Omaha, Somewhere in Middle America

Okay, the Counting Crows were with Keith a couple concerts ago, but I couldn't use one of their lyrics until now! Since there is not much to be done about the minor disaster in my hometown until the insurance adjustors arrive and the tree removal services make their way through the hundreds and hundreds of downed mature trees, I've tried to turn my attention to the much more pleasant topic of last evening's concert.

>The overcast skies turned to rainy skies shortly after daughter Sara and I left for Omaha and the showers continued for the first two and a half hours of our drive. But by the time we reached the Iowa border we had blue skies, sunshine and humidity. It was too late to bother looking for the buses so we checked into our hotel and went to Old Chicago for dinner, then headed over to the Quest Center.

Our seats were decent – 26^th row of the floor – and we chatted with the fans near us as we waited for it to be showtime. One woman in front of us was a long-time Keith fan (she had a single seat in row 25 while the rest of her family was way back in the rear floor area :) who hadn’t yet been to a show this year. We quickly became buddies as I gave her the inside scoop on this tour (more about her later). The guys next to us looked like Keith-wanna-be’s (with his old hair style and color).

I must say the Quest Center had poorer acoustics or sound control than other recent shows. At first we thought it was just Jason Aldean’s crew having the volume up way too loud. It was literally painful to listen to some of his songs – we had to cover our ears some of the time and it really kind of spoiled much of his act for us. I felt sorry for the cute pink booted little girl, maybe 5 years old, in front of us, who repeatedly covered her ears and tried to hide her head from the sound. But even Keith’s sound occasionally seemed too loud and slightly distorted, so maybe it was something about the venue or where we were positioned relative to the speakers.

But that didn’t spoil our enjoyment of Keith’s energetic performance! When the big curtain dropped, there he was in all his glory, wearing a very bright cherry red on white plaid shirt and very dark blue, almost black jeans on his sleek frame. After a very rockin’ Hit the Ground (gosh I love the way he swings that guitar across his hips and the way he plays the bridge in that song! (first videoclip)) he shouted out “Nebraska!!” He followed his usual “We finally made it back!” with “But it seems like we were just here yesterday!” He paid attention to each segment of the audience, recognizing, in particular, those way up in the nosebleed seats (not completely full tonight). Then he said they were going to do an old song (WTBE). He seemed to be having a great time last night. While over at the microphone by the left risers (maybe during Days Go By?) he spun around in about 5 circles with his guitar, harkening back to the old ending of Somebody Like You. And when over at the mic facing the right risers during WWWBM he did his first of a couple ululating “bird calls” of the night and also his first backbend of the evening. I didn’t catch these on video but did catch his later trilling bird call during I Told You So.

Stupid Boy really wowed the crowd as usual (next couple clips). Then as Keith got into Better Half I alerted, as I had promised, the woman sitting in from of me that it was time for us to move to the small stage. I slipped out of my row and headed back with her and my daughter following behind like ducklings in a row. I wasn’t sure how lucky we would be because Omaha was another venue that sold some last minute standing room only general admission tickets back by the small stage. Early in the evening that area was fenced in and well guarded. But lo and behold sometime before Keith’s journey back they took away the fences!! So I guess the GA folks were free to wander and, happily, we were free to surround the small stage! My daughter, ever worried about her crazy mom, warned me “Don’t get trampled!” (she doesn’t know I am hard core when it comes to getting my Vitamin K!). We all found spots about an arm’s length in front of the small stage while the rest of the arena went crazy as they realized Keith had left the mainstage and was moving down the aisle. So I was lucky again to get some up close view and clips of his small stage songs. The first of them is just a tiny snippet as he finished Better Half but he is so dang cute I included it anyway. During OIAL, through the combined effort of someone lifting and Keith receiving, with open arms, a little girl and her little guitar joined him on stage! I think she just wanted an autograph on her guitar but Keith pulled her into the performance. She didn’t actually “play” her guitar but she rocked with it at the microphone (much like those of us who have ‘made a music video with Keith’ at the Verizon booth (except she had the real Keith!!). It was so cute!! (see videoclip) He gave her a couple big hugs before helping her get back down from the stage.

Security was prominent during Jason’s set but maybe you can tell that they once again almost (not completely, but almost) disappeared when Keith came on. The ‘mainstage crowd’ extended down the 2 center aisles nearly 20 feet!! (maybe because of some of those GA folks??) I approached the front to get a closer view of Til Summer Comes Around (which he ended with an emotional double "When you comin' back around?) but returned to my seat after that song because of the size of that front stage congestion. Once or twice later in the evening isolated security guards would try to clear the aisles but it didn’t seem effective for long. It was a rather sloppy audience tonight – everywhere I went there seemed to be puddles of beer on the floor so we came home with sticky feet! One gal spilled a beer down my back during the very first song of the evening!

I guess because Michael Jackson’s memorial service has now been held the guys did not do MJ tributes tonight. They returned to the songs they previously sang during introductions. One new thing was that Jerry brought out his bass guitar with him and accompanied himself during his “Ain’t No Sunshine” rendition (see clip). Had to rely on the big screen during You'll Think of Me and got a little (ahem) distracted filming that clip!

When it came time for You Look Good in My Shirt the arena darkened and Keith played a few fun riffs on his light-up guitar. I thought I saw a cleared spot up in the rear right risers and guessed that might be his destination during this song. So once again I alerted Sara and my new friend in row 25 that I was heading to that left hand aisle in hopes of seeing Keith as he passed. They followed once again and we were all there to greet him as best we could as he and his crew passed on both the way off the stage and on their way back. I love the brief close up glimpses and ‘lovepats’ but sure wish those contacts were more conducive to actually saying something more meaningful – a Thank you Keith! or “You and your music light up my world.” or any number of other compliments I would like to pay the man!

During Somebody Like You Keith counted down in his “Swedish” voice (even though I am one-fourth Swedish I don’t speak any, so I don’t know if he was really counting or just mimicing the Muppet’s Swedish chef again). He did a few hopping circles at the end, but not as many as he had done earlier in the evening. There were no sound problems during that beautiful guitar work of Tonight I Wanna Cry during the encore – just crystal clear notes sounding through a rather hushed arena. Really wonderful!

Keith gave his usual thank yous including thanking us for one of those magical nights. Lots of handslappingand goodbyes, both in gestures and in American sign. And then we slowly left – smiling, satisfied, worn out, and also thankful that we had been there.