New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Counting Crows | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 20, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000FII32O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,179 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Jones has left the building: New Crows live "bootleg" is one for the real fans, June 21, 2006

By 

A. G. Corwin - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall (Audio CD)

Counting Crows has joined the trend of releasing your own bootlegs, made common by Dave Matthews and Pearl Jam, with this 15 track collection culled from the 2003 Crows European tour in support of the Hard Candy album. This is essentially a record for the true fans of the band, the ones who prefer Perfect Blue Buildings to Mr. Jones, the ones who appreciate the subtlety of Holiday in Spain, the ones who know the words to Richard Manuel is Dead. This is not a commercial album by any means, but can be a decent addition to your collection.

Sound quality is quite good for a live recording, the band is tight, and Duritz sounds less strained than he does when I have seen him live. The track selection delves heavily into Hard Candy tracks, which is logical considering this was the Hard Candy promo tour they were on at the time. A few classic tracks are thrown in like Omaha and Goodnight Elizabeth and Perfect Blue Buildings. Each song is performed quite well, Miami sounds especially good as does Richard Manuel Is Dead. Though there are some tracks I would have liked to hear, especially A Long December, I can't be too disappointed considering this was a fairly stealthy release with no massive publicity blitz. This was one released for the fans, not the hook hungry, rabid masses looking for the next commercial sensation. Overall this is a pleasing, relaxing album that makes for nice background music. I consider it a bonus until an album of new material comes out. Recommended for the serious Crows fan...

A.G. Corwin
St Louis, MO

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always Counting Crows, June 20, 2006

By 

Cory R. Schaffner "crock2g81" (Nazareth, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall (Audio CD)

Im a pretty big Counting Crows fan and I always enjoyed their music since they were The Himalyans. I have always thought that their music was best heard live. On Across The Wire they showed the harder side and the softest of sides on a 2 disc live. This could really be a sequel to those discs by showing both of those sides on this single disc. This is basically just act 3 on their career spanning the period after the first 2 discs and relies heavily on live doses of Hard Candy which wasnt out during the other live disc releases. I recommend this disc to any countin crows fan or any fan of music in general. This cd can be hard, soft, and absolutely beautiful.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Counting Crows go for the "Songs in the Attic" gambit, June 25, 2006

By 

Adam Selzer "Adam Selzer" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall (Audio CD)

In high school, my favorite band was probably Counting Crows. Their first two albums hit me and that way that only teenagers can really be hit by music. That whole "this song sounds just like my life" kind of way. I was obsessed. I had everything they recorded, every soundtrack they had a song on. And, as good as the albums were, they were a LOT better live. The guy could write, no question about it, but he could also perform.

As time went by, they ended up sort of lumped into a category with Dave Matthews, one of the most unfair groupings in music history, if you ask me. Their third and fourth albums had their moments, but weren't as good as the first two, on the whole. The online CC fan community was my real introduction to the sick, sad world of internet message boards - a habit I really wish I could break to this day - which left a sort of bitter taste in my mouth.

But, anyway, I'm so ashamed that I didn't even realize that they had a new live album out until after it was released. Been a long time since their last album. On the one hand, I thought it looked great: mostly obscure songs, not the big hits. The "Songs from the Attic" gambit that tends to pay off well for a lot bands. On the other hand, more than half of the songs were from the last two albums, and the recording is already a few years old; I'm more interested in what they're doing NEXT, not what they did in 2003.


And yet, here I sit, listening to the live album, and it's FANTASTIC, showing off sultry, somewhat slowed-down versions of a bunch of album tracks. they all run together and cast this spell that may be a lot of what was missing from the 3rd and 4th albums. I can't think of when they've ever sounded much better.