New Amsterdam Live At Heineken Music Hall February 6, 2003

by Thom JurekWhy is it the opening notes on "Rain King" from the Counting Crows' New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall sound so elegiac, so utterly lost and sad? When this song was first released on August and Everything After, it sounded like an anthem. Here Adam Duritz sounds tired, lost, and perhaps even afraid, and he lets it be known in the grain of his voice that that's exactly what was going on. While the band roars to life on "Richard Manuel Is Dead," Duritz lets out the words "I've been walking in the dark/But now I'm standin' on the lawn" like he's singing from someplace so deep inside himself, it's as if the band (pianist Charlie Gillingham was still a member then) has disappeared behind him. It's the only moment where this happens, but it's so significant because it's obvious that he's out on some ledge hoping and praying for rescue that may be available but he can't see it, and he wants to enter the world so bad you can almost taste the desperation. This live record is official, but it feels warts-and-all like a special kind of bootleg. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It doesn't feel complacent in any way, but it does feel lost in the melancholic fog, full of tension and an over-the-line subtlety that makes you feel as if you're witnessing a train wreck. Bob Clearmountain's mix is solid because it takes nothing away from the feel of near implosion. They barely hold it together here, though the band's playing is nearly flawless technically. These fellows are holding their singer up. The stories about this are many, but New Amsterdam is the audio evidence.... Read More...