Memphis: A Cautionary Tale and Who Was That Masked Man??

When I originally decided to go to the Memphis show I only bought a pair of tickets because my daughters did not yet know about summer jobs & plans. When the 4 of us decided to make it a "Girls Weekend Out" I had to search for 2 extra tickets. I bought 2 singles from 2 different Monkeys on the .net board. I have bought & sold tickets there before, but I guess I should have been more wary when one of the 2 Monkeys told me about the problems she had had with a male Monkey that tried to scam her and not pay for the tickets. She had had to call Ticketmaster and have them cancel the original tickets and re-issue the tickets as a result. Well Friday I met her at the FedEXForum in Memphis to get my single ticket from her and she was nearly in tears because the box office was saying that her ticket, her daughter's ticket and my ticket have been sold on Ticket Exchange by someone else, so those seats are no longer available. Apparently TM had not successfully canceled the tickets earlier so the guy did, in fact, scam her and sold them even though she had re-issued hard tickets in hand. The box office and TM (after several calls) said that nothing could be done (essentially saying it was her fault for being duped rather than their fault for not canceling the tickets when they re-issued new ones).

Obviously she and her daughter weren't happy and I wasn't happy - I now had one daughter without a ticket!!! So should we start approaching the scalpers lurking around the arena? Can we even afford what they will charge at this time?? Well I don't know if the distress-filled exchanges with the box office were overheard, or whether the box office personnel called someone else after getting our bad news from TM, but all of a sudden a gentleman in a black suit coat wearing a Keith Urban pass of some sort around his neck, shows up and hands a pair of tickets to the woman and her daughter, saying "Don't worry - you are going to the concert, here are some tickets!" She looks stunned, thanks him profusely, almost bursting into tears again, but then looks at me standing there. She says something like “Thank you, thank you so much but is there any way to get a 3rd ticket because we were scammed out of 3 and this woman came all the way from Iowa to see the concert?" Well the gentleman had no more tickets in his pocket, so he initially said "Sorry, I don't have any more tickets to give you." But I guess our sad faces were too much for him because then he changed his mind and said "Oh, okay - let's go buy you a ticket." And went to the box office and bought me a ticket!!! Of course all of these tickets were upper level - all that was left at that point - but at least we had tickets. I thanked him over and over and he said "No problem, I will "expense it" but then added "Just remember - those tickets came from Keith Urban!!"

(My daughter went down to see the lower risers where she originally was supposed to sit during the break after the Wreckers. There was an empty row just behind those seats where she was able to stay for Keith’s performance.)

More Magnificent Memphis

My Memphis internet connection is as slow as a southern drawl so I don't know how this will go, but I'll try adding a few things to what others have said. I agree that Keith seemed fully recovered today - his vocals were outstanding and I didn't notice any signs of his cold when he talked. He was so exuberant, happy and good natured. The fans were wild for him and I mean wild!! Not only was there a sea of signs (Keith commented on the number) and oodles of fans trying to slap his hand or touch him along the catwalk, but some succeeded beyond their wildest expectations (I imagine). There was the group that grabbed arms and feet when he knelt down on the catwalk - I think he had a little bit of trouble breaking away. And then the woman in about row 2 (on the RIGHT, so no, it wasn't sweetestpea I don't think) who somehow managed to leap completely up on the catwalk just as Keith was heading down it ! She fully grabbed him in a tight hug!!! He managed to extricate himself, smiling, and went merrily on his way down the catwalk. (She had the good sense to count her blessings and retreat back to her seat rather than being tempted to follow him). And during the encore (I think), someone close to her (maybe row 3) - probably emboldened by the earlier successful "assault" on Keithy - climbed up high enough on the catwalk rail that she was able to get a good handful of Keith's bottom and give it a good squeeze as he made his final return down the walk. Even then, he just jumped a little in surprise and looked back over his shoulder at her, laughing. (lots of jealous fans who wished they had been so bold as these ladies, I'm sure!!)

Other tidbits - Keith added a little "Sweet Baby" in the middle of GIRTT; He not only called Nicole before the encore at both St. Louis and Memphis - he told us he held up the phone towards the audience so she could hear the screaming and clapping of all of us that wanted more. He once again included a line about Brad having a lot of hair in the midst of Better Half and when particularly delighted about something in the show (can't remember if it was the phone wave or something else) I, for the first time heard Keith respond with a big "Sweet!!" He sang a bit of Walking in Memphis from the small stage which delighted the audience. He wore what I imagine was one of his favorite old tees last night - too faded to read and with a tiny hole in the shoulder; Brian had family in the audience last night whom Keith acknowledged. The crew is still working out little spotlight problems - maybe because Keith moves so much. Last night Keith briefly played to the left risers in the dark until the spotlight found him! The confetti again included hearts. Keith built a little suspense during one song on the catwalk by slowly pacing down, pushing the microphone ahead of him, bit by bit, down the runway ( with every row thinking "Stop here, stop here!!") He does seem to be changing his location a bit each show.