Counting Crows come 'round here

In what may go down as the tea that kept students freezing outside the Master's House for half an hour, Adam Duritz, lead singer and songwriter from the rock band "Counting Crows," spoke to a packed living room at the Silliman College Master's House last night.

Master Kelly Brownell and the Silliman College Council, anticipating high turnout, chose only to announce Duritz's appearance to the public on Saturday in an e-mail to Sillimanders. Fans and other interested students lined up well in advance for the 8 p.m. event.

"Get the pictures over now, because pictures make me extraordinarily nervous," Duritz jokingly said to the audience, many having cameras, note pads and Counting Crows CDs in hand.

In a departure from the normal circuit of staid academics and public officials that these events draw, Duritz took time out of the group's national tour, which kicks off tomorrow in New Haven, to share some of his personal and band experiences before the 90 students who attended the tea.

Duritz began his musical career with childhood piano lessons. Against his mother's wishes, he quit and took guitar lessons for awhile prior to his amateur stint on the acoustic circuit.

Combining personal honesty and feedback from his colleagues, Duritz vastly increased his song-writing "The way I improved was not by becoming a better craftsman, but [by] becoming more honest," he said. "It's all about feeling and listening in this band -- without it being collaborative, it's just not a good band."

Students in the audience said the musician's stories of personal triumph left them feeling optimistic.

"I went because of the famous name," Trevor Thompson '00 said. "Instead, I'm going to leave here and call my friends and tell them I met a great guy. What he talked about [were] things that related to me -- it sounded like he was talking right out of my head -- he gave me a lot to think about, a lot to hope for, and he really inspired me."

Duritz and a fellow guitarist founded Counting Crows in 1990, drawing its other members from other Bay Area bands. Managers flocked to the new band, and a year after the group's creation record companies were bombarding Counting Crows with offers.

Despite this outpouring of attention, Duritz said he was wary of signing.

"What we wanted was complete creative control," Duritz said. "We traded a lot of [wealth] away for guarantees -- videos, records, choices of songs on albums."

Duritz addressed his problems with mass-marketing, emphasizing that the band tries hard to avoid the sometimes ruinous effects of popularity.

"For us, it's our whole lives -- I don't think we want to be a flash in the pan," he said. "I think the way to ruin your career is for people to get so sick of a song. ... Record companies mean well, but they don't actually know what they're doing."

Duritz said the Counting Crows' spontaneous concert performances differ from the pre-planned orchestration of music videos.

"You just don't get that at our shows ... and they're never going to be that way," he said. "Being in a band is about the life of songs... you pour the song through the filter of each day ... it changes and blooms and grows a different way each day."

Duritz treated the audience to a piano performance of "Barely Out of Tuesday," a yet-to-be-released single, and drew a standing ovation from those in attendance.

"It was absolutely amazing," Rajeev Muttreja '00 said. "Master Brownell commented the turnout for this tea way more than it's been [for others] -- it brings the students together. They (the other teas) don't pull you in, but this one did."

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