Counting Crows: Live at Soundstage

• 2009

Counting Crows perform songs off their fifth studio release, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, a tightly crafted concept album combining emotional highs and lows. The Saturday Nights songs are upbeat, pairing subtle but expressive lyrics with fast-paced, brazen electric guitar; the Sunday Mornings selections have a more reflective, subdued tone. Lead singer Adam Duritz starts the night off right with a raucous version of the CD opener “1492,” then sings of loss in the moody “Washington Square,” accompanied by piano and acoustic guitar. His no-holds-barred emotion also resonates in slower songs like “Le Ballet d'Or” and “When I Dream of Michelangelo.”