We Wanna Be Friends With: Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows

We Wanna Be Friends With: Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows

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Our city is chock-full of interesting people and wild personalities. Overwhelmed by the coolness? Every week we'll pick one standout local we'd love to be friends with to answer seven essential questions about their life in San Francisco.


Although Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz calls NYC home, he grew up in Berkeley and is a Bay Area kid at heart. Adam spent his heyday partying in SF, and knows where to get a Mission burrito with the best of us. The Counting Crows are currently on tour with The Wallflowers and will be making their way to SF July 17th and 18th playing tunes from their new album Echoes of the Outlaw Roadshow. In honor of a local boy coming home, we asked Adam to answer our We Wanna Be Friends With Q&A!

1. What neighborhood do you currently call home in NY? If you moved back to the Bay Area where would you live?  

I will have lived in Greenwich Village for 10 years this December. I can't see ever living anywhere else again although I've been digging spending time at my friend's farm sooooo...you never know. If I did move back to the Bay, I think I'd probably live in Berkeley. I do love it there. Gotta be near Haas and Memorial. Thank god Mom and Dad stayed.

2. What's your hands-down, absolute favorite thing to eat when you come back to the Bay Area?

I have three meals I try to eat EVERY time I'm back in Berkeley. The "Pride & Joy" spinach/mushroom stuffed pizza at Zachary's, Gai Pad Himali + Gaeng Keow Wan Gai at Cha-Am, and everything on the menu at Everett & Jones. I'm not kidding. If there's more time, I definitely try to hit Cheese Board with Mohamed for whatever pizza they're cooking that day cuz that's incredible.

3. What would be your perfect night in out in SF?

I think my "perfect nights in SF" are probably behind me now but I had a lot of them. At one point, I was in three bands so I was either playing, rehearsing, going to see friends play, or all-of-the-above most every night for years. It was pretty stressful but it was also pretty magical. I had a lot of friends in different bands back then. The nice thing is that me, Immy, Charlie, Dan, Dave, and Jim all play in the same band these days. We were all in about 12 different bands then. It was a lot of exhausting fun trying to see everyone. The nice thing was that, if we did miss someone's set, we knew we'd all end up drunk in the Paradise Lounge or Hotel Utah by the end of the night anyway so you could at least say hi.

4. Favorite music venue in the Bay Area to play? What about for watching music?

It always was and still is the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. It was my favorite place to see shows when I was a kid and it's my favorite place to play them now. It remains, in my opinion, he best place to play or see a gig, not just in the Bay Area but anywhere in the world. And I still get a kick out of the fact that I walked there from my house the first time we played there.

5. What's your favorite musical memory in SF? 

Probably either Sordid Humor or Ween at the Berkeley Square. Maybe Bettie Serveert at The Kennel Club. One year, in an effort to avoid a birthday party, I simply told everyone if they wanted to find me that night, I'd be at The I-Beam checking out The Ophelias/Beatnigs show (Immy & Michael Franti's respective bands at the time). My memory is that very few of my friends showed up, but my Dad did. But, then again, he was always the coolest dad around by far (even if I don't think he really dug the music that night).

6. Quick-fire round:

Burrito or Burger?

Burrito (preferably from Pancho Villa on 16th and Mission, circa 1991). 

Presidio or Golden Gate Park?

Washington Square Park in New York City. 

Bike or MUNI?

Subway, man! I love the freaking subway! Besides, I was an AC Transit kid growing up.

The Independent or the Fillmore?

I'll take the Paradise Lounge.

Baker Beach or Ocean Beach?

Beatnik Beach!

7. Three words that currently describe your life?

Chronic

Over-share

-er

 

Want more Adam? 

See Shows at Wente Vineyards 7/17 & America's Cup Pavilion 7/18, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube 

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