Students piled onto buses Thursday night and made it through Saturday night and Sunday morning during the Counting Crows concert at the A&O Ball.
The band headlined the show at the Riviera Theatre, where an audience of about 2,000 people, composed of both Northwestern students and others, enjoyed the rock band’s eccentric style.
With high ceilings, balcony seating and a bar, the Riviera was a “classic Chicago venue,” said A&O Productions Chairman Alex White, a SESP senior.
A&O was still selling tickets until the first notes filled the air and did not check WildCARDs at the door. Rami Atassi, a Loyola University Chicago junior, bought a ticket Thursday afternoon from NU students at Loyola’s student center.
“When I saw people selling $15 Counting Crows tickets I got excited,” Atassi said. “This was random. I didn’t expect to go.”
The opening act for Counting Crows, Alabama band Wild Sweet Orange, came on stage at 7:30 p.m. But the crowd started getting antsy when an hour later the loudspeaker started repeating songs and the Counting Crows had not taken the stage. Finally at 9:15 p.m., the lights dimmed and the band came on stage to “Lean on Me.”
When Counting Crows started playing “Anna Begins,” the crowd came to life. Three songs later, when the band played perhaps its most famous hit, “Mr. Jones,” audience members sang and danced wherever there was free space. One girl threw a pair of pink underwear with her number on them at the Crows’ lead singer, Adam Duritz.
Duritz danced around the stage throughout the show and took swigs from a water bottle, spraying liquid into the air.
Weinberg freshman Kathryn Dennett thought Duritz’s actions went beyond normal stage adrenaline.
“He’s wasted,” Dennett said. “I know the words better than he does right now.”
The Crows played songs from their new album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, as well as some older classics.
Halfway through the concert, Duritz announced that the band would be switching from the Saturday Night part of its new album to the Sunday Morning half. The mood of the show became more serene as the band began playing “Washington Square.”
“Saturday nights are about fucking up and disintegrating, and Sunday mornings are about putting your life back together,” Duritz told the crowd.
The band also played its new single “You Can’t Count on Me” and ended with “A Long December.” They came back on stage to a three-song encore.
When the lights came on, some students were surprised the band had not played some of its more well-known songs, including “Accidentally in Love” and “Omaha.”
“They didn’t play enough songs that we knew,” Communication senior Jill Watanabe said. “I wanted to hear ‘Round Here.'”
But Weinberg senior Dustin Liebling said the concert met his expectations.
“They’re my favorite band of all time,” he said. “I thought it was insanely good.”
