Meet Me in St, Louie

>Your "roving reporter" has arrived in downtown St. Louis with daughters. We drove down to the Arch, circled the venue 3 times, then went over to check into our hotel in the very cool Union Station. Coming from the parking lot we had to ride what looked like a little service elevator and when we got out, who should be standing there but guitarist/mandolinist Sweet B (Brad Rice)!! I asked him for an autograph - he looked shocked that I knew him but gladly complied and offered that I had just missed the other guys! (shucks!) I asked if he was heading to soundcheck but he said "No - that's at 4:00" but I wasn't thinking fast enough to ask what they all were doing this afternoon!

1:00 a.m. Woo Hoo! I am finally back from another terrific night but am plum tuckered out so a full review will have to wait. (I'd like to see a review from the fresh eyes of missourigirl anyway!) But I do have to say that the Keith Karma that was with me early today continued! My 3rd daughter's flight did not get in until 5:00 so we didn't make it to WIL radio's pre-party and giveaways as we had planned. But we did arrive in time to see a big crowd at another station’s ( "The Bull" – not sure of their call letters ) tent in front of the arena. Each of us grabbed one of their yellow raffle tickets. At 6:30 they drew for who would win BSEs with the Wreckers, ticket upgrades, and BSEs with Keith. Well, here we are, probably the only Iowans in a sea of St. Louis folks, and my youngest daughter has the winning ticket for a PAIR of Keith Backstage Experiences!!! She looked totally stunned but claimed the passes and the letter with the LPATWCT heart on it telling her where to go. But I have THREE daughters there - and two passes. Annie, the winner, certainly gets to go, but who else??? My daughters, sweeties that they are, initially say that Mom, who is head over heels about Keith should go. Much as I would have loved to go I tell them I have had my BSE - one of them should go. We flip a coin to make it fair and my oldest daughter (the first real Keith fan in our family) wins, which seems kind of right. Annie and Jen rush off to the fast approaching BSE rendezvous. Good luck continues to shine on them - they end up in the middle of their photo group so that both of them get to be next to Keith!! But they worry about the missing sister throughout and Annie uses her chance to ask a question to request that Keith sign a special autograph for her sister who couldn't attend (which he does, addressing it to Sara:). He sings It's a Love Thing to them and confesses that he caught a "hellacious cold" from Nic while in wintery Oz. (He later apologizes to the arena audience for sounding "like a back-up singer to Mr. Snuffleupagus" :) Although he was a little hoarse in spots he put his all into the show and didn't slack up one bit - the aussome showperson that he is!! Meanwhile, during the daughters' BSE, I am back in the arena with the losing daughter who is not taking it well at all. She may be a college grad but is not yet grownup when it comes to Keithy matters I guess. She wept until the concert started, attracting the attention of several security guards who probably thought she had been robbed or assaulted. She still isn't speaking to us!! (oh well, she's only 22 and I guess older women than that have been sore losers when it comes to not meeting Keith) Hopefully she will cheer up tomorrow! Even my Keith excitement will not keep me awake much longer (ready for some sweet dreams) so I will end with the sign that Keith said was the wackiest sign he had seen and insisted that it and the guy holding it be shown on camera: "Hey there Mate - Slap some of that sweat on me so my wife will really go for me!" Keith shook his hand and laid down on the catwalk to take a photo with the wife! More tomorrow!

Salutations from St. Louis!! Here are some bits and pieces of our concert experience at the first show after his short trip back to Australia.

I imagine this is a function of the venue, but one of the first things I noticed when entering Scottrade Center is that they had several more merchandise booths (good, I guess, because then there are shorter lines) as well as “program venders” set up in the corridor itself. I splurged on the beautiful (but pricey) collection of tour photos. Also St. Louis had rose venders, so we saw quite a few roses (as well as a big bouquet) given to Keith throughout the show. Scottrade is a big venue and does have nosebleed seats. Keith made a point of thanking the audience that was way up high and spotlighted them when he was on the small stage. As usual he also thanked those who traveled a long way to get to the show, but last night he added that he so appreciated those of us who drove for hours just to come to a show, only to have to drive back again – nice! Last night I mentioned the “Slap some sweat on me sign” – I don’t believe he read any others out loud but he acknowledged others with nods and laughs. It was also a big night for fans handing things to Keith (rolled up messages, cards perhaps, a poster size message (with small writing), etc. sp he had quite a pile of flowers and other things up on stage.

It was rather warm and humid in the arena (even the BSE was sweltering according to daughters) – Keith used his “sure is hot in the hot tub” line and toweled himself several times during the show. (I kind of like watching him towel his hair and neck – kind of like a glimpse of Keith coming out of the shower - lol ) ! For a while I could of sworn he had added silver balls to his earrings, but perhaps it was just beads of sweat! (Nope – the silver balls were there in Memphis too!)

How that man can sing and joke and strut and play the heck out of that guitar when he is sick is beyond me! (some of us can hardly be civil when we’re under the weather). He did a fantastic job and if I didn’t know his voice so well I may not have noticed the occasional hoarseness or slight differences in tone. The crowd certainly was with him all night and he noticed. He called the left risers “the rowdy crowd”, later told everyone he appreciated us being in such a good mood, joked with some fans that they must have started partying pretty early. Someone yelled out “I love Nicole” when he made some comment about catching his cold from her and he responded “Well we have a lot in common then!” He also had fun with the band as usual. They really cracked up when he sang “I ain’t slept in quite a while” in Faster Car (probably because he just got back from Oz last night ). He inserted a line in one of the small stage songs about Brad’s crazy hair, spotlighted the “Cue-balls” – Chris McHugh’s 2 boys were in the audience right next to the small stage so Keith brought them up on stage. They look SO much like Chris – really cute. So nice of Keith. I sure wish I had caught the even longer little “rap” that Keith did while introducing Chris Mc Hugh.

Two things were new to me last night and I hope it is not just because I was oblivious to these details earlier. No hat on Brian last night – instead he had bleach blond hair! (was that the case before???). And when the band was on the second stage both the stage and the catwalk were edged in bright red tube lighting – did I miss that before?? I forgot to mention that as the show was about to begin lots of fans gathered along the catwalk and I wondered whether there were going to be some unhappy fans who had catwalk seats that were then blocked by the crowd, but it seemed that security dispersed those standing at the edge of the walk.

There were a few little technological problems but Keith stayed in good spirits when the spotlights briefly wouldn’t go off for his cell phone wave and sang us a little technological problems refrain when his piano had a bad string or something before TIWC.

Although I never seemed to have my camera ready for some of the little gems of the night (like Keith bending down to bite the stem of a rose a woman held in her mouth by the catwalk or later bending down to kiss a hand or head (couldn’t see)) I did catch him playing his guitar with a rose in his teeth. But I missed him backing up the entire length of the catwalk with Brian butting his head against his back the whole way.

Keith you were a real trouper last night and put on another great show!!