Oh My Oh in Ohio

Oh my - there is something darned special about seeing Keith outdoors on a clear sunny day. As wonderful as that big high def screen is in darkened arenas, the daylight really brings out the wonderful colors of Keith. Today he wore a bright white tee with the interesting logo of the Rolling Stones Unicycle Club (?) on the front and Capitol Cycles on the back, a great silver studded belt, and really blue bluejeans. In the sunlight that white shirt really showed off the great tan on those muscled arms and a rosy glow in his cheeks! He obviously has been enjoying some outdoors time. And in the daylight those blue eyes never sparkled brighter – totally mesmerizing! Our man was looking particularly lean and fit and happy to be playing a gig.

Keith came on at 7:45 with little to announce his arrival (no meteors and shooting stars or beat of OIAL as in the tour). Instead he came onto stage and immediately went into Days Go By, with the DGB fan video background (again I felt like there were some news bits in the video).on HIS usual big screen (I was SO happy to see they brought it to the stadium!). I say HIS because Kenny used multiple curved screens of his own (not quite as nice as Keith’s IMHO). The crowd joined right in on the song and Keith got a great response throughout his show even though the stadium crowd was, of course, a more mixed group than the usual Keith concert. Then on to Blacktop with a couple extra “You bet ya’s” thrown in (I always liked that line!) and then Stupid Boy with its great guitar solo (which garnered special cheers and applause). Keith talked a bit about being happy to be part of the show and said that when Kenny called and invited him to play he (Keith) had said “Let me think about it yeah okay” (all in one breath) J The word was that Nicole was present in Cleveland as well although we didn’t get to see her.

Well, shame on Kenny but he still did not allow his friend Keith to use the full catwalk. As with Kenny’s last tour the runway was physically blocked past the first “T” for all the other performers. So Keith did Raining on Sunday a bit closer to the stage than usual because of that limitation. He added in an extra line after “raining on Sunday”, saying that “It’s so much better than ‘raining on Saturday’” (and we had been so glad to see that Friday’s overcast skies had given way to skies as blue as Keith’s eyes by Saturday morning!).. This was followed by a totally rocking I Told You So (no drum corps of course)., a tender MMOU and heartfelt TIWC with the usual bit of playful piano lead-in. Of course all the Keith fans were totally into these songs but the slow songs do not quite have their usual impact on some of the rowdier ‘non-fans’ in a stadium crowd.

I was also a little surprised that no microphones had been provided at the right and left ends of the stage for the performers. This didn’t stop Keith from making his usual use of the stage ends – he just had to drag a microphone from center stage with him each time he journeyed out to the far ends.

Better Life was followed by Keith congratulating Chris M – Chris is getting married tomorrow!! Keith also thanked Dave and Shelly Fry (?) for flying them all back home after the show so that they can be there for the wedding.

YTOM got a great response from the crowd, as did Keith’s classic guitar riffs leading into YLGIMS. No venturing off stage tonight and Kenny was the one who gave a guitar away to a startled young girl later in the night.

Keith paused to remind us all that we are able to come out to enjoy music together because we are free but that freedom comes at a cost, and sent out a special thank you to all those fighting for and protecting that freedom overseas and their families. He finished off his performance with WWWBM and SLY, saying during this last song that “This one is for you Baby Girl!” (I assume he was saying this to Nicole off stage).

The hour and a quarter that Keith played went by far too fast (especially after being spoiled by those long tour shows), but even Kenny only played an hour and a half – I guess that is the price of a multi-performer concert.

With the exception of the catwalk situation I was pleasantly surprised by my stadium experience. I thought the sound was great and the big screens plus side screens provided a much better view than all the outdoor concerts I have been to in the past. For some reason I had missed any mention of Gary Allen appearing at this venue so was very pleased when he opened the show (not counting the couple songs by a local band that won Kenny’s “New Big Star” contest in this area). And another unexpected treat was Jennifer Nettles showing up during Kenny’s set and singing us “Stay” and also joining in with Kenny during his “Anything But Mine” towards the end of the show. Kenny’s set was fun but left me more convinced than ever that Keith is the EOTY!

PS Another special treat was getting to meet rum tum tugger at the show!