Planning for the final weekend of the Summer Lovin’ Tour I couldn’t help but consider how long might it be until a new tour began in 2011. The thought of the approaching long ‘dry spell’ pushed me towards ending the summer tour with a bang - a 3 show KURT!! It wouldn’t be easy - the last 3 tour stops were in 3 different and non-contiguous states! But I hadn’t been in (concert) training all summer long for nothing! Bring it on I thought! But how to plan such a crazy junket??? I did my best, last November, at pre-sale time - but (in retrospect) I was a bit naive and I’ll know better next time (notice that I’m sure there will be next times!).
Allentown, PA - kind of in the middle of nowhere and not too easy to get to from the Midwest. Add to that the fact that the next morning I would be heading to stop #2 in Vermont! So I had to pick an airport within driving range of Allentown which would have flights to Burlington, VT. Burlington’s somewhat limited air service meant there weren’t a lot of options. I ended up choosing New York’s JFK airport (and those more experienced than me are probably already shaking their heads and saying “ Not JFK!?” - I told you I was naive! - but more about that later.)
JFK was not to be my only problem that day - several times I felt like the travel gremlins were conspiring against me making it to Allentown that evening. I had to be at my local airport at 5:40 AM and arrived to find that the security scanner was broken and the TSA agents were searching each and every bag - each and every nook and cranny of each and every bag - by hand. They completely emptied my huge purse, even looked in the pockets of my wallet, emptied my computer bag with its dozen cords and chargers for this and that. Doing this for each and every passenger delayed the flight which in turn made everyone nervous about their connecting flights, I did make my connection and had a nice flight to NYC. I enjoyed my bird’s eye view of Manhattan and Long Island as we landed on this sunny day. I figured out how to take JFK’s Air-train to the car rental places, picked up my vehicle and headed out of the city on what Mapquest had shown as a 2.5 hour drive. It was midday and the concert was at 7 so no problem, right?? Wrong! Already there was bumper-to-bumper traffic even though I picked what I thought would be the less congested route towards NJ. Two and a half hours turned into 4 hours and then there was a massive accident on Interstate 78 in PA that completely closed the highway in both directions, backing up traffic for miles and miles about 25 miles east of Allentown. What a no-escape mess! By the time I inched along to an exit, then took local roads through narrow-streeted towns, I had to abandon my original plan of going to my hotel and headed straight for the fair. The “Great Allentown Fair” is in the middle of town surrounded by hospitals, businesses and homes rather than being out in the outskirts. What that means is that there are no huge fair parking lots. Since I arrived around 6:30 the fair lot was completely full and every family and business had already sold every parking spot in their yards and driveways. I circled and circled and circled wondering what the heck I was going to do. I passed a business parking lot that already had its “FULL” sign out, but the young guy that had been collecting the parking fees was still standing there. I made my best pleading face and asked “can’t you squeeze in 1 more little car?” And he did!
I hustled a few blocks to get into the fair. Kris Allen was already several songs into his set. Luckily my seat was on the left-hand aisle of the center floor section so I didn’t have to disturb anyone to get to my spot. I sat down with a sigh of relief - I had made it!! And things were going to be much better from that point on!
I chatted with a nice NJ couple during the break who had weathered the same traffic backup to get to the show. The music during the break ended with a song picked especially for this venue - Billy Joel’s”Allentown” (I like the thoughtfulness of this effort).
Keith played joyfully all night long - obviously loving every minute as much as the fans that he was thrilling. Just a few of my favorite moments:
Stupid Boy’s stupendous guitar solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQzkCSUUclM
Where the Blacktop Ends
“Where the weekend belongs to all you crazy PAans!” (Do they really call themselves PAans?) Love the little growl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HGputDuwME
A fantastic solo at the end of Sweet Thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmMZGc_SZoM&feature=related
Keith went all the way up into the Grandstand during You Look Good in My Shirt and thrilled a fan there by having her sing a line of the song for him Too bad he didn’t choose the aisle that I was sitting on for his walk!
Keith and Kris doing Mellancamp’s “Jack and Diane”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZCIoyve20
A real highlight of the evening was Keith’s singing of a verse of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be With You” during the encore. (Be patient - my camera took 13 seconds to focus for some reason). What a sweetie pie! Love his “I love you Allentown!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wRlSBNubt4
After the show ended I sat outside the grandstand admiring the brightly lit tightly packed vertically elaborate fair booths and food stands. I guess, being in the middle of town and tight on space, the fairground venders have had to build upwards. I had a cheesesteak and headed to my hotel about midnight. Another gal was raving about the show as she checked in ahead of me and the night manager let slip “You know Keith and his band are staying here tonight.” !!! : ) I was too tuckered to stalk but imagine, from what Keith has said, that Mr. Urban probably hit the sack shortly after arriving too. But it was fun knowing that, as Bob Marley sings, “We'll be together, with a roof right over our heads”. Does sharing the same roof mean, loosely speaking, that I have slept with Keith Urban? lol
Postscript - I used my GPS to guide my drive back to JFK the next morning. Holy cow it took me through the Holland tunnel and down 42nd Street through the heart of Manhattan and taxi-cab hell!! I finally made it to the airport but was a little bit worse for wear from the experience. Hopefully Vermont will be a little more relaxing!
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