"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!

At Last: Keith Urban Starts a New Tour in Cincinnati!

FINALLY!! The Light the Fuse Tour begins!  Not quite a “regular” tour since it starts with a long list of summer festivals that aren’t quite as friendly to avid fans and don’t offer such things as catwalks, but still a tour after a long Keith dry spell.

Since I wanted to be at the opening show, my cheapest flight option was to go to Louisville and drive Up to Cincinnati. I squeezed in a bit of the Louisville “Urban Bourbon Trail” and a visit to Lilly’s, a nice bistro, on Wednesday night. Thursday morning I headed to Cincinnati and used Roadfood.com to pick out a local diner offering the Cincy specialty goetta (tasty) but even better was the advise I got on the backroads route to Riverbend, avoiding all the interstate construction mess.

Gosh it was damn hot in Cincy!! 99 when I headed to the show, with a heat index way up in the 100’s. (Keith makes it hot enough without the weather packing such a wallop!). Even though I got a decent parking spot in one of the Riverbend lot, what seemed like a mile-long walk to the Music Center was torture in the sweltering weather. Everyone was just dripping with sweat. I could hardly pay attention to Dustin Lynch’s energetic performance because sweat was dripping into my eyes, rolling down my back and chest! Some desperate fans who had brought signs to hold up, gave up and tore them into fourths to use as fans, and those who had fans flapped them most of the evening. (This does not bode well for the upcoming concerts which are even further south!)

Luckily I got a little more comfortable after sitting still for a bit, so I thoroughly enjoyed Little Big Town’s set. Here is a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZCi2MIftc

There was a very short break between Dustin and LBT since not much had to be altered in the stage set up. There was a much longer break before Keith came on since LBT had a fair amount of staging that had to be removed. This break may shorten as the roadcrew gets uses to the breakdown and set up.

The Light the Fuse Tour features a triangular bank of lights above the stage and, initially, a silvery curtain at the back of the stage. As the roadcrew finally finished their preparations, the interim music volume cranked up. I told myself to pay attention to what song signaled the show was actually going to begin, but then didn’t quite follow through. It may have been the song “Pressure”. In any case, without any other fanfare, Keith took the audience by surprise by suddenly walked out on stage by himself!! With his banjo!! And starts plucking out a beautiful melody which quickly turned into quite a banjo rocker. It was such a surprise that I only caught a bit of it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtUHpl7Z9Wc 

 In about 30 seconds the other guys joined him in rocking the house mightily, with their instrumental lasting almost 2 minutes. Then, with little or no pause they moved into Long Hot Summer (and certainly the Hot was appropriate to the occasion!).

Keith was wearing a dark short sleeved button up shirt which appeared to be of a stretchy teeshirt like material – wonder if that will be the garb du tour? I don’t know if this will be specific to this venueor not , but  there was no center stage microphone! Keith spent most of the night at a microphone in front of the right side (his left) of the audience, with just 2 or 3 trips to the corresponding microphone in front of the left audience. (Unfortunately I was on the left so did not always have a good view around the tall heads in front of me). I did not really get a chance to locate the cameramen for the evening – maybe they had to be to the right for some reason and so he sang there to allow filming. There was no overhead camera team like the last tour – that may be impossible in these summer venues – so there is definitely less “camera coverage” of the performance at this time. 

About 30 seconds into Long Hot Summer the silvery curtains dropped to reveal the big video screen, with 5 tall panels each showing Keith playing  : ). The display changed thoughout the show – sometimes  there was a full screen view rather than panels, sometimes multiple rectangles each showing one of the guys. I probably missed much of what went on on the screen when instead I was watching Keith himself.  In the last chorus of LHS Keith had the audience the “uh-uh-ah, uh-uh-ah-ah-ah-ah” part, which we did to his enjoyment.  Next up was Sweet Thing with Keith shouting out a big “My-oh-my mama!” for emphasis. Then, a surprise in terms of song order, I Told You So, with a return of Keith’s “Space, space, space, space..” echo after the first line which made him giggle at himself. He through in several “You know it Ohio!” and “You want to sing it Cincinnati?”’s to please the crowd, and finished with “I won’t say it baby……. I can’t say it baby………. But I told you so!!” before the big ending.  Here is some of it (sorry about the heads): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiBc5mDouyY   Notice Keith has a bit of a moustache!

There are new intros, outros or transitions to the old songs so sometimes we didn’t know what was coming next – in this case Stupid Boy was next – great as always. But I was a bit surprised that the Stupid Boy guitar solo was really about the only extended guitar solo of the night. There were a few other shorter playful guitar segments, but no other shredding of his guitar. BTW there appear to be several new guitars in use – an interestingly shaped snazzy white guitar caught my attention.

It was only after these first 4 songs that Keith stopped to greet the audience, joking “It’s a little bit chilly tonight!” After calling attention to the fact that they chose Cincinnati for the opening night of the Light the Fuse Tour, he confessed “I’m a little bit nervous, but when we came out and started playing you guys made us feel right at home, so now I’m alright.”  He asked for a round of applause for Dustin and then for Little Big Town  and made a joke about their new song “Sharpnado” (rather than Tornado), saying he heard he’d get 50 buck for including a Samsung Sapphire reference (at the time I had no idea what he was talking about, but looked it up).  He joked that everyone in the crowd had their (singing) “Red Solo Cups” and went on to greet each area of the audience.  While he was talking he leaned over to turn on a stage edge fan to blow on him, then said (as his hair was blowing in its breeze) “I feel like Shakira”  : )  but then caught himself, “Well, I don’t ‘feel’ like Shakira…”   He explained that they were planning to mix it up a little – old songs and a few new songs from the new album coming out Sept 10. (I’m sure he said Sept 10, although I had heard Sept 12 earlier.)

So next we were treated to a brand new song “Even the Stars Fall For You”! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co-Bde3XEQw

Next up was You Gonna Fly. Then Keith brought out a stool and sang a touching Without You, preceded by a lovely guitar introduction.

This tour Chris was the first band member to be introduced, with just a very short drum demo. The last of the band introductions (Brian’s) would not occur until the encore!

Then a big guitar intro to Kiss a Girl, a big “Are you with us?” from Keith and out walks Dustin Lynch to sing along on this song (he took the second verse, changing the tune a bit to avoid the high notes, and sang with Keith on the choruses. And a surprise finish to KAG: red and white streamers burst over the audience!!

Perhaps the streamers were meant, in part, as a distraction – because at this point Keith hopped off the stage and headed up the left hand aisle (unfortunately 10 seats away from me), leaving the roofed area of this venue to a stage set up at the beginning of the lawn area. I only had the videocam view but it appeared to be a somewhat bigger platform than he used last tour. Unfortunately there were no cameras following his walk through the audience to or from that platform. To our surprise Keith went into an oldie but goodie song from the Who , Won’t Get Fooled Again, singing:

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again

I’m always intrigued by his little “extra” song choices!  This excerpt then merged into Days Go By.

I had to catch this satellite stage portion from the black and white videos on the big screen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01f7CvSgi1c

“We’ve only got today”, in turn, turned into Jerry’s introduction. I did not recognize his song excerpt and it had no portion for audience participation like last tour. Maybe it will ring a bell next time.

The second full song performed on the satellite stage was a beautiful, slow, sincere rendition of Making Memories of Us and then the final song out there was Better Life. He then signed and gave away his guitar before making his way back to stage. We couldn’t see him, but he must have kept his microphone because he sang a little ditty of “everybody sing along” and a bunch of “yeah-yeah-yeahs” during his return. Once up on stage he led a “Yeah-yeah-yeah” echo round before completing a bit of a guitar solo and a big finish ending to Better Life.  The lights dimmed during our applause and when they came back on Keith was seated in a chair above Chris and his drums to sing a sometimes melancholy, sometimes angry and powerful You’ll Think of Me, with a plaintive “on with life (but no upraised fist)”. It was a chill giving performance!!

Then the single from the new album, Little Bit of Everything, complete with fun background images, disco ball and a sparkling sun at appropriate points in the song. Perfect concert song!

Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me, as usual, spurred great audience participation and included “singing a Little Big Town song to me” this year. It was also the vehicle for introducing Danny Rader, who sang a chorus of this song (instead of American Girl), sounding ever so much like Tom Petty.

Somebody Like You was also a big crowd pleaser. In the middle Keith joked that “It’s cooling down now – the temperature has plummeted down to the nineties!” and led a couple echo rounds – first some “hey hey” – “whoa hos”, then  some complex scat-like do-do-do’s in different patterns, then he began the A-B-C’s but broke up laughing. Somebody Like You also had a big finish – with white confetti strips shooting out over the audience.  Keith and the guys left the stage and the applause, whistles and screams went on and on (longer than usual, probably so the guys could wipe off the sweat for a bit).

When Keith finally returned to stage he was seated behind a piano  (Yay!!) with a tall candelabra type light on it. He thanked us for our applause and said “You guys are still here!!” He sang a slow, beautiful Tonight I Want to Cry with very expressive piano accompaniment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvoavMfb0M

Then the final band member introduction (during the encore!) – Brian sang the same AC/DC Long Way to the Top segment as last tour. He looks so cute with his very clean cut hair cut – very short with just a bit of a James Dean forehead curl at the front.

Unfortunately Little Big Town did never reappeared to sing with Keith but maybe this will happen in later shows.

Keith said “It may be a Thursday night, but it sure feels like a Friday night to me.” And went into the final song of the night: You Look Good in My Shirt. The guys really screamed “Shirt” tonight, at the appropriate time and then Keith headed off stage once more, jumping down into the left side pit area. With no camera coverage there we could not see what was going on but I wonder if he was more or less held captive there (because he did not move from that spot) and if he lost his mike in the crowd, because we could no longer hear singing from him and Brian seemed to be watching that spot with concern the whole time.  The guys jumped in to sing. When Keith made it back up on stage I thought he appeared slightly flustered, but then led different parts of the audience (lawn, guys only, girls only) in the singing of the chorus and told us he was “just groovin’ cause I don’t want to go home yet.” He spurred the guys to perform with “Fellas –now is the time. If you would like more than just a ride home, now is the time to sing.”

Keith didn’t do his usual end-of-show thank-yous – probably just a first night goof because later, when music was playing he shouted out, kind of like an afterthought, “thank you roadcrew”. He signed a few autographs, slapped some hands, took a photo with a little girl about Sunday’s size,   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD9SkOJKePU and about one hour and forty minutes after he came out, our first show was over. A hot one in more ways than one!!

The next morning when I left my hotel outside of Cincy (I stayed on the Kentucky side of the river), I was surprised to see 3 unlabeled  tour buses in the back of the hotel lot, with a little security tape cordoning them off. I didn’t think they could be Keith’s unless he decided to go low key (unlabeled) this year, but thought they might be LBT’s and Dustin’s. Nine hours (and 2 flights) later I saw two of these same tour buses heading north on a Iowa 4 lane as I drove home from the Cedar Rapids airport. They were towing a motorcycle trailer I had not noticed in the morning. On the way to Monticello no doubt! I should have hitched a ride with them!

A Special Treat: Merle Haggard in Cedar Rapids

It is not too often that you get to see one of the grand-daddies of country music, so I jumped at the chance to catch Merle Haggard's concert at a small theatre in Cedar Rapids. Every seat was filled by an avid Merle fan and the crowd was very vocal in their support throughout the show. Merle was in fine form and played the entire show without a break or even a sit-down for a few songs. Amazing that he has such stamina at the age of 76 - he, like Willie Nelson, must be a tough old bird! I guess his love of music and performing must keep him going. Another incentive to stay on the road may be that he has 3 of his kids (2 sons and a daughter) playing and/or singing along with him on tour. Here are a couple short clips I captured before the usher shut me down:  Thanks for a great night Merle!

Just Stay Here and Drink

Are the Good Times Really Over

Kenny Chesney in Des Moines

I was happy when my daughter Annie decided she could come down from Minneapolis and accompany me to Kenny Chesney's concert in Des Moines. We planned a rendezvous beforehand in Ankeny and caught an early dinner at my favorite seafood restaurant there. We left Annie's car at our Ankeny hotel and headed down to the Wells Fargo Arena, borrowing a spot in the nearby empty medical offices parking lot rather than paying the arena parking lot fees. An added benefit was that we would totally avoid the after-the-show traffic jam : )

I enjoyed the female opening act that Kenny had selected: Kasey Musgraves. I was not familiar with her gentle acoustic country music, but was especially happy when she covered Weezer's Island in the Sun.

Kenny, as always, put on a good show with a nice mix of old favorites and selections from his newest album. Here are just a few bits of his performance:

You & Tequila
Somewhere With You 
There Goes My Life 

After spending the night in Ankeny, Annie and I brunched in the morning and then each of use headed back home. Thanks for joining me kiddo!

Jon Bon Jovi in Des Moines

There are some performers whose music I have not consistently followed but who are on my "bucket list"  of those whom I would like to see perform live sometime in my life. Two summers ago I was able to get to a U2 concert, last fall my daughter and I went to see Bruce Springsteen, and this spring I finally made it to a Bon Jovi concert. I enjoy seeing the differences in the audience each band draws, the staging they select for their shows, and their live performance "persona" of each.

Somehow Jon Bon Jovi has stayed pretty much on the periphery of my personal music world for the most part - I don't know why. I had hear his hits, certainly, on the radio or being sung by others in karaoke bars. He caught my attention more when he started to cross over into country music and because his good looks resemble, a bit, my favorite Keith Urban. When I saw Jon would be performing in Des Moines, I figured it was time to take in a show. It was a last minute decision so I didn't have a great seat, but nevertheless I had a good time.

One of the first things to catch my attention was the stage set up. Although it qualified as the familiar "end stage", there was essentially no sides or backdrop to the stage. Seats had been sold all the way around the arena floor including BEHIND the stage! There was a low wall (9 feet?) immediately behind the drums, but fans filled the seats in the rows above that. I was surprised there were no big video screens at the back or the sides of the stage. I guessed I wouldn't be seeing any close-ups of Bon Jovi.

While "no close-ups" turned out to be pretty true, "no blackdrop" to the stage was not. I was rather amazed and fascinated by the backgrounds that seemed to materialize out of nowhere and I still don't know how exactly they did it. But at certain points in the show, there WAS background (walls, Roman columns, and various other "scenes". But were they real, pillars that rose magically from beneath the stage on command, or was it some sort of holographic trickery?? (see photos above)If they were real, then for significant portions of the concert the audience to the rear of the stage must have had their view totally blocked. Is that possible??  At least some portion of this disappearing and re-appearing background was real, because during 1 or 2 numbers Jon walked up a staircase of columns to be close to that rear audience. So interesting and baffling (at least from my distance) staging to say the least!.

Jon sounded good and was an energetic performer. But I'm afraid his onstage persona, like that of a few other 'stars" I have seen, fell into the "immodest" category that I do not care for. More than once he ASKED for the screams of adoration or the applause of the audience. He seemed to be quite full of himself, while I prefer modest, self-effacing artists. He sometimes also had, for me, a rather peculiar body language and dance style. I'm sure it is 'normal' and loved by his ardent fans, but it kind of amused me.
See for example You Give Love a Bad Name http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0ewX9WQBE

There was a small satellite stage mid-arena. I thought Jon might head out through the crowd to get there, but in fact, a bridge materialized to give him safe passage to that stage. For a while I had a little bit better view : ) Here are two songs from the small stage:

Bed of Roses  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcXNBrcKP7I

Amen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a8Dd29UubE

 Then back to the main stage....

A bit of Who Says You Can't Go Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvVi09j_DK0

Old Time Rock and Roll  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-9oTILdDu0

Dead or Alive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlBmXitD7PY