More to Be Thankful for on Thanksgiving!

Often the first big snowstorm of the year here occurs on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  In the past our holiday travel back to see family in Chicago was often treacherous or sometimes had to be aborted at the last minute. As a Midwesterner, I’ve never enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner outdoors and sometimes entirely missed the Thanksgiving gathering altogether when Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. But this year we were invited to make use of a good friend’s empty Phoenix condo for the holidays.  Iowa had not yet sen snow but it was cold and drizzly so we wasted no time accepting this wonderful offer. Jim, I, all 3 daughters and 2 boyfriends rendezvoused in sun country and spent three fun days together.

Our friends invited us to their gorgeous Fountain Hills home for Thanksgiving dinner with them, their 3 sons, 2 daughter-in-laws and one delightful grandchild. All 15 of us enjoyed the Thanksgiving feast in 70 degree weather, out on their patio looking out at a panoramic vista of Red Mountain and the desert landscape! What a treat to dine, with the whoe family, al fresco in late November, with bougainvillea and other dry climate flowers blooming around us!

On Friday we made the most of the great weather with dips in the pool, outings to the “Butte-Hole” rock formation (lol) and the Phoenix zoo, and lunch outdoors at the Four Peaks Brewery (loved my grilled fish tacos!). That evening we headed to the Phoenix Theatre to see the musical comedy “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” 

which was lots of fun, and a late night supper at California Pizza. Saturday there was some more patio lounging, Phoenix shopping, and enjoying a “Texas-style BBQ” and country western band out on the golf greens of the local country club, and dancing to a classic rock band inside once the evening temperatures turned chilly. A full weekend, no?

It was such a good time that no one was quite ready to head back home on Sunday; we even had some tears as we separated to fly our different airlines back to Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines and Waterloo. Jim, I and Sam have the latest flight so won’t get home until after 11 tonight. I didn’t miss the traditional snowstorm one bit!!

By the Time I Got to Phoenix (it was sweltering..):Keith Urban at the Jobing Arena

I arrived in Phoenix on a hot and sunny afternoon. As Keith quipped late last night “It was 112 today but it felt like 107. That;s what I love above Phoenix!” : ) His venue here last tour was the US Airways Center right in the heart of downtown, but this year the show was at the Jobing Arena, way way out in suburbia so it was quite a shuttle ride to get there. After dropping off my suitcase I headed over to the KNIX pre-party just outside the arena, I submitted my name to their drawings (for 2 pair of BSEs, second and first row seats) and waited in the heat until all the prizes had been awarded (no luck today). Sarah Buxton, who had been scheduled to play at the preparty before she got the opening gig, to her credit, did not cancel out on KNIX and she did 3 songs on their small stage including Stupid Boy. I was hoping to get a call from someone who had emailed about my extra ticket before I went through the arena gates, but finally retreated to the air-conditioned interior. Whew!!

Although the Jobing arena was not noticably larger than the usual venue they had the floor set up slightly differently tonight. The sound mix area was smack-dab in the middle of the floor area, with the small stage just slightly beyond the middle. There was what looked to be a large fenced in general admission area beyond the small stage but it didn’t extend all the way to the risers at the end.  That left an almost as large unfenced empty floor region beyond what I thought was GA. I say “thought” because unlike the other shows with GA, no one was present in that fenced in area early in the evening (no one or few there for Sara). It filled up during the break (like the front stage and catwalk areas) so maybe it was just folks who had seats who moved into that area for Keith’s performance rather than true GA.

The arena was almost full when Sarah Buxton came on. I thought (and it appeared the crowd thought) she was terrific in her first big show. She was as full of energy as Keith - constantly moving and dancing, very interactive with the audience and talking a lot during her set.  She made it clear how thrilled she was to be there, with at least a half dozen comments like “ This is probably the best day of my life!” or “ Don’t want to be mean but I’m sure glad Sugarland canceled this gig.” She was dressed in a short sundress (with shorts underneath I believe), a floppy sunhat, and bare feet from the very start. She twice went down each of the ramps, greeting and shaking hands with fans in the front section while she sang. During her first trip down a ramp she seemingly spontaneously found a male dance partner and they kind of jitterbugged for a few moments. They did so well together that I then thought maybe this had been planned (she did say her family was in the audience) but it was still very fun. I enjoyed all of her songs and she is pretty darned good on the harmonica. She did not, in deference to Keith I’m sure, sing Stupid Boy in the Jobing. She did a great job of warming up the audience; much as I like Sugarland I did not miss them last night because of Sara. She closed by reving us up once more “ Are you all ready to see my very favorite country artist, the amazing Keith Urban??” Yes we were, but congratulations Sarah on a great show!

Of course for multiple reasons I don’t think the audience needed “warming up”!! They seemed to be wired from the start. During the break, for the first time in all my concerts,  this crowd spontaneously and successfully did a huge wave (involving all levels of seating) that went around the arena about six times!!! It was quite amazing and only ended when Keith’s opening music began. During the pre-encore blackout there was a huge number of cell phone lights waving and flickering - nearly as many as when, in the “cell phone wave” days Keith would ask everyone to take our their phone (but nobody needed to ask this time!). What an audience!

The first couple songs I was watching Keith for any signs that he was still having pinched nerve problems. He did a great job but (to my practiced eye) I thought he was just a little more tentative, or reserved in his moves during Hit the Ground and Days Go By. Most would never notice it but I thought he was limiting his shoulder roll type and head movements. And maybe he was sort of “testing the waters” for what he could handle. When he did chat with the audience after Stupid Boy, he began with his usual “We made it back! Its been two years but we made it back!”  He then said he had “to stop and give special thanks to someone right here in town.” Apparently someone in the pit piped up at that point because he then said “No, not you baby.” “But thank you anyway.” hee hee He went on to tell the story of how he had been playing in Sacramento and  about halfway through “My neck just went insane and suddenly seized up” (his words) He said that after that it was one of the most difficult shows he had ever done (poor baby!). They flew down to Phoenix after the show and someone put them in touch with chiropractor Dan Morgan. Keith said Dan “snapped me around a bit” and that, after working on him for a while, Morgan had said “Son, your head was not on straight.” And Keith replied “My dad has been telling me that for years!” (I love when he tells stories!!) He thanked Dan again and praised him saying he was so damned good and wished him a happy birthday in 2 days. Anyway it seemed that Keith was feeling good and once he got his confidence that there wasn’t going to be a recurrence Keith was in fine form all night, as active as usual, doing his back bends and having a great time. I’m so glad he was feeling better!

We were treated to one of those crazy “bird calls”  in Blacktop (see clip) and Brad and Brian thrilled some of the ramp crowd by taking a running leap and sliding all the way down the left hand ramp into the crowd. Keith added some really high whoo-hooing to Better Half - he definitely has his range back. He also had some new improvisation to the extended Better Half melody he plays as he travels to the small stage. Interestingly, even though the stage was much closer to the middle of the arena in Phoenix, Keith still went all the way to the arena end to access it.

They seemed to have a few more sound problems (especially on the small stage) so that three or four times during the Keith would have to ask for particular adjustments before he  played a song. OIAL was a big hit triggering lots of singing. Keith again ended it by twice repeating that Stevie Nicks “wild winged dove” line he used in L.A. (see clip), but did not follow those with the “on the edge of seventeen” line as he had before. Instead he said “Here we go now” and went into his fancy guitar “breakdown” as he calls it. Making Memories was dedicated to “everyone here who is in love tonight.” (Does he realize how many of us are in love with him at those shows?)

Keith seemed particularly tickled by the singing last night and kept throwing out encouragements like “Hell yes!” and “Right on!” (that was a new one for me). He closed Only You Can Love Me by shouting out “How about it Phoenix? Do you know what I mean?” He also seemed particularly pleased with his bandmates, giving each an especially affectionate grin and squeeze after their introductions. And he followed Brian’s solo with the compliment “Pretty damned good!” I had to laugh that with each he talked about their vo -CALs, putting a strange emphasis on the second syllable for some reason.

Phoenix was graced with a return of the song improvisation (see clip) when Keith came out on the catwalk for Raining on Sunday. I believe it went like this:

Hey Phoenix are you feeling alright tonight?

Are you feeling alright tonight?

Tell me one more thing --

Are you feeling as good as you look?

Do you feel as good as you look?

I don’t even know what that means

Kinda just making up this song as I go along

They said today was 112 and it only felt like 107!

That’s what I love about Phoenix!

No skimping on emotion and passion tonight - there was enough power to the music for goosebumps and chills galore. In Til Summer Comes Around there were three longing, heartbroken “I miss your love!”’s preceding that wondrous guitar solo. And in You’ll Think of Me Keith once again ended with those lines he used in L.A.: “I hope when you see my face it gives you hell! It gives you hell!!”

But light-hearted, silly Keith was there too - with his ululalic cries and hamming it up in I Told You So to his “Chorus leader”antics as he had each part of the audience sing You look Good in My Shirt  (see clip) while he was up in the stands. “ I can’t hear you-u-u” he taunts one group, “Helloooo” (sort of a “anybody there?” hello) for the end of arena singers.

Keith’s thank yous to the audience for making it to the show seem more heart felt each time. Tonight his assessment of the evening was that “it was the most magical, the awesomest night ever!” (awesomest! : ) )

I overheard a couple near me talking about Keith’s “incredible showmanship”. He had us with him to the very end when, during the band bow, he blew a couple kisses (see clip) and pointed to someone in the audience (?) (me perhaps?). He slapped or ran his hands across hundreds of hands at the edge of the stage, indicated a final thank you and then disappeared off the stage. Tonight the “Believe” collage continued over the credits at concert end. I do believe one can never get enough of the man and his music!

Videos to come....

A few longer clips I put on Youtube:

Hit the Ground Running

Stupid Boy

Once In A Lifetime Love

You Look Good in My Shirt

Phantastic in Phoenix!! What a Tour Opener!

Okay, I have to say - before I can provide any details- that I am positively drunk on Keith Urban!! (no alcohol involved). I am floating, flying high on the concert experience. What a wonderful, excellent night. Our man just couldn’t have been better. I am filled with the joy of Keith and his music!! I just beamed all the way back to the hotel, getting smiles in response from several in the crowd. A woman in the elevator even said “You look drunk on Keith Urban.” And she was right!

The new concert set-up is totally awesome. He has really done everything possible to try to make sure that there isn’t a bad seat in the house, short of finding a way to fly up to the nosebleed seats. But I bet even the upper tier was happy with Keith’s efforts. I don’t know if all arenas will be the same, but here in Phoenix the catwalk and second stage extended almost all the way to the seats at the far end of the arena!!! I tried to count how many rows of floor seats that was – it was about 45 rows long and no floor seats beyond the second stage in Phoenix. And then that amazing video screen – a really high resolution, a really, REALLY can see Keith video screen – not all pixilated like some of the screens I’ve seen at outdoor concerts. You could see each hair in his scruff and even the silhouette of the fine hairs on those magnificent forearms when they did close-ups on his guitar playing. Good realistic color too! In fact that huge Keith on the screen (and sometimes a split screen of 2 Keiths!) had such magnetic appeal that Keith may find that sometimes the eyes of the audience are not looking at him, but at that beautiful video screen. They did not use it all the time – sometimes it was dark or filled with colorful abstract images or images related to the song (Faster Car, Used to the Pain), but Keith is up there much of the time for the people in the far seats, and they also used it to keep the front floor people happy when Keith was way down on the small stage with his back to them (so sometimes we could get both a front view and a hind view – Nice!)

They let the audience line the sides of the catwalk - some people stood there all night. The second stage had more of a barrier around it so the audience was more than an arms-length away there.

Keith looked stunningly gorgeous. Washboard flat stomach – I think he lost the little bit of “filling out” that some had commented on and toned every visible muscle, from those tan, well defined guns, pecs, thighs and those lovely gluts. Oh my. And boy did he have the moves tonight – he sashayed and swaggered and shoulder rolled and made those entrancing head moves that I can’t possibly describe, but which make me all soft in side. Throughout the evening I went back and forth between grinning like an idiot, having my jaw drop with wonder, and wanting desperately to plant a smacker of a kiss on his puss. He had a new wide black leather (I think) bracelet with the LPATWCT heart on it, He was dressed in dark jeans and dark tee and wore what looked like black suede shoes or boots,

What about the music you say. Well I don’t have a set list or record of the show – I was on an aisle that was heavily policed by the “camera cops” who early on asked me if my camera took video. I said no and being afraid of confiscation, did not use it much as a result. But it was similar to the sets we heard about in Oz - Once In A Lifetime, Faster Car, Used to the Pain, Shine, I Can’t Stop Loving You, Everybody, Got It Right This Time, I Told You So from the new album.Blacktop, Better Life, Better Half, Somebody Like You, Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me, - what am I forgetting? No You Look Good In My Shirt, but he did sing happy birthday to “a long time friend – Ansel”. It was so great hearing some of those new songs live for the first time and made even more special because he did not just sing the album tracks. He added flourishes, changes in expression, timing and emphasis, new little guitar bits (like a bit of a slow sinuous guitar solo in the middle of Used to the Pain), or switched to acoustic, so the concert performances are unique. He did 2 songs, I think, from mid-catwalk and 4or 5 from the small stage with a couple other short jaunts down the catwalk. He and the guys did slap some hands and he signed one autograph. By the way the Chrisses both looked very good – I think they may have worked out too! No sign reading but I did see Keith giving a half dozen people (maybe with signs – I wasn’t watching the audience!) nods of acknowledgement.

There was a drum corps from Phoenix at the end of I Told You So which gave the band time to retreat from the small stage back to the main stage.

I was also tickled and thrilled that they included a video of Keith playing that little musical ditty from the end of Used To The Pain. I still didn’t catch all the lyrics but I loved seeing him playing that little mandolin (?, I think that’s what it was?).

Other little touches – the entire arena was ringed with an attractive, continuous electronic LPATWC Tour “banner” when we entered. The arena was also very heavily “fogged” - in preparation for the Wreckers lighting effects I guess. The Wreckers were great (but no song with Keith). Confetti guns shot off during Better Life (I think Keith picked that up from his buddies Brooks and Dunn).

Keith was his usual sweet, grateful and modest self. He got an absolutely amazing response from the crowd at the end of the show (but before the encore).- the noise was deafening and in addition an amazing number of people were shining lights from cell phones or lighters – the entire arena was a-twinkle so that even Keith remarked how amazing the placed looked when he came out for the encore. But it took multiple thank-yous and little embarrassed grins and looks at the band before the crowd stopped cheering so he could perform. I think he was quite moved and overwhelmed by the response. He said he’d play there again the next night if he only could! The audience just loved the show.