Counting Crows w/ Toad the Wet Sprocket, Wolf Trap Filene Center, 7/5/2014

So Wolf Trap has a sun field – who knew?

Unlike most evenings at Wolf Trap, this one started at 7:00 rather than 8:00. A band from Nashville, Daniel and the Lion, started things off with a short 6-song, 20-minute set. Pretty much standard pop-rock, can’t say any of the material made a particular impression on me.

20 minutes later Toad came out (to the strains of 2Pac’s 1996 rap classic “California Love” – OK, the band is from California). At that point, the band was looking directly into the late-afternoon sun, which prompted lead singer Glen Phillips to borrow a pair of shades from a fan sitting in the pit. They played a tight, enjoyable 55-minute set that started with the lead single (“The Moment”) from their latest album, but focused on their 1990s pop-rock hits and near-hits, winding up with “All I Want”, “Fall Down”, and “Walk on the Ocean”.

Adam Duritz and the rest of The Counting Crows came out shortly after 9:00 and went until close to the 11:00 Wolf Trap curfew. They started off well with “Sullivan Street” from their first album, and kicked things into high gear near the end, ending the main set with “A Long December” and “Hanginaround” before returning with a three-song encore, highlighted by an extended version of “Rain King” that featured most of “Oh Susanna” in the middle. I wasn’t as taken by the middle of the show – a lot of unfamiliar cuts (at least to me), coupled with an overabundance of rock-star shtick (fog, strobes, lights shining uncomfortably into the audience, etc.). Their version of “Round Here” (not one of my favorites to start with) was pretty over-the-top in a MeatLoafish sort of way. A couple of songs from their upcoming album did show promise, notably “Palisades Park” (their first encore) and “Earthquake Driver”.