Outstanding in Omaha!

>Keith had the Omaha audience in the palm of his hand last night!! They (we) were just crazy for him and cheered and screamed at every opportunity, not just after songs. He was just astounded by how much supportive noise we were making clear to the end of the evening, saying things like “I love it here”, “What do they put in the water here?” “I’m going to move to Nebraska!” and finally thanking us for being such an amazing crowd and staying to the very end. And thank you Keith (and the guys) for putting on such an amazing performance!!!

His set began with the great OIAL opening and then WTBE, but then Keith said they had to stop and do things a little different because it was Chris Rodriguez’s birthday. Keith wanted to lead 15,000 people in the singing of Happy Birthday to Chris, and so he did! He gave Chris a big hug and said that Chris was 29 – again! J Chris wore a shiny red cone shaped birthday party hat for the next song or two.

BTW, towards the end of her set Carrie made a point of saying what nice, sweet guys Keith and his band are and how she loves touring with them “And I don’t have to say that, but it is absolutely true.” she added.

ROS was fantastic as usual – especially with such a participatory crowd. They loved Keith’s extra dramatic pause before the chorus and how he then laughed at his dramatics. He added a few extra lines at the end – they were a surprise and I didn’t catch the exact wording – but he sang to us something like “I’m going to sleep Saturday night in Omaha and then stay in bed all Sunday, and maybe the next day, and the next day, even if it is not raining on Sunday!”

I was pleased to hear the amazed comments of some of the guys sitting near me – obviously first timers at a Keith concert. “Now he’s going to play the bass guitar too!!” “He does keyboard as well !??” when Keith moved to the piano, and several comments to the effect of “This is just great!” They seemed to be as awed as we are.

Used to the Pain was back again tonight!! Yeah! So apparently its omission in KC was just temporary. On the small stage Keith and Jerry reminisced about playing in a club in Lincoln on Halloween (of all nights) to about 30 people. “37 “ said Jerry, so then Keith thanked those 37 for bringing out their friends tonight.

Tonight for his classic guitar riffs Keith had a good looking shiny black guitar. He was totally mobbed during his walk into the stands – he could hardly move and it took forever to make it up the stairs to mid-lower bowl and finally stand on a chair because he was so surrounded by adoring fans. We, on the floor, made worried comments to each other – was he going to make it? Will he actually be hurt this time? He gave the guitar (signed in white tonight) to a delighted young girl, although there too there was almost a fist fight as different fans grabbed hold of different parts of the instrument trying to claim it. But Keith made clear who he was handing it to and managed to plough through the crowd back to stage seemingly unharmed. I understand ardent fans but I hope their passion doesn’t ruin this fun attempt to interact with the audience and make Keith think twice about venturing off stage.

Before the encore the sound from the crowd was absolutely thunderous. And in contrast to cell phone sparse Kansas City, it looked like all 15000 cell phones were out, calling Keith back to stage – an amazing sight even before he organized the cell phone wave! He was quite tickled by the sight.

One of the funniest highlights of the evening came during the encore. Keith returned to stage with a video camera of his own, moving it to capture all parts of this amazing audience. It was such a cute turn around of all of us constantly snapping shots of him. He set what seemed to be a running video cam on top of his piano, facing the audience, so that he could continue to film us during the cell phone wave and GIRTT.

He again pitted one side of the risers against the other for the privilege of starting the wave and worked them up to a fever pitch, finally saying “Nebraska – a state that will fight to start a cell phone wave!” Gotta love it!

He was particularly profuse with his thanks to the crowd tonight – I think Omaha was an extra fine ending to his 3 day run in this part of the country. I’m sorry that it is over!