Sexy Serenades in St. Paul

Blue skies, sunshine and low sixties welcomed me and my teenage trio (daughter Annie and friends Katie and Randy) to the Twin Cities. We did a little shopping so didn’t arrive at our hotel across from the Xcel Energy Center until close to six. I guess I should have gotten there earlier – I ran into Blue-Jeans-Gal in the elevator and she had seen C-Rod jogging and Brian driving his T-Bird during the afternoon. She is another Iowan and won tonight’s Backstage BBQ Experience pass from iLike! iLike has been good to us heartlanders!! Kingsford Charcoal made their presence known with an enormous blow-up BBQ grill serving as an archway through which to enter the arena (“I walked through hot coals to see Keith Urban!”). They had a little “EDS” problem and it collapsed into a big heap at one point (luckily before the crowds arrived). Once inside we got our Monkeyville Minnesota scrapbook pages stamped and headed for our seats.
My daughter and friends came prepared with posters, one saying "My mom smelled your neck!" and the other "We want to smell it too!". Oh Lord!

The Zac Brown Band were fun openers – mostly lively numbers, a couple surprisingly with a nice reggae beat. I’m going to have to check out their album. After they finished, the Kingsford/Masterpiece BBQ Sauce folks showed kind of a nice promotional video on the side video screens. It began with the sound of a heartbeat to get our attention, but then included shots of Keith and his motorcycle and a big white (?) tour bus, all obviously going out to a BBQ in the country. Then lots of live footage of Keith and the guys at the BBQ that has been featured online and in promotional materials. Later there were some shots of setting up the stage and the racks of guitars. They also used those side screens to announce who won the signed guitar from Keith (and Verizon) this evening (I guess this tour the guitar giveaway happens behind stage before the show rather than out in the audience like last tour.) During the break, as the crew set up the stage for Keith, I kept expecting them to pull shut those big black curtains like they did out east. But no curtains tonight! Maybe they decided they weren’t worth the trouble. Tonight they did create quite a cloud of vapor centerstage to focus attention on Keith’s mysterious rising out of the floor during Hit the Ground, but it was almost too thick – if I hadn’t been sitting off to the side I’m not sure I could have seen his ascent. Still working out some of those little details I guess. No matter – the crowd still screamed their heads off as the show opened!

It looked like the Xcel Center was pretty much sold out – even the highest rows of the nosebleed seats up in the rafters looked full and Keith called attention to them several times during the night. I was sitting in the second row of the second set of risers from the stage (right near row 22 of the front floor). Pretty good seats except for the 6’8” big guy on my stage-side that I often had to peer around whenever Keith came over to the microphone on our side L Tonight the satellite stage was set up about 6 feet beyond the sound mix area and perhaps 20 feet in front of the risers at the far end of the arena, leaving a large area of empty floor for fans when Keith made his trip out there.

Keith looked especially fetching in a red/black/white plaid shirt and blackish jeans tonight. The video screens really showed him to his best advantage so there were times I couldn’t help but give out a little moan or felt a little weak in the knees. And I think he knew it too, so we got more sexy looks than usual. He also seemed to make a point tonight of holding picks in his lips or in his teeth for a bit, then tossing those out to the crowd (in addition to those he flings when he is playing) – what is that about? A guitar-y way of blowing a kiss? Tonight they sometimes used the 5 big video panels to show five Keith’s at once! Gosh I might blow a fuse if they keep doin’ that!!

The music was wonderful as usual, the guitar solos stunning – no departures from the setlist tonight. The crowd was thrilled when Keith made his first trip offstage towards the end of Better Half, all those fans slowing down his progress to the back of the arena. No sign reading from the small stage tonight and no one was invited up. He introduced Making Memories of Us with a slightly different lead-in:. “This is a song for anyone who is getting married, thinking about getting married, wishing you could get married, have got no intention of getting married.” :) When I knew the song was nearly over and Keith would be returning to the main stage via my side of the arena, I leapt (okay, lumbered) from my second row position, over the first row chairs, so that I could be immediately above Keith as he passed by. And it paid off – the first row folks were happy for the “alert” so they had their cameras ready forclose-up shots, and I slid my hand down his bare arm as he passed.:)

He was cute to watch grooving in the background to Chris R’s, Brian’s and Jerry’s little vocal solos. And I think I caught some good video of his dancing, clapping silhouette during that wonderful percussive ending to If Ever I Could Love. Tonight Keith added or really emphasized a rhythmic, plucking, slapping, pulsing beat of the guitar during his (short) walk down the catwalk at the start of Raining on Sunday, then said in a deep sultry voice “Are we still feeling okay?” “ How about you guys sitting up high around the arena?” and then said, no actually sang to us “Do we feel like singing?” and then again “Do we feel like sing-in’?” before actually beginning to sing ROS.

Fun guitar play before You Look Good in My Shirt, but not the usual classic riffs. Maybe someone will be able to put a name to it, but I didn’t recognize it, just enjoyed it! I jumped up and down when I realized that tonight Keith was going to come down the ramp on my side of the arena for YLGIMS and hoped he would either choose to climb up either the aisle close to me or the one close to my girls.

Well he did cross right in front of us, but tonight the crowd that rushed towards him was so overwhelming that he never made it to any of the staircases! I was worried for him because it seemed so many were reaching for his hair and head I thought he could lose an eye! He and his body guards finally had to retreat to stage without the usual perching on a chair somewhere to sing a little. I hope that kind of crowd response doesn’t lead to him abandoning the trips offstage!

The thunderous applause and echoing screams were so loud after Somebody Like You that when Keith came back on stage for the encore he just looked at the audience and said “Holy Hell Minnesota!!” shaking his head in disbelief. “Thank you so much for making us feel like family every time we come up here!” Wow – I am loving the acoustic guitars of Keith and Chris during You’ll Think of Me. They have such a full resonant sound - just beautiful.

I’m worrying a little about Keith’s voice. Although most of the evening he sounded just great, towards the end he got a little froggy and needed the audience to help with the vocals. I’m afraid his madcap schedule in Canada did not give him the break he needed after the previous three concerts. Chicago show tomorrow and Green Bay Saturday – I hope they won’t strain his voice too much! Take good care of yourself Keith! Thanks for another wonderful evening!!

Post Script:

I sat next to a couple great gals, Lori and Julia, who host an afternoon show on FM107 here in the Twin Cities. They were a lot of fun and shared a nice story of their experience meeting Keith and Nicole in New York on the red carpet for the opening of Australia. They shouted to Keith and said that they were from Minnesota. Even though it was her big evening, Nic called Keith’s attention to these fans who had traveled all the way from the Midwest and both Nic and Keith came over and chatted with Julia and Lori – one of the only (if not the only) stops the couple made on the red carpet.

Secondly, my teen trio were completely overwhelmed by Keith’s show this evening and are frantically trying to figure out a way to see him again this tour. They weren’t Urban “virgins” but they definitely have fallen more deeply under his magical spell!

Videos to come but I have to sleep now!