Amost Heaven in West Virginia?

Almost heaven, West Virginia” – especially on a spring night when Keith Urban is in town! Well, although it is always heavenly seeing Keith, West Virginia was not quite heaven today. Every time I tried to go out to wander around the Civic Center or to look for the buses there was a downpour! It did stop as concert time neared, so that was good. A couple radio stations had booths set up outside of the arena so I signed up for the “second row seats” drawing. No luck there but actually I had a great seat in the risers close to the stage anyway. I was in line with the ends of the ramps and the runway. The Charleston Civic Center is a venue of mixed blessings. It is small – there were only 13 full rows of seats between the end of the catwalk and the sound mix area, so there really weren’t many ‘bad’ seats. But it was hot and humid even before Keith got on the stage and only got worse most of the evening. Many in the audience were as sweaty as Keith! And although the arena itself is supposedly no smoking, wherever their smoking area is, it must share an air supply with the arena because we had a strong tobacco smoke smell. (I’ve gotten spoiled by all those truly smoke-free venues!). There was a fistfight between some drunken males on the floor during the break after the Zac Brown Band and it took a bunch of security guards to finally break it up and drag off the offenders! Maybe that worried security, because at that point they started chasing away the standers who had lined the catwalk, front stage and runway edges, clearing the crowd away before Keith came out! (Security did not continue to do this though, so once the show began people once again lined up in all these areas.) Finally, at least from my position, I didn’t think the acoustics were quite as good as usual. (Fussy, aren’t I?)

Tonight they got the timing and vapors right for the band’s opening number so we had a great view of Keith rising out of the mist as the crowd screamed. They rocked Hit the Ground but I got the feeling that fewer in this audience were familiar with the Defying Gravity selections than has been the case elsewhere, so were just observers rather than participants during those numbers. But the crowd was loudly into Days Go By (with a special “up the scale” guitar flourish during the song’s closing) and Stupid Boy with its always chill giving guitar solo. I forgot to mention earlier in the tour that Keith has been playing a crystal-like (clear) guitar during this number – that must be the specially designed guitar we read about early on. Has there always been a quiet, about 10 second, perhaps keyboard introduction to Stupid Boy preceding Brian’s guitar strumming? If not, there is now!

Keith then gave his usual greeting, saying they were glad to have finally made it back to Charleston and asking each section of the audience in turn if they were feeling good tonight. I was a little surprised, considering that two in the band are from West Virginia, that this small venue was not sold out. Just over half of the rows in the 200 level risers were full. Strange, huh? Keith then introduced Black Top by saying “Let’s go back a couple records with this one”.He spent time at each of the platforms at stage right and stage left but last night seemed frustrated by the positioning of the sidestage spotlights that are lowered down to stage level during this song. While he was over on my side he kept gesturing to the spotlights while he sang, indicating that he wanted them raised so they wouldn’t block his view of the very first set of risers, but the lighting folks didn’t catch on until too late.

Keith wore a white/brown/black plaid shirt tonight and dark jeans. Despite the ‘break’ he still looked a little tired around the eyes. He was also still a little hoarse on the really high notes and so called on the audience to sing when he got to those points in songs. The West Virginians were a much more polite crowd when it came time, in Better Half, for Keith to make his way back to the small stage (which tonight was almost right up against the rear risers with very little standing room around it). Although thrilled and screaming they didn’t rush at Keith and tended to gently pat his arm rather than grabbing as he passed. So Keith was able to play and smile and nod at fans on both sides without much trouble. After his solo Once in a Lifetime he said “My god it is hot in here!!” (and you weren’t helping the situation Keith!). He only did 2 songs on the small stage, dedicating Making Memories of Us “to two friends out there in the audience somewhere – Juliet and Julia”. His return trip was a bit more congested but he still made it back to the mainstage pretty quickly.

The guys sang their usual solo bits following their introductions. Somewhat surprisingly there was no mention of any family members being present for this West Virginia show. There did seem to be a little extra featuring of some of the guys. Chris M. brought his bongo (I think) drum up to the side platform and was spotlighted as he accompanied Keith singing on the small stage. Brian also, at one point, sat on the edge of that platform, legs dangling, as his playing was featured (I’ll have to check my video to recall what song that was). C-Rod of course plays with Keith during Till Summer Comes Around and all the guys are featured upfront while Keith sings MMOU on the satellite stage. They all deserve that extra attention.

Maybe I’ll catch some flack for this but I don’t know if Standing Right in Front of You is working as well as they had hoped live (much as I love that song on the CD). I’m hoping that they might try I’m In or My Heart is Open or Why’s It Feel So Long instead. Or maybe bring back a little more conversation and a bit of cover song? Just a few words about funny things on the road, or about Nic or Sunday would mean so much!!

Keith did a searing, wailing, wrenching two and a half minute guitar solo in Til Summer Comes Around!! Nearly orgasmic! J I felt wrung out when he finished and let out an almost involuntary “Holy cr_p!!” WOW. Happily the man did a good part of I Told You So from the sidestage platform in front of my seat and my section gave their all in singing, dancing and gesturing back at him. He did a little of the ITYS percussion by slapping his guitar. After Kiss a Girl there was particularly loud and sustained applause and cheering and Keith joked “Thank you so much. I feel like I am on American Idol!” Hee hee. Keith treated Charleston to their own little improvised song before Raining on Sunday (I'll upload a clip) - he's obviously enjoying this little bit of personalization of the concert.

During the evening I felt a little sense of time pressure for some reason. It seemed like Zac Brown was a little hurried and ended a little early. Keith did not leave the stage during You Look Good in My Shirt so that number was shorter!! And the pause after Somebody Like You before the encore songs was definitely brief last night. Maybe Keith was a little under the weather (I saw Brian and Jerry punching his arm during the evening in kind of a supportive gesture) or maybe it is rough breaking down the show, driving 4 hours through mountains and getting it all set up again for tomorrow night. Didn’t they say setup took about 8 hours? So it was a good night that had some special highlights (like that guitar solo) but some things seemed just slightly off. Maybe it was a ‘first night back’ phenomenon and they will be fully in gear tomorrow in Roanoke.