Counting Crows lead vocalist Adam Duritz’sv connection to Santana developed long before the bands booked their current tour and even prior to the former opening for the latter in 2002.
Santana and Counting Crows: Oneness Tour 2024 makes a June 29 stop outdoors at Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.
“As a kid I was obsessed with Santana the band. I was a huge fan as a kid,” said Duritz, who grew up in California.
“There were a few venues in Berkeley where they would sell all the seats but the first two or three rows were general admission. I literally snuck out of the house as a mid-teenager and camped out to see Santana as a kid. I thought they were the greatest band.”
Years later Counting Crows opened for Santana, which guitarist Carlos Santana formed in 1966.
“When we went on tour with them, they were just as good,” said Duritz about warming up crowds for concerts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2002 during the European leg of Santana’s All Is One Tour.
“They were so improvisational and amazing. I watched every show. I was obsessed.”
Duritz, who cited “A Long December” from 1996’s “Recovering the Satellites” as his favorite Counting Crows song to perform live, said there was no hesitation when the chance came to tour again with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band Santana.
“As a fellow musician, I found the musicianship in that band completely intoxicating. It blew my mind so I just assumed other people feel the same way I do,” said Duritz, who has lived in New York for 21 years.
Co-founded in 1991 by Duritz and guitarist David Bryson, Counting Crows debuted with the 1993 album “August and Everything After,” which includes “Mr. Jones,” “Round Here” and “Rain King.”
Seven studio albums later, Counting Crows — which also includes Jim Bogios (drums), Charlie Gillingham (keyboards), David Immerglück (guitar), Millard Powers (bass) and Dan Vickrey(guitar) — is touring in support of “Butter Miracle, Suite One.”
“It’s really cool because it’s a suite of music. It’s four songs that all run together like one long song. It was a very challenging composition for me to write it like one long piece of music,” said Duritz about the 2021 EP, which will be expanded into a full album that Duritz said could be released in early 2025.
Counting Crows’ concert set is a mystery but could include “Accidentally in Love” from 2004’s “Shrek 2” soundtrack, the Joni Mitchell cover “Big Yellow Taxi” from 2002’s “Hard Candy” and/or “Hanginaround” from 1999’s “This Desert Life.”
“We make the set list up every night after dinner,” said Duritz, whose mother, Linda Duritz, a geriatric psychiatrist, graduated from Chicago Medical School in North Chicago.
“We’ve been playing for 30-plus years in the band now. It would be really easy to get bored. I don’t want to play songs I don’t want to play. The audience is there to get your full commitment and passion every night. The best way I know to do that is to play songs you’re dying to play.
“I want to be onstage completely involved every night.”
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Santana and Counting Crows
When: 7 p.m. June 29
Where: Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park
Tickets: Sold out
Information: 708-614-1616; livenation.com
