Concert Review: Counting Crows (Red Hat Amphitheater)

BY CHRIS HOCKER

The Counting Crows brought The Complete Sweets! Tour to Raleigh's Red Hat Amphitheater on July 17th, the second of two dates in North Carolina.

Before I write about Thursday evening, let me let you in on a little secret: not only is the Counting Crows' Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets! their best album in years, it's one of the best albums of 2025. From the minute I heard the lead single, "Spaceman in Tulsa," I was hooked and couldn't wait to hear the rest of the album. I wasn't disappointed and had high hopes the band would play several tracks live on Thursday night.

After a great opening set from Jersey's The Gaslight Anthem, Adam Duritz and crew hit the stage to the drum beat of "Spaceman in Tulsa" and it sounded even better live. The band sounded great, as usual, and Adam told plenty of stories about the songs. Before the show was over, they played FIVE tracks off Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets!: "Spaceman," "Virginia Through The Rain," "With Love From A-Z," "Boxcars," and "Under The Aurora." If the crowd wasn't familiar with the new songs, they didn't act like it. But the Counting Crows also played plent of hits like "Hanginaround," "Rain King," "A Long December," "Angels Of The Silences," "Hard Candy," and the song that put them on the map, "Mr. Jones."

But the song that actually got national attention was another track from August and Everything After, "Round Here." Why? Adam sang part of MJ Lenderman's "Wristwatch" in the middle of "Round Here," as they also did the night before in Charlotte. It was pretty awesome. I've seen video from those performances online and it's been written about in the music press a lot, with Parade hyperbolically referring to the mini-cover as "‘90s Rock Icons Crown a New Alt Rock King by Covering His Hit Song."

The Complete Sweets! Tour rolls through August 21st, so there's still plenty of time to catch the Counting Crows live. And if you haven't given Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets! a spin or two hundred, get on that!

[message]

CHRIS HOCKER, Editor

Strange Carolinas started as a hobby for Chris Hocker who often dragged his family to offbeat detours on family vacations. Hocker decided to start photographing and writing about these roadside attractions and in June 2014, launched Strange Carolinas with a story on Myrtle Beach's KISS Coffeehouse. In addition to chronicling over 400 attractions across the Carolinas, Strange Carolinas has also become an impressive music blog.