Deep in the Heart of Dallas, TX

With me and my audiobook, the drive from Houston to Dallas went smoothly. Seems to me I've made that drive once before when Keith played the Houston Rodeo one night and then a special private House of Blues show in Dallas the next night.

I had looked up possible stops on the Roadfood website and ended up at a very interesting one in Huntsville, TX where the little New Zion Missionary Baptist Church operates a little Texas BBQ out of a rather ramshackle building next to the church. I figured I should have some good BBQ and also ordered a slice of old fashioned buttermilk pie. I chowed down on the ribs right away but couldn't finish all the brisket, so had a 'doggy bag' to take with me.

The Dallas venue was close to the Dallas fairgrounds and was quite large. I was back up in the upper tier tonight so pretty much all my videoclips had to be shot from the video screens. I was happy to see that Keith's video wall was back in commission (or they had a spare wall sent down from Nashville?) because tonight I was going to depend on the video screens.

After the first four songs, Keith greeted and joked with the audience, having fun with his spotlight.
Then he read a few signs and brought one gal, who had a sign like one of those Mastercard "priceless" commercials (Something like: Bought a ticket- check, Drove 5 hours - check, All for the Hall- check, Getting a hug from Keith - Priceless") up on stage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWH-sldHSTk After chatting with her and giving her a hug, Keith asked where her man was and did he want to come up and take a photo of them. As the guy came up and they prepared for the photo, Keith told the audience "Talk amongst yourselves. Here's a topic: Dueling banjos only had one banjo - discuss!" : ) Before the photo the gal must have asked Keith to sign her concert teeshirt (which she was carrying, not wearing) - but to have a solid surface to allow him to write on it, Keith had to kind of place the shirt on her shoulder/upper chest, mulling to himself "What must this look like? And her man is standing right behind me...." Because it was taking some time he also joked about what he was writing "We the people.... Four score and seven years ago..."

When that couple left stage and Keith was about to go on, he seemed to remember that something else was up that night and asked "Where's Josh?" He explained "I don't know Josh, I've never met Josh, but his friend slipped me a note at the meet and greet tonight. Josh and his girlfriend were conveniently located in the pit and Keith brought them up and then stepped back. Apparently Josh had asked for permission to propose marriage on stage! Josh pulls out a sheet of notes of what he wants to say. He was a bit nervous and soft spoken, so it was hard to catch all of it, but he had pieced together lots of Keith's lyrics to create his proposal. It did go on a bit and in the background eventually Keith starts making "come on, wrap it up" gestures (Josh was oblivious) annd eventually Keith creeps over and tugs on Josh's leg to make him get down on one knee and finish up. Her girlfriend gave Josh a big "yes"hug and Keith said "oh my God I'm glad she said yes!" He proceeded to question her: "When is the wedding? Can we all come? and says "Next Friday is good for me." (hee hee) She actually jumped on that offer (but in fact Keith is in St. Louis Friday). He asked them where they were from (Cameron, TX) and wished them wedded bliss and God's blessings.

For You was in the setlist again tonight (after Without You).  When Keith, Jerry and Chris went out to the small stage, we got a little bonus: First a few lines from ZZ Top's song Tush that mentions Dallas:

I been bad, I been good,
Dallas, Texas, Hollywood.
I been bad, I been good,
Dallas, Texas, Hollywood.

This was followed by a few lines of Deep in the Heart of Texas. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIj3-DQaRzo[/url]
 During tonight's Once in a lifetime Keith made yet another little lyric change to: "Then the first ones born, then a sister comes along, and she's got your curly hair."  

Keith asked the audience to light up their cells for Tonight I Wanna Cry [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmGh86H-I50[/url]

My one closer view of the evening was oh so brief. Keith did come out to the end of my row for You Look Good in My Shirt. But almost as soon as this happen the crowd that rushed up, with their phone and camera arms raised up high, pretty much totally blocked my view : (

Maybe because tonight they did not need to rush off so quickly to another venue, Keith stayed quite a while not only shaking hands but also signing lots of autographs- so generous with his fans!

Once again I had searched for "late night dining in east Dallas" for a post-concert dinner. I have to say I was amazed at the lack of fast food, strip malls, or restaurants along the route my GPS took me. But I finally ended up at a place called Mexico Lindo that was packed at midnight. I knew Texas had good Mexican food and this place offered the full Hispanic experience! In this crowded restaurant with menus in Spanish I was the only gringo, surrounded by families - some with babies or kids, some with grandmas - as well as a long table of young ladies dressed in their finest for what looked like a "swwet sixteen" birthday party, while much of the rest of the patrons were fully engaged in Karaoke night (all in Spanish of course). I don't speak Spanish but I recognized enough on the menu to order my Carne Asada and thoroughly enjoyed my cultural immersion.

Under a ROOF in Houston!

The ride from Austin to Houston was mostly pleasant, although I am not used to  very commercial roads like Bob White Road in Austin, with business driveways every 30 feet, having speed limits of 70 mph!  I did not enjoy the superhighway traffic once I got close to Houston itself. I made a late lunch stop at a Captain Benny's Seafood for the fresh gulf oysters I so love,then on to the very pretty, wooded community of The Woodlands north of Houston proper.

I checked into my hotel and had time for a little nap, but was very worried when, at about 5:00, it started to rain quite hard. Oh no - not again I thought! But the rain abated and happily this venue did have a nice tented roof over reserve seating. My seat was close to the stage but not as centrally located as the one I was supposed to enjoy Keith from in Austin. I was in front of the right hand speakers and security was nice enough to hand out packs of earplugs to any of us who wanted them. Unfortunately because I was off to the side, my audios are a bit unbalanced.

Here is Little Big Town's Where the Pavement Ends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axOASdkGpuc

Here is the opening instrumental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTkpg-Md974  Love the way Keith moves (and also Jerry's entrance).

Once again, although I was close enough to have a good view during Stupid Boy, within seconds of the start of the guitar solo that stupid fog totally hid Keith - he might as well been playing backstage for all that we could see! Cut it out guys! We've had enough of "disappearing Keith"!! Let us watch the master!

Disappearing Keith



Here's Little Bit of Everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd5Ae5qQCFI

I noticed before Keith came out that the silvery curtain was missing, and sure enough - as he dove into Long Hot Summer the big reveal of the video wall did not occur. Apparently the Austin storm had taken its toll on Keith's equipment. The venue did have decent sized side screens, but they were no match for Keith's usual high def video screens. When it came time for him to chat with the audience he explained that they "were supposed to play in Austin last night (lots of boos from the crowd - must be some competition between the big cities) but a horrendous storm took out our behemoth video wall which would have been back there (gesturing to the back of the stage). " But we are going to play as if our life depended on it!"

Keith was in a goofy mood it seemed. He asked us "By a round of applause, who has seen us before, and (without pausing) who hasn't?" Of course everyone applauded. "That's good," said Keith - "That's just about everyone!"  "Call the babysitter 'cause we are going to me here awhile! (cheers!) "We have two shows worth in us!"

Although Keith didn't really read signs, he did interact with the audience. One gals shouted an "I love you" and Keith gave the usual "I love you too but I don't even know you," but then continued. "You husband is looking very perplexed." (pause) " No, now he is blowing kisses too. Lots of love in Houston!"

Someone then handed Keith a big bouquet of flowers. After thanking her Keith said "I feel like a ballet dancer!"

We did get an extra song following Without You: Keith surprised us with a rousing performance of For You. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MrEzbO6V8c  For the last few shows Little Big Town has been dedicating a song to the men and women serving our country (their song Self-Made) so amybe Keith decided it was time for him to do so as well.
And I found that I enjoyed "Even the Stars Fall For You" more without the video lyrics running behind Keith. Here is the portion of You Gonna Fly that Keith did down at my end of the stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx_hEqt4r2U

When I entered the venue I noticed tonight's satellite stage was set quite high (maybe 9 feet in the air) so the audience won't be bodysurfing up to see Keith : )  Out on this stage Keith gave this audience another bonus in the midst of Once in a Lifetime - a few lines of Deep in the Heart of Texas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALri4iuT_-k
He also followed that with the proclamation "Houston we have NO problems!" Tonight in OIAL he switched the lyrics to "Then the first ones born, and a sister comes along, and she's got your long legs."

 : )

We got a nice backbend after Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me and Keith collapsed and played from flat on his back after Somebody Like You. The encore included a chorus of But For the Grace of God.
Keith slapped hands long after the other guys had left the stage. Tonight it was a very happy crowd leaving the venue.

I had a hard time finding late night dining in the Woodlands and finally ended up at Denny's for an uninspired snack. But it was kind of fun listening in on the conversation of a concert security person
sitting at the table next to me. He was going on and on about Keith going right out in the audience for these long walks with barely any security.

The Highs and Lows of the Concert That Wasn't

Wow, I hit both ends of the mood scale multiple times in Austin. I went straight from the airport to the venue - just a short ride on an 80 mph (!!!) highway and then experienced my first low as I prepared to go to the will call window for my meet and greet envelope. I happened to look at my paperless ticket receipt and OMG the credit card digits were unfamiliar!! I had used my TJ Maxx Mastercard for previous paperless tickets, but those numbers did not match. I searched my wallet for matching numbers - I had several cards with me - but none matched! Would I be missing both my meet and greet and the show after traveling all this way??? Panic!

Happily, with photo ID, my receipt, and several other cards with my name, Will Call said they were allowed to re-issue the ticket 30 minutes before showtime. What a relief. But now there was a huge line waiting for the gates to open and I had only 15 minutes to make it to the  meet and greet location - a new panic set in. I asked security if there was a special entrance or "go to the head of the line" for  meet and greet people, but no go. I waited nervously for the line to advance and then booked as fast as my old knees would go the long distance (1/2 mile or more) from the entrance to the stage. Made it just as staff was beginning to organize the group!! So now I was on that giddy pre-meet and greet high. All of us were fanning ourselves like crazy in the heat, hoping not to be hot sweaty messes when we met the man.

Keith was a little tardy but we patiently (well, impatiently actually) waited for his appearance. He arrived looking oh so fine in an olive green safari-style shirt. They nicely had divided the  meet and greet crowd in small groups and the Ville members went first. I was with 2 Texas gals. We entered the dimly lit black tent (I was last). Keith greeted each of us individually with a hug : ) . I introduced myself as Linda from Iowa and Keith made my spirits soar a second time when he said " I KNOW you Linda from Iowa!" I took the opportunity to poke fun at him: "Texas in August!??" I asked. "You Southern Aussies must love the heat!!" Keith replied " Or I must have a death wish..." He asked the others where they were from. One gal replied "Mercedes" and Keith, the car buff, asked "Is there really a place called Mercedes?". The other gal was from San Antonio. He then scooped me into his left arm for the photo, looking at me and saying "I'm so glad you came baby," and reached around the Texas gals with his right arm. They snapped 2 shots and then, all too soon, it was over. I must have walked out in a daze because one of his staffers ran down the ramp after me, asking "Don't you want a bracelet?" (the souvenir).

As I went to my seat I kind of I looked around with a bit of a sinking feeling. There was NO roof over reserved seating at this venue, it was sweltering hot and several hours until sunset! (Little did I know I would be cursing the absence of the roof long after than). The video screens carried warnings to drink lots of water, don't wait until you're thirsty, and drink a water after every alcoholic beverage.    But shortly my mood boosted quite a bit. Every venue numbers their sections differently. I had been to a few where sections 1,2, and 3 are up front by the stage and 4-8 or 9 are the upper tier sections. I thought I was in 4 and it would be another "upper tier" far from stage night. But no, I was in F4 which meant floor 4 (just behind the pit), 6th row.Much better seats than I thought I had ! I would have a great view of Keith!! (Little did I know again that that view would never materialize : (  )

I did have a great view of Dustin and Little Big Town. Little Big Town was great as usual. But Midway in LBT's set it began to drizzle (ah that's refreshing!), and then rain (oh, that's cold rain!). When they left stage the video screens suddenly showed a warning that a serious electrical storm was heading for us and we needed to evacuate the premises for our safety. They were essentially going to 'cattle herd' several thousand people (13,000?) about 3/4 of a mile in the rain to their "garages" for their formula 1 racetrack.  They got a lot of resistance, and people try to hide away in the nearby washroom buildings, but they kept prodding the crowd along. I made it the half mile back to the park entrance but could see the garages were still distant and would require going down (and later up) a substantial hill. I didn't think I could handle that trek so I and quite a few others who had cars in the closest lots retreated to our cars for the duration (they opened all the gates and allowed this in this emergency). And it was a SUBSTANTIAL storm - lightening, torrential rain blowing sideways in winds that rocked my Chevy even though I was parked between other cars. It raged for a good 30-45 minutes. At 10 it had lightened to drizzle and we heard they would resume the show at 10:30. So the masses of people started making the long hike back (some actually "mooing" in this herd) but we were held out of reserved seating for quite a while. When we finally got close enough to see the stage I could see dozens of crew members squeegeeing waves of water off the stage, lifting dripping cables, looking sadly at equipment. The video screens showed only a few random dots of light. We waited another 15 minutes and then the manager gave us the sad news that the lights, the sound and production systems had been taken out by the storm and there was no way to resume the show. We were told to watch their website for info on how they'll handle this.

So it was another very sad hike out of the arena by thousands of disappointed fans. It didn't quite match the sadness experienced by those of us at the Mohegan Sun venue when Keith's performances there were canceled because Keith had entered rehab, but still very sad.

But the evening did not, thankfully, end with that 'funeral dirge' march back to my car. Earlier in the day I had looked up "late night restaurants" on that side of Austin, so I punched an address into my GPS and ended up at a really delightful place called Justine's Brasserie. Brightly lit with festive bulbs and nice outside tables, I chose to dry off at an inside table in this funky, somewhat French - looking place, which was just hopping with diners at midnight on a Thursday night. I had wonderful chef specials. I am definitely a foodie and Top Chef fan and loved my cabbage and radish salad with bacon viniagrette, blackberries and charred shishito (sp?) peppers, my grilled mackeral on a bed of bok choi and spring onions, and my grapefruit curd, grapefruit, shortbread, and ice cream dessert, making me feel oh so much better. Tomorrow is another day.

"Going Back to Massachusetts"

Daughter Jen went for a run before we began our trip east towards Massachusetts. She warned me that Interstate 90 is pretty boring. But we did stop in Albany and shared a sampler of craft beers at the Albany Pump Station http://www.evansale.com/ (my kids are all into craft beer so I have been trying to learn a little about them even though I am not much of a beer drinker). And then we paused in Worcester for an early supper at the Armsby Abbey http://armsbyabbey.com . It was a beautiful day so we sat out at one of their sidewalk tables and I had fun trying their "top chef"- like dishes.

Our seats at the Comcast were a little bit better than the night before. We were still in the upper tier of seats but in the center and not as far away from the stage. But we were in the center of a very long row of about 40 seats, so I knew I would be staying put this evening.

When Keith came out he raved about how perfect a night it was and joked that they should open the roof. When he greeted each section of the audience he got out his big spotlight to take a look at the lawn crowd. Now that spotlit view that they show us on the big screens is complete with "binocular-like" views. Tonight Keith then turned the spotlight on Danny and asked him how he was doing : )  He said it was far too long since they played Boston and then gave a birthday shout-out to Carol and told her Al loved her - Al's crazy about you. Keith then went into his best Boston accent when imitating Al's warning before the show "Don't forget that happy birthday now or I'll come kick your ass!" " I didn't forget Al, so don't kick my ass Al!" hee hee       Keith went on to talk about how some performers liked the audience to be polite, courteous, well-mannered, well-behaved. This is NOT one of those concerts." As soon as he said that a red bra flew up on stage. Keith scooped it up with the neck of his guitar and went on: "I personally implore you to be as uncouth and unruly as this bra." (cheers from the audience) "   "Gives a whole new meaning to Boston strong now. I was going to ask who threw this up, but you guys are going to figure that out pretty soon. Oh God" and shakes the bra off his guitar with a funny grimace.

 Since we were in the upper level center section the second stage was not too far behind us. I thought we might have a decent rear view from our seats when Keith went out there. But I forgot about the basic physics of such a venue. When everyone stands up,  the audience behind you almost totally blocks your view of things that are higher up in the arena, so I ended up watching on the big screen. 
I don't think I've mentioned before that lately Keith has been switching up Once in a Lifetime, singing
"A sister comes along and she's got your smile" or tonight it was "and she's got your face, your pretty face"

I'm enjoying Little Bit of Everything. I wasn't very close, but here's the great extended guitar play that follows that song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhYh8UX1Y0w

Maybe I'm crazy, but tonight to me it seemed like Keith changed the settings on his guitar for Without You. It seemed to have a fuller, almost steel guitar like sound. Maybe it was just my center position this time... Here is my video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDwAL8lIRcE      but actually someone else's captured the beautiful guitar introduction with much better sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztib3CMT_F

After several complex 'echo rounds' with the audience Keith has brought back that exceptionally long, complicated, almost African sounding, impossible-to-echo excerpt and is tickled when the audience still tries to provide some echo.

When Keith returned to the stage for the encore he was wearing a bright orange Boston Strong shirt and yelled out " Boston Strong!". He then treated us to a verse of the old Bee Gees tune Massachusetts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DYnSrpncnw  before going into Tonight I Wanna Cry. He again suggested the audience light up their cells to give a firefly like lighting of the arena.

As he left stage he tossed out not only his wristbands, but also stripped off the orange shirt and tossed it out as well. Someone will truly be looking good in his shirt (well, at least as good as you can look in a giant orange shirt : )

Keith at Canandaigua

I hung around in Columbia, MD Friday morning until I thought the Baltimore rush hour would be over, then headed towards central New York. Driving north through Pennsylvania was the pits - heavy traffic, lots of roadwork, and a mighty rainstorm, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally hit Syracuse. I was going to rendezvous with my daughter Jen who had driven over from Providence. She had lived in Syracuse a couple years, so was happy to wait for me in her favorite pub Kitty Hoynes, where I had a bite to eat before we drove west to the CMAC in Canandaigua.

We were surprised to discover the CMAC was on the campus of a community college! Sadly our fan club presale seats were pretty bad - we were in the upper level (about 60 rows from stage) and way at the edge. We wouldn't be seeing much "live Keith" and the CMAC has no side video screens - just one puny little screen up on the rear ceiling to supplement Keith's screens on stage. Of course we still enjoyed the music but I felt like I was almost out on the lawn!

I understand no pit tickets had been sold for the CMAC concert but in his first song Keith made it clear that he welcomed fans down front - the hell with security! I don't know what the experience was in other areas of this venue, but Jen and I thought the sound there was much poorer than elsewhere. We couldn't hear Dustin's lyrics at all and had trouble catching many of Keith's comments.

My one chance for a closer view was to head to the satellite stage at the appropriate time, and Jen followed me. Well, this audience anticipated Keith's trip out and even before Kiss a Girl was over a large crowd had gathered at the base of the second stage. I've been in many of these second stage crowds over the years and know that being squished and pushed by excited fans is par for the course. But poor Jen was appalled and, although she is half my size, she kept trying to fend off those behind and on either side of her mom, worried that I might get hurt. She was so protective - I think Keith could hire her to assist on his walks through the crowds! : ) Frankly, this NY crowd was the worst that I have been in, with some of the fans getting rather brutal, forcefully elbowing and shoving through those in closer positions like a football players trying to take the ball that final yard!! For the first time I was actually worried we were going to have injuries or have someone fall and get trampled by these idiots who would do anything to anyone to get to Keith. One woman actually climbed on top of the tightly packed crowd and tried to body surf over their heads to Keith! My 'bulldog' Jen did not allow her to climb on top of me and she finally got down.

This physical assault at the small stage was, unfortunately, not rewarded by being able to hear Keith's performance there. I could see him but much of the time could not hear him even though I was just 4-5 feet away. There were no speakers near the small stage itself so Keith's microphone did us little good. In my videoclips you can hear Chris banging on his drums but they are almost "silent" videos as far as Keith is concerned. What a shame there wasn't better sound.

Won't Get Fooled Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yeFjr9ejSE
Days Go By https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScqsrhuDtjQ
Keith Rocking to Jerry's song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_skioEVOmw
Once in a Lifetime  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzBtOZKUbvk

Besides what I tried to capture at the small stage I really had few video opportunities from our distant seats. I do have one brief bad angle shot of Keith's interaction with the little girl whose sign asked Keith to put her in a song  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwPHUeq9JI - which he did, but he cracked himself up when then he could not remember the words to Put You in a Song and had to adlib about forgetting the words to his own damn song : ). I also only caught a tiny bit of tonight's little "bonus" during the encore: a few lines of Shine sang at the piano.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_RQUEUymxk

We were able to make a quick escape from the CMAC parking lot, which was good since our hotel was back in Syracuse. Our GPS took us on quite an exciting route down pitch dark country roads before finally putting us on the interstate about 15 miles east of where we had exited to get to Canandaigua.
My daughter is convinced that the GPS is evil or has a wicked sense of humor!

Marvelous Maryland

I had not been in Maryland since visiting there briefly in 1975 (Yee gads!!) for a job interview at an Eastern Shore college, so I decided to arrive the night before the Columbia, MD concert so I would have a little time to explore. I stayed the first night at a hotel with a free airport shuttle to avoid an extra day of car rental charges. The hotel also shuttled me to a restaurant for dinner and to the car rental place in the morning, so I was thankful for that. My dinner included an excellent softball sized Maryland crabcake - yum!! I think Keith was right, the next night, when he announced that Maryland had the best crabcakes in the world. Nothing like the many crabcakes I have had in many other places.

The next morning was gorgeous so I decided to drive to Annapolis - a lovely historic town. I took a nice boat ride around the Annapolis harbor and a bit of the Chesapeake Bay while the sights were being described - very relaxing. Then Yelp guided me to a nice restaurant right on the private boat docks where I again concentrated on getting some of that fresh East Coast seafood that I so love. I had to take a picture of my giant scallops covered in fine phyllo on a bed of crab, spinach and prosciutto for my chef niece.

Then on to Columbia where my hotel was not too far from the concert venue. Surprisingly, the Merriweather Post Pavilion is not out in the country like many of the summer venues, but is instead in a park across from a great big shopping mall where I was able to park for free. The venue looked different too - much more rustic than the big Verizon Wireless amphitheatres.  The Merriweather was covered in worn wooden planks and the side sections of the reserved seats were covered by tent-like extensions from the main plank roof. I could see the buses just outside the side entrance of the venue. It is the first concert venue that I have been to that had crabcake stands as well as crisp and gooey grilled cheese! I figured I would have a better seat than I had had at previous concerts because I was located in Row G of the Center section. But I was even more pleasantly surprised when G turned out to be the first row of reserved seats since A-F had been removed to make the pit!! Alright!! And I was sitting above the pit, at the level of the stage, so no one would block my view unless they held up a huge sign. YAY!!!

So it was an extra good night for me. So nice to see  Dustin and Little Big Town up close as well. Here is Dustin's Cowboys and Angels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XFuICmpvcQ and LBT's Bring It On Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPMH5Xlekrg  and Tornado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfhCs9kPim4 and their later collaboration with Keith.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGOoXf7U5lE I could see Danny and Jerry watching LBT from the sideline, occasionally joined by a gal with dark hair. And some lucky young girls were watching from an upper level of the side stage - wonder how they lucked out!

Sweet Thing extended guitar play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIQWUZ_Xwg4

Have you noticed that the stagecrew is getting a little overgenerous with their fog machines during Stupid Boy. Tonight and a few other venues there were times during his guitar solo where you could not hardly see Keith because of the billowing fog. Let's not provide TOO MUCH atmosphere guys!! We want to see him!
Keith added a little extra guitar run at the end of his SB solo.

Keith greeted the audience and said "Sorry it is a little chilly" (ha ha - it was pretty steamy). As he greeted the lawn people he got out his giant spotlight to highlight them, saying "it is like the search party" and also put the spot on Jerry before he was finished playing with his toy : ). Keith read several signs, including one that said "We've got a thing called Rader Love", some birthday signs, a "cool chick sign", a "Nicole said it is okay for you to kiss me" (but then joked "and its a dude, so that's weird". He read another saying "Please sing I'm Standing Right In Front of You" but then changed the emphasis to "Please sing! I am standing right in front of you". He finally focused on one pretty far back held by a little girl and saying "My daddy said you can give me a hug" So Keith brought her up to chat.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY3RUVB3tzs Since she was far back he had to fill time so he told us to "talk among yourselves and I'l give you a topic(which I could quite catch- sounded like "do pingwars have bees????" and then proceed to adlib a little song "I'm taking my time just coming down the stairs now. Whoo. Gonna go down and get mself a hug. Feeling good now. Gonna go down and get myself a hug now.   And the girls round here like ice cold beer." She finally made it and then her mom as well. Keith asked Kayla some questions and then took picture with them. The little girl was a stunned but it was a cute interaction. Her Mom said that Kayla had loved Keith since she was three years old.

A stunning Without You with some extra "foreplay" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb8X6BcYFw8

When I first arrived at the Merriweather Post Pavilion I had looked for the second stage but could not find a sign of it. That's because there was no real second stage this night. Keith did go out but without Jerry and Chris, and he sang a couple songs alone within the audience, much like he does for You Look Good in My Shirt. He cut this out-in-the audience shorter than usual, returning to the main stage after Once in a Lifetime before starting Better Life. Oddly, he did "introduce" Jerry while out in the audience (even though Jerry wasn't with him) and then Jerry sang his solo from up on the main stage.

Better Life  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk21l3_0-z8

You'll Think of Me with its new "On With My Life" emphasis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kUKUFhv4dA

Bit of But For the Grace of God https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iscNyTNhh8Q

After You Look Good in My Shirt Keith ended the show (for the first time I've seen on this tour) lying flat on his back on stage strumming away on his guitar - a sign of an exceptional show. He thanked us for being "totally insane" and for those who traveled a long distance. As he was moving along the stage edge slapping hands and signing autographs, I saw Keith pause by a young guy near the pointed "catwalk" and give that guy the "Wait just a moment" gesture. Keith grabbed his guitar tech and sent him back stage. He arrived back with a guitar which Keith proceeded to give to the young guy, who had a sign something like "My dream is to play the guitar like Keith Urban" and so Keith was going to help hime pursue that dream! How great! And then our steamy Keith-hot night was over.

Postscript:When I got back to the Sheraton I noticed that the lot near my room had half of it blocked by yellow tape and I wondered whether the buses might be coming there. I was too tuckered to wait. But the next morning, sure enough, there was one of the buses with the motorcycle. Wonder if I had "slept with Keith" without even knowing it ; 0

"Badass" Alpharetta

Boy, Keith would have made it easier on his crew and bus drivers as well as us fans if this weekend of shows had been scheduled: Raleigh, Charlotte, Alpharetta! Raleigh being second in the list meant that we all had to re-trace our 2.5 hour drive back to Charlotte and then another 2.5 hours down to Alpharetta (on a good day) in pretty heavy traffic. And, unfortunately, it was not a good day weatherwise. Just like the last time I drove to Georgia for a KU show in Athens, once again there was a torrential rainstorm that nearly stopped interstate traffic for quite a while. We drove 25 mph for quite a distance because visibility was almost nil. During this time I passed a couple of the tour buses going even slower and hoped their "important contents" had gotten down south by another means or they were going to be really late for soundcheck!!

I finally made it to suburban Atlanta and laid down briefly to try to de-stress from the trip before heading to the venue. The Alpharetta Verizon Wireless was especially well organized in that they assigned you to a specific parking lot when tickets were purchased to equally divide up the crowd and traffic. That seemed to work well and happily my parking lot was immediately next to the venue so there wouldn't be a long walk tonight. Although the shape of the pavilion was the same as previous shows, this one appeared to be significantly larger with an especially high roof equipped with circulatng fans. It quite attractively had some of those "Georgia pines" on either side, rather than the hot pink crape myrtle so prevalent in Raleigh and Charlotte. Here security was much more liberal allowing us free access to the aisles and entrances, which I appreciated.  Another difference here: what had been handicapped seating in Raleigh was premium box seats here, and those in wheelchairs were relegated to the upper most row of the reserved seats, by the aisle that ran in front of the general admission lawn area.

Tonight my seat was not the best. Better than the wheelchairs, but as far to the edge of the seating as one could be, giving me a very angled view. So I relied mostly on the lefthand side videoscreen most of the evening and did not catch too much on video.

Both Dustin and two of Little Big Town are from Georgia and had family in the audience tonight. LBT also spent some time thanking and saying goodbye to their current tour manager who was moving on to a new position. I've noticed that LBT switches up which of the guys takes the lead on some of the songs.

We all know some of the songs where Keith stops singing and leaves it up to the audience to sing a couple lines (like in Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me). Tonight for the first time that I recall, he did that in Sweet Thing.
Since it was unexpected, our audience response was a bit weak even though we were singing along. Next time we'll do better! I Told You So featured some of those "wild bird call" trills. Keith seemed to be in a great mood when he greeted each part of the audience and teased the lawn people about how they started drinking on Thursday. Tonight Keith had his giant spotlight at the ready and used it to get a better look at the lawn audience, mentioning that some of them were sitting in the trees! He said that they had been warned it was going to rain on their Alpharetta show but they had said "Nah...". He then thanked those who put in a good word in to the Higher Powers for helping prevent the rain. Happily the afternoon rain had left the temperatures very comfortable for the show.

There were quite a few signs in the audience in Alpharetta. The one that Keith focused on was down by the pit and said something like "I flew all the way from Saudi Arabia twice to attend your shows." Keith chatted with her and brought her up on stage asking about why she was in Saudi Arabia (her dad works there) and when was the last time she came over for a show (the Biloxi show last tour). He asked if here dad was there (no) but her sister was and so Keith brought her up too so that they could all take a picture.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHoAO8fleHs
 Another sign held by a couple asked if Keith would sing at their wedding. Keith asked them when the wedding was (maybe March 29) and whether we could all come 9"Boy, that will be a hell of a bar tab!"). He asked them what they would have him sing at the wedding and they replied Making Memories, so Keith spontaneously obliged by singing a verse of that song right there and the couple started to dance.

Tonight my biggest thrill was heading out to the small stage as Kiss a Girl Began and scoring a spot on the rail right next to the stairs Keith, Jerry and Chris take up to the stage. Unfortunately, that is the back of the stage this tour (since Keith is primarily out there to sing to the lawn people) and has quite a bit of electronic equipment, so my view was partially blocked and often of his back, but still it is the closest view I have had given the rather disappointing locations of the presale seats so far. So I really enjoyed my time out there even though the mad crush of fans behind me nearly knocked over the railing surrounding the stage, so some of the crew had to rush to hold it up! Keith of course looked amazing (love his hair!) but if you look at all the tiny bugs in the spotlights, it is a wonder he doesn't inhale a throatful of them!!  Be patient - although we saw a lot of his back, he did periodically turn and smile at us in the back.
Won't Get Fooled Again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2Kc10SYcs
Days Go By http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVH3vy0wq0
Keith Rocking Out to Jerry's solo and end of DGB  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lApNm_BNbOg
Once in a Lifetime Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luMd3lU3YAw
Better Life  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrFLhBy1_k8

Back inside I believe, after Without You, Keith said that the love of his life was standing offstage tonight!
(Since my seat was fairly far away I couldn't always catch his every word). I also thought I saw Nic there, raising her hands in over-the-head applause after a couple of the songs. Not a clear shot, but I think that is her head in the back.

During the encore we were once again gifted and teased with just a single chorus of But For The Grace of God  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcotBD5CZ8U
 Keith asked that those with cell phones shine their lights during Tonight I Wanna Cry so it would "look like those Georgia fireflies" which a huge number in the audience did (even prettier in this outside venue than when we did this in arenas).  For You Look Good in My Shirt Keith once again went to his left and ended up about as far away from my side of the arena as possible : (

He thanked the audience for just such a badass, insane, off-the hook night. He thanked the buses of young people who had come down from Nashville to see the show (?).  He slapped many hands and signed some autographs. Some lucky gal brought Keith a bouquet of flowers and he bent over and kissed her hand (my show memories are starting to merge together now, so pardon me if I mix up nights).

Riveting Raleigh

Off to Raleigh in quite a bit of traffic with a portable GPS that seemed to have a bad cord or something - every several minutes it would stop functioning and I would have to shake or move it, hoping to remedy the "short" before I needed its guidance. Maddening!

When I finally made it from my car to the venue gate, there was a guy to the side yelling "Paperless tickets!? Paperless tickets!?" I thought perhaps we had to enter in a special line for paperless tickets, so I went over to him and asked. But no, he was actually a news reporter from a local station, doing a report on the new paperless tickets and asked if he could interview me. He initially asked if I had a digital ticket on my phone, but I said no - my paperless ticket just involved scanning my credit card as I entered. So he called over the camera man and filmed a brief interview! Of course I was never around to watch the news while in North Carolina, but I hear at least part of the interview was tweeted! My brief moment of fame ; } http://www.wral.com/concert-tickets-go-digital-to-some-fans-delight/12709318/

It is funny how each of these summer venues (many named Verison Wireless this or that) all have the same basic format: big reserved seating area (shaped like one-third of a pie) under a high roof, with a hillside or sloped lawn area behind the covered seats. Yet there are subtle differences so that each venue has a little bit different personality. In Raleigh much of the parking was on grassy knolls along the LONG driveway to the arena so it was quite a walk from my car to the front gates. But that turned out to be only half the required walk. Oddly The main gate is behind the hilly lawn seating, so when you enter you see several tall stairways allowing the lawn people to climb up to the top of the general admission slope. Reserved seater have to walk around the perimeter of the hill to get to the actual pavilion. I definitely have been getting my walking workout. But as usual I ran into some of my Urbanite buddies in the crowd. One had been the lucky winner of a meet and greet. She confirmed it had been a short one, held in a rather steamy small tent, but that it was nice that photos were being taken in groups of four this year.

This venue is perhaps the most tightly controlled venue I have ever been in. Each section of reserved seating had its own entry point carefully guarded. You could only get into your section at that point and were not free to go to other sections or even walk down the main cross-aisle that separated the 3 sections close to the stage (here Sec 1, 2 and 3) from the upper sections (here sections 4,5,6,7, 8, and 9). My seat was in the lower rows of Sec 8 close to the main cross-aisle but the only entrance to 8 was at the very rear, where the seats end and the lawn starts. Chains and guards blocked access from the main cross aisle. WHY?? It was annoying to always have to go to the rear when all the bathrooms and concessions were at the cross-aisle level. And with this somewhat "prison cell" organization, it was clear that I would not be able to get close to the satellite stage tonight since it was set up in another carefully guarded and cordoned off section.

One plus concerning this arena: it had its area reserved for those with disabilities on a somewhat elevated platform at the front of sections 8 and 9 and it was nice to see that so many individuals in wheelchairs were attending Keith's show that they had to shuffle around things to fit them and their accompanying family members in.  I noticed, just before Keith came on, that in the process of re-shuffling them a lone chair that the wife of a guy in a wheelchair had occupied earlier had been abandoned at the front railing of section 8. So when it was apparent that it wasn't going to be used and the lights dimmed for Long Hot Summer, I left my section 8 row 5 seat (in a row where I had already been worn out by the number of people in and out of my row for beer runs) and headed down to this chair where no one would be crossing in front of me. It was a perfect seat if you had to be in the rear sections of the arena!

Like Charlotte, The sun was shining in the rear of the pavilion as it set, so it was initially warm there, but the weather cooled off nicely after sunset. Good thing since Keith heats up things enough!

I don't know if this was new or whether I just noticed it for the first time, but during that swell ganjo introduction, Chris  was actually features (on camera) as the band member to first join Keith in that jam, and after a short time of Keith and Chris alone rocking, then Jerry came out. I hadn't previously noticed this "introduction" of Chris. Tonight Brian was wearing a little plaid shirt with very short sleeves (a la Keith 2 tours ago) and Danny was in a shirt and loose tie. All night long all of the guys seemed to be sharing a joke or jokes, in a very good mood, grinning and elbowing each other. At one point Brian even gave Keith a full body block when Keith was returning to stage. Certainly looked like they were having an extra good time.

Folowing Sweet Thing Keith did an extended bit of melodic guitar play, going from the top of the frets to the very bottom. There were little changes in staging - for instance Keith did I Told You So from the opposite end of the stage than earlier shows. I was so happy to finally have a good view of my favorite Stupid Boy guitar solo from my purloined seat at the front railing!

When Keith came out to chat he yelled " Good evening North Carolina! Is it happening tonight? Sounds amazing up here - you guys are in a rowdy mood!" He commented on the Aussie flag that someone was holding up in the audience and then commented that the movie Wolverine was opening this weekend. He then went on to say how people expected him to personally know every famous Australian, but "Why should I know Hugh Jackman??" And just at that moment, a video of Hugh appeared on the big screen with Hugh wishing Keith a great evening! : )

Keith then thanked those of us who had traveled a long distance to the show and, of course, called for
applause for the opening acts, tonight referring to Little Big Town as "celestial". I mentioned Chris earlier. Well he also is now also more actively featured during band introductions. Not only do we get his impressive drum demo, but afterwards he stood up, flinging his arms up in the air and grinning as the audience applauded his drumstick wizardry.

Here is a visually as well as auditorily beautiful Without You from the side screens.

Tonight I caught Dustin's return to stage during Kiss a Girl as well as Danny's little song which I finally recognized it as Fun's "Some Nights". Last time I raised a question  about Jerry's sometimes on and sometimes off glasses. Well tonight, at the end of Better Life, Brian was suddenly wearing black framed glasses, looking like a cartoon brainy whiz kid. They also reappeared during his performance of Your Sex Takes Me to Paradise and then later in the evening the glasses briefly moved from Brian to Keith! I thought I had caught Keith in the glasses on film but can't seem to locate it.

Setlist change! Once in A Lifetime Love replaced Making Memories out on the small stage!! Nice! I hope they keep switching things up so that there will always be some little surprises!! During Better Life (and maybe another time) Keith's trilling "bird call" returned. On the more passionate side, here is the ending of You'll Think of Me.

Returning after Somebody Like You for the encore Keith said "We'd play all night if we could!" and then another special setlist change: he teased us all with just a single chorus of But For the Grace of God! Loved it! But please do the whole song Keith!! Tonight, since I was farther away, I paid attention to the videoscreens during Tonight I Wanna Cry and realized they were showing a beautiful 3 part collage of views: a headshot of Keith singing, a sideview of his arms as he played, and an overhead view of his hands on the keyboard.
Very nice!!

Every show recently Keith has gone to his left for You Look Good in My Shirt and I am always off to the left. He is bearing up well to the onslaught of hugs and grabs. He was still in a buoyant mood as that last song of the night closed, so actually joined in and began singing along with the One Love exit music "Let's get together and feel all right!" Yes we do feel all right when we're together Keith!

Sweet Charlotte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kq1OJqInaY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCB-Z4baMWY

I made it to Charlotte with just a few airline delays along the way (a plane on the runway delayed the landing of my flight to Detroit so I just barely made my connection, and in Charlotte there were runway delays due to a swarm of bees!!!). I sampled the wares at the local Heist Brewery (my beer was good but the short rib sliders were to die for!) for lunch, then had time for a brief nap before it was amphitheatre time.

Since in Cincinnati it seemed like a mile walk between my parking lot and the venue (which was especially hard after the very hot concert), this time I splurged on Premium Parking closer to the entrance to the venue grounds. Although the tickets said gates open at 6:00, we had to stand in line a good while longer (someone said "That's Carolina time..." My seat was better than I expected. Although I was in row U, I was not 21 rows behind the pit as I expected, but rather just 11. I guess they removed 10 rows to make the pit. Here is LBT's Your Side of the Bed 

Although it was in the 80"s, not the 90's, the setting sun was behind the open amphitheatre and shining in, baking everyone until hAlfway through Little Big Town's set. I thought it would cool off after sunset, but so many people and the still, humid air still made for a very sweaty night. Thank heavens for the giant Ipod-lookalike personal fan that I can hang around my neck that I found in Walgreen's clearance basket years ago.

Brian made a surprise visit to my aisle before the show, apparently guiding several friends or family members to seats 2 rows in front of me! And the row immediately in front of me were winners in Keith's 12 Shows, 12 Winners, 12 Friends Contest (don't know if I have that title right), so I guess my seat was close to the "special" region : ) During the break before KU, I tapped on the shoulder of a gal in that row who I had noticed had a backstage pass on. Iasked her what it was like this year. She said "Just about 2 minutes long" (I'm guessing it was a little longer than that but you know how those minutes with Keith fly by). "He asked us our names and then we lined up for our photo and then it was over." I'm guessing that may be the case at most of these summer venues, but maybe that will change once we get to the arena part of the tour. But she also showed me what they got as part of their "Twelve Shows, Twelve Winners" prize: a special Keith Urban teeshirt with the names of each of the 12 people attending!! Pretty nice!! A KU shirt with your personal name on the back instead of concert venues!

Although this venue has a nice slant to the floor to improve viewing, I still had to contend with "tall dude heads, waving arms, and the people in my row going on beer runs, so my videotaping was curtailed. This venue had an interesting message displayed on the back of every 5th seat Is someone ruining your concert experience? Text us at ____ about the problem"!  (I didn't think I could complain about heads : )  ).  One nice thing about my row however: I was sitting next to a young couple and they guy caught on earlyon that I was a big KU fan and graciously urged me out to the aisle each time Keith left stage. Although I headed out several times, I never successfully intersected Keith's path, but I appreciate my row-mates being such good sports.

Besides the rosy, roasting sunset, things were a bit rosy on stage as well, with half of LBT dressed in coral shirts, as well as Chris M., while Jerry had on reddish pants and donned his red glasses during the evening (Anyone know why he sometimes wears glasses and other times does not? A fashion statement?)

Loved the ganjo intro again and it is really fun to seeing Jerry really rocking it as the first band member to join keith. I also loved the extended guitar play after Sweer Thing, part of which I was able to capture on film. I was also able to get almost all of I Told You So before those darn heads intervened.

After that Keith chatted, saying "We made it! And so far the rain is no where in sight! We'd like to thank the Dave Matthews Band for absorbing all the rain last night!" Then he paused a moment to look at the signs in the audience. The one that caught his attention was a big bedsheet sign saying "This is my first concert! Come see me!" Initially the holders did not have it fully extended and so Keith guessed, jokingly, that it was going to say "This is the first bedroom sheet I wrote on" But once he read the actual message he DID go see her (she was not to far from the lefthand stage) and gave her a hug. When he returned to stage he commented "You don't see many concert virgins these days...." (haha).
Keith also said someone had told him that the last time they played this amphitheater was 2001 or 2002! "We opened for some up and coming artist named Kenny Chesney. Not sure what became of him, but he was cool." (hee hee)

Tonight I had a closer view of Little Big Town's return to stage during You Gonna Fly -- great!
But I didn't catch Dustin's return for Kiss a Girl but noticed Keith's grin as Dustin tried to hit the high notes . I'm not sure where the camera guys were located tonight, but we got some interesting closeups straight now the fretwork of Keith's guitar as he played.

There was no extra cover song on the piano tonight and Keith's cover out on the satellite stage remained the same, although he did add another "We won't be fooled again!" at the end of his satellite stage Better Life.  The one little change was Danny's solo : Fun's Some Nights.

I thought about trying to head out to the small stage or out when Keith did You Look Good in My Shirt, but it seemed that fences kept us under-the roofers in, just like they kept the lawn people out of the amphitheater.  Keith did say some thank yous to the crowd tonight but didn't dally quite as long with hand slaps and autographs (although once again someone got their tiny daughter up on stage for a photo). As I was leaving the amphitheater I saw the bus and motorcycle trailer already heading out a special driveway. Sweet dreams Keith!

PS Ran into quite a few Monkey buddies tonight as I have at each show. Kind of amazing we find each other in the crowds considering that we are not all sitting close together like last our!

Videos and clips to come....

Keith Urban at the Great Jones County Jones Fair in Iowa

I can’t believe that I have lived in Iowa 37 years and did not know about the Great Jones County Fair just 90 minutes from me!! They really don’t seem to promote it and it took a Keith show to call it to my attention. I swear it is a bigger venue than the Iowa State Fair and it was totally packed last night for Keith’s concert.

I was so happy to have company on this concert adventure!! My daughter Annie came down from Minneapolis to go along, as well as my best buddy Joan and my daughter’s friend Sara. Although the latest weather report predicted no rain, it began to shower as we drove to Monticello so we were briefly concerned. But the shower ended quickly, just dropping the temperature from 88 to a wonderful 75!! So it was a lovely and SO much more comfortable evening than Cincinnati – what a pleasure!! Although the main parking lot (on a golf course!!) was already quite packed, I was able to slip my car into an excellent spot behind another vehicle.

The Great Jones County Fair has a huge permanent stage and grandstand and offers attendees free hillside seating (see 2nd photo) for the concerts  on either side of the reserved seating. Although the “free hills”don’t have a good view of the stage, they did have extra video screens set up for these areas. We were in the 6^th row of the grandstand, which sounded pretty good. But I didn’t realize that this was behind the maybe 12 rows of season ticket holders and behind a HUGE floor area that was jam packed. My knees cannot bear the hours of standing for the Standing Room Only floor section but I had actually bought an extra SRO ticket in case I wanted to head down toward the stage for a briefer period of time. But the floor crowd was so intimidating that I was not tempted to try to battle my way towards the stage. My daughter, however, did use the ticket to go down on the floor later in the evening. She managed to be in the vicinity of the satellite stage at the right time and managed to squeeze Keith’s shoulder as he passed her. A little “Vitamin K” squeeze by proxy is not quite the same for me, but I’m glad she had fun!

Since I did not settle into the Cincinnati venue until after Dustin had begun his set, I did not see any pre-concert video screen announcements there, so tonight I was surprised to see screen messages offering pre-ordering of Keith’s new album “FUSE” at a $2 discount on his KUFuse.com website!! That’s the first I had heard of the album’s title. Once again tonight Keith said the release date would be Sept. 10.

Tonight (not suffering from heat prostration)  I was better able to pay attention to Dustin Lynch’s  set. Even though he is cute and energetic, I’m afraid that most of his music is not my cup of tea. I like his slower Cowboys and Angels and when he sings Dust on the Bottle, but most of his other numbers I could do without, especially one that sounds more like eighties dance club music.  But to each their own…

.

Little Big Town, on the other hand, is just spectacular! I’m really enjoying their set and their performance style and staging has come such a long way since they last opened for Keith (how many tours ago was that? Maybe 4?)  I recall seeing them with Keith in Sarnia and Sault Ste Marie among other places back then. Here is Bring It On Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_bjYIdBzq4

The general setlist of regular songs stayed the same tonight as it was in Cincinnati I believe. But I was amazed that almost every one of the little wishes/concerns that I had expressed after the first show had changed in this show, as if Keith was reading my reviews!!  So there were multiple times during the night when I exclaimed with pleasure “Oh they changed that!” Some of these changes may well be venue specific and may continue to vary over the summer.

1)      The center microphone was back!

2)      There was a little pointed triangular “catwalk” (4 foot?) pointing out from centerstage, adorned with lights (red lights when I noticed it, matching strips of red lights on the stage as well)

3)      Keith did go to side microphones too, but distributed his time more evenly between the right and left sides.

4)      There were cameramen located on platforms along the edge of the grandstand roof that were able to spotlight and video Keith’s movements through the crowd when he went off stage : )

5)      Keith ventured far out into the audience on both of his trips – once to the right and once to the left.

6)      Little Big Town (or “the incomparable and crazy talented Little Big Town” as Keith called them tonight) DID return to stage to sing with Keith tonight!! No. they did not do a “special” song, like they did at the awards show. They, like Dustin, came out to collaborate on one of Keith’s regular songs (You Gonna Fly). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tAbDawiypw

7)      I thought there was much more showcasing of Keith’s guitar wonder today – both sweet plucking and torrid shredding with  some major flippage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjwq9KJaVAw

Here is a better view of the surprise banjo introduction than I caught in Cincy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTVzSPeaIY
What a great way to bring out each of the band members!

After the first 4 songs (LHS, ST, ITYS and  SB ) Keith came out with a big IOWA!!!  greeting, then saying “What a hell of a night! Beautiful!! And greeted each area of the arena. He went on to say this was like the most amazing party in the world, but I didn’t quite catch his additional description that it was like the party of  Shawna Hill and Chandler Taylor(?)  or something like that. (guess I am not in the know)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g279h9SBTz0

Although I had to rely on the big video screens for my close-up views of Keith, being at a distance is a totally different perspective with its own benefits. I had a better view of the entire big screen and could see all areas that Keith traveled out to. Although before the show I had looked all around for signs of the satellite stage, somehow I had not noticed the fairly substantial satellite stage about 20 feet to my left! We had, in fact, noticed them testing sky-facing spotlights at that location early on, but did not realize that they were lighting effects for the satellite stage. So watch for those spotlights before your show!  

Somethings I newly noticed tonight may not have been new to the concert – perhaps I was just too distracted by the man himself in Cincy to pay attention to the video screen. Tonight I noticed that Even the Stars Fall For You was backed by a Disney-flavored video offering the lyrics to the song. I like the idea of seeing the lyrics to a brand new song. But my daughter (a graphic designer and professional letterpress printer) was rather appalled by the hodgepodge of fonts and layout they used and is actually going to write to Keith offering her graphic design services! : ) I too found it a little too sweet and bubbly, like it was prepared for Hannah Montana or some other pre-pubescent girl audience.

Another thing I had not noticed from watching the videoscreen coverage of Keith’s trip out to the lawn area in Cincy: the satellite stage is big enough for both Jerry and Chris, with an extra drum set, to be out there with Keith! I think Danny and Brian only stay back on stage because they have to be playing while while the rest of the guys venture to and from the distant stage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0306viBVveU

Chris gave a longer drum demo after his introduction tonight and two of the guys changed up their song demos! Tonight Danny did the Rolling Stones “Start Me Up”!! : ) (I am a long time Rolling Stone fan) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD8TrQ7blX0 preceded by Keith playing a bit of that’s song distinctive opening. A bit of a surprise at an Iowa family event like the county fair, Brian had switched his song to “Your Sex Takes Me to Paradise”!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zb7kit7PmY

And a treat that I hope will be repeated and varied over the summer – while at the piano Keith gave us a bit of a cover song: REO Speedwagon’s Keep On Loving You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VZiW94xzuI  Keep It Up Keith! Maybe a different song at each show!?

A few other highlights:
Keith leading the audience before the SLY closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69p2x0Ccsao
Out in the crowd for YLGIMS   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AQlSdyF3qQ

After Keith’s personal’fireworks’ and lighting of our fuses, the Great Jones County Fair set off fireworks over the venue after the guys left the stage providing a beautiful ending to a GREAT night!