Kenny Chesney and Friends in Detroit

Jen and I decided to make it a full weekend, so after spending my birthday with Keith Urban on Friday night, we drove up to Detroit for the Kenny Chesney concert at Ford Field. I had not been to downtown Detroit in years and was favorably impressed with what they have done to make the downtown inviting. I had made a hotel reservation based on closeness to the venue and didn’t realize I had selected a huge skyscraper of a Marriott hotel at the Renaissance Center. We had to circle the block that the Center is on three times before we figured out where to park and enter. The hotel lobby was a couple floors up and OMG there was a line of over 100 people winding through this huge hotel, waiting to check in!!! The majority were probably there for the concert. I tried to use one of the automatic check-in kiosks but they had switched them off for some reason. I must admit the hotel was pretty efficient so moved the line along faster than I expected and moved in a $2 beer cart to help smooth the ruffled feathers of the guests.

But it still took about 30 minutes to work our way up to the front and get our room.

The Renaissance Center is one of the stops on the “People Mover” train that circles through the downtown area. We hopped on that train to get us closer to Ford Field. We arrived about 20-30 minutes before the starting time printed on our tickets but - oh no!! - faced another line hundreds of people long waiting to enter the stadium!! I have been to about a dozen of Kenny’s big summer concerts over the years and have never seen such a back-up! We had to wait over an hour to enter and totally missed Lady Antebellum’s performance as a result! I was p.o.ed that a venue that must routinely deal with large crowd’s could not better plan the staff and number of entrances to handle the arriving audience.

We had what would be considered “good seats” - 26th row of the floor just a few seats from the fence that surrounded the “Sandbar” area. So I’m sure we could see better than most. But I have been spoiled by Keith Urban’s arena shows and found even “good” seats in a stadium are so much more unsatisfying than even “bad” seats in an arena. We caught a few glimpses of Kenny on his catwalk but watched 90% of the show on the video screens. I don’t know how Kenny keeps winning ETOY when the majority of his audience don’t really EXPERIENCE the show. Maybe they are voting for the party of the year rather than the performer.

I was so sorry to have missed Lady Antebellum because I really enjoyed their set when they opened for Keith at some shows over the summer. I am not much of a Montgomery Gentry fan. We did like what we saw of Miranda Lambert’s performance (we missed a good part of her set too, because of the terrible lines to get in) - she is a real pistol of a performer!

While waiting for Kenny’s set to begin I told Jen I was suspect of the wires running above our heads. Knowing Kenny’s penchant for making a grand entrance at his concerts I said “I bet Kenny is going to “fly” in”. And that’s what he did! He sang a great collection of songs - although a somewhat shorter set than last summer’s Pirates and Poets show. His music certainly does have wide appeal. But it is sort of telling that, in that stadium setting, I was not inspired to capture hardly anything other than Kenny’s entrance on film. Even from row 26 I was not ‘involved’ in the show as I have become used to at Keith’s concerts. I hope and pray that Keith will never go the stadium route for his regular tours!!

Detroit Was Dandy!

>Our First Surprise

A Keith concert in Detroit was an ideal time to visit my daughter Jen who goes to the University of Michigan. She collected me at the airport and we headed straight for Auburn Hills in heavy traffic. We spent the afternoon watching the Michigan-Michigan State game at the Post Bar, across the street from the Palace Arena. Happily Michigan pulled out a win from the close game so Jen’s spirits were high. We took the shuttle from the bar to the arena about 7:00 and found, to our delight, that not only did we have 8^th row seats, but we were immediately next to the catwalk rather than on the aisle as we had initially been told!! I was ecstatic – I will have to have my daughter Sara (who bought the tickets for me because I was on Capitol Hill when they went on sale) do all my Ticketmaster transactions! One thing was different about this venue – they had about a 30 foot square fenced area (no chairs) beyond the small stage. Since this is where a crowd would usually gather when they do their set at the end of the runway, I’m not sure who got to enter that region. There were about a dozen ladies standing there before the start of the show but I lost track of it later in the evening.

Not the Backstage Experience I Wanted

We didn’t have any luck finding country radio stations offering BSE passes, but I ended up going backstage – unfortunately not to see Keith. As I entered the 8^th row to go to our seats, my shoe caught one of those folding chair legs and I went crashing to the floor, hitting my face on a chair post on the way down. I laid there stunned and in pain for a few moments and security came rushing over. Nothing broken, no blood – just a very sore face, but security wanted me to fill out an accident report and be checked out by medical. So backstage I went, passing within touching range of that long rack of guitars (I didn’t touch since I was being escorted by security), then down a long hallway, passing all the drums of the drum corps, to the infirmary where 3 people fussed over me. The doctor checked my face bones and mouth and gave me a pain reliever and an icepack. I told him I would have to change my concert sign to “Keith please kiss my boo-boo better,” My cheek is swollen like a chipmunk’s this morning Lol

Gary Allan Was Great!

I thoroughly enjoyed Gary’s performance – he looked quite hott tonight, has some great moves, is definitely going to be a contestant in the cute booty contest, and sang several of his hits as well as two from his new album. He had a rather elaborate 8 foot platform with stairs that he began the night on, and several fancy glowing candlelabra. They also began pumping out not such the usual smoke machine but fragrance as well. During Gary is smelled a little like Bob Dylan’s patchouli but later, during Keith it was more sweet vanilla or butter rum J Gary did a few songs from the catwalk just a few feet in front of us. He wore nicely torn jeans decorated with copper metallic painted designs, gorgeous silver jewelry pieces, and the longest snakeskin or alligator boots I have ever seen - the toes actually kind of curled up at the ends.

Our Main Man

It is disconcerting to me not to have that growing, glowing, beating heart on the screen as Keith’s performance approaches. The music during the set-up break also included some new songs and no one had a sense of when Keith was finally going to appear. I kind of miss the more structured anticipation. But then the DJ finally played that New Radicals song that I did recognize as one of the last before the OIAL. And there he was – so rising platform, no walk down a ramp – just there at the front microphone, playing a sweet acoustic version of OIAL that I really loved. He was initially backlit but not the glowing white background of previously; then the lights finally came up (a little later than with the album style OIAL) and the crowd went crazy.

Keith was in excellent spirits and kept poking and butting and rabbit punching the other band members when they drew close for their little guitar interactions. He seemed ever so slightly husky in voice sometimes – I heard the Grand Rapids show went 2.5 hours – and I did notice that he avoided singing the highest note and ooo-whoos during the evening.

But if he was feeling at all under the weather he didn’t otherwise let it affect the energy he put in the show. He gave us all sorts of “specials” during the night and we do so appreciate it Keith. I kept wanting to shout “Entertainer of the Year” at the top of my lungs with each little treat he provided.

He, as usual, thanked and welcomed the crowd , asking each side, and then the rear of the arena how they were doing or were they feeling good. Then is finally directed his question to us “Down on the floor” and after our cheering stopped he said it again in his “dirty” voice “Mmm, down on the floor” and one of those sexy chuckles.

In the midst of the usual start of the show line-up – after being down on the runway for ROS – he played a new long, beautiful guitar interlude which I didn’t recognize. He, and now Brian and perhaps the others guys, continued to play it as he moved back to stage and then it suddenly evolved into an utterly rocking version of “Saturday, Saturday” – he was jumping and stomping and just burned that guitar up. What a treat!

When they headed to the small stage and Keith did the usual introductions down there, he started laughing because, the night before in Grand Rapids, apparently Keith cut his hand and bled all over Brian’s guitar. It wasn’t until they got down on the small stage that they noticed Keith’s blood what still there on the guitar.

The high school (I think) drum corps (who are staying in my hotel) received band assistance as they played last night. I’ve never noticed this happening before, but last night Brian played one of the drums in the drum corps!!!

At piano time Keith treated the crowd to a very twangy country version of “I Was Born in Saginaw Michigan” – he got through 3 verses but then had to sing that that was all the words he knew. So much fun. He also did his usual playful interaction with the crowd with the chords that elicit a big “Charge” from the audience and the usual Violent Femmes bit . This time when thanking everyone for sticking with him this last year he described this last year as crazy but “the best year of my life” and thanked the crowd for their part in that.

The special treats were not over yet!! Keith was in such a rocking mood that when he put on his guitar and began the intro to YLGIMS he went off on a bit of famous guitar riffs and phrases that went through perhaps a half-dozen greats. Some were ones I knew but can’t immediately name for you – I’ve have to replay my video of it to catch them all – but I think he played some Hendrix, some Sweet Home Alabama, Smoke on the Water, Walk This Way, Stairway to Heaven, and a couple others I knew but have not yet identified. He braved the left risers during YLGIMS and nearly got himself strangled by all the hugs and rubs he received – good thing he has good security guys but more than once during the night he (with good reason) said “Detroit – you guys are crazy!!” He nodded and acknowledged signs but really didn’t read any to the the crowd, He slapped lots of hands (Yes once again I am typing with one hand so as not to lose my essence of Keith – I also caught a feel of his guitar strap at one point when he took off his guitar as he passed me.). He was so close so many times – I wanted to rub his boots, his pants leg, touch his guitar or arm as he knelt right in front of me for his WWWBM guitar piece, but I didn’t want to scare him away from my spot on the runway so those times I just stared (and grinned like an idiot no doubt).

We also got an extended version of The Joker with one or 2 verses sung by each band member except Chris McH – Brad Rice was really funny, Brian had a surprisingly sweet voice and Gary Allan even re-emerged to sing a couple great verses. The sonh ended with Gary, Keith and Jerry all out mid-runway singing together. Super, super, super! They must have played at least two and a half hours – what a wonderful evening!!!