Counting Crows Search for Truth

For just over 90 minutes at the Wiltern Theatre on Monday, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz sang of change--needing it, wanting it, hating it, accepting it--as the Los Angeles-based band confidently shaded each sprawling, mid-tempo anthem and soul-searching ballad with guitars, keyboards, mandolin and percussion, evoking roots-rockers from Gram Parsons to the Allman Brothers.

The theme of change underscored the band’s shift in musical attitude, evident in the material from its current album, “This Desert Life,” and in some substantially reworked older favorites. The more subdued arrangements of “Mr. Jones” and “Round Here” resonated with melancholy and matched the relatively restrained emotions of the new songs. Nevertheless, the whiny poetics of the older material provided the set’s least satisfying moments.

Not that such fresh numbers as “High Life” and “Amy Hit the Atmosphere” didn’t offer some of Duritz’s why-am-I-here ruminations and poetic character portraits. But they proved more lyrically streamlined, as well as more subtle in their use of grand dynamics. This approach gave the new tunes a simple honesty that was far more affecting than Duritz’s previous introverted sniffling.

There was still some quasi-mystical hippie silliness to contend with, but Duritz kept the dramatic gestures to a minimum, content to put the spotlight on his singing. The voice of this down-to-earth Adam seemed more true to himself than ever.

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* Counting Crows, with Joe 90, Thursday and Friday at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., 7 p.m. $30 and $35. (213) 380-5005. Also Dec. 20-21 with Gigolo Aunts.