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