New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall February 4-6, 2003

Counting Crows’ second live album

Since their formation back in 1991 Counting Crows have been known as a rock’n’roll band performing heartwarming love songs. The most well known Counting Crows’ albums, 1999’s This Desert Life and the 2002’s Hard Candy, have provided the band with a significant fan base all over the world. The front singer Adam Duritz’s vocals and piano chords are easily recognized in the 2004 hugely popular animated film Shrek 2 soundtrack Accidentally in Love, which has become a real hit. In 1998 the band’s first live album Across a Wire: Live in New York was released, and this summer Counting Crows present us with a new concert recorded – New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 6, 2003. All the songs on it are very familiar to the audience except for one, Hazy, which has been sung practically on the spot and written on the eve of the concert. Due to New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 6, 2003 the numerous fans will be happy to hear their favorite songs, and all the others will love it – the live performance with the shouting crowd makes one want to be there too.

Adam Duritz gives full swings to his vocals

Counting Crows is one of those bands, which sound completely different on studio CDs and radio and on live shows. Since New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 6, 2003 is recorded perfectly well, it gives a unique opportunity to enjoy Adam Duritz’s creativity in performing every single song on the album. The opener Rain King that usually is an up-tempo song acquires more elegiac elements and changes to the better. So does Goodnight LA – a beautiful ballad performed with so much soul that your heart is beating faster. The catchy and popular song Four White Stallions is made more musically various due to the musicians’ exquisite playing and Adam Duritz’s giving full swing to his vocals. The most outstanding track and besides a new one is a relatively short but full of emotions and deep affection song Hazy. Adam Duritz accompanies himself with a piano producing the most touching sounds the instrument is capable of. Other bright numbers are a wonderfully harmonious track St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream, another absolute hit Hanginaround and one of the album’s cover song Hard Candy. While listening to the album one can enjoy changes the songs have got and the musicians’ inspiring playing.

A unique chance to hear the real Counting Crows

It is a common practice among musicians to enetertain the audience on live shows by introducing various effects to their songs and making them sound in a new way. Little of them however does it so good as Counting Crows. There is a striking mutual understanding within the members of the band and whenever one of them – usually it is the front singer – wishes to improvize, all the others immediately react and follow his idea. Some might say there is no need to listen to a live record for you already know the songs. That is not the case with New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 6, 2003. Taking into account Adam Duritz’s rare ability to sing songs differently almost each time without making them worse than the original versions the new album can be easily called a collection of Counting Crows’ new songs. Even the real new Hazy is utterly improvised which is the sign of the band’s creativity and unwillingness to obey any rules. The guys do have famous singles like for instance Colorblind played in the movie Cruel Intentions, but it does not prevent them from searching for variants and exploring their own possibilities. New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 6, 2003 is a unique chance if not to see then to hear the real Counting Crows, so don’t miss it.