And it is off to St. Louis to meet some Keithin’ friends! That trip used to be tedious because it involved 2 lane highways busy with trucks and farm implements. But now it is all four lane so the drive is more pleasant and the only slow spot is Hannibal, Missouri with its many stoplights, giving one time to ponder Mark Twain on the way. I love my audiobooks for long drives and I’m so glad I came across a cheap source for those (Azulio.com).
When I had been in the Carolinas I had noticed that Samsung (Keith’s new sponsor) had started having promotions, offering free concert tickets at one of their Raleigh store. I happened to check their Facebook page before this journey and discovered that they were having a similar contest at a suburban St. Louis store at 2 pm. I had no idea just how long my drive would take but, for the heck of it, set the store address as my GPS destination. I pulled into their lot at 1:52 - would I be too late?? I didn’t really care about the tickets (unless they were extraordinary seats), but would give my eyeteeth for one of the BSE passes that they also were offering.
As I approached the store I saw a line of people trailing out of one of the doors and thought “ Oh no - there are so many here for the contest that they can’t get in the door!” I asked the people in line if I had to join the line to get inside. “Oh no - just go in that other door,” one fellow told me. So I went in and the store was almost empty! A salesperson asked if I needed help and I told him I was there for the contest posted on their Facebook page. He told me to go out and join the outside line (so that was a line of Keith fans). It wasn’t a very long line - only 7 or 8 of us. Apparently the word had not gotten out. So at 2:00 they brought each of us in, took our photo (for their Facebook page I guess), and gave each of us a pair of tickets and a pair of special Keith/Samsung laminates to hang around our necks! No drawing or anything! I guess the first 2 people in line also got the BSE passes. They also took a group picture. When I left the store they actually had 2 sets of tickets left and were hoping for more Keith fans!! The tickets were medium-good - 5th row mid-arena riser seats. I posted several places online, looking for someone to give them to. A gal finally took one because her original seat was behind the side-stage lights, but sadly one ticket went unused.
Fellow Keithers Edna and Linda met me at my hotel to go to dinner. We peeked at the hotel restaurant but it didn’t look too exciting so we piled into my car to check a couple locations not too far from the Scotttrade Arena. But we got caught in traffic and saw no parking spots on the popular restaurant street so ended up returning to the hotel dining room. We had a fun time together, then walked over to the arena a bit early so Edna could pick up her Will-Call ticket (can’t believe she could wait so long to see where she was sitting! : ) ). It turned out that she was sitting right behind me, on the floor. I had actually gotten a good front floor seat from Ticketmaster - will wonders never cease! Edna didn’t plan to stay there though - she was going to join the free-for-all up by the stage. Wish my lousy knees would allow me to do that!! But my seat was pretty dandy anyway!
The floor of the Scottrade Center was set up a little differently than previous arenas. I’m not sure whether all such changes are “corrective” changes initiated by Keith and his staff to smooth the flow of the show, or whether some changes are simply due to the peculiarities of particular venues. One change that I know had to come from Keith’s side - they have added a small clear Plexiglass edge, perhaps 8 inches high, on the front of the catwalk. I don’t know if this is to keep fans from reaching up onto the catwalk or setting their beers there, or whether it might be to keep Keith from accidentally stepping forward off the edge while intent on playing his guitar, but, in any case, there is now a tiny barrier there.
Another change was the positioning of the first 3 rows of side section seats. In St. Louis these rows were quite angled to parallel the curve of the round stage and were set quite close to the stage and quite close to the side stage barrier fence. I was wondering if they were trying to decrease the open floor space off to the side (where Keith exits to go out into the audience) so that he won’t get ‘trapped’ in the front floor crowd like he did in Charlotte. Tonight the small stage was positioned at the center or rows 25-27.
Jake Owen was looking cute as a button tonight in a tight white v-necked tee with a white belt for his form-fitting blue jeans. Both he and Keith wore white bracelets tonight - I’m not sure what group or cause a white bracelet supports?? Jake talked a little about walking around downtown St. Louis - said it was the first time he saw the Arch up close. He also made fun of himself, saying he had been jogging back to the hotel and he tripped and fell in front of a bunch of people. He said he hoped he wouldn’t be doing that in front of all of us. Jake is now changing up his setlist a bit too. Tonight he added “Nobody Feelin’ No Pain” but I’m not sure which song got dropped.
The St. Louis show was not sold out. The entire third level of arena seats was not used at all but the lower levels seemed pretty full. Wednesday night concerts are a bit unusual but I’m sure they wanted to avoid the long Fourth of July weekend when they were scheduling the show. At least 3 or 4 times during the night we got thanked for coming out on a Wednesday night : “We wanna say a huge thank you to you all for coming out on a Wednesday night! guys - that means so much to us. ‘Cause in these crazy times, with the long weekend coming up, and you guys choose to still come out and see us - that just means the world to us.” Anytime Keith!
Although Keith appears to be dressing the same for each show I noticed he was wearing different jeans tonight - ones with a little red label or tag on the back right pocket (as if we need a little red fanny flag to draw our attention!!)
A little technical glitch again tonight - no Little Big Town video during Boondocks. Someone is probably catching flack for these mishaps since they seem to put so much attention into the timing and production of a free-flowing show. Most of the audience doesn’t even notice the absence however (because that video is unexpected and they do substitute in some live footage after 10 seconds or so).
In Making Memories of Us one of the guys is providing some pretty guitar background - almost has a slide guitar-like sound to it at times. Tonight I caught Keith’s special closing line in my videoclip.
Even though I my seat was on the left hand aisle, I chose not to battle my way back to the small stage for the trio of songs back there. I was mesmerized during You’ll Think of Me when the cameraman spent a lot of time focused on Keith’s lips brushing the microphone during that song. I was ready when Keith returned to stage and gave him a little backrub as he passed. He passed me yet another two times during You Look Good in My Shirt- yay for Keith contacts!
Since I was on the aisle I was able to scoot up right under Keith when he sang Sweet Thing on the left side stage.
Tonight’s singing contest again featured more contestants than Keith intended. The gal in the greenish “shirt-dress” was not invited up but inserted herself into the proceedings and Keith was too nice to stop her (although he did say something like “Oh, you’re coming up too?” in a not-entirely-pleased voice). The 3 gals and 1 male were introduced and sang (all off key); one of the invited gals was clever enough to sing “I wanna kiss Keith Urban!” Keith laughed it off saying “ I’m glad it wasn’t Brent (the guy) who sang that”. When they were done Keith said “We need some redemption up here” and went down and found a fifth person - a little boy - who sang well and of course won the applause of the audience. I sense that Keith may be trying to avoid having women win the final singing opportunity with him - maybe just because he loves the kids, but maybe also to be safe from ‘too close’ interactions.
Although I think Keith tries to balance his attention to the right and left sides of the arena, he seems to slightly favor the right side (as you are facing the stage), getting over in that direction for all of You’re Gonna Fly, the end of Sweet Thing, and Better Life. He sometimes makes a second trip to the left side for a final verse of Better Life, but not always, so sometimes the first part of Sweet Thing will be his only visit to the left side stage. I did notice that they added a second, somewhat lower mike to the left side stage - maybe to better catch the guitar work of all the guys when they are up there.
The audience each night has been cheering and reacting to the video of Keith waking up and showering at the beginning of Without You. I think a majority don’t watch country music videos, so all of the scenes are a surprise to them.
I can’t swear whether this is new or not, but tonight Danny provided piano background to Keith’s acoustic guitar rendition of Tonight I Wanna Cry, so the song had more of the sound of the tour when Keith played the piano for this one. Tonight the show actually ran two and a quarter hours with the encore!
I left content, with that Urban glow, but moving rather slow. A police officer helping us cross the busy streets asked how I was doing tonight and I replied “Great - but I’m pooped!” “Me too!” he said - they had probably been waiting extra long for their night of concert duty to end. I bet Keith totally crashes after his strenuous night of running up and down stairs. Sweet dreams during your bus ride to Moline Keith!
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