Raise 'Em Up Beginning at the Borgata 

A busy spring semester left me with no time for "All For the Hall" or other KU opportunities, so it has been nearly 8 months since I "shared a room" with Keith. Too long! So I was extra excited to head out to the opening show for his "Raise 'Em Up" tour at the Borgata Casino in NJ. The last time Keith played there I couldn't even get into their website to buy a ticket, but this time things went more smoothly. Though not physically up to "General Admission/Pit", I was able to score just about as good a seat as possible in that venue (5th row of the shallow risers).

I flew into Philadelphia and rented a car to make the 65 minute drive to the Borgata. I decided to drive straight to the casino, which turned out to be a good decision, even though I had no time to, as Springsteen sings " Put my makeup on and fix my hair up pretty, for my night on the town in Atlantic City". There was a fairly long line at the Borgata Box Office to pick up Will Call tickets, leaving me just enough time for cocktails and dinner before the show. The Borgata is not nearly as impressive as the Mohegan Sun but did have a few restaurants that appealed to my chef-y side. Unfortunately some were closed on Thursdays (??? Isn't Thursday the start of a long weekend?). And Geoffrey Zakarian (Iron Chef and Chopped judge) only does cooking demos there on Saturdays. But the bartender at the Long Bar (where I enjoyed a Black Martini and an Agave Punch) assured me that Bobby Flay's Steakhouse would be open even though theYelp website showed it as closed. Since my short visit wouldn't allow any further exploration of the boardwalk or coast, I thought at least a special meal was in order. I have a mixed review of my dinner - the waitstaff was very nice and attentive and my Halibut With White Clam Sauce and Parsley Pesto was to die for, but my appetizer of "Fried Lobster and Calamari Salad" was overcooked and not a salad at all. But I enjoyed the environs and experience and was glad I had arrived when they opened their doors for the evening, since there were probably 30 people waiting for tables in the jam packed restaurant when I left.

Show time!! The Borgata was very low-key in terms of security compared to the Mohegan Sun and many other concert venues. We were welcomed up the long escalators to the Event Center and only a ticket scan and application of a black light hand stamp (to allow us to go in and out of the concert without worrying about having our tickets checked again) were required. No handbag check or body frisk and little visible security inside the venue.

I'm always interested in the particular features of each new venue I visit, noting the pros and cons for future reference. The Borgata's performance space for the concert was unique: their grand ballroom! As such, it was relatively small compared to many arenas and outdoor amphitheatres, and, at max, holds about 3000. The ballroom did have a built in performance stage. The rest of the large room was basically divided about in half, with the front half being  a LARGE general admissions area and the rear set up with some shallow temporary risers with quite comfortable padded theatre type chairs. In the fifth row I was probably level with the stage and just high enough to see over the heads of those standing on the floor. By the time that Keith came on, the general admissions area was packed although I don't know why anyone would choose GA if they were going to be standing far away from the stage. This was much more than the usual "pit".

I'm afraid I was not a fan of most of the "before show" soundtrack - mostly rap and loud hip hop to my ear and little that you could sing along with. Not a country song in the mix unless they played one while I was out in the lobby, and it seemed to go on forever (maybe there was some hold up backstage because Keith did not come on until several minutes after 9:00, a good 35 minutes or more after the openers left the stage and 15-20 minutes after all the stagehands had finished setting up. I was also not too excited with the opening band (The Cadillac Three), especially since I was thinking that Brett Eldredge would be at all the Raise 'Em Up shows. I think that TCT (as their stage lights refer to the band) was too loud, a little crass and too indistinct in their lyrics for those not familiar with their music. Really looking forward to Brett!!

I hadn't read any reviews of the couple Canada stops, so the USA debut of the Raise 'Em Up Tour was a total surprise to me. Keith started with a bang, really surprising me with Love's Poster Child as the opener!! Hearing a song live for the first time is always exciting, and I had that opportunity several times during the night. 

The new staging, although often attractive, was a bit disappointing to a long time fan like me.

The centerpiece of the stage are banks of cube shaped lights above and behind the band, kind of like you are looking at a 7 X 7 rubik's cube. They are colorful and changeable, but they are not Keith or the guys! To me there was a distinct decrease in the display of Keith and the band on the video screens and too much light display and abstract graphic backgrounds.

Much of the show you could only watch Keith on the smaller video screens on either side of the main stage (probably the venue's own screens) while there was something more abstract or fancy lighting display on Keith's video wall. Some songs (like Love's Poster Child) were backed by more interesting images, but not all. Perhaps the decrease in the shots of Keith and the band were intentional and temporary - they did seem to be having some technical difficulties with the video suddenly freezing, often at a visually inopportune moment - so maybe that will change in the future..

The setlist in Atlantic City surprised me several times, which is always fun. First off, I never expected the show to open with Love's Poster Child, but this rocking song did get the audience going, that's for sure. Then Sweet Thing, followed by Somewhere in My Car and an oh so sweet Only You, with a special descending run of "only you, only you, only you, only you" before one chorus. 

Keith greeted the crowd with "Good evening New Jersey! Its happening out here tonight!"

Someone shouted "I love you Keith" and he immediately shouted "I love you too" back, but then followed that with "And that was a guy!" He read several signs, saying "You want me to put you in a song", and another one about raise 'em up, but then settled on one that asked him to pick a couple's wedding song. Keith brought the couple up on stage and asked about their upcoming wedding. He was tickled when the guy did remember it would be June 12, 2015 in Long Island. When Keith asked what song they would want played if the band were to show up - suggesting maybe "Another One Bites the Dust by Queen" (LOL). The gal said she wanted Keith to pick the song, the guy then offered "Her favorite is Everything". So Keith called for an acoustic guitar and sang Everything to them on stage. The couple began to dance on stage so Keith added "this is your very first (wedding) dance!" and ad libbed in the song "The sun coming up in Kyle's eyes" and "She's gonna be your everything!" and added "you'f better get a bigger place to hold the wedding because we are all coming...."  Keith commented "I can't believe I knew all the words to that songs - I haven't sung it in years!"

(2 years - he sang it in Bangor Maine in 2012..). 

Then: Long Hot Summer

Even the Stars Fall For You

Then another surprise (to me): Shame on Me (which I just didn't expect in concert)

Kiss a Girl

Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me

And another happy surprise: Used to the Pain!!

Stupid Boy

Then (yay!!) Come Back to Me

Little Bit of Everything

A short trip into the General Admission audience for Days Go By and You Look Good in My Shirt.

Back on stage for Cop Car.

You Gonna Fly

Put You in a Song with a bit of an echo round with the audience

And then another somewhat confusing surprise - Keith thanked the audience and they left the stage barely 75 minutes afte the start of the show. I couldn't believe PYIAS was the closer! After about 2-3 minutes they returned to the stage with an extra long encore. (I don't know why this change in timing?):

Making Memories ("Special request by Nicole and Anthony, wherever you are out there")

Started a song but then responded to a couple who shouted they just got engaged. Keith congratulated them, took a photo with them (telling the audience to talk among themselves) (But Keith seemed a bit skeptical, then saying "And someone's having a baby over here!" LOL Turns out the next song was a surprise tribute to our New Jersey location:  Springsteen's I'm on Fire. Keith was very impressed by how strongly the New Jersey audience joined in on this song.

Better Life. At the end he had us sing a little quieter and a little quieter, before the big finish.

And it was a special finish, with Brian, Danny, Keith and Jerry all lined up at the front of the stage, with brief banjo, guitar and bass contributions and Keith ending with "We're gonna build It up, gonna build it up, gonna build it up!" to the song's crescendo.

Good Thing

Somebody Like You   Something cracked Keith up so we got a big laugh in the midst of the first line, then one of his 'wild bird calls' after the first verse and a verse from What You Need by INXS (I thought he also included a bit of another song, familiar, but I couldn't name it). Keith did brief introductions of the guys, complimenting Jerry's "cool hat" but then adding that it looked cool on Jerry but would not look good on him.

Finally Keith brought out Jeran Johnston from the opening band because he also helped write Raise 'Em Up so deserved to partner up on this closing song.

Keith gave thanks to everyone who traveled to get to the show and to their hard-working road crew. He also mentioned that this was the first show of the summer tour and he hoped he's get to see some of us somewhere else. (You will Keith!)

I'm having technical difficulties with my cameras, so can't currently open my videos, but I notice one fellow posted almost the whole Atlantic City show on Youtube, with much better videos than I could get from my seat.