Counting Crows, ’90s mega hit machine, still flying after 30 years
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
For every person who says, “Counting Crows, are they still around?” is a legion of fans still hungry to hear one of the biggest pop bands of the 1990s hit makers, which burst on the scene in 1993 with their seven times platinum album “August and Everything After.”
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Little has changed with the band except the loss of lead singer Adam Duritz’s signature dreadlocks.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
The band hasn’t had a line-up change since the early 2000s, and the core members, Duritz, guitarists David Bryson and Charlie Gillingham, keyboard player David Immergluck, have been together since their days playing gigs in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 1990s. Add to that, they never fully stopped touring and they are still recording new material.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Duritz and his band returned to central Pennsylvania Thursday night, playing to an enthusiastic crowd of Gen Xers at Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino in Grantville.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Midway through the 2 1/2-month, venue-packed Complete Sweets Tour, the band took the crowd on a nostalgia trip after an hour-long set by opener alt-rock band The Gaslight Anthem, celebrated for its Jersey Shore sound.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
The band launched the set with a new track, “Spaceman in Tulsa” off the new “Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets,” album and “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby,“ from their 1999 album ”This Desert Life,” before igniting the crowd with the familiar “shalalalala” of the band’s 1993 breakout hit, “Mr. Jones.”
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
The band breezed through the uptempo “Boxcars,” before Duritz took the piano to cover Taylor Swift’s “the 1″ and the mournful ballad “A Long December.”
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Woven into the setlist were several new tracks off the just-released “Butter Miracle The Complete Sweets,” the Crows’ first album in 10 years.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Duritz has long been known for writing lyrics heavy on longing — longing for what was, what could be, what might have been. In the haunting ballad, “Colorblind” Duritz reflects on his struggle with dissociative identity disorder, a condition that gives one the sense of never quite feeling comfortable in their own skin.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
But those struggles seemed in the rearview for Duritz. He told the audience he’s in a good place now, rocking with his old mates, playing the hits and experimenting with the new, and the music reflected that.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
The band delivered a three-song encore featuring the hit “Hangingaround,” before closing the 90-plus minute show with “Holiday in Spain,” off the 2003 “Hard Candy” album, what he called a lullaby for his fans, thanking them for sticking around.
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Said Duritz, “I appreciate it after all these years.”
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
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Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
Counting Crows perform on the Penn Heroes Stage at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville. July 3, 2025. Dan Gleiter | [email protected]
