"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!!