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    • Counting Crows soak up Lambeau’s glow during Packers’ home opener concert
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    Counting Crows soak up Lambeau’s glow during Packers’ home opener concert

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    GREEN BAY – If Steve Miller is the gold standard of the Green Bay Packers Kickoff Weekend concerts for his performance for the team’s 100th season in 2018, then Counting Crows is hot on his heels.

    Thirty-one years after the band’s debut album, “August and Everything After,” was released, singer Adam Duritz & Co. outside Lambeau Field Saturday night sounded as good as “Mr. Jones,” “Round Here” and “Rain King” did when you first heard them in the ’90s.

    If you need a reminder of how long ago that decade was, Duritz points to the band’s appearance on “VH1 Storytellers” to help you out.

    The Packers’ tradition of holding a concert outside the stadium on the eve of a home game is inevitably a celebration. Fans are hopelessly optimistic. The weather is always perfect for the end of summer. The crowd is huge. The price is right: free.

    What kind of party it is depends on who’s playing. Jake Owen brought a between-Titletown-meets-Margaritaville beach bum vibe. Train was the wedding band, ready to play every crowd pleaser imaginable, including ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” Big & Rich was a real pep rally, from “God Bless America” ​​to “Baby Got Back,” disguised as a concert.

    Counting Crows skipped the predictable hilarity in favor of a more nuanced 90-minute performance that emphasized the band’s lyrical repertoire and is one of the best Kickoff Weekend concerts since its inception in 2017.

    At no point did Duritz wear a Packers jersey (that would have clashed with his fabulous purple-and-black striped pants), but when he sat down at the piano for “A Long December,” he somehow made the crowd that had spilled out of the parking lot on the northwest side of the stadium and into the Titletown District feel as if they had just wandered into an intimate venue.

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    The band never led the crowd in a single “Go Pack Go” chant, but the adventurous acoustic arrangements of “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Angels of the Silences” were something to cheer about. The evening’s random cover was no party anthem, but a lush version of the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil.”

    And who needs to put on a Cheesehead when you can pull out the accordion, mandolin, and tambourine? (Although Duritz did complain that he didn’t have his sunglasses, which he stared straight into the sun as the set continued. “I didn’t want to talk about it. I was afraid everyone would throw sunglasses at me,” he said. “Don’t do that. It’s OK.”)

    In addition to the effortless relaxation the Crows displayed before Sunday’s thrilling Packers-Indianapolis Colts game, “Hanginaround” and “Rain King” also provided a feel-good bounce.

    It was the Counting Crows’ first appearance in Green Bay in 20 years, but it certainly wasn’t Duritz’s first time at Lambeau. The 60-year-old frontman said he’s been to a lot of games at the stadium (and has never seen a loss), but getting to play there for the first time was “pretty cool.”

    “As a football fan, I grew up in Oakland obsessed with the Raiders. If you’re a Raider fan, you’re a Raider fan and you can’t help it. Trust me, we didn’t own our team. They just go wherever they want to go. It’s really annoying, but you love them,” he told the crowd.

    “Then I got to come here for a couple of years and watch this team play and I have to say it was a real pleasure. What a cool, legendary place to hang out. So to be asked to come play here tonight, that’s the coolest thing.

    “As a sports fan, I was just so happy and thank you to so many of you for coming. I had no idea that so many people would be here. It’s really amazing. I can’t tell you how much it means to us. Thank you so much. I hope you have the best year ever.”

    Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.

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