It was sunny and warm in Pittsburgh and my hotel ended up being a bit farther from Mellon Arena than I had thought. But I still walked the mile, stopping for sushi on the way (no famous sushi eaters there) rather than having to deal with parking and downtown traffic. There were some tailgaters in the parking lots and lots of earlybirds sitting in the park around Mellon Arena waiting for the doors to open. I tried my luck at the radio station booths (only gor a “Froggy” tattoo for my trouble) and chatted with those sitting outside by me. We lamented that someone was missing a big opportunity to sell beverages or ice cream to all the waiting fans - I was parched by the time I got inside! We could look down into a lower level parking lot and see the buses as well as an open motorcycle trailer but one of Keith's staff chased us away from the railing anytime we got too close fearing, no doubt, that someone would leap down or throw something down. I was pretty sure Keith was already in the arena anyway so I wasn't thinking about leaping : ) although stowing away in the bus is rather tempting!
Mellon Arena is one of the oldest venues I have been to and it looks a bit worse for wear. It also has old free-standing chairs on the floor (more about that later). Got my fan club stamp and signed up to win the autographed guitar, then headed down to find my seat on the floor. I had Seat 1 in Row O of the left floor so I expected to be on the far aisle. I was pleasantly surprised that seat 1 was on the aisle towards the middle here, so I would have a great view of the catwalk - yay! A couple new additions to the before-show Verizon offers on the arena screens - you could send in your photos to KUPIX@mozes.com to be shown on the screens. Also now each text message you send in to be shown on the screens earns you an entry for a “merchandise package” ( Keith merchandise I guess). I finally managed to film a little bit of the before show video with Keith on his motorcycle and then pulling off his helmet to reveal “helmet hair” LOL - I love that but I’ve never been quick enough with the camera before.
Although I enjoyed his hits, my favorite of Jason Aldean’s songs was one from his CMT Crossroads show with Bryan Adams --- Heaven. He did a really beautiful rendition. Although his rocking songs get the crowd going, I guess I prefer his slower numbers. They still seem to have his sound set too loud for the rowdy songs for my taste.
As I sat in my seat during the break I noticed for the first time the complex web of hundreds of wires above the stage that suspend the lighting semicircle, the speakers, the curtains, the screens! Wow! What a job it must be to attach all those to the supports in the arena ceiling. And how in the heck do they take them all down without getting them tangled in a knotted mess? I have trouble keeping the cords on my earphones straight!!.
Once again Keith came out a little earlier than usual but you’ll get no complaints from me about that! I managed to catch on film the dropping of the big curtain to reveal our man and his guys - what screaming that triggers! My oh my - was he gorgeous tonight!! A real “golden boy” in a sunny yellow-with gold thread on white plaid tonight, with his hair also looking golden too in the lights. Mmm-mm good! And when he started Days Go By he had what looked to be another new guitar!! Golden blond wood with a white, ivory looking faceplate - looked like he picked it to match his outfit -LOL! (see clip) Keith and all the guys were wearing black “LP” armbands around their biceps but I didn’t realize their meaning until late in the night. A few songs later yet another new guitar (or one not seen in quite a while?) - a quite large, ornate and woodsy green one! My gosh, I thought, that guy buys more guitars than I buy shoes (and I have a bit of a shoe “problem”!)!! And then I noticed that each of the guys seemed to have a new guitar tonight too - all resembling the blond wood one Keith started out with, but in different woods. What’s up? I began to wonder whether Keith might have bought guitars for everyone. (more conjecture later)
It was great being reasonably close to the catwalk. I get carried away and use my camera so much early in the night that I never can record bits of the end of the show. Just don’t know how to pace myself. Maybe I need 2 cameras or an extra memory card! The Stupid Boy solo was particularly hot tonight (see clip). Wow! After Stupid Boy Keith chatted with the audience. He must have enjoyed the audience’s response to his comments about the VIP boxes in Kansas City because he is REALLY hamming it up about that now, giving them a royal bow and thanking the VIPs for allowing the band to play for them LOL (see clip) while the audience generally boos the fat cats!
Since I had an aisle seat I decided to make the dash back to the small stage at the appropriate moment. I got a good spot while everyone was distracted by Keith’s approach. But then a huge crowd of fans surged in on the small stage, crushing us together, body to body, so you couldn’t budge. Okay by me if I can be a few feet from Keith! But some in the crowd made me mad because they weren’t really interested in the music and talked loudly about their beers and other things while he was singing Making Memories (you can’t help but hear some on my videos). How rude! Once in a Lifetime had the “wild winged dove, just on the edge of seventeen ending” today and Only You Can Love Me was just beautiful.
Meanwhile apparently it wasn’t just the small stage crowd that had been active. When I headed back to my seat in Row O I couldn’t even find Row O! Since the seats were not attached to each other like in so many newer venues, they had been pushed all over the place - bunched together and even stacked in piles to make more standing room near the front stage!! Apparently floor security had almost completely left. Many of the rows closer to the front were nearly empty, abandoned by those who stood near the ramps and stage. So I moved up even closer to the end of the catwalk : ).
During Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me Keith, at one point, used the microphone to press down his guitar strings, and he gave us a really deep backbend on the catwalk at the end (see clip). There was a new or modified background for Til Summer Comes Around - a blue and white floral/somewhat paisley like background while the screens remained vertical instead of being lowered to form a ceiling over the band (see clip). Pittsburgh got one of Keith’s impromptu songs before Raining on Sunday : ) Generally the same lyrics as we have heard (Are you feeling good tonight, do you feel as good as you look, I’m just making this up as I go along, now I have to find something that rhymes with along,) “Take me home!” (Keith repeating a rhyming suggestion from the audience at his feet)). “That’ll do” he says. “Of course this will be the oonly song with 12,648 co-authors. It will be a publishing nightmare!” Tee hee. Those folks must have said something else (raunchy?) to him because Keith then said “You guys started drinking way too early in the day!”
During Sweet Thing I noticed a little guy perched on his dad’s shoulder in maybe row 6 in front of me. Mom was holding “his” sign, saying “I got Keith Urban tickets for my 4th birthday.” I didn’t happen to see if see if Keith a acknowledged the little boy waving at him (I’m sure he would of if he noticed him), but Brad Rice sure did, and was making all sorts of funny faces at the little kid. You know those faces that only guys who are dads themselves really master? Fun! You’ll Think of Me had the dramatic “I hope when you see my face it gives you hell - it gives you hell!” ending. Powerful.
After playing a bit with the light up guitar Keith again went to the risers on his left during You Look Good in My Shirt - probably right around the “Igloo Section” seat I sold to another Monkey. Oh well, I certainly can’t complain about the floor seat another gal sold to me (thanks Holly!). At the start of Kiss a Girl C-Rod, who has described himself as extremely flexible (in a physical sense), proved it by doing the old "kissing" joke (where you wrap you arms around to your back so that from behind it looks like you are making out with someone).
The audience clapped and screamed their heads off after Somebody Like You, with lots and lots of cell phone lights waving throughout the arena. Keith thanked us (“You’re too kind!”) when he came back out. But then he said “Before we go any further I want to say that today a great man in music passed away - Les Paul - he was 94. We want to send our prayers out to his family and to all the guitar players who are mourning this loss, and want to thank Les for his extraordinary contribution to music. This one is for you Les!” And as Keith went into Tonight I Wanna Cry I think I heard his voice catch just a bit with the emotion of the evening. So all of a sudden the black LP armbands made sense. Perhaps even all the ‘new’ guitars I saw made sense. I don’t know guitars myself but maybe, newly purchased or taken out of storage, possibly they were all Les Paul guitars. That sounds like something Keith would do.
On a lighter note, when Keith asked us to put our hands together for the hard-working road crew that puts together the show each night, he kind of looked around him expectantly, as if he thought there would be a rush of crazy crew like there was in Kansas City. No rush tonight (I only saw one gal come partly onto stage) and Keith kind of muttered humorously “Very enthusiastic tonight.” (most of audience probably had no idea what he was talking about)
During the final Better Life Keith did the usual round of yeah-yeah-yeahs, but in the final round, to the joy of this audience, he switched it to “Steelers rock”. Lots of handslapping, a few autographs, bows and signing, and a wonderful night drew to a close. I was tired but happy as I walked the mile back to my hotel.
The first few are very short video tidbits.
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