(Photo by Mark Seliger)
Emerging from the pandemic with the ambitious Butter Miracle: Suite One, Counting Crows and its earnest frontman Adam Duritz return with a glam-influenced EP that brings to mind early ‘70s Bowie, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed more in spirit than sound. With a reputation for top-flight live shows, Duritz and his crew are clamoring to hit the stage after being sidelined for a year and a half.
But it’s with the notion of safety in the face of the current Delta variant that is dictating the band’s current tour.
“All of this is really dependent on things not going completely haywire with the way things are right now,” Duritz said. “When I planned this tour, I moved all the gigs outdoors except places like New York, where I felt safe playing indoors. It seemed like a good plan and with the vaccine and cases dwindled every week for months until
months. And now all of a sudden, they’re going through the roof again and I just want to make sure that we’re safe for people.”
Professional sports is another industry that’s found itself emerging from the ashes of COVID-19. Since moving to Oakland in 1974, Duritz has been and continues to be a huge Bay Area sports fan, pulling for the Golden State Warriors and the A’s, inheriting his love of both teams from his Philly-born father, where he rooted for both franchises before they pulled up stakes for the West Coast. The following are Duritz’s favorite hardwood Warriors.
(Photo by Keith Allison/ CC BY-SA 2.0)
Stephen Curry (Playing career: 2009-present)
“Steph is Steph. Aside from being the nicest guy in the world, he’s like Wilt Chamberlain. He’s completely changing the game and doing that thing like Wilt Chamberlain or Babe Ruth did, where the game was played one way and then it was played another way. The most homeruns anyone had ever hit was 16 homeruns and then he comes along and hits 60. Now we’ve got a whole new game of baseball. The homerun, which had been nothing, is something. Wilt had them outlaw dunking for a while and [the league] had to come up with goaltending rules. That changed the game and I think Steph has done that in a lot of ways too.”
(Photo by Chensiyuan/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Draymond Green (Playing career: 2012-present)
“Draymon is the heart of the team. None of this works without him. He’s also one of my favorite people and I just like the guy a lot from hanging out.”
Jamaal Wilkes (Playing careeer: 1974-1985)
“Jamaal is just Silk. He was great and is the first Warrior I ever knew. He’s my friend Jordan’s dad, so whenever I see Jordan, the fact that I know Jamaal Wilkes and he knows me—that’s the coolest thing ever. Plus he was in that great movie when I was a kid—Cornbread, Earl and Me. The little kid in the movie with him is actually Lawrence Fishburne at the age of 10.”
(Photo by Keith Allison/ CC BY-SA 2.0)
David Lee (Playing career: 2005-2017)
“I just like David Lee. He was the first All Star we had in years and years and years. We hadn’t had an All Star in such a long time and David Lee came along. That was the beginning of it for the Warriors. He’s a good guy as well.”
Counting Crows will be appearing on October 4 at the Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 W. 34 th St. NYC. Visit www.ticketmaster.com or call 212-279-7740.
