"And I can’t see why you want to talk to me, when your vision of America is crystal and clean. I want a white bread life, just something ignorant and plain. But from the walls of Michelangelo, I’m dangling again." ~counting crows

I had the most amazing night last night. I can't even put it into words. I went to the best concert I've ever been to. I know I've said that before, but as I keep going to more and more, they just keep getting better. I went to see Counting Crows at the Bowery Ballroom. Other people who have seen the band many, many times said that this was the best they've ever seen them. This was only my fourth Counting Crows concert (which is not a lot at all considering how obsessed I am), and it was easily the best due to a number of reasons.
First of all, I made it into the front row. And there was no barrier between the stage and the audience like there sometimes is at concerts, so I was literally leaning against the stage and propping my arms up on it. I was directly in front of Immy. I got spit on by Adam. I could see every single drop of sweat. I live for that kind of thing at concerts; I love being as close as possible. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get that close again.
Second of all, it was an absolutely killer setlist. They played two sets. The first set was all old songs. Then they took a break, came back onstage, and announced that they were going to go through their new album in a Storytellers format. So they played almost every song from the new album with an explanation of each song. They played three songs that they've never played live before. We were literally the first people to hear them. They played for almost 3 hours, which is a really long concert. Here's the setlist:

*Colorblind
*Have You Seen Me Lately
*Recovering the Satellites
*Rain King -- Someone to Watch Over Me
*Anna Begins
*Hard Candy
*Miami (acoustic)
*Round Here (Go to Sleep Little Angel intro) -- All I Need is You, Have You Seen Me Lately
*Raining in Baltimore
*A Long December
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*1492
*Hanging Tree
*Los Angeles
*Insignificant
*Cowboys
*Washington Square
*When I Dream of Michelangelo*You Can't Count on Me
*Ballet D'or
*On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago
*Come Around

Can you believe that?! I was seriously dying I was so excited.
I got to meet some nice people at the concert, and it was just fabulous. I didn't even care that I got home at 1:00am and had to wake up at 6:00am this morning. It was beyond worth it.
When their new album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings, is released on March 25th I highly recommend buying it. This new material is definitely worth the wait (they haven't released an album with new material in six years).