Julia Weber
Staff Writer
Chautauqua is counting down the seconds until the Counting Crows kick off the first evening entertainment performance of Chautauqua Institution’s 2025 Summer Assembly.
Counting Crows will perform at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater, opening the season’s programming with a performance of both their career-spanning hit songs and new material.
“We’re really enjoying playing the new songs right now and the audience is enjoying it as well, but we’ll be playing songs from our entire career,” said Counting Crows guitarist David Immerglück.
Chautauquans can expect an array of the band’s songs from fan favorites like “A Long December” and “Mr. Jones” to newer tracks off their latest release Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! The band released an EP called Butter Miracle, Suite One before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they recorded and released Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! last year. Immerglück recognizes Counting Crows’ approach is atypical in the
music realm.
“We live on our own time frame that doesn’t necessarily interact with the music industry,” said Immerglück. “We don’t release a record every year. It’s kind of a rare thing when we release a record.
The Grammy and Academy Award-nominated group released their debut multi-platinum album August and Everything After in 1993 and have since released seven additional studio albums, including 1996’s Recovering the Satellites and 2008’s Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.
Though their studio recording releases can be few and far between, Counting Crows are no strangers to the touring life — the band has toured yearly, other than in 2020, since 1992 and performed over 1,500 shows. According to Immerglück, life on the road is well within his natural comfort zone.
“I happen to really actually like it because my parents took me traveling when I was really young. We moved to Italy when I was 3 years old, which was like a biblical travel thing for a 3 year old,” he said. “It’s just in my blood, personally.”
Immerglück said his favorite part of playing live is just that: playing live, and ahead of Saturday’s performance, Immerglück encouraged attendees to embrace the experience and enjoy the music.
“We can’t wait to play for you,” he said.
