With all the music festivals going on this summer, fans are given a lot of choices for summer tours to attend, but most would be hard pressed to find a more unique show than the Counting Crows Traveling Circus and Medicine Ball tour, which simply put is three bands, that's 18 musicians, all on stage at the same, all playing together.

“It’s a blast, you get on the stage with a bunch of people and it’s just organized chaos,” Counting Crows front man Adam Duritz told Alternative Addiction.  “There is no opening band that’s great that you miss, no co-headliner that you don’t want to see cutting into the playing time for the band you want to see, it’s just 18 people on stage playing.”

Teaming Counting Crows with Augustana and rapper Notar, the three acts combine their unique sound to play one complete set.  Duritz said songs from all three bands are performed throughout the set list, segueing rapidly between material from multiple bands.

“We have the Country Rock style of Augustana, and then the Country meets Punk meets Soul sound of whatever the hell we do, and then the whole Hip Hop sounds of  Notar to create a really cool sound,” explained Duritz who said the concept of the tour was actually stumbled up by accident.  “A few years ago a couple of our guys had to leave while our tour was going on because their wives were pregnant, and the guys from Augustana filled in.”

Rather than just billing the show as just The Counting Crows, Duritz decided to play some Augustana songs together with the Counting Crows set. 

“We didn’t want fans to feel like they were getting less of a show, so rather than making it a show about guys filling in, we made it a show about us playing together,” explained Duritz.  “We had them come and play on a bunch of our songs and change some things around and it was just really fun.  After that tour I was really determined - that is how I wanna tour.”

And from that experience the Traveling Circus and Medicine Ball tour was born.  Kicking off in Milwaukee earlier this month, the tour will make several stops on the East Coast later this month before finishing in the Midwest later in August.

Following the tour, the Counting Crows plan to release a live DVD of their recent New York City performance of the album August and Everything After later this fall.

Listen To Alternative Addiction's Interview with Adam Duritz

Traveling Circus and Medicine Ball Remaining Tour Dates:

July 20 - MAC Center at Monmouth University - Long Branch, NJ
July 21 - Mountain Park - Holyoke, MA
July 23 - Halifax Commons Park - Halifax, NS
July 30 - South Shore Music Circus - Cohasset, MA
July 31 - Borgata - Atlantic City, NJ
Aug 4 - Capital One Bank Theatre at Westbury - Westbury, NY
Aug 6 - Musikfest at Sands Riverplace - Bethlehem, PA
Aug 7 - nTelos Pavilion - Portsmouth, VA
Aug 9 - Wolftrap - Vienna, VA
Aug 11 - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom - Hampton Beach, NH
Aug 13 - MGM @ Foxwoods Casino - Mashantucket, CT
Aug 14 - Cape Cod Melody Tent - Hyannis, MA
Aug 17 - Wellmont Theatre - Montclair, NJ
Aug 18 - Wellmont Theatre - Montclair, NJ
Aug 21 - Ravinia Festival - Highland Park, IL
Aug 23 - Mid America Center - Council Bluffs, IA
Aug 24 - Ravinia Festival - Highland Park, IL