Counting Crows highlights triple bill of rock, funk and pop at SPAC

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Performing Arts Center had one its biggest rock and roll shows of the summer Tuesday night: Counting Crows, Maroon 5, and Sara Bareilles played a triple bill from 7 until past 11 p.m in a wildly varied and mainly exceptional night of rock and pop.

Headliners Counting Crows is a band that is very comfortable in its own skin. They wear their music like a favorite old sweater or prized, well-worn pair of Converse All-Stars. The stage is their living room and they invited the crowd inside to hang out.

They played through lots of crowd favorites: “Mr. Jones,” “Time & Time Again,” “Miller’s Angels,” and “Rain King,” among them. They are mainly a straightforward rock band with some roots/americana thrown in, but their instrumentation makes them big. “Time & Time Again” brought out the wall of sound that they can generate: two electric guitars, pedal steel, and organ all laying down the chords in a different manner all at once often created an intricately dense web of harmony.

As introspective and cryptic as front man Adam Duritz’s lyrics can be, when he’s performing he’s all about connecting. He’s having a genuine conversation and wants (dares) you to touch his mind. Well known for his emotionality and stage antics, his fine and often poetic lyrics get overshadowed by his persona. And that’s a shame because he and his bandmates are all about the music and message and they put on a fine show at SPAC last night.

Of the three groups, Maroon 5 was definitely the one to be called the dance band. There’s no getting around the retro funk vibe. But they’re a curious mix of ‘80s synth pop, near disco, power pop, and metal. They played their hits as well: “Seven Miles From the Sun,” “This Love,” and “Sunday Morning.”

At times, however, it was like they were playing “at” you instead of “for” you. They often had simply too much going on: Lasers, wild lights, dry ice smoke, near constant discursive shifting of musical styles. Interesting at times and full of musical ability, they occasionally came off as an attention-deficit-disordered teenager’s concert fantasy.

Sarah Bareilles was the night’s warm-up act but easily could’ve switched places with Maroon 5 as co-headliner. She played some of the best music of the night.

She plays the piano, sings, and writes tunes in a uniformly strong voice. She’s not reinventing the wheel yet, but that doesn’t matter so much when you’ve got strong craft, talent, and energy.

Her straightforward song forms, rhythms, and harmonies are strongly informed by the Beatles while her singing style is a slightly more modern mix of pop and R&B. Perfectly displaying this was her cover of The Beatles classic “Oh Darling.” Taking a little edge off of the McCartney version, Bareilles still retained enough blues and ‘50s soul feeling to get at the heart of this standard. But her own tunes were the real highlights of her set. He breakout hit “Love Song” had everyone singing and her solo ballad “Gravity” closed her set on an appropriately beautiful and intimate note.

Being a young, beautiful, singer/songwriter, equally adept at her singing and her chosen instrument, and seemingly intent on putting out positive energy, she comes off as something a female version of John Mayer. She could also be seen as another girl at the piano like Fiona Apple or Tori Amos — but utterly devoid of any overly serious self reference or arty pretense (not that Apple and Amos have too much of that). Maybe her laidback, positive vibe comes from her spending so much time out west. Wherever it comes from, it works for her and is a good time to be around.

Reach John Dworkin at thedwork@yahoo.com.