A Bucket List Concert - Bruce Springsteen In St. Paul

     Made some progress on my "Bucket List" a few month ago but haven't found time to post. For a long time I have been wanting to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert and I finally had the chance when his toud came to St. Paul, MN. I only found out about the show the week before the date from a colleague at work so was unsure whether I could even get tickets. Bruce was playing two nights in a row; Sundays show was essentially sold out but Ticketmaster did have seats left for the Monday night show. I would have to drive north like a bat out of hell after my last class on Monday to get there on time and leave early in the morning to be back for class on Tuesday, but what the heck, especially since it meant a chance to see my youngest daughter who now lives in the Twin Cities.

     My seats appeared to be in the risers next to the stage and were labeled "May have an obstructed view" - probably why they were still available so close to the concert date. I hoped they wouldn't be too obstructed. I met Annie in downtown St. Paul and we grabbed a quick dinner at a pub, then rushed off to park my car at my hotel about a mile from the Xcel Energy Center. It wasn't the best weather and we worried about being late, so grabbed a cab rather than hoofing it to the arena. We needn't have rushed.
Being a first-timer at the Bruce concert I didn't know that he routinely comes out 45-60 minutes after the scheduled concert time!! We had plenty of time to chat with the older gentlemen sitting next to us - avid Springsteen fans who had flown up from Tampa for both nights' shows. I told them I had done the reverse in the past -- flown down to Tampa for Keith Urban's shows : )

     We were lucky - our seats turned out not to be obstructed at all, so had a great side view of the stage. This was the first big concert I've been to where they seemed to be quite serious about no videos - somehow that just didn't fit with Bruce's 'working man' personna. I did, however, sneak a few clips during the night.

     Springsteen is certainly a charismatic performer and I envied his energy and agility moving about the arena ( he is the same age as me!). Although I guess it is totally routine, Annie and I were amazed when he not only played while weaving through the densely packed general admission floor to a catwalk mid-arena, then - after saying to the fans near the catwalk "Are you ready?" flang himself backwards onto to the raised hands of the audience and the proceeded to pass him hand to hand all the way back to the main stage!!! Now that's a man that trusts his fans! At other points he pulled fans up onto the catwalk for a little dance.

     I've followed Bruce on and off over the many years of his career, so I am familiar with some albums but not others. With the arena acoustics (and being sidestage), I could not follow the lyrics of unfamiliar songs, which really is a disadvantage. But I enjoyed my old and new favorites (I had gotten his newest CD in preparation for the concert) and especially loved some of the slow heartfelt numbers.
Stolen Car
Waiting on a Sunny Day
The Rising
Born to Run

    We were kind of worn out after the THREE hour, no breaks show - I can only imagine how Bruce must have felt!!

Vince Gill in Cedar Falls!

What a treat!! An intimate Vince Gill concert right in my hometown! It was such a pleasure spending the evening with Vince (looking quite slim and handsome). He shared dozens of funny stories about family life (now and when growing up) and his experiences in the music business - he is so personable and self-effacing.
And of course his music was just great - wonderful vocals, thrilling guitar licks - in a theatre built with exceptional acoustics. And Vince played and talked non-stop for nearly 3 hours!! What a performer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MOaSzK1qdk  Look at Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZ9xiyYAiQ  Some Things Don't Get Old

And my all time favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhdDvp80gbE    Trying to Get Over You

Eric Church & Company in Moline

Okay, I was wrong. The first time I saw Eric Church perform live - as a special surprise guest at a Keith Urban concert, singing Creepin' I believe - I was unimpressed and bad mouthed his voice as too nasal and his performance as uninspired. But after buying his new album and then attending his concert, I am a convert. I enjoyed his music and his showmanship. Although the old saying is that "Familiarity breeds contempt.", that just isn't the case sometimes concerning hearing new music. Although some songs might grab one right away, more often it is through repeated listening that one starts to relate to the lyrics or internalize the music so it starts playing on the radio in your head. So I recommend his show (but listen to his album first!). Eric, like many performers today - had 2 opening acts: Justin Moore and newcomer Kip Moore (unrelated). Justin I have seen a number of times - I like much of his music and his good ol' boy style, although I could do without his NRA promotion and related songs. Kip Moore I was unfamiliar with. He is a cutie with quite a voice but men (boys?) who wear backwards caps drive me crazy (probably because a lot of my poor performing students were back-row of the classroom backwards cap guys!).

Here are a few of Eric's songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8tNApc4YrM   Springsteen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDEy5no7Xa0    Drink in My Hand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrEBqKe6nDM   Creepin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftm9W8IUAj4   one of Eric's early songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtxP8F-oF0    a bit of Jack Daniels

Justin Moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp5ycXRb7iM  Til My Last Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp5ycXRb7iM  Small Town USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69G5iZfcQJE   covering With A Little Help From My Friends

Kip Moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUiG0szkSUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIsquxBXpc4

Keith Urban in Gilford, NH - the 30th State in my Urban Journeys!

Sunday morning I headed south out of Bangor for the four hour trip to Gilford, N.H.  It was a pretty drive although I wasn't always sure that my GPS was taking me on the most direct route or the best roads. I enjoy the highway signs one never sees in Iowa: "Bear Crossing" and "Moose Crossing". My daughter Jen was driving up to Gilford from Providence, RI to join me for the concert. Between Labor Day travelers and the concert audience the limited hotel offerings the Gilford area had more business than they could handle and I was happy that I had reserved a room ahead of time. We had to circle downtown Laconia (next to Gilford) several times before we spotted the oddly positioned hotel. Once inside we were distressed to find we were in a "smoking" room with no other rooms available but opened the windows wide and vowed to spend as little time there as we could.  We had a fun dinner at Patrick's Pub (and ran across several other Urbanites there), then on to Meadowbrook.

The Meadowbrook Pavilion was definitely upscale compared to most summer concert venues, with nicely manicured grounds, mostly paved walkways and a nice roofed pavilion. No "pit area" here and in fact the ushers were ever vigilant and kept most people out of the aisles during most of the show. I was a little off to the side but much closer to the stage than in Bangor, which was great whenever the 6'5" guy in front was away getting beer. Other times I had to make use of the video screens : (   (but at least there were videoscreens).

Being closer I was much better able to enjoy David Nail's great voice (and good looks!) - he is quite talented but it may be that his style and song choices will keep him a small venue/club performer. Here are a couple of his songs:

David Nail Red Light   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LME1f80JshE

David Nail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnGmMgU9AwI

Keith again treated us to Your Everything. Unfortunately since it was close to the start of the set the guy in front of me kept blocking my view, but here it is on the video screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT0AwatSYXg

Happily, when Keith came over to my side of the stage I had a much better line of sight for 

I Told You So http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lDXjjYx_vI

Is he pointing at me?? 

Then back to the video screens for the guitar solos from Georgia Woods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNPmH2dGIuo

and also Til Summer Comes Around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnGLceVTedY

It was great fun having Keith bring back David Nail for a duet of Brand New Man!!

Keith and David Nail – Brand New Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqTqI9t13A

I was sitting next to a young lady and her mom and tried to encourage her to approach the stage when it was time for Kiss a Girl. She did stand up on her seat and her mom and I kept pointing to her, trying to catch Keith's attention as he picked his audience participants, but she was probably too short for him to see well.

Anyway, here is the sing-off 

Kiss a Girl Sing-Off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2cxbEccJo

I was captive in the center of a long row both times that Keith went out into the audience. Jen's seat, however, was on the aisle (I had to pick up a second single ticket when she decided to join me in NH).

She said she gave him a little rub each time he passed her - "just for you Mom" she said. Thanks Jen, but somehow getting a rub by proxy just isn't the same! : )

A lovely Without You  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVuWxkGHnEc

And during the encore: Tonight I Wanna Cry  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0lmRUyr8O4

So my "double header" of Keith's concerts was a great pleasure but my fun Labor Day weekend wasn't over yet. Monday morning I returned my rental car to the Manchester, NH airport and joined Jen in her car for the trip back to Providence - my first trip there since she moved from Syracuse University to Brown University for a new post-doctoral appointment. I got to see her new apartment and where she works and she introduced me to some of Providence's bars and restaurants before I had to head back home for work.

Now we need some Mohegan Sun or Boston concerts so I can head back east to see her again!

A Much Belated Labor Day Weekend Post

Although I am enjoying each of my fall semester classes, tensions on campus had me looking forward to the Labor Day weekend. Add that to a highly anticipated visit to see my 'East coast' daughter and 2 Keith concerts, I was positively giddy with excitement as August drew to a close!

I headed to the airport after my last class on Friday. It had been quite a while since I had made my flight arrangements, so I was surprised that I was flying to Portland, Maine via Atlanta. Who knew that Georgia was in between Iowa and New England!? But I made it safe and sound and took the free hotel shuttle to my hotel rather than deal with car rental at midnight. The same shuttle brought me back in the morning to pick up my Enterprise chariot. Before I left Portland I had a wonderful lobster omelet with fresh hollandaise for brunch at a Sea Dog Brewing Company Pub. (I was intent on making this a seafood weekend!)

I had all day to make the couple hour drive to Bangor, on a lovely sunny day, so planned several stops along the way. The highlight of that journey was my excursion over to the town of Belfast, Maine on the rugged coast for an early dinner. I had used one of my favorite sources - the book and website "Roadfood"- to find a fun local spot for lunch and picked Young's Lobster Pound. The Lobster Pound was a large open-air (at least in summer) warehouse filled with big metal tanks of different sized lobsters brought in by local lobstermen. A steady stream of customers ordered off the menu on the wall, I ordered lobster and littleneck clams and was told the number of the net bag that my fresh seafood was loaded into before it was placed in their cooker. When my number was called the bag was emptied onto a disposable platter, the lobster cracked so nothing more than a lobster pick would be needed to eat it, cups of butter and slaw were added, and I was ready to eat my very fresh, very un-fancy seafood out on the picnic tables on the dock. Yum!!

I usually listen to audiobooks while driving, but - a bit of Keith karma - happened to switch on my car radio just moments before Keith was interviewed by the local DJs. It was so nice to hear that voice!
Keith mentioned that he and Nic had been at the US Open the evening before and that he had flown in that morning and caught a good view of the Waterfront venue from the air. He said that Nic and the girls had flown back to Nashville and he would be joining them on Monday.

My hotel was out on the rural outskirts of Bangor, with farm fields surrounding the White Barn Best Western. When I headed towards the concert venue, I was surprised to find that the Bangor "Waterfront" was right on the downtown Main Street, across from the grocery store. I drove through the neighborhood looking for street parking but then discovered that the grocery store was allowing some of its parking lot spots to be 'sold' for parking by some local fund-raising group, which could not be more convenient.

The concert venue was surrounded by tall fences, but it appeared that many of those in Bangor who had not bought tickets to tonight's show had brought their lawn chairs and blankets down to Main Street and planned to listen to the music from the street. The sidewalks and curbs around the venue were lined with people as if they were waiting for a parade, but they were waiting for Keith Urban and David Nail!

I knew from the Bangor Waterfront seating chart that there was a "pit" or general admission area in front of the reserved seating, but I was unprepared for the size of this area. It was a huge area - far larger than needed for even the most popular of stars.  It was probably 30 feet deep, so that, even though I was in row 3 of reserved seating, it was as if I were in row 23 in terms of my distance from the stage. I was disappointed with my view, especially since the GA crowd naturally pressed close to the stage ( the first 10-15 feet of space) leaving a big, unnecessary empty gap in front of reserved seating.
To their credit, once the show began the Waterfront allowed people from reserved seating to enter the GA area, but since I cannot stand for hours I stayed out in the seating area.

Another bit of disappointment: no video screens at all at this venue!! : (  So there was no 'visual aid" for those of us farther back from the stage. But - stop complaining Linda! - it was still a Keith concert on a beautiful summer night under a star-filled, full moon sky - shame on me for being ungrateful!

I have to admit that I was at a disadvantage seeing David Nail for the first time from such a distance. I was not familiar with his music and consequently did not give him the attention that I should have (I did better the next night), so I will jump right to Keith's set.

As expected Keith and the band opened with You Gonna Fly with an extra "Bangor look at you now" thrown in and a bit of Boondocks following. Then a rousing Put You in a Song.

Keith took some lovely new liberties with a quavering guitar intro that gave me chills before going into the more familiar opening to Raining on Sunday.

Then it was time for a little chatty interaction with the audience, and a bit of a new gag. Tonight instead of using a big spotlight to highlight distant parts of the audience, Keith had his stagehand bring out a huge set of binoculars. Looking through them at the audience far out in the venue Keith described some of the individuals he was seeing! : ) He then read a few signs and settled on one which claimed the signholders had waited 11years to finally see him live and one which said "We came from up north, we headed down south" a la YGF. The gals said that they had come down from north of the Arctic Circle! 
Keith was tickled by this and brought them up on stage, saying that "north of the Arctic Circle" sounded "vaguely dirty". They all hugged and took multiple photos together.

The highlights of the night for me:  The performance of an oldy but oh-so-goody:

Your Everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLHCSmnPleo

And Keith coming out to see me for I'm In:

I'm In http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnNd2M-Sdw0

For You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnQ-nz1r698

You Look Good in My Shirt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUSQWxXYM3w

Georgia Woods guitar solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3_BUNTQzkQ

Kiss a Girl Sing- Off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b84jBqtX4pg

Ended the night with an after midnight supper at a Bangor truck stop restaurant which had a huge crowd. I thought perhaps many, like me, had come there after the concert. But no, I was shocked and amazed when the table full of college age gals next to me, when asked by the waitress if they had just come from the Keith Urban concert, cried out in dismay "We missed a Keith Urban concert???!!!"
How could anyone living in Bangor have missed the fact that Keith would be playing right down on mainstreet???

Been Just a Little Busy

Daddy walking his princess down the aisle

Sara and 3 of the 4 bridesmaids (first two are my daughters Jen and Annie)

During their vows

An incredible dip during the couple's first dance

My side of the family

The Walsh side of the family

I haven't posted in months but will try to catch up eventually. Life has been good but oh-so-hectic, with travel, major house remodeling, a new school year, and preparations for the event below - the one bit I will share today. Last Saturday our daughter Sara got married (the first of our three daughters to do so, so dad and I were particularly nervous about the wedding going off smoothly. Well, it did (Sara did a wonderful job planning) and we had a great time. No official wedding photos yet, of course, but family and friends have been sharing their snapshots on Facebook. So here are are few of their shots from a very proud mama.

And On to Country Fest in Cadott, WI!

Sunday morning I headed back north and west to Cadott  which is near Eau Claire, WI. I had never heard of that town before, but apparently Country Fest has been taking place there for 25 years.

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

 Down into the audience for the encore!