Review & setlist: Counting Crows are older, tighter, and as engaging as ever at MGM

The Gaslight Anthem and Counting Crows, MGM Music Hall at Fenway, June 26, 2025.

When Counting Crows released Mr. Jones, the breakout hit that helped catapult the band’s 1993 debut album, August and Everything After, to 7x Platinum status, they did something quite amazing at MGM Music Hall Thursday night.

Actually, a couple outstanding things: First of all, it wasn’t played in the usual encore position, but rather early in the performance (it was the third song!). Additionally, the song’s world-weary vibe was enhanced by frontman Adam Duritz’s spoken-sung technique, which occasionally saw his sitting on stage while singing the chorus, which included the famous Mr. Jones and me.

The present model seemed to have nothing left to lose, which felt completely right for a band in its fourth decade, as opposed to having something to prove, as the song’s narrator had back in 1993. And if that seems depressing, believe me, it wasn’t: Duritz’s band was playing at their best, and their attempts to make songs from decades ago sound more current and authentic only made for an exciting journey through a vast and captivating discography.

However, the formula was just half of the earlier songs. Without a strong new release as its foundation, the two-hour program wouldn’t have had nearly the impact it did, and Butter Miracle more than meets the criteria. (The entire album, also known as The Complete Sweets, was fully published this past May, but the second half was actually released as an EP back in 2021.) From Duritz’s eccentric lyrical charm and wounded delivery to the band’s effortlessly intricate delivery of his rollicking folk-rock songs, the album makes the most of the band’s abilities and is by no means a rerun.

That was immediately apparent in Spaceman in Tulsa, with its upbeat claim that “I’m a motherfucking rock and roll star,” a sly statement that perfectly complemented the theme of the complex nature of fame, which Duritz had been battling since Mr. Jones. But if grappling isn’t your thing, don’t worry. With their catchy rock ‘n’ roll rhythms and endearingly included background voices, these tunes are so amazing that they captivate you regardless of how well the lyrics are understood. (But it’s better for you if you pay attention.)

This was especially true of the Crows classic “With Love” from A-Z, which starts the new album and was a mid-set highlight on Thursday. Duritz sings, “What you see is just pieces of me,” moving from a huge buildup to a cathartic delivery (there’s that complicated relationship with celebrity again). He told the audience that he realized we had a record when he finished the final song he wrote for Butter Miracle. You might see why after listening to its captivating presentation on Thursday night.

In the meantime, Duritz is still a superb ringmaster more than thirty years later, working all sides of the stage, controlling the lighting cues, and obviously still enjoying his band’s lighthearted banter and complete professionalism. Always a bit of a troubled soul, he has openly discussed his battles with dissociative disorder. Despite this, he still comes across as someone who is unsure of his ability to connect but is desperate to do so, which really fits in well with his agonized voice tone.

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t entertaining and humorous either. Massholes, what’s going on? A few songs in, he said to the audience, “We’re all Massholes tonight,” in case anyone was offended. Additionally, he was spot on in his lighthearted tirade against cellphones after a woman in the front row attempted to get him to snap a picture with hers. Adam has grown older than the rest of us since August and Everything After, but at least he gets to sit occasionally, unlike those of us up front. Is it OK for bands that first charted in the 1900s to have a seatless pit during their performances? requesting a friend.)

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Some of the tics of Duritz’s early career, when he seemed to relish stretching songs out simply because he could, also appear to have been worked out by the older Duritz, who talked about growing up in Watertown while his father was doing his residency at Mass. General. Whether it was at the conclusion of a melancholy Omaha (I’m returning home today) or during a powerful rendition of Round Here, the lines he emphasized always seemed to impact, and the renditions on Thursday night were tight. (Those of us who were out on a work night could relate to Duritz’s howling from atop an amp; we stay out VERY, VERY LATE around here.)

Following a brief slower interlude that was hauntingly beautiful but that even Duritz seemed to acknowledge was a little harshing the mood, the Crows moved into another plane to close out the main set. The songs included the melancholic acoustic versions of Washington Square, which featured Charlie Gillingham’s superb accordion and some cool jangly percussion from Jim Bogios, and the Teenage Fanclub track Start Again, which featured Duritz on keys. The new rock band Boxcars, a biting critique of glitzy distractions in a collapsing society, replaced Round Here. A Long December, which began with a short parody of Taylor Swift’s “The 1,” was a stunningly amazing song that seemed to speak to universal longing from the very first note to the very last.

The Crows demonstrated to us during the height of the grunge era that it’s acceptable to feel things and lose yourself in catchy tunes at the same time with a breathtakingly lit Rain King that sent the crowd into a frenzy as the set came to a conclusion.

It was certainly fitting that they concluded with the melancholy longing of Holiday in Spain, but the encore was terrific at that point. The new Under the Aurora made excellent use of the band’s peppy backup vocals, and the loopy Hanginaround is always a treat. The Counting Crows do forlorn longing better than anything else.

The Anthem of GaslightThey were the ideal complement as the Crows opener, and the New Jersey punk-by-way-of-70s-classic-rock band, led by frontman Brian Fallon, has contributed some of the most poignant lyrics of the twenty-first century. (Duritz obviously adores them, as evidenced by his adoration of them throughout the Crows’ performance and his poetic allusion to their song High Lonesome in Round Here.)

The band’s 2008 breakthrough single, “The 59 Sound,” still has a frightening edge, but it wasn’t the only high point of their searing one-hour set: The concluding barn-burner 45, Handwritten, Mulholland Drive, and the Tom Petty version of Honeybee all demonstrated that Gaslight Anthem still has a lot of life left in it.

Setlist for Counting Crows at MGM Music Hall, June 26, 2025:

Spaceman in Tulsa
Mrs. Potter s Lullaby
Mr. Jones
Virginia Through the Rain
Omaha
Richard Manuel Is Dead
With Love, From A Z
Miami
Colorblind
Washington Square
Start Again (Teenage Fanclub cover)
Round Here
Boxcars
the 1 (Taylor Swift cover)/A Long December
Rain King

Encore:

Under the Aurora
Hanginaround
Holiday in Spain

Peter Chianca, a prominent news editor, columnist, and music writer in the Greater Boston area, has been the general assignment editor of Boston.com since 2019.