Headed out to Starlight Theater to see Rob Thomas open for Counting Crows on a really great cool night to visit Starlight.

The first act was K Philips & The Concho Pearls I had a hard time getting into them, the lead singer kept giving facts about his life that were super depressing. Father currently in rehab, his wife left him, etc. Rock it man, bring the passion and energy not bring down the vibe – geez.

Rob Thomas came on with a bolt of energy and kept it going belting out his and Matchbox 20 tunes, which my favorite was “Fire On The Mountain” well done sir, well done!

A 30 minute set change and out comes Counting Crows,  I am excited been looking forward to seeing these guys for several years. I immediately notice the set seems a bit bare, but that maybe is just “artistic”.

The lights behind these guys seem to be designed to block out any way to actually see, like blinding mechanisms to distract from the truly awful moans/rambling coming out of Adam Duritz. The band was great good energy and keeping up with Durtiz randomness was impressive to watch. I did like the jam like sessions where Duritz would invite up Rob Thomas and his band, K Philips and The Concho Pearls something like 20 people on stage – was neat to watch.

For the next 70 minutes or so Angie and I sit and wonder what the hell is going on. Duritz is sometimes scating, sometimes just rambling changing words to songs everyone else in the audience is singing. It was truly bizarre we couldn’t tell if he was being “too cool to sing these tired songs” or just inebriated in some way. At this point we are glad we got $20 tickets on Groupon.

Overall Rob Thomas wins this, hands down.