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,