Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 4

that in common, more in common than perhaps different.” Duritz adds, “I think that after things catch on and it becomes a movement where everyone wants to dress a certain way and listen to a certain thing, it becomes a style thing. But I think the reason people come to bands in the first place, the ones that last, are because of great songs and a band that plays them like they mean it.” And that’s exactly what keeps Count- ing Crows listeners coming back for more, but thus far in the case of 2019, concertgoers have a short list of six cities where they can flock to catch the band performing, making the Highland Park score that much sweeter. “Chicago’s a city you want to play,” the frontman in- sists. “It’s one of the great cities in North America. And there are a few gigs in Chicago that are really good. Ravinia is definitely one of them. It’s different than some of the other ones too because of the picnic crowd vibe. I like the variety of [doing] different things in cities. It can be really nice, and I think our music can work all kinds of different ways. Ravinia’s a huge place too—and quite honestly, it’s just beautiful there. From offstage, it’s nice to have something to look out at, and Ravinia’s pretty lovely.” AS READY AND WILLING as Duritz is to come to Ravinia, he’s completely un- certain of what attendees should expect from the setlist outside of knowing the full catalogue is on the table with the “25 Years and Counting” aspect. “The set changes every night anyway, espe- cially this summer because we’re not touring much,” he confirms. “I don’t know that there’s anything that I feel like we have to play. We tend to play ‘Long December’ most of the time. That’s never been boring to us, so that’s one we tend to play every night no matter what. “It can make a lot of sense to just put together one show that’s really good and play it over and over and over and over again, but I worry that you’ll start to suck [the life out of it]. Getting really, really good at the most audience-friend- ly songs has some benefit. But are you going to start phoning it in when you do the same thing every night? I worry about that, so I don’t want to want to be in that mix. My feeling is if we’re in- spired and putting on great shows, that’s going to be a great show to the audience. It doesn’t really matter what the songs are. It just matters that we’re really play- ing well. I worry more about us playing poorly than I do about the wrong set of songs. So for me, I want to keep it fresh all the time. I don’t want to get bored.” The same philosophy goes for Duritz outside of Counting Crows, who has in hand in a variety of fascinating extra- curricular activities. Naturally, there are a couple that tie back directly to music, but there’s another that’s generally unrelated, although it can be perfectly paired with an evening of songs under the stars. “I’m working on and running a win- ery with two friends,” he drops about the Santa Ynez Valley–based Standing Sun handcrafted wines. “Also, me and some good friends have been putting on the Underwater Sunshine music festival. We just put on our second one in April and we’re doing our third in November, so there’s a lot of planning that goes into that. It’s a free indie music festival. It’s not the easiest thing to organize putting all these bands together, getting a lineup and getting sponsors for that, because we want to make it free for people. And then I’ve been doing the Underwater Sunshine podcast a lot too. If [people] like our music, I think they’ll like the podcast. It’s pretty cool.” Then of course there’s the question of when Counting Crows will venture into the full-length follow-up to 2014’s Somewhere Under Wonderland now that there’s been the ear-pleasing tease of the “August and Everything After” single. In addition to being the subject of the band’s prior passing through Ravinia, that long-player shot straight to the top 10 and was frequently cited as “the band’s best,” a significant milestone considering how many multi-platinum, modern-day masterpieces came before. “I’ve been writing some, but I haven’t been as focused on that,” Duritz admits. “I’d like to start doing that again. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do last year so I just held off—I think it helps you as a band to be creative. I don’t know wheth- er people want to hear new music or not. Audiences can be more resistant to new material, but you’re still living your own life, so you have to do what’s right for you.” Andy Argyrakis is a Chicago-based writer/photographer whose credits include the Chicago Tribune , Chicago Sun- Times , Daily Herald , Illinois Entertainer , Concert Livewire , Chicago Now , Redeye , Metromix , Paste , DownBeat , Pollstar , and Celebrity Access , among many others. He is also the founder of ChicagoConcertReviews.com and the house photographer for the Chicago Theatre. DANNY CLINCH 20 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 17 – JUNE 30, 2019