Loving Him in Lexington!

>Lexington was all blue skies and sunshine, gentle breezes and 65 degrees – perfect weather as far as I am concerned (especially since Iowa was expecting a late season snowstorm when I left – can you believe it!?). Had a talkative cabbie who asked a lot of questions about Keith and was rather astounded by my Keithie travels. I guess I am rather astounded too!

As soon as I dropped off my suitcase at the hotel I headed out to enjoy the weather and prowl around the Rupp looking for our guys on motorcycles. The buses were parked in a lot in the middle of the Rupp Arena and shopping & convention center complex – well guarded and out of reach of fans. But I sat on a cement wall, gazing down a driveway at the back entrance of the Rupp closest to the 2 buses with the motorcycle trailers. As I did I heard the deep guttural and incredibly loud sound of a BIG bike and I caught a glimpse of the cycle and rider unfortunately heading out of the opposite side of the parking lot. I was convinced that big bike must be Keith’s (although between the helmet and the distance I could not be sure). But what the heck – it was a lovely day for sitting in the sun, so I walked around the arena to that other driveway, found a comfie spot and settled in to await soundcheck time and, hopefully, the return of all riders. Lexington must be a friendly town, because locals kept coming up and sitting down next to me to chat. One guy was carrying his groceries home and pulled out a loaf of bread and coldcuts and asked if I would like a sandwich!! Anyway, at 3:20 two of the guys returned on smaller cycles (again their headgear and speed meant my guess that it was Brian and Jerry just that – a guess). Brad Rice once told me soundcheck was at 4:00, but no big bike returned by 4:00 or even 5:00, when I finally gave up and left for a Monkeyville pre-party.

I walked into the restaurant room Monkeys had reserved and grabbed an empty seat at a table only to discover that I knew all but one person from other concerts. Gaetane (sp?) from Montreal was there as well as the Michigan couple I had had dinner with at the Chicago Theatre concert way back in Feb 2007 and Tim who I had sold a ticket to in Green Bay. Small world and good company!

Since they were filming for the live concert DVD tonight there was one of those huge extra long camera booms set up about row 10 on the right side. With the long boom the camera could reach out to most of the right floor audience, sometimes coming down to face level to capture our singing or facial expressions. I think they had that same kind of boom at the Atlanta fan club concerts last year. Because of the filming Keith also had fun introducing most of the band members twice tonight – one time when they each sang their their little solos, and then, immediately after, another time without the singing. Keith explained that was just in case they didn’t get approval from the respective song “owners” for those little bits to be in the DVD.

Perhaps because it was Kentucky I swear the fragrance that they piped into the arena at showtime was the smell of a freshly opened can of sweet pipe tobacco!! At the break between Carrie and Keith it also smelled like this is an arena that allows smoking (or had a lot of smoking offenders).Tonight there were quite a few empty seats during Carrie’s set – it appeared lots of folks were coming primarily to hear Keith. The UK drum corps had seats in the risers at the far left of the stage so that they could enjoy Carrie and the very beginning of Keith’s set. And by the time he came on it was an awesome, totally hyped full-to-the-brim crowd who sang and cheered their hearts out until the final minute that Keith left the stage. (The Rupp Arena if both a deep and high arena with the longest staircase from the entry level to the floor that I have ever experienced!) The arena was hot and Keith was even hotter (my hair was as damp as Keith’s by night’s end).He was totally jubilant and playful and full of beaming smiles. Several times he made reference to this being the last of 107 shows (remember last year when we could hardly believe he would be able to do 100 in a year!) and that it was going to be a party. Once again he had fun with his exaggerated performer’s movements – e.g. at the end of DGB (which again seemed to have more new clips – sure hope they post that video on the website!) he stood on the runway with one leg raised for a full 20-30 seconds before finally breaking into that final DGB guitar solo at the end! Keith was wearing what I think was a vintage tee tonight – dark blue with what looked like a row of hearts stuck on the spikes of a wrought iron gate? Each of the other guys was dressed differently as usual – Brad in long sleeve tee, Chris R in a suitcoat, Jerry in a vest, Brian in a tie and dressshirt, Chris M in a bright orangish red tee. The guys also seemed to be in particularly high spirits tonight. I noticed at one point Brian and Jerry “leaping” at each other from across the stage (a la Keith and Jerry’s jousts at the beginning of WWWBM) just to switch up which ends of the stage they played on. They also seemed more playful on the small stage.

The first three songs of Keith’s set were as usual – thrilling OIAL, energy packed WTBE, and uplifting Shine, with the audience fully participating. Then when Keith paused for his usual welcoming of the crowd and drawing out the cheers of each section of the arena, there were lots of signs showing. Keith singled out a “cooperative effort” of 4 signs held by what looked like young high school girls. One said “I want to play your guitar” and the other 3 each said “Let her play your guitar”, with arrows pointing to the first gal. So Keith – the great sport that he is, invited Leslie up and gave her a stool and a guitar, She was just a tiny gal, maybe 15, but she immediately ran off some hot riffs on that guitar in front of 20,000 people!! Keith (and the audience) were totally floored – he nearly fell to the down with his delight and laughter! He did partially bow down to her, with arms raised over his head, making that “I am not worthy” type pf motion – so funny. So he asked what she wanted to play and she said she knew the solo to Raise the Barn. And she did! Keith let her start out alone but then joined in with his guitar and vocals and they rocked the house with a verse, chorus and guitar solo from Raise the Barn!!! It was fantastic and that gal may have a future – we need a few hot female guitarists in country bands!! After they finished Keith said “Thank you and good night!” because it really was like a rousing closing number.

I had a fantastic seat (from the Monkeyville presale) on the catwalk near the middle. Carrie’s catwalk microphone and Keith’s ROS microphone were 4 feet away from me and Keith began his duet with Carrie smack dab in front of me so that I stole a brief touch of his boot and leg. Also got 3 handslaps during the night (yay – they have to last me a while!) and many awesome close-ups. I could not manage to catch a pick however (Even though my sign tonight said “Pining for a Pick or to be Picked” with a picture of the pick with guitarmonkey on it. The Monkey on the catwalk of the row behind me got handed THREE picks during the evening!* One couple behind me had come to see Carrie and were a little uncertain whether they should bother to stay for Keith. They were surrounded by ardent fans who were shocked and convinced them that they had to stay for our “Entertainer of theYear”! Well, I noticed later in the show when I was perched on the catwalk barrier, the fellow was crawling on the floor under my feet, stretching to reach a guitar pick that had fallen close to the catwalk (and which I hadn’t noticed – damn!). He must have really been watching Keith play to notice the path of that stray pick from his mid-row seat!! I think we have a convert there!

Security was tighter last night, at least early on, There was no “catwalk aisle” – catwalk seats were pretty much up against the barrier. I got scolded twice for standing on the rail of the barrier to try to get my handslaps. I must say one’s “perspective” when you actually have a catwalk seat is a little different from recent discussions on the board (for instance when we were all urging bird to make the rush from her mid-row seat). Well, that’s what happened every time Carrie or Keith hit the runway – 4 or 5 gals from farther down the row very aggressively rushed the catwalk in my row sometimes shoving so hard they nearly displaced me – the ticket holder. Every time I stood up one of them would jump up on my chair and stand towering over me. If I wanted to briefly sit (like during the photos that precede UTTP) I had to ask them to get down from my chair. So although I am in favor of polite sharing of Keith access, I was a little miffed last night and had to do a little shouldering of my own to maintain my catwalk seat.

A little glitch when FC was to begin – the Shine background video started instead of the one for FC. Keith took the brief pause while they corrected things to give out additional thanks to the travelers, the nosebleed seat people and last night he gave a special thanks to those who travel to attend multiple concerts (yay!). He talked about the DVD filming and told us to be on our WORST behavior.:).

UTTP was back – I was so glad to hear it again. And the little stage set was extra fun with the double introductions I mentioned earlier. The Carrie duet, which Keith now does right after the band leaves the small stage – was rip-roaring hot – I so wish that they would record that as a single!! Keith was mobbed as usual when he went out in the audience during YLGIMS – one gal actually grabbed him and gave him a pretty big kiss on the cheek. He is a brave man to keep making that trip!

During the encore Keith did not do the usual “Blister in the Sun”. Instead he asked us to bear with him while he did something crazy (at which point the crowd cheered of course!). He said he felt like singing something different even though with was actually written for a female. “So just forget that I’m a guy for the moment!”(Fat chance of that Keith!) and did a lovely rendition of an Emmy Lou Harris song Kentucky Girl. During GIRTT Keith said he had been dedicating the song all tour to one wonderful person, his wife, and “Thank God she is here tonight!” I think Nicole was offstage because Keith kept pointing, looking and grinning at the side of the stage. A camera did catch a shot of her blushing and hiding her face, but she was against a brick background, another reason that I don’t think she was out in the arena proper. So maybe that’s why there was no sign of Keith on cycle at 4:00-5:00 – maybe he was off lunching with Nicole. Lot of colorful confetti tonight – especially up front – so the stage looked like a beautiful kaleidoscope for Everybody. Keith first again thanked everyone who had been coming to the shows because for him it had been the most amazing, fun, awe-inspiring, joyful, spiritually-rewarding tour that he had ever been on in his lifetime (he may have even had a few more adjectives – it was very moving!) Thank you Keith – believe me your fans feel the same way about this magnificent tour!! It was unforgettable!! But I could tell his voice was getting a little shaky during those thanks and by the time he was one verse into the closing song Everybody, big tears were just rolling down his face on the big screen. I don’t know how he was able to continue singing – I think many fans could not sing a peep with those great big lumps in their throats!

I yelled out my “Thank you Keith!!!” as he made his final hand-slapping journey down the runway, collecting oodles of tiny shirts, monkeys, roses and the like. He stopped to sign 6-8 autographs on various pictures and posters. Some fans around me were in tears – such a wonderful show but a bittersweet ending to this long exciting tour. I believe the show ended between 12:30 and 12:45 (I didn’t get to my hotel right across the street until after 1:00 AM).

P.S. Sunday morning and I am sitting in the Lexington airport, and in walks Brad Rice with the head honcho of the stagecrew (sorry, don’t know the name of the guy who hustles back and forth between the main stage and small stage). “That was a fantastic show last night!” I told Brad. “We’re all sorry to have the tour end although we know you guys need a break.” He replied that they were sorry it was ending too, and that they were looking forward to the shows with Kenny this summer. He was a very “Sweet B” and willing to chat. We went through security and ended up at the same coffee shop, at which point I decided to ask him for a photo op. He was happy to oblige – put his arm around me after draping his LPATWCT backstage access badge around my neck and StageGuy shot our picture. Then Brad gave me both one of his guitar picks and one of Keith’s!! So I did finally get my picks and a very nice conversation to boot. When I left the guys to drink my coffee at another table I could still catch their fun conversation on their experience of the various little snafus of the tour – the amps that went dead, Chris R. being unexpectedly tethered by cords that got caught on something, who was responsible for the early confetti release in Raleigh, the problems during the DVD filming and so forth (sorry for eavesdropping guys!). When I went to my gate, lo and behold they were on the same flight, so I popped one additional question to Brad. “Is there an expected release date for the DVD?” “Sometime in September” he volunteered! Yay!!! What a glorious trip!

* I later learned she (and sometimes bits of me) was being filmed for the "Greatest Fans" special!

Carolina On My Mind

>It is a gorgeous night in North Carolina – it was such a pleasure to walk back to my hotel from the RBC Center, aglow with that Keith buzz. I couldn’t help but whistle most of the way. It is amazing that with every Keith concert one can fall in love anew (not that I ever felt my urbanitis waning, but each new concert packs a whallop in my affections).

My suitcase didn’t arrive with me so I ended up attending the concert in the long skirt I had traveled in, and without my camera strap and sign, but what the hey. I arrived at the arena just before the doors opened. The BSE folks were entering the door next to mine and I asked if anyone had an extra pass, just in case J (fat chance!). I used my hour before showtime well – had my picture taken by Verizon to show on the big screen and entered the BBQ contest again, filmed another video “with Keith” – this time with both of us singing I Told You So, found the Monkeyville passport table and had me some North Carolina BBQ, complete with the coleslaw on the sandwich and some sweet tea.

I was pleasantly surprised that Floor 3 was not as far back as I had anticipated. Although I was about 9 seats away from the catwalk, my row was even with Keith’s microphone at the end of the walk, just ahead of the small stage, where plenty of action takes place. I didn’t have a chance to cross to the opposite side to look for board buddy bird in Floor 2, but I did try to send her a text message hello on the the big screen. Verizon texted me a thank you for my message saying watch for it on the screen but I don’t think it ever showed up.

Carrie put on a good performance although I think she sang a few more songs from her new album that I was not familiar with. She has increased her “chatting” with the audience, which is nice. She apologized to the folks in the nosebleed seats saying she would invite them all down to the stage if she could. She joked about the audience sort of being her “boss” since they voted her “into office” when she was on Idol. She also made kind of a odd joke (I guess) about this being the time when she “sucks up to the audience” and told us, laughing, that we were an awesome audience. During her set many security manned the catwalk area keeping the audience at bay. Tonight they had about a 3 foot gap between the seats and the catwalk, so early in the evening I was not sure if the intent was to keep the audience away or to invite them up to the walk. After Carrie the catwalk security essentially disappeared so that gap completely filled with standers. I felt sorry for those sitting next to the catwalk who might have thought they had a secure view, but if they weren’t quick they lost it! There seemed to be a different DJ tonight – PJ Scully, so when Keith thanked him he made no reference to the “Twin Disks of Love”.

At the last show I attended Keith had a one minute countdown clock, but not tonight. The lights went down, eliciting the usual screams, and they went right into the astronomical background of OIAL. I was immediately a goner, nearly moaning when Keith appeared in silhouette, because of that thigh keeping the OIAL beat. Mercy!

And when the lights came up and we could see him in that cream colored tee that he began wearing in Charlottesville – oh Lordy! The tee has somewhat shorter sleeves, I think, and I could hardly take my eyes off those lovely bulging biceps, muscles pulsing as he tore into that guitar. There were other distractions though. You could see Keith’s pecs right through that soft teeshirt fabric (that man has been working that body!!) – pecs and nipples ( oh the urge just to give one of them a little tweak!). His hair looked great – trimmed fairly short on the sides, with a few blond streaks and exceptional flippage during his duet with Carrie and WWWBM. The voice, the music, the dimples and grins were wonderful as usual and he graced us with several rather mischevious smiles, biting his lower lip while he ripped off those riffs.

There were lots and lots of signs tonight – Keith had the camera pan the audience and I couldn’t even read them all. He invited one teenage gal up on stage with her “Picture Me With You- Making Memories of Us” sign – with 2 holes cut for her and Keith’s faces to stick through. Lucky girl got several squeezes and multiple photo poses.

Tonight, instead of playing “Let’s Get It On” as she walked up on stage, the band played Johnny Cash’s “I Hear the Train A-Coming”!??

Keith hammed it up a bit on the piano before TIWC, running clear off the upper range of the keyboard leaning out so far he almost fell off the bench. He also was goofing with the guys – at one point before WWWBM he managed to make “bunny ears” (or are they devil’s horns?) on Chris R’s head on the big screen by positioning his hand just right in the line of the camera (even though Chris was several feet away). There were some new clips in the DGB fan video. And, as sweetness reported in Charlottesville, each of the guys (except Chris M) did a bit of a solo when they were introduced – that was fun to hear. I particularly enjoyed Chris R singing Hot Blooded. Keith received an abundance of flowers and gifts during the evening. At one point he was playing a guitar solo with 3 pink roses clenched in his teeth and he performed part of one song (I’m blanking on which) in a cowboy hat

When Keith came back on stage for the encore he sang a couple lines of “In my mind I’m going to Carolina” (can’t remember the actual title of that James Taylor song….). He was also a hoot because he came back on stage kind of chewing, apologizing for being slow because he had been hungry and grabbed something to eat ( and he continued kind of chewing and wiping his lips on and off for the first couple minutes). He told us that not only would he be leaving with fond memories of North Carolina but he had bought another motorcycle that day at the Capitol BMW dealership! (He did precede that story with a disclaimer that he does not “pledge allegiance” to any one brand of cycle – anything with 2 wheels is fine with him). He thanked the salesman for riding his old cycle back to the arena for himJ He dedicated GIRTT to his “very pregnant wife”.

I had a terrific time – how could I not??? – but there were a couple disappointments tonight. First – I was disappointed in the audience – quite a few of which left early, leaving some obvious gaps in the seating. And then a couple set changes: No trip into the audience during YLGIMS!! And naturally tonight I slipped out of my seat and positioned myself near the stairway he usually ascends, but then he never left stage L

Maybe those women who swamped him at the last concert were just too much??? No confetti during Better Life (may have been due to a malfunctioning system since a small spurt of confetti did appear during SLY).And then no Everybody!! The show felt a little incomplete without that wonderful closing number. This is the first show I have seen with the Keith/Carrie duet – has Everybody been omitted at the other concerts where they added the duet?? Or might Keith have actually been responding to the gaps in the audience?? No thank yous tonight for crew or those who stayed to “the bitter end”, as he usually does. But Keith did stay on stage and walked the catwalk long after the band had left the stage. He slapped hands, thanked much of the audience, accepted more gifts and even signed a couple autographs,