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....

Charlotte: Keith Urban's Second Carolina Concert

Oh wow! I am flying high on urban energy and sleep won’t be coming anytime soon. What a night!!

This was the first tour stop where I had not bought a Christmas presale ticket. I can’t recall why, but instead I had bought from Ticketmaster during the regular Monkeyville presale. The seat was in the risers next to the stage, a bit higher than I would prefer (Row N), but not bad.

But when I arrived at the arena it turned out that I had a really weird seat. Whereas Columbia had been overly cautious about selling seats that might not have a perfect straight-on view (so didn’t sell seats in 2 sections of risers closest to the stage on each side), Charlotte went the other way and sold seats beyond the point of having a full view of the stage. My seat was the farthest one in in row N, so it was approximately in line with Chris’s seat behind his drums!! When you are that far to the side and back of the stage you are not going to be able to see the screen. So although I had a rather unique view of the stage (and some of the backstage area), I was far enough up so I knew I’d really miss being able to see the big screen. Another weird thing = my seat was literally at the stop of a staircase (a staircase that ended pretty close to the stairway at the far edge of the stage). The first 2 photos to the left I took while sitting in that weird seat. looking down the long stairway. I was wearing a dress and felt rather peculiar perched at the top of this stairway, having to watch how I sat.

As the arena filled during Jake Owen’s set I noticed a lot of empty seats down by the bottom of my stairway, In fact, whereas my stairway seat was seat 12, the first several rows had no one sitting beyond seat 4. So I made an executive decision: I’m going to move down there, at least until the actual seatholders show up. So I went down to seat 6 in the first row, which put me right by the stairs to Keith’s side platform (the third image to the left is the view from this new seat; the yellow edge stairs sre to Keith's left platform). I so expected to eventually have to move back to my weird seat that I didn’t bother carrying my full cup of pop down with me. But I later learned that those seats were empty because they had not been sold just because they were a little close to the confetti cannons. No problem!! They can shoot me with confetti if I get a better view of the show!! I was able to stay in that first row! Chalk one up for Linda!

As I mentioned, until I moved down no one in those bottom rows was seated beyond seat 4, and now I was off by myself a bit further down the first row. Maybe I looked lonely, maybe I stood out because of it - for whatever reason, all of a sudden, as I am singing along to Jake’s songs (which are becoming quite familiar now), he dashes down the ramped stage and head’s straight over to me!! He hands me a drumstick, then takes my hand as he continues singing! He said something (????) to me (I was too stunned to catch it!) and I blurted out “I love you Jake!” (meaning I love his performance, but my mouth was not under the control of my brain at that point). And then he dashed back up on stage. People around me started asking “Do you know Jake?” (I wish!) “Did you know that was going to happen?” (No way!) and “Why did he aim right for you?” I could only give a giddy shrug and shake of my head. Chalk up another one for Linda! : ) Later a woman who writes Urban Country News came over and kind of interviewed me about Jake as well - hee hee.

I was later joined in row 1 by a fun group of gals who had also come down from poor visibility seats, so I had dancing and singing company for Keith’s set. Since we were sitting by the stairs he took to the platform we were able to sneak in little touches as he passed (although body guard Randy tried to insert his body in the way whenever he could). Actually each of the guys came up to the side stage during the evening - Brian and Danny multiple times - so we were sittin’ pretty! And when Keith returned from his You Look Good in My Shirt trip into the stands, he actually made a point of coming over to us on the side to slap hands before he went up on stage. Mmm - vitamin K tonight!! Chalk up another one for Linda! That put me over the top, rang the jackpot bell, and left me floating on a cloud when the show ended. SO glad I moved down!!

Okay - sorry to go on and on - I was just bursting! Other noteables this evening:

I love Danny’s mandolin (I think it is a large oval-bodied mandolin) into to Only You Can Love Me before Keith comes in on his acoustic guitar. He is a cutie too! He also played an accordian (!!)at one point in the evening but now I’m blanking on in which song.

In Keith’s initial conversation with the audience after the usual welcome and attention to each area of the arena, he initially mad mention of Saturday night quickly changed it to “Saturday night tomorrow - we’re happy to be in North Carolina with you on Friday night.” (I’m getting confused about what day it is too!) He later mentioned being glad to be in a Nascar state.

Tonight the sparkly spots of ‘starlight’ coming off the disco ball during Long Hot Summer changed color, so what was first golden spots throughout the arena turned magenta and blue and back to gold in turn.

When the big video screen is showing Keith singing Making Memories, they do so in black and white - kind of an nice artistic touch.

They were really pumping out the stage fog tonight so sometimes Keith was just a blur in the mist when I tried to shoot pictures even though I was relatively close. I wonder if their intention is to decrease videotaping? I kept trying anyway - here is the searing solo from Georgia Woods. and Keith and the guys during I Told You So.

Keith was right in front of me for Sweet Thing since I was a bit behind the side stage. I had a side view of the Kiss-a-Girl sing-off tonight and when they were all lined up in a straight row couldn’t see them all to videotape. There was a boisterous guy from N. J., a Charlotte hometown girl and a young girl from South Carolina (the eventual winner). One thing I hadn’t thought of before, but had an upclose view of this time, is what the contestants are up against after their moment of fame. They have to somehow try to get through the tightly packed front of stage crowd to try to re-join their friends or family. Not very easy -especially for the young girls. Last night’s winner looked totally intimidated by the masses as Randy tried to coax her back outside of the side barriers - poor kid!

Keith mentioned that the next day was his and Nic’s 5th anniversary and dedicated Without You to her. I’m thinking she must be here (or will be in Raleigh) for their special day.

Charlotte was a little rough with Keith when he went out into the risers on my side for You Look Good in My Shirt. Since the floor is basically a free for all, the front is jammed with people all the way from one side platform, across the front of the main stage, and all the way to the other side platform. And Keith has to get through that crowd to get to the side aisle for his off-stage journey. Well he got “stuck” beneath my side platform last night - totally surrounded by adoring fans. I couldn’t see what they were doing to his poor body, but I could see the stranglehold ‘hugs’ around the neck and that multiple individuals vigorously rubbed his hair! Don’t roughly manhandle our man!! They must have knocked something off him or made him drop his mike because I also saw him struggle to pick something up off the floor (not easy to bend over when you are surrounded!). He did eventually make it into the lefthand stands. When he gave his guitar away tonight the young girl who was the lucky receiver burst into tears of joy - very sweet!

I have forgotten to mention that Keith has been doing his little royal bow/curtsy and thank you to those sitting in the arena boxes the last few shows. “Thank you my lords for letting us play for you.” And then a knowing aside to the rest of the audience “Its good to be king!” Tee hee.