Indy Indiana Indy Indiana Indy Indiana Let Me Say It Once Again

 (Okay, so I'm on a "songs from musicals" kick in my titles, what can I say?)  

Note to Keith:  Keith, I want to suggest a little addition to your end-of-show thank yous. I have always appreciated the way that you make a point of thanking those who traveled a long way to get to shows, but how about adding “And those who got up at 4:30 am to get here”? That’s what I had to do to go to the Indy show, even though I didn’t get back to my hotel until 1:00 am after the Des Moines concert the night before. Good thing you're worth it baby!! Good thing!

   After that early arising I was not very happy when I arrived in Detroit and my connecting flight to Indy was CANCELLED!!  I was ready to rent a car and drive if necessary but there was another Indy flight 2 hrs later. But I sure wish I could have spent those hours in bed rather than the airport!

    When I arrived in Indy and picked up my $27 rental car there it was a weird one - a brand new red Nissan Cube - and it really was almost a cube on wheels. It was weird to drive as well but I’d be traveling less than 30 miles total.

    It was gosh darned hot in Indy. I waited until late in the day to head to the fair, hoping that it would cool off, but no such luck. It was still hot at midnight that night! Interestingly the Indiana State Fair felt very different in personality than the Iowa State Fair. It had what I would describe as a “Mayberry” feel to it - an old-time, rural, country feel even though Indianapolis is definitely a big city. I enjoyed the 6:30 ‘parade” that went down the main street of the fairgrounds, right in front of the grandstand, with many old farmers driving every variety of antique tractor and lots of little kids sitting on the curb waving at the farmers : ) The livestock barns were right across from the grandstand and the fair was celebrating the “Year of the Pig”. While Iowa is certainly rural and a “pig” state, visiting the grandstand at the Iowa fair felt more like a cross between a carnival and Iowa Hawkeye tailgating. Much rowdier. Interesting difference. I had to pay $10 to park and $10 to get into the Iowa Fair but admission and parking were free with your concert ticket in Indiana. Go figure.

   It was so hot I didn’t even leave my shady bench outside Hoosier Lottery Grandstand to move onto the hot and sunny track when the local band played. I wasn’t sure if Kris Allen was opening or not - no mention of him on my ticket. But when I heard him start his first song, I made my way to what turned out to be a very good seat (row 7 in front of Keith’s microphone).I was in the center of what I think was a 42 seat row so once in place I didn’t leave my spot until the show was over.

Up close I was liking Kris Allen even more than before and also enjoying his bass guitarist whose Latin good looks remind me of one of my favorites in earlier decades, Cat Stevens. I really enjoyed Kris's  rendition of Falling Slowly (the haunting song from the movie Once) into which he also pulled a bit of U2’s With or Without You. And this audience really got into his performance of Come Together (Beatles).He is developing nicely as a performer.

   Keith was wearing red plaid tonight and it very quickly became dark red plaid as it was soaked with sweat. But as usual he didn’t let the heat slow him down or dampen his spirit - he was constantly on the move as always. He did unbutton his shirt an extra button after 3 or 4 songs : ) (and I suggested under my breath that he continue!). And in fact later on during the final bows he looked down to discover that his shirt was open to the waist and looked so positively embarrassed you'd have thought his fly was open!  (it was so cute!) In a flash he turned away to re-button it. Guess that territory is for his one and only's eyes only.

   After Kiss a Girl, Days Go By and Stupid Boy Keith greeted each section of the grandstand in turn and then asked how we were “down on the field”. Then realizing that the sandy oval wasn’t really a field he corrected himself “ Or down on the track or whatever it is that we’re on. Wouldn’t wanna play ball on this “field”!”

   I noticed that during Sweet Thing he sang “Come on and meet me baby girl!” and I thought 'I bet Nic is here'. And sure enough - that was just the first of many indications that his better half was present. After singing Making Memories (which had a new crooning vocal introduction) Keith said that he'd had a lot of people tell him that this song was sung at their wedding. And, he confessed that he was one of those people  - he had sung it at his wedding and that  he was going to sing the next song to his lovely wife who was sitting over on the side of the stage tonight. After that he repeatedly looked and nodded in her direction and added little personal embellishments to OYCLM. Early in You Look Good in My Shirt Keith actually turned away from the audience and went back and played a bit of the chorus to her - really telling her, no doubt, that she looks good in his shirt! : ) He thrilled the audience by going way up in the grandstand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcIOiZ7fO2s

   I sense that Keith is really pleased at how heartily audiences are singing along to his current single I'm In. He's even gotten brave enough to turn lines over to the audience to sing and I'm sure has been gratified that the audience has not let him down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2AxeaAeJU

Keith later invited Kris back out on stage. He said they were going to do something different since one of America's great songwriters and performers - one of his all-time musical heroes - was from Indiana. He apologized saying that he and Kris had never performed the song together before and he hoped that that wouldn't be too obvious. And then he and Kris did a rousing version of Mellencamp's Jack and Diane with just a tiny bit of lyric confusion at the close of the song. Very fun, but not so easy to videotape http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IAPZ-kYq3E since everyone was dancing and singing along and Keith and Kris were spaced far enough apart on stage that it was hard to capture them both at the same time. The grandstand truly rang with the loud audience singing of this song.

You'll Think of Me was also embellished this evening!!  I'm not sure I caught all the changes, but towards the end it went something like this:

Take your stupid "Its not you its me baby" away from me now

'Cause I don't believe you

No I don't buy it baby

But I know in the night you;re gonna call my name but I won't be there

        and then a very emotional ending.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwWogFJRGMw

   Other highlights of the evening - a new variation on his silly sing-alongs with the audience where, after having us echo "Its so nice to be out underneath stars" twice he went on to "Something something something, something that rhymes with stars' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZHe5uRhfko (which we repeated) and then even a line of pure gibberish and was tickled when still the audience tried to oblige and echo him!  And late in the show he accepted and donned a pair of white and pink bunny ears from a fan at stage edge and wore those ears through a couple verses of Better Life!!  I couldn't help but think, during his final vigorous guitar solo at the end of Somebody Like You that he should still be wearing those ears because he was "Still going" like the Energizer rabbit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bdo6-sFIe0

   Postscript: Boy the Urban team moves fast once the show is actually over. By the time I had walked from my seat to the right end of the stage, I could see Keith's bus, with the motorcycle trailer in tow, pulling out of the centerfield parking lot!!

"Our State Fair is a Great State Fair"

(anyone remember that Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the old  State Fair film which was actually about the Iowa State Fair?)

The arrival of the weekend of Keith’s show at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines was bittersweet. Finally a show in my home state - a show that I would be attending with my daughter Annie and her friends!! But it was also my last get-together with Annie before she headed off to Italy for her semester abroad (Iowa State University has a small “campus” in Rome that is used every semester by students in either architecture or design.) Having my “baby” so far away for 5 months was going to be tough on mama!

Annie and her best friends and I had originally planned to have lunch in Ames but torrential rains had caused major flooding, closing the ISU campus and many areas of town and leaving the city (and restaurants) without potable drinking water for a week. So instead we met up for lunch outside of Des Moines. Annie surprised me with some early birthday presents since she would be in Europe on my actual birthday and the restaurant gave us a brownie ice cream sundae to share. I couldn’t help but begin the process of hugging Annie goodbye even though we would  be together all day! The girls went off to shop a bit before going to the fair while I went to check into the hotel. We met up on the fairgrounds before show time. There was fair food galore to choose from but I was too excited to eat (but did get a small Diet A&W Rootbeer Float : ) ). The skies looked threatening for a while but at least the clouds kept the temperatures relatively comfortable.

It was still light out when Chris Allen did his opening set. The combination of the clouds and the setting sun to the left of the grandstand made for some pretty skies that even the cameraman couldn’t resist turning his camera to a couple times between Chris’s songs. Chris has obviously picked up some stage skills from Keith. He now steps down to the lower edges of the stage or walkways to get closer to the fans while singing, signs more autographs, took a photo with a little girl, and encourages more singing along  I am liking Chris more each time I see him perform and get more familiar with his music. 

As they were setting up the stage for Keith the video screens offered the usual text message opportunities. But there was a new addition: “Textman” periodically inserts  messages soliciting texts and promising prizes like “Only 10 more minutes before I select a winning text message.” I wished they actually showed us if and what someone actually wins!! Just a shot of the screaming winner would be nice.

Dusk had fallen by the time Keith came on and it seemed we were in the perfect setting. The fairground rides were all beautifully lit up to the right of the grandstand, far enough away so that we couldn’t hear the riders, but close enough to provide an amazing view of the magnificent colorful ferris wheel turning slowly against the dark skies. The rides caught Keith’s eye as well - later in the show he suggested that we all go over and ride the ferris wheel after the show (dibs on rocking-in-the-motion in your seat on the wheel Keith!).

Keith was in black tonight and was full of energy all night. For the first 2 songs (Kiss a Girl and Days Go By) Brian Nutter had his hair tied back in a ponytail (I tried but don’t think I got a good photo of this), but he let his hair loose before beginning his opening Stupid Boy strums. During Day Go By there was a brief microphone failure when Keith came over to stage left but it was quickly remedied. There was no way to remedy the (apparently) accidental setting off of some fireworks behind the stage midway through Sweet Thing. The half dozen or so ballooning balls of sparks and explosive sounds triggered an audible reaction from the crowd that didn’t quite fit the timing of Sweet Thing, so the band looked a bit puzzled (I don’t think they were even aware of the fireworks with their ear-pieces in place). Keith changed up the song a bit by singing the last “In the backyard under the cottonwood tree” in a lower register than usual. Tonight’s Sweet Thing improvisation had a distinctly blue-sy feel to it (too bad the lights washed out Keith’s face in my video : ( ). He did amazing bit where one hand rhythmicalling slapped the frets while the other fingered and then had a new refrain to accompany his major flippage. He also began Blacktop with some new wailing whoo- hoo- hoos and had some new silly additions to the audience echo sing-alongs following Better Half “

One regret - the grandstand audience in many sections, including mine, was of the “polite” variety. I was in front of a row of elderly individuals who stayed seated the entire show. So although everyone in my row was rockin’ in their seats we felt unable to stand up til nearly the end of the show.

Sometimes something catches my eye or my ear and I don’t know for sure whether it is something truly new to the show or just new to my attention. That was the case when tonight I noticed, for the first time, that while Keith was singing Til Summer Comes Around, the back screen showed a lit up turning ferris wheel at night. Was that the Iowa State Fair ferris wheel?? Had that been there before? I don’t think so (after all, TSCA is about ferris wheels being stilled at the end of the season), but I’m not sure. In any case, it was a beautiful background to that great song.

When it came time for the acoustic numbers Keith first asked if there was anyone feeling in love in the crowd? Not getting a huge response to that, he then asked “Is there anyone feeling good for no particular reason?” and got a huge response to that (although in truth we had a very good reason to be feeling good!!) Before Only You Can Love Me Keith reminded everyone that they had filmed the video for that song right in Des Moines at the arena show last year. In the last verse he sang out an extra “You know its true baby! And I love you girl. I love you like no one has ever loved you before!” It made me wonder if Nicole was there tonight although Keith never specifically mentioned her presence. Keith complimented our singing several times during the night but this song drew an emphatic “Nice one!! You’re sounding REAL good tonight Iowa!”

I think the guys are really perfecting their 4 piece band status. Brian provides strong vocal accompaniment, sometimes even taking a lead, like in the chorus of Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me. And I like it when Keith, Jerry and Brian all line up to play close together. BTW I think its interesting that, for several shows now, Keith has, in WWWBM, paid tribute to Kenny’s new single, singing “And she’s singing a Kenny Chesney song to me - The Boys of Fall!”

After the guitar play that precedes You Look Good in My Shirt, as I saw Keith begin to remove his earpiece and chords in preparation for his journey out into the audience, I began to chant “ Come up here, come up here” since I was close to a grandstand aisle. And YES! that is just where he headed!! Past me and Annie, past her girlfriends, to an upper grandstand row perhaps a dozen rows above us! The girls (and I) were so tickled! He did his usual encouraging of the audience to sing the chorus and had particular fun asking “Now just the guys!” and afterwards imitating their baritone singing, making his silly “deep voice face” while doing so. He had a heck of a time returning to stage - especially down on the floor. Keith finally had to sing "I've got a few more songs to sing..." and " I feel like I'm walking through sand" and he moved through the sea of bodies pressing in on him. But when he finally made it up on stage he said "You guys are CRAZY - and I like that!"

A new, kind of melancholy melodic vocalization preceded You’ll Think of Me and some angry tone and facial expression returned to the ending, with reference to “all your pathetic reasons” 

We were again treated to Marley’s “Is This Love” during the encore before Somebody Like You. While Keith and the guys were still saying their final goodbyes, slapping hands, and taking that last bow, the pre-arranged end-of-grandstand-show firewworks began flashing and booming above the stage, accompanying the loud applause and cheers we were giving in thanks for a great show.

The girls and I stopped and shared fair mini-donuts and funnel cakes, as we immediately began our “Wasn’t that great when..’s” and “He went right by me..’s”.  Good thing we had that Urban glow to sustain us as we inched along in the post-concert traffic exiting the fair!!

Iowa Irish Fest 4 A Huge Success.

A half dozen or so years ago my husband Jim got it into his head that he wanted an authentic Irish pub in downtown Waterloo, IA. He researched the topic of Irish pubs (often through first hand experience with famous Irish pubs across the country as he traveled) and the history of the Irish in America. He worked with designers and architects and, sure enough, now we have a beautiful and fun Jameson's Public House not a block from his law firm. Not long after that he began to think that pub should be involved in community activities that would draw people to the to what had been a dying downtown area. Why not an "Irish Fest", on a smaller scale but akin to the fests that they have in Milwaukee and several other cities. There was no such festival in Iowa, so why not an Iowa Irish Fest?? He worked hard to promote this idea, found sponsors and a great group of volunteers and in 2007 Waterloo hosted the first Iowa Irish Fest. Even though that first event began a little rainy the attendance over the three days exceeded expectations and the reactions so positive that there was immediately interest in planning the next year's fest. 

The 4th annual Iowa Irish Fest took place this last weekend and it was bigger and better than ever. With music and Irish dancing on 3 different stages, vendors of Irish (and other) foods and goods, contests (like the "Best Legs in a Kilt Contest", Celtic sports demonstrations, kids' activities, an outdoor Sunday church service and authentic Irish breakfast there is something for everyone. Among the exceptional performers on the main stage were the internationally acclaimed Trinity Irish Dancers and hugely popular bands such as Gaelic Storm, Dublin City Ramblers, The Killdares, The Elders, The Prodigals, Scythian and The Crossing. Our talented friends Jim Sullivan and Gerry Field had standing room only whenever they performed in the pub. These and so much more all for a mere $10 for a 3 day pass!! A full bus as well as a half dozen or so cars of our Chicago Irish family and friends (and about 25,000 others) arrived to join the celebrations and a great time was had by all. 

Here are 2 samples of the fun music we had this weekend: A song especially for the Chicago 

"South Side Irish" by Jim and Gerry and "Me and the Moon" by Gaelic Storm.

Wowing the We-Fest Masses

I had not planned to go to Keith’s concert at We Fest in Minnesota. I had attended the 3-day We Fest a couple years ago and, to my knowledge, they did not sell reserved seat tickets for just a single day of the fest. And General Admission at a festival that draws close to 50,000 held no appeal at all. So I pretty much ignored that show on Keith’s tour list until I started to plan my drive to and from the Bismarck concert. We Fest was about halfway home for me in a  10 hour journey that I wanted to break up between 2 days anyway. Well, just about the time that I started to re-consider, We Fest sent out an email about resonable single-day reserved lawn seats and camping especially for motorcyclists who wished to stop by We Fest. I didn’t have a cycle and didn’t want to camp, but I DID want that reserved lawn seat. So ‘disguised’ as a biker I order the special deal for the first day of the fest. I puzzled the box office by also ordering a 1 day car parking pass. The morning after the Bismarck concert I headed back towards Minnesota, checking into my hotel there before actually going to the We Fest grounds in Detroit Lakes. Once again I don’t know what I would do without a GPS to guide me on those country backroads!

By the time I checked in and picked up my ticket packet, parked and took the shuttle to the concert area, Gloriana’s opening set was just about over. I found my reserved lawn chair in row 28 of the lawn seats, which are behind 35-40 rows of reserved VIP seats. I was happy to have a seat of my own but being over 60 rows from the stage meant I would be watching the video screens all night because I could hardly see the performers on stage. Luckily We Fest’s screens were pretty high quality. (I was also happy because WeFest installed real toilets since my last visit there - no portapotties - yay!!).

Randy Houser was up next. He was very personable and talked quite a bit during his entertaining set. I like his big voice and his southern accent even if I can’t always relate to the topics of his songs. Then Montgomery Gentry - who seemed to please the audience and kept them up on their feet. (I only really know a few of their songs and can’t say I am really a fan).

During the break before Keith’s performance (scheduled to begin at 10:45 p.m.!!) the local radio station Froggy 99.9 played a videotaped interview they had just done with Keith. The highlight of that interview for me was when Keith said that the new album definitely would be out before the end of the year! : ) (maybe they are aiming for November again). Can’t wait! The DJs from Froggy are BIG Keith fans and in fact went on and on both before and after Keith’s set about how, of all the dozens and dozens of great performers they have seen at We Fest, Keith is their very favorite - both personally and professionally. One of the guys (can’t recall his name) actually put Keith above such great crowd pleasers they have had like Johnny Cash, Jimmy Buffet, and George Strait. After Keith’s performance he was still raving and suggested they change the festival name to Keith Fest!! : )

Keith was in red plaid tonight and what looked like new dark blue jeans and he looked gorgeous on the video screens. After Kiss a Girl (see clip below), Days Go By and Stupid Boy he greeted the audience with a great big “Good evening Minnesota! Are we feeling okay We Fest??” and then focused on each section of the huge audience. He went on to say “I can tell from the sea of big yellow We-Fest cups that we are all in a happy mood tonight. It looks like a McDonald’s convention out there - its just great.” And then tickled them by saying the following: “ Just to let you all know what’s happening tonight - there are some artists who put on concerts where the audience is polite, well- mannered, civil, calm, disciplined. This is NOT one of those concerts. We urge you to be on your baddest behavior tonight. (big cheers from the crowd). If you want to sing, dance, cheer, clap, pass out - whatever you want to do, its your night tonight. Are you with us??” (see clip below)

At the beginning of Sweet Thing Keith knelt down at the edge of the stage so that a fan could put a string of shiny blue beads around his neck. At the end of Sweet Thing I swear we got yet another new guitar solo (listen and see if you don’t think at least the first half is not new). After Better Half he again had great fun leading us in several song variations, telling us that we were “God-damned fantastic!” He went on to the the “alphabet song” like in Bismarck, with a little dance move and the funniest face.. But watching this particular audience singing along, Keith said that echoing the alphabet was “like a sobriety test” and acted out the tipsy behavior he was observing - lol.

I, of course, love Keith’s slower songs but performing them at this kind of festival comes with a certain amount of risk. The Keith fans are singing along and lovey-dovey couples may dance and cuddle, but lots of others (especially many males) disengage, sit down and there is a lot of chatter that can be annoying to those that are actually listening to the songs. I remember in the last summer tour Keith ended up dropping Tonight I Wanna Cry from the festival setlist, probably for this reason. Tough decisions when making up the setlist I’m sure.

Another fun treat was seeing Keith finally accept one of the so often proffered cowboy hats (a cute one at that) and wear it for part of Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me. I’m glad he’s not usually a hat-wearer but am tickled by an occasional view of “cowboy Keith” : )

I may not be a huge fan of Montgomery Gentry, but I was stoked when Keith said he wanted to do something special and brought out “T. Roy Gentry” (Keith used his proper name rather than the “Troy” that is often used) to do a number with him. Keith said that Eddie Montgomery couldn’t make it because he “was off to a Gospel Meeting” (??? anyone know what that is code for?). I love anything special and unique added to Keith’s shows - no matter what - but then to have them choose a favorite from Mellencamp- Jack and Diane - was great! I think it may have been a rather spontaneous performance rather than a well-rehearsed effort - Keith cracked up when he totally forgot the words to the second verse!! But it was great fun and I so enjoyed seeing Keith emulate John Mellencamp’s guitar style in that song. This song drew great audience participation. 

During introductions tonight Chris M was “born and raised in Minnesota” (and last evening he was born and raised in North Dakota - lol). Baby Chris got around! ; )

I was sitting on an aisle so had looked around before the show to see if I could spot any improvised “second stage” or likely location that Keith might go to if or when he left the mainstage. I didn’t see anything set up ahead of time, but when he began the LED guitar play that precedes You Look Good in My Shirt I was up and ready to try to follow him since it would be my only opportunity to get any closer than 60 rows away this evening. Well, I don’t know where he intended to head, but the crowd (even in the VIP section) was so crazy that he barely made it 25 feet from stage. He stood up on a chair to finish the song and lead the audience in a couple choruses. He held out the mike to one gal and she belted out her line of the song.  But at most of the festivals he has gone out into or close to “General Admission”, so I’m thinking this was a compromise of necessity because of those “crazy Minnesota fans” as Keith called them.

Imagine my surprise when we got a SECOND bonus song that evening during the encore. When Keith returned after a really long bout of cheers, whistles, and shouts for MORE, he broke into Bob Marley’s Is This Love? I had heard recordings of him singing that song many years ago, but this was the first time I heard it live.  I loved the reggae beat and Keith occasionally adding a little Jamaican accent to the lyrics. Thanks so much for the surprise Keith!! Interestingly, there was not nearly as many singing along with this number. Do you think today’s emerging adults are less familiar with Marley music?

Bodacious in Bismarck!

While not ever visiting the central coast of California had been a good ‘excuse’ to go to the Paso Robles concert, I can’t say that not having been (which I hadn’t) to North Dakota was what drew me to the Bismarck show. Even though Bismarck seemed pretty remote, the concert there caught my eye from its very announcement because it was an indoor arena show rather than a big summer festival. An arena likely to be filled with just Keith fans rather than the hodge-podge of partiers that are in the immense audiences of the festivals and jamborees. That made Bismarck irresistible!

Traveling on my own a 10 hour drive in a single day was unappealing. Hubby was busy anyway preparing for this coming weekend’s 4th Annual Iowa Irish Fest, so I left a day early and overnighted in St. Cloud, MN. That left just (!) 366 miles to drive today. Once I crossed into North Dakota the speed limit was 75, so the miles racked up pretty quickly on that fairly empty interstate. While not the California coastline, North Dakota is beautiful in its own way - lush green rolling hills and plains of farmland broken up by frequent lakes and ponds as well as over 10 miles of sunflower fields in bloom. The skies were blue with cotton puff clouds, the temps low eighties, and breezes strong enough to kick up little whitecaps on all those lakes I passed. Keith didn’t mention if he and the guys were out on the cycles today but it was such a perfect day that I hope so.

The hotel closest to the civic center had been full so I had reserved a room at the next closest. When I arrived they too were sold out and were turning folks away - good thing I had a reservation! But then they couldn’t find my reservation so I was briefly anxious. But I booted up my computer and showed them the confirmation email. Turns out their computer already showed me as having checked in (must have been my evil twin). No time for dinner, but I came prepared with what had been in my fridge - cold boiled baby beets and 2 ripe avocados! : )

The Bismarck Civic Center was one of the smallest arenas that I have been in, which is a plus in my book. There were only about 25 full rows of seats on the floor and only about 18 visible rows in the risers (I think they curtained off the highest rows). Similar to the last tour the first 3 rows of floor seats went all the way across the arena, but beyond that the seats were broken into 3 sections by aisles. No catwalk or side video screens, but there was the second stage at the rear of the floor. I had a great seat  - upfront but close to an aisle, so I immediately began to plan my route to the remote stage later in the evening. Turns out that was silly of me, not knowing the local civic center protocol (more about this in a moment).

Gloriana was fun to watch, although my personal opinion is that they are not quite the equal of last several award-winning “new” groups like Lady A, Zac Brown Band, or, before that, Little Big Town. I don’t really know their music, so the song I enjoyed the most was actually their cover of Mellencamp’s Small Town. The seats were not yet filled during their set and the audience pretty much remained sitting until Gloriana’s very last song (the one you hear on the radio). That was going to change!

While they were setting up the stage for Keith, so many of Keith’s techs and stagehands were out there at once, wearing and testing different guitars for longer than usual periods of time that I almost thought we were going to get a “stagehand band” performance. During the break security was visible and doing their thing. But just before Keith came out I noticed a number of young ladies were just hanging around in the aisle next to me. At the time I thought to myself “Why aren’t they getting to their seats - Keith will be coming out any second now?” There were also folks hanging around at either end of the stage. Well, as soon as the lights dimmed Security vanished and there was this incredible rush upfront to the stage - all those ladies in the aisle and most the the people who had been seated in the first 3 rows climbed right over those rows of seats to get close to the stage. No sneaking, no hesitation - just a mad rush. I think though that this was not just a KU phenomenon - it must be the norm for this arena, because so many were poised for this “attack”! I was really surprised, but stayed where I was because my 5th row seat was dead center in front of Keith’s microphone. But when I looked around I realized this ‘free-for-all’ extended to the aisles as well. People from the back of the arena rushed up to pack the aisles and invade any available space and remained there the rest of the night. It was pretty clear that I wouldn’t be heading back to the rear stage unless the crowd passed my body over their heads a la crazy mosh pit antics! LOL When Keith later talked to the audience he said “Security - you be nice to everyone,” but by that time the question was “What Security??”

Sweet Thing lead off the show and Keith’s extended guitar improvisations at the end of that song as well as at the end of Better Half have become a regular (and wonderful) component although I think there are spontaneous variations in the play at each venue. In Where the Blacktop Ends Keith used what I think of as really deep ‘Dracula voice’ on “Give me some time with your in my arms,” and jumped down to a lower stage edge to thrill the fans there with a fiery guitar solo.

After greeting each section of the audience, Keith took note of a young girl with a green poster saying “It’s my birthday - make my wish come true!” He asked her if her birthday was that day and what her wish was, and then invited her up on stage! (Boy - it has been quite a while since he has done that!) She immediately turned red and burst into happy tears! He sang a little “It’s your birthday” ditty as she made her way up front. She was so floored by the experience that she could hardly tell Keith that her name was Savannah and she was from Jamestown, ND. She did manage to ask if she could get her photo taken with him. Keith obliged with not one (taken by Jerry Flowers), but two photos, taking the second shot of him pulling her close himself! What a birthday treat for Savannah!!

That was just be beginning - Keith was in high spirits and was playful, funny and playing with abandon all night. In Kiss a Girl Keith changed up the lyrics just a bit, following “Don’t want to be lonely,” with a big “No, no, no!!”.  There was also a little change in I’m in, with the final “Baby come here next to me, I’ll show you how good is can be’s” being sung loudly to a new melody rather than the usual whispery ending. At least twice during the evening (perhaps both in Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me?” Keith ended up flat on his back on stage playing his guitar - don’t know how he hops right up from that position!

I think Keith had a case of the sillies in Bismarck as he lead the audience in singing. We progressed from echoing “Ooo na na na na na’s” to “yeah it feels so good to comin’ to hear the band” and “Anyone not here just would not understand” to “I’m just makin’ this up as I go along, Right now I’m missing something that rhymes with long,” to singing “A B C D E F G H I J K..”. And then he cracked us up by playing the role of one of us telling our friends about the concert: “Yeah we went to see Keith Urban- he sang us the alphabet and it was really cool...” lol

My up-close view of Keith shredding that guitar in Til Summer Comes Around was thrilling. Keith commented that he liked the amazing vibe running through this wild crowd. Despite the arena setting, how they played through the setlist was the same as it has been at the summer festivals. Keith did his acoustic numbers Making Memories and Only You Can Love Me from a stool on the main stage. I was happy to hear that the high notes are back in Keith's performance - the full range of his voice is finally back!! : ) When it came time for his trip down on the floor I took one look around and new I’d never make it through the masses in the aisles to the rear stage. But as it happens he only led the audience in a few choruses of You Look Good in My Shirt back there before he returned up front. After struggling through the crowd to return to the main stage Keith gave a big smiling shout out " You guys are crazy out there!"

In Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me we got not only the usual playful interactions between Keith and Jerry and Keith and Brian, but towards the end Keith surprised those at stage right by skidding to the edge of the stage on his knees for one of the last guitar riffs.

I finally managed to save enough camera memory to capture a bit of Somebody Like You which is always the 'cherry' that tops off the wonderful Keith Urban concert sundae. It was the only encore song this time - probably because the buses and trucks had to rush off to WeFest to set up for the next day. I'll be right behind you guys!