I had kept an eye out for a ticket to Country Fest for a long time since it was on my way home from Country USA. Last week I had just about resigned myself to going the general admissions route when a single VIP reserved seat appeared on Stub Hub for basically the face value of that seat!! It was towards the back of VIP, but I snapped it up anyway.
Each of the different country festivals I have been to over the years has a slightly different personality. Country Fest was distinct from Country USA in several ways. It appeared to be a somewhat smaller fest and was taking place in a more idyllic setting: on a natural grassy gentle hill with wooded areas of the Chippewa Valley in the background. With my VIP ticket there was no charge for parking and they gave me a spot in the first row of the lot. Unlike Country USA there was no charge for alcoholic beverage bracelets - in fact there were no bracelets at all (and no carding as far as I could tell!). They had put more money into permanent buildings and fixtures, so the VIP region surrounding the stage was paved and had permanent fences surrounding it, and had comfortable and spacious fixed wooden bench seating complete with cupholders instead of temporary plastic chairs..The video screens were a little smaller than Country USA but the Fest did have one of those moving 'crowd cams' so that parts of the audience would periodically show up on the video screens. The VIP area also had a large real restroom building, a buffet building for the free VIP lunches and dinners, and a VIP bratwurst shed (this is Wisconsin after all) that served free bratwursts all hours that the fest was open! But Country Fest did not just treat their VIP ticket holders well - there was also a built-in, fenced permanent "photo line aisle"that actually that allowed even the General Admission crowd to come all the way down to the stage to snap their shots (kind of like CMA fest) right at the end of the nice ~15 foot catwalk jutting out from the stage!
I listened to sets by Lee Brice and then Kelly Pickler. It got fairly warm in the late afternoon but then again cooled off sharply after sunset - definitely jacket weather! The toughest part of the day was sitting through the act that preceded Keith. Not only because I was anxious to see Keith, but also because that act was Big and Rich. I don't mind John Rich on his own, but - I'm sorry - I cannot tolerate Kenny Big. Big and Rich had about 15 minutes of decent music (their biggest hits) but I thought I was going to die sitting through most of the rest of their loud, disorganized drivel. I swear it seems like they were just bantering to no end but to fill their hour time slot. I wandered around - bathroom, brat, etc and they were still at it : (. One tiny bit of their "filler" that I did enjoy was when they decided, for some reason, to lead the audience in a Keith Urban cheer!?? ("When we yell Keith, you yell Urban" repeated several times over, and then they said that Keith had always been an inspiration to them!! (not surprising that Keith inspires others but I was surprised to hear this from Big and Rich)). I breathed a sigh of relief when they finally left the stage - but, oh no, despite a rather quiet audience response they came back for an encore.I'm afraid I think that Big and Rich should break up again.
Finally we were anxiously sitting through the break watching the crew set up the stage for Keith and the band. I had been moving around most of the day - sitting here and there. But now that all the seats were filling I figured I had to go back to my appointed spot. I then discovered with surprise that I was sitting next to a Keith fan friend! Tim and I keep crossing paths in our Urban roadtrips. In a festival of thousands what are the chances that we would end up buying ticketsfor seats next to each other!?
Tonight Keith was wearing one of his short-sleeved form-fitting brown plaid shirts from a tour ago and blue jeans and he seemed positively joyful and oh so playful all night. Although most of the setlist was the same as in Oshkosh, there were a few little changes along the way:
You Gonna Fly and 1 chorus of Boondocks was followed by Put You in a Song, with one of Keith's "tropical bird trills" to punctuate the end. Then came Raining on Sunday Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B1YsvurDfs Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4e5UMFLLA
Before going into Long Hot Summer Keith commented that this was "Just a big ol' sing-along" so that everyone should join in on the songs they knew. Next up was Stupid Boy.
Tonight Making Memories was added to the set http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4e5UMFLLA and was performed oh-so-tenderly. Afterwards Keith yelled to us "That was some seriously good singing Cadott!"
Keith made up for teasing me with his YLGIMS microphone placed right in front of me in Oshkosh and then not coming out there : Tonight the microphone for his first trip into the audience in Cadott was placed at the rear of the VIP right near my seat. I noticed it as soon as the band began to play that pre-I'm In music and I was up and claiming my spot before anyone else knew what was happening. Again the rush of excited fans threatened to knock us right off our feet, but having Keith's big hulking body guard standing right next to me, sturdy as a Sequoia, helped keep me upright. And yes Keith did make it to the microphone tonight, so I was tickled pink. It was so wonderful to have him up close rather than watching him on the video screens! Afterwards Keith just about jumped down on me as he left his little stage to return up front.- I was "forced" to steady myself by putting my arm around his waist! : ) (Vitamin "K"!) My oh my notice those biceps! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnPCyUPxF4
Then came Days Go By, followed by Georgia Woods. Tonight Keith introduced Georgia Woods as "a song about falling in love" and asked if anyone up on the hill was falling in love tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3pfPb9fYN0
After Sweet Thing we were treated to some extended lovely guitar play, echoing through the valley, then an echo round of sing-along and finally some major flippage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijjRYWkaF8
Kiss a Girl, with its singoff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEuprj-2qK4
Tonight Keith managed to get all Wisconsinites for his competition. The first gal was from LaCrosse, WI, the second from Cumberland, WI and the final fellow was from New Richmond, WI. Like last night, the guy (who hammed it up) won the support of the audience.
Keith took his stool out to the end of the catwalk for Without You, then went on to
Somebody Like You (personalizing with "It sure feels good to be here on this beautiful night in Cadott, Wisconsin" ). Keith again had fun (and cracked himself up) singing the chorus from Call Me Maybe, definitely enjoying himself up on stage. (I only caught the last line or 2 of this on my camera so I uploaded it to my blog rather than YouTube).
Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me included some show-offy guitar jousting with Jerry beforehand and some extra flourish during the guitar opening of the song, and was followed by the band member introductions. Tonight Keith claimed Danny played a particularly long list of instruments and preceded Brian's introduction with "Let's kick it into 6th gear!!"
Tonight Keith DID make it out into the audience for You Look Good in My Shirt and gave away a guitar there as well. And then another surprise! I started to depart after Keith and the band left the stage following You Look Good in My Shirt, when suddenly Keith was out on stage again!! Yes! He said that they had told them they had to get off stage and he had told them "Go to hell!" : ) So we got an encore of Better Life! Not only that - to the delight of the audience Keith jumped off the front of the stage and sang the song from down amongst the first few rows of seats! (see below) (At that point, I too was down in the first row, but he was close to center stage and I was way off to the right with many exuberant fans between us)
With that warm fuzzy concert glow I made my way to the hotel my hubby had reserved for me in Eau Claire. In the morning I headed back towards the Twin Cities. Daughter Annie and I lunched at a sidewalk cafe before I turned south towards Iowa and started the long wait for another Urban roadtrip.
A tiny bit of Keith singing Call Me Maybe
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