Thanks to their genuine modesty, Counting Cruises sounded just as fresh and wonderful as they did back then

The Counting Cruise's performance last night in Ra'anana proved that this is not another band that remembers to do a V on the Holy Land with a casual tour of the end of the road.

This is still a great band, with great hits and a great singer - and they gave an excellent performance full of energy, which was worth waiting 30 years for

Salon associate

09/15/2022

Thursday, September 15, 2022, 08:25 Updated: 08:44

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Adam Doritz, lead singer of Counting Cruise, in an interview at the Walla studio!

Sagi ben Nun with him, September 12, 2022 (Walla)

When the Rolling Stones went on the "Voodoo Lounge" tour in 1994, there were critics who claimed that they were already too old to do huge shows.

Well, they were wrong.

6.5 million people were present at the 129 concerts held on five different continents.

The tour grossed $320 million (more than half a billion dollars in today's money) and became the most profitable tour in history.

Since then the record has been broken several times, including by the Stones themselves.

To understand how big this column was it's worth remembering who were the artists who warmed the band during that year, including some of the hottest names of the nineties such as The Spin Doctors, Black Crowes, Blind Mellon, Stone Temple Pilots, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams , Seal, and even Bob Dylan (!) who opened the band's show in Paris, and later joined them on stage for a particularly horrifying performance of "Like a Rolling Stone".

In the first four performances of the tour, including in front of 108,000 people in Washington and in front of 201,000 people in New Jersey, the Stones were warmed up by a band called "Counting Cruises", whose debut album took America by storm a few months earlier.

For them, it was a dream come true to perform on a stage that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would soon appear on, but in retrospect you can say that they also absorbed something from that experience.

It would be ridiculous to compare the bands, but after almost 30 years together, we have to admit that the Counting Cruises are similar to the Stones in at least one way - loyalty.

For the music, the audience and each other.

While many other bands of their era faded away or became a parody of the rock world, they stayed together, without major changes in the band's line-up, continued to make music and perform, and something in their genuine modesty makes their music sound as fresh as it did back then.

Counting Cruise, yesterday in Ra'anana (photo: Omar Kider)

Adam Duritz takes the stage without special pyrotechnics, a light show or fireworks.

Just an older DUDE, with a black Lou Reed shirt and a denim jacket on top that barely hides his stomach.

Nothing about his appearance conveys "rockstar", until the moment the music starts.

The wonderful sound of Ra'anana Amp (why aren't there more shows at this successful facility?) envelops the audience and launches them directly into Round Here, the first song from the first album.

Without the impressive dreadlocks it's almost hard to recognize that it's the same Adam Doritz from 30 years ago, but there's no mistaking his voice.

It sounds just as good as it did back then.

Actually, it might sound even better.

Already in the third song, the band throws "Mr. Jones" to the audience, as a kind of statement of intent - we don't save our roller coaster hits for the encore.

Also Omaha, Anna Begins and Butterfly in Reverse who could find themselves having fun at the end of the show appeared even before half time.

It was a reminder of the depth of Cruise's work, who are simply swimming in a pool full of huge hits.

It is interesting to note that the band makes sure not to perform exact versions of the known hits, but rather makes quite a few changes in them.

This is perhaps why the whole show sounds so fresh, even with songs from three decades ago.

On the other hand, it doesn't always work, as in the case of "Big Yellow Taxi" whose arrangement mostly sounds tired, as if Doritz just really doesn't want to do that great Joni Mitchell cover anymore.

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Counting Cruise, yesterday in Ra'anana (Photo: Shlomi Pinto)

Towards the end of the set the band performed all four songs from the band's latest EP, which includes a kind of modern take on the "reinventing the band" segment.

Something the Beatles did with Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and David Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Duritz turned his band into Bobby and the Rat Kings - and that's when, in songs most of the audience didn't know, something opened up on stage.

The music became wilder and richer.

Duritz's voice sounded better than ever and the audience gave a lot of love to songs that probably most of the attendees didn't know at all.

At the end of the show, Duritz also promised to return to Israel (like every artist who has ever traveled here), but even if it was just an empty promise, we can say with confidence that this is not another band that remembers to visit the Holy Land with a casual end-of-the-road tour.

The Counting Cruises are still a big band, with big hits, and they gave an excellent show full of energy, which was worth waiting 30 years for.

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