Memorable Moline

I took my time checking out of my St. Louis hotel and that was almost a mistake. The interstate to Moline was rife with summer roadwork and I ended up sitting at almost a standstill for nearly 90 minutes about 15 miles out of St. Louis, with no exits or turnarounds or other escapes to be had. I barely made it to Moline in time to meet up with my daughter and sister for dinner before the show. Moline was oppressively hot and I hoped the iWireless Center would have the air conditioning cranked way up.

Since we were having a little gathering in Moline I had promised to bring cocktail makings in case we wanted to have a before-show drink at the hotel (the few bars near iWireless are usually packed). But the weather was SO hot that when I went to take the bag of supplies out of my trunk the bottles of vodka and rum were the temperature of hot coffee and the heavy plaster shopping bag they were in had nearly melted and stretched out and broke when I tried to lift it. Guess we’ll be counting on the restaurant for cocktails!

Daughter Annie and her friend Lucy (an Urban virgin) arrived minutes after me and we visited while we waited for my sister Judi. When nearly an hour had passed I tried calling her to see if she was caught in roadwork jams as well. Sadly not. Although we had emailed back and forth earlier in the week, I guess day of the week was never mentioned and somehow she had it marked down the concert on the wrong date on her calendar and was still at home in northern Illinois : ( (It is a constant fear of mine that I will screw up concert dates or flight dates somewhere along the line).

Annie, Lucy and I had a fun dinner in a cool and classy bar/restaurant about 3 blocks from the arena, indulging in interesting summer cocktails to help us cool off. I tried a tasty cold avocado soup and a watermelon, feta and spring greens salad that was great and my grapefruit martini was a perfect refresher. Afterwards I gave Annie an Lucy the pair of floor seats I had purchased, while I took the pair of Row 3 riser seats I had gotten in the Jake Owen presale. When I settled down in the third row of center arena seats I had a good view of all the stages. Pretty soon, however, an usher chased me out of my seat - it turns out that in Moline “Row 3” in the risers is actually the FIRST row for concerts! Better yet!!

The iWireless Center is a smaller arena, so tonight the small stage was positioned at rows 16-18. It looked to be close to being sold out.

I am liking that Jake Owen has been telling us a little bit about his day in town each time. I kind of miss Keith’s mentions of being out on the bikes or going out to a ball game that he sometimes used to share at concerts. Of course today was so darned hot they may well have hunkered down someplace air-conditioned. Tonight Jake added another new song to his setlist, as well as a different mode of presentation. He brought out a stool to sit on for a slow sweet singing of what I think must be a song from the album coming out in August, beginning " There's a place with a name called heaven..".

After Put You in A Song and I Told You So, keith strolled out slowly strumming his guitar and sang out “Feels good out here tonight Moline. Are you in a singing mood tonight Illinois? Well do it then...” and went into Only You Can Love Me This Way and later added “ And I’d have never had this feeling that I feel playing for you on a Thursday night in Moline.” There was a bit of a special ending, with Keith adding an extra “ Only you, only you, only you can love me this way!” Better Half, added to last night’s setlist right before OYCLMTW, was gone from the setlist today. Perhaps it had been a special request from someone in the meet and greet yesterday.

A live performance of a hit song is not exactly the same as that on the album or single, and that is one of the things we love about concerts. But the little extras or changes in pacing sometimes probably pose difficulties for the guys controlling the accompaniments (lights, videos, etc). I noticed today during Keith’s performance of Without You that, although he started out in synch with the video images, the shots of Sunday Rose appeared before he got to the “along comes a baby girl” line in his singing. But the crew was right on it and after an almost imperceptible pause in the video (while I expect they pressed rewind briefly), those images replayed a second time when Keith did sing that line. Someone was quick on the draw!!

When Keith paused to chat with the audience he commented that there were a lot of signs out there tonight. One in particular caught his eye: “ Is that a bedsheet you cut up? You have to bring that up - that is one of the most original signs I’ve seen.” It was a sheet with 5 holes for faces (for 4 gals, 2 on either side of the center face hole for Keith) cut into it, saying “Without you we can’t get closer.” So he brought them all up on stage and they stretched out the sheet and put their faces in place. Keith joined them in the sign and had them each introduce themselves.The crowd loved this interaction.

As Keith made his way back to the small stage virtually everyone on the floor climbed up on their chairs to watch him and remained on their chairs for the full three songs. It was quite a sight from my riser perch. In Blue Jeans tonight Keith sang the “You don’t need a thing except your negligee” variation. Here is You'll Think of Me.

I suppose every concert has been this way, but tonight in particular I noticed that the show was just a rocket ride - one great song following right on the tail of the previous one, transitions almost instantaneous, everything so carefully timed. And the guitar solos seemed particularly seering, matching the oh-so-hot weather that day. Here is Long Hot Summer. During band introductions I have noticed that the guys have been having fun singing a little back up during Danny Rader's American Girl.

Keith was probably pleased that tonight’s singing competition actually involved Illinois locals (and a little boy who didn’t know where he was from : ) ). The adult male really belted out the song (monotonically : ) and Keith yelled “Dude - you knocked it out of the park!” But naturally the darling liitle boy was the winner and was so cute singing with Keith.

Tonight the right risers were graced with Keith’s visit during You Look Good in My Shirt.

When I was leaving the arena later that night I saw Keith’s security leading the gal who won the guitar out some special doors - maybe to pack up the guitar? Or to allow her to leave the arena by a less crowded route?

When Keith came out on the catwalk with his acoustic guitar for the encore he treated us to a little “ Moline, Moline, Moline, Moline” to the tune of Jolene (too quick for me to catch on camera). During the final Better Life Keith played so vigorously that he broke a string on his guitar and had to fight with the wayward string end to be able to strum the ending on the remaining strings. When the last notes had been played and the final waves given for this excellent evening, I took advantage of my first row riser position and swung my legs over the railing and dropped to the floor (Moline has floor level exits) rather than climbing the stairs with the rest of the riser crowd. I met up with Annie and Lucy and we mosied through the park to our hotel, sharing some of the highlights of a great evening.

Here is a shot of nearly the entire floor audience standing on their chairs when Keith went back to the small stage.