Maroon 5 & Counting Crows

I know a lot of people that don’t really care for Maroon 5 and to you I say… “That’s cool.” Personally I enjoy Maroon 5 very much, and there is nothing like throwing on my baby blue apron, busting out the Windex and vacuum cleaner and throwing on some (cough cough) umm, sorry about that I just don’t know what… This past weekend the Portland area was graced with Maroon 5 and Counting Crows' presence, but of course a line up like this couldn’t possibly be contained by a Portland Venue so the show was held 20 miles north of Portland in Ridgefield Washington at The Amphitheater at Clark County. When I found out that these two bands were coming to the area I began organizing a trip to see them. My brother was the one that tipped me off on the show and he was more than excited as The Counting Crows is his favorite band. I also called my good buddy Gates who, like my brother, lives in Pullman Washington attending Washington State University. They decided they would drive over together and stay with me over the weekend. I got a hold of my friends Aimee, Allison and her boyfriend Matt. In all we ended up having a gang of 5 anxious concert goers… MATT! Make that 4 anxious concert goers and one rather annoyed boyfriend. Sorry bro. We bought our tickets all in a row and anticipated their WORLD WIDE MEGA STAR arrival. This amphitheater was incredible. The reserved seating upfront was indoors but it had no back wall because behind the reserved seating was the giant lawn for general admission. Around the outside was something like 12 concession stands including the famous $13 beer, and $10 ballpark frank; nothing like event price hikes! My friend Aimee and I are big friends of the band Augustana, and they were the openers. We had seen them live once before in Portland, and they blew my mind. In this setting they were a little less impressive. Partly because the majority of the crowd hadn’t arrived yet so it was much like they were playing in an empty arena, and partly because we were so far away from the stage. They pretty much kick ass though. Maroon 5 played first and it was exactly what I expected. High energy, expensive sets, pyrotechnics, laser lights, giant T.V. screens, the works. The audio was great, it was a masterful presentation. I have a cool video of everyone with their cell phones raised upon Maroon 5’s request. Check out my Vimeo account at www.Vimeo.com/nichollsaaron, for that and other concert footage along with some shorts. Maroon 5 played a bunch of songs from their 2 platinum records, and at the end the lead singer threw his guitar in the air and let in smash to the ground. He then picked it up and handed it to someone in the front row. I was very upset. Counting Crows came next, and it was obvious that the majority of the crowd had come to see these rock superstars. They played great, vocals were spot on, similar theatrics but my one complaint was that some of the songs were remixes of the album track I was used to, and they didn’t live up to the originals. They were great though, and they played their encore with both of the other bands, a made a nice little “Save the World” statement at the end. I think all 5 of us had a great time and it was money well spent. Sorry Matt.


Maroon 5 from Aaron Nicholls on Vimeo.