Fun and unexpected, Counting Crows and lead singer Adam Duritz opened SunFest on Wednesday. (Jennifer Podis / Palm Beach Post)

Like the best of parties, a live Counting Crows show is lively and unpredictable, but there are always a few constants, as documented in Wednesday night’s SunFest opener:

• The set list changes frequently.

• Lead singer Adam Duritz will sometimes play with his own lyrics and melodies, changing the tempo or the flow or sometimes adding or changing words, but always in a way that works.

• You won’t always hear what you expect.

So, no. They didn’t play “Mr. Jones.”

Photos: Counting Crows at SunFest | More SunFest coverage

The omission of what is arguably the California-based band’s biggest hit was oft-commented on after the show. But it’s a testament to Counting Crows’ performance skills and the general strength of their stream-of-consciousness lyrics and melodic folk-rock instrumentation that almost every complaint was followed with “…but I guess it’s OK, because they were really good.”

Like the best of show by bands with a 20-plus year history, the SunFest set, accented by the gorgeous South Florida late-spring breezes, borrowed liberally from the breadth of Counting Crows’ career, beginning with “Round Here” from their debut LP (rememember those?) “August and Everything After.” Duritz set the tone for those who’d never seen them live, singing sometimes under or above the melody, as if he was singing harmony with himself. It was a quiet performance that built, eventually, to the passionate, anthemic chorus. Ah, melodic angst. Like it was 1994 all over again! Read the full story

The El Cabo Margarita is a big cocktail -- coming in at 16 ounces. (Richard Graulich / Palm Beach Post)

The bar: Cabo Flats

The vibe: Cavernous. Colorful. Magical. And those are just the drinks! Cabo Flats’ huge, winding bar, located at the southern end of the gauntlet of bars that is Downtown at the Gardens, can be whatever you make of it – an outdoor girls’ night spot, an inside bar to enjoy a snack or a view of karaoke night, or a Mexican-accented date night.

The drink: The El Cabo ($9), which has got to be the biggest margarita that Cocktail Culture has seen in some time – 16 ounces of love in the form of tequila. And we prefer our love in that form.

Other noteworthy libations: Tons of tequilas for tasting. Buckets of beer for imbibing. And did we mention the margaritas? Try the ’80s-esque monikered Depeche Mode or The Cure (both $9) or the Cabo Skinny Margarita ($8).

Bar bites: The Guacamole El Cabo ($9) is fresh and tasty; the Mexican pizza will make you forget the same-named menu item at a certain fast-food restaurant ($10); and the Tuna Ceviche Tostada has enough spice to keep things sassy ($10).

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As a human being, particularly one who struggles with her weight, I am very proud of Jeremy Britt, who lost 199 pounds to win the title of “The Biggest Loser” on last night’s finale of the NBC franchise.

But as a TV fan, and an almost-former fan of this show – I could not care less. And that pains me, because this show, which used to be an inspirational look at the lives of people who made themselves vulnerable to change their lives, has become “Survivor” with scales and body fat percentages, about alliances, strategies, nasty in-fighting and the worst kind of nastiness. This season, which was ironically subtitled “No Excuses,” featured the biggest collection yet of whiners, whose inability to get along with other people or own their own shortcomings resulted not only in a walk-out and an emotionally unsatisfying finale. A friend pointed out that the show was only an hour, where it’s usually two, as if NBC knew the cast wasn’t popular enough to warrant the extra time.

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"I'm not saying that I really dislike whatever it is that you're doing that's taking attention away from me. But I'm not NOT saying that, either."

….just make a screwed-up face and give passive-aggresive backhanded compliments. Don’t worry. Even when you’re not saying contemptuous, highly personal things, we all know what you mean.

I cannot tell you exactly why Christina Aguliera has been so openly hostile to Tony Lucca, “The Voice” contestant and her former “Mickey Mouse Club” co-star. At first, she didn’t even recognize him during the chair-spinning blind auditions, even though they were castmates and HE SAID HIS ACTUAL NAME TO HER. And then the next time she mentioned him, it was to pretty much blame him for having famous fans and to imply that this was somehow cheating. She was somewhat gracious the next week, when Tony’s coach, Adam Levine, passive-aggressived her back by giving him a Britney Spears cover to sing, as a reminder to Christina that she’s not the only former hot blond Mousketeer in the world.

But last night, after Lucca’s ridiculously smooth, if slightly Robert Palmer-esque take on The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now,” Christina seemed to go out of her way to be positive without actually saying anything positive about Tony. She complimented his song choice by saying that SHE’D actually cleared it for another singer on her team. Then she attributed his dance moves to his coach, Mr. Moves Like Jagger, and suggested that they start a Britney cover band. And THEN she said his song was “fun,” which is in the same vague non-compliment wheelhouse as “interesting” and “energetic,” and told him she liked his Britney cover better, which may be because it was directed at her. And since almost all of her criticism of the other judge’s singers were about her – “I used to sing that song! You remind me of me! You know who sang that song better than you? ME!” – she’s apparently very comfortable in that space.

 My favorite is when she “congratulates” her singers by jumping onstage with them, lest someone else get screen time or attention. She’s hilarous, at least with a TV screen between us. In person I don’t think I could take her.

It seems unlikely that Christina has held onto some deep, seething conflict with Lucca since the ’90s, because she didn’t even recognize him when she first saw him. But since she’s so obviously unable to be cool about whatever’s up her butt about him being on the show, I feel free to speculate. It’s not like she’s hiding it.

- Wild Speculation 1: Christina was legitmately annoyed that fellow former Mouseketeer and big huge star Justin Timberlake has endorsed Tony on Twitter, really believing that it gives him an unfair advantage over the other singers.

- Wild Speculation 2: She’s jealous of Justin. Tony’s not the only singer with a famous outside fan - Alicia Keys has endorsed former backup singer Jermaine Paul, and technically each of the judges is a celebrity endorser of their own team. To me, it seemed like she was annoyed at the particular celebrity, because…and I can’t say this enough…everything is about her. She seems personally insulted that another Mouseketeer is on the show, and that Justin, the Mousketeer who is as big of a star as her (or maybe bigger) is involving himself in her orbit, thus reminding people that there are bigger stars than her. Tony was fine as long as he was an example of how child stardom doesn’t guarantee a meteoric rise (like hers) and she was on a higher plane than him. But if he can succeed outside of this show…that’s not fine with her.

- Wild Speculation 3: Her issues with Levine, who is the other youngish pop singer on the show, have bled into her judging of one of his obvious pets. She passive-aggressives all over Adam, taking the show’s trademark ribbing of each other to an uncomfortably sharp level, to a point where they seem like they’re about to either have hate sex or start punching each other. Or both. In any event, they just seem to have issues. And she can’t help but make those issues part of her issues with Tony. Or about her. Because we have established that she likes this. 

Whatever is going on inside that pretty little peroxided head of hers, I wonder if Christina realizes that it’s all coming out on her face, and that no amount of half-nice fake compliments can disguise them. Mean faces speak louder than words.

In 30 years, SunFest has grown from humble beginnings in 1983 to drawing hundreds of thousands to the West Palm Beach Waterfront every year. (Richard Graulich / Post file photo)

From its roots as a small local jazz and arts festival to a nationally-known concert series, SunFest has been a can’t-miss event, every first weekend of May. The festival’s such a perennial feature of Palm Beach County that it can be almost taken for granted. But the story of SunFest’s origins is less known.

And no one tells it better than those intimately involved in it.

Bill Finley, urban planner, developer and SunFest co-founder: "There was a previous festival called the Royal Palm Festival, a series of disorganized activities (throughout) the county. They had as a highlight the funniest parade you ever saw: six paper floats; marching bands from high schools, half of whom did not have uniforms and had never marched before, let alone played together; and a series of pickup trucks carrying girls in cowboy hats with signs glued to the side of the truck.

"(Developer) Llwyd Ecclestone was the chairman, and at the end of the parade he said, ‘What do you think of the show?’ I said, ‘It’s the worst thing I ever saw in my whole life.’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah?’ and walked away."

SunFest coverage: Schedules, photos and more

Two weeks later, Ecclestone called Finley to ask if he had any ideas. Soon after, Finley was meeting with a group of locals, including public relations executive Anita Mitchell, former mayor Pat Pepper, developer and arts community leader Bob Armour and others.

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Adam Duritz performs with Counting Crows on Wednesday at SunFest. (Gary Coronado / Post file photo)

If you are a music fan of a certain age – that age being somewhere between 35 and 45 – there is a chance that Adam Duritz has, to paraphrase the old Roberta Flack song, strummed your pain with his fingers.

The Counting Crows singer and lyricist has been hearing this for two decades now, since the moody jangle of August And Everything After put the band’s forlorn-but-oddly hopeful feelings to music.

He’s grateful to hear it. But to this day, it doesn’t make sense.

"I didn’t think anyone would get these songs, and they did," explains Duritz, who with Counting Crows will open SunFest on Wednesday. "It was a very pleasant surprise, but it’s still hard for me to understand, which is funny, because they were so personal. I just wrote about the things I was feeling then."

The way that Duritz writes songs is, he admits, "like scraping your insides out," which is why Mr. Jones, A Long December, Round Here or Einstein On The Beach sounded like hearing someone’s exceptionally well-written journal channeled through an acoustic guitar.

The intimate nature of those songs, he says now, led to some advice from powers-that-be that he thankfully ignored – "I was (told) not to use proper names, or the names of places, so other people can’t relate," he says. "But I knew they were wrong. The very nature of making it that personal was why they identified with it."

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Louis Tyrrell, artistic director of The Theatre at the Arts Garage, and Alyona Ushe, executive director of the Arts Garage. (Bill Ingram / Palm Beach Post)

In its first year, Delray Beach’s Arts Garage has become an increasingly reliable venue for many types of artists and the public wanting to connect with them — visual, musical, performance artists and others.

The space, located in the bottom floor of the Old School Square parking garage, celebrates its first anniversary this Saturday. The event, featuring Grammy-nominated saxophonist Ed Calle, is sold out, but there are other things to look forward to at the Garage this season.

Here are five of them:

1. South Florida Symphony soloist Jeffery Chappell will conduct a master class with local young pianists. Watch the best nurture and train the new generation of talent. How exciting is that? May 5, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.

2. The Jazz Project, a series of performances and events celebrating and encouraging live jazz in South Florida. Upcoming performers include Sammy Figueroa, May 5, 8 p.m.

3. The Arts Garage Summer Camp, featuring acting, music and musical theater, and opportunities to perform every week.

4. Voices of Pride, Palm Beach County’s local gay men’s chorus, performs the revue Born This Way, featuring Gaga, Garland and other big love songs and standards in between. May 11.

5. Cello Fusion, featuring Ian Maksin, of Sting and Andrea Bocelli fame, and singer Susana Behar, performing original material and adaptations of familiar songs. May 18.

Even though she no longer gets up at 4 a.m., Joan Lunden still seems to do more by 9 a.m. than most people accomplish all day.

The list of projects on the former Good Morning America host’s to-do list would have the Energizer Bunny gasping for breath.

There are appearances for the new Chicken Soup for the Soul book she’s edited: Family Caregivers: 101 Stories of Love, Sacrifice and Bonding. She’s become a national spokesperson for a network of senior advocates called "A Place for Mom," stemming from being the caregiver for her own 93-year-old mother, Gladyce.

Then there is her TV show on RLTV called Taking Care, a new line of Twiztt non-stick cookware, lines of home décor and skin care products, a summer camp for women, cookbooks and what can only be called a leash for children.

About that last item, the KinderKord: Don’t judge unless you too are a 61-year-old woman with four children under 9.

Lunden and her decade-younger husband had two sets of twins by a surrogate when Joan was in her early 50s. She also has three grown daughters from an earlier marriage, one who is getting married this summer.

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Dick Clark helped brought rock 'n' roll into the mainstream with 'American Bandstand'. (AP)

I was not a cool 13-year-old. Most 13-year-olds are not, but I was extra un-cool: Uncoordinated. Jheri curl. Bifocals thicker than the glass window at a check-cashing store.

I needed to know, pronto, what the cool kids were doing, the bands they listened to, the must-know dances, the top tapes on their Walkman playlist because I had no clue what they were.

But my friend Dick Clark did.

And if you had to consult a 55-year-old for coolness advice, it would be Dick Clark. I never met him, but I felt like I knew him. After all, we had a standing date every Saturday afternoon on American Bandstand, along with his even-cooler young friends, who danced like I wanted to dance, dressed like I wanted to dress, and got within a moonwalk’s distance of pretty much every shiny face smiling back to me from my bedroom wall and school locker.

It would be three years before we got cable and I could consult the VJs on MTV for style advice, so along with Don Cornelius and his Soul Train dancers, Dick Clark served as my musical guide all through high school. And as a black girl who liked pop music, American Bandstand was my bridge – my white friends might not watch Soul Train, and my black friends might not usually watch Bandstand, but when New Edition showed up to meet Dick, all of us were watching. Cute knew no color.

And did I mention that Dick was also a pretty reliable New Year’s Eve date?

When Dick Clark died Wednesday, it was apparent his friends were legion: There were friends who credit their careers to him, like West Palm’s Connie Francis, queen of South Florida’s Spring Break scene, and head Belmont Dion DiMucci, who lives in Boca Raton and appeared on Bandstand several times.

"I inducted Dick Clark into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (He was a) dear friend," recalled DiMucci, via email. "I always looked up to him with great love and respect."

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(Video above of Haley Reinhart singing her new single “Free” shot by show attendee Ken Ostroff via YouTube.)

Haley Reinhart at the Norton Museum of Art's Art After Dark. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)

Haley Reinhart’s time on the stage at the Norton After Dark/WRMF Listener’s Lounge on Thursday was certainly different than the performances she gave on “American Idol,” where she finished third in 2011. Instead of the FOX show’s elaborate stage productions, it was just the effervescent singer and two musicians. No JLo. No Seacrest. No voting.

Just a smile, a voice and a winning, buoyant personality and presence. All Haley.

Photos: Haley Reinhart at the Norton Museum of Art | Photos: Earth Day fashion show at the Norton

She confirmed, for me, why she was my favorite singer last year, besides the fact that I admittedly liked the funky, jazzy, rocky things she does. She just seems so real, in her unaugmented talent – you can’t fake those pipes, y’all – in her joy in singing and in the connection she has with her audiences. She performed three songs from her upcoming album “Listen Up,” including the heartbreakingly simple “Free,” now playing on WRMF and around the globe. Everything about the song sets her apart from the teen market that “Idol” pushes – it’s a song about letting go, about wanting to maintain your dignity and memories and then be free of a relationship that’s killing both of you. This is an adult song. This is not a song for an insubstantial little girl. And Hayley sold that regret and pain and grownup-hood.
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