint. The 17 song set list took the crowd on an unforgettable night, including long favorites like “Mr. Jones”, “A Long December”, and “Hard Candy” and sprinkled in some of the new soon-to-be favorites. Standing in the room, I was in a mix of all ages- which just truly spoke to me at the impact this band’s music truly has to the young at heart. After talking to so many different people, there were individuals there who had seen and been following Counting Crows since their early 90’s debut and others who had just started listening to them and were hooked. Despite the changes in their sound over the years, their music truly brought together generations of music lovers who can connect over the band’s passion and drive.

From the moment the Crows took the stage, they had the crowd on their feet. Their set covered the entire span of their nearly three-decade career, plus a few well-chosen covers that paid tribute to their influence. Their stage presence was immaculate, vocalist Adam Duritz really interacted with his bandmates and produced this wonderful melody of connectivity with the music and the crowd. Toward the middle of the set, he began to open up about his mental health. Which is a topic that is not new to the media and fans of Counting Crows. In 2008 he opened up about his diagnosis of Depersonalization Disorder, which created so much intention in his music, especially on the 2021 release of “Butter Miracle: Suite One,”.

Adam is also a methodical story teller, this show almost felt like one big hang out with the band which I felt so cool to be apart of. With lyrical flourishes, exploratory breakdowns and fresh takes on guitar leads, the band showcased their organic talent as a group of seasoned musicians.They performed with passion and superseded any and all expectations of the night!