Keith Urban Rocked Pittsburgh!!

It was sunny and warm in Pittsburgh and my hotel ended up being a bit farther from Mellon Arena than I had thought. But I still walked the mile, stopping for sushi on the way (no famous sushi eaters there) rather than having to deal with parking and downtown traffic. There were some tailgaters in the parking lots and lots of earlybirds sitting in the park around Mellon Arena waiting for the doors to open. I tried my luck at the radio station booths (only gor a “Froggy” tattoo for my trouble) and chatted with those sitting outside by me. We lamented that someone was missing a big opportunity to sell beverages or ice cream to all the waiting fans - I was parched by the time I got inside! We could look down into a lower level parking lot and see the buses as well as an open motorcycle trailer but one of Keith's staff chased us away from the railing anytime we got too close fearing, no doubt, that someone would leap down or throw something down. I was pretty sure Keith was already in the arena anyway so I wasn't thinking about leaping : ) although stowing away in the bus is rather tempting!

Mellon Arena is one of the oldest venues I have been to and it looks a bit worse for wear. It also has old free-standing chairs on the floor (more about that later).  Got my fan club stamp and signed up to win the autographed guitar, then headed down to find my seat on the floor. I had Seat 1 in Row O of the left floor so I expected to be on the far aisle. I was pleasantly surprised that seat 1 was on the aisle towards the middle here, so I would have a great view of the catwalk - yay! A couple new additions to the before-show Verizon offers on the arena screens - you could send in your photos to KUPIX@mozes.com to be shown on the screens. Also now each text message you send in to be shown on the screens earns you an entry for a “merchandise package” ( Keith merchandise I guess). I finally managed to film a little bit of the before show video with Keith on his motorcycle and then pulling off his helmet to reveal “helmet hair” LOL - I love that but I’ve never been quick enough with the camera before.

Although I enjoyed his hits, my favorite of Jason Aldean’s songs was one from his CMT Crossroads show with Bryan Adams --- Heaven. He did a really beautiful rendition. Although his rocking songs get the crowd going, I guess I prefer his slower numbers. They still seem to have his sound set too loud for the rowdy songs for my taste.

As I sat in my seat during the break I noticed for the first time the complex web of hundreds of wires above the stage that suspend the lighting semicircle, the speakers, the curtains, the screens! Wow! What a job it must be to attach all those to the supports in the arena ceiling. And how in the heck do they take them all down without getting them tangled in a knotted mess? I have trouble keeping the cords on my earphones straight!!.

Once again Keith came out a little earlier than usual but you’ll get no complaints from me about that! I managed to catch on film the dropping of the big curtain to reveal our man and his guys - what screaming that triggers! My oh my - was he gorgeous tonight!! A real “golden boy” in a sunny yellow-with gold thread on white plaid tonight, with his hair also looking golden too in the lights. Mmm-mm good! And when he started Days Go By he had what looked to be another new guitar!! Golden blond wood with a white, ivory looking faceplate - looked like he picked it to match his outfit -LOL! (see clip) Keith and all the guys were wearing black “LP” armbands around their biceps but I didn’t realize their meaning until late in the night. A few songs later yet another new guitar (or one not seen in quite a while?) - a  quite large, ornate and woodsy green one! My gosh, I thought, that guy buys more guitars than I buy shoes (and I have a bit of a shoe “problem”!)!! And then I noticed that each of the guys seemed to have a new guitar tonight too - all resembling the blond wood one Keith started out with, but in different woods. What’s up? I began to wonder whether Keith might have bought guitars for everyone. (more conjecture later)

It was great being reasonably close to the catwalk. I get carried away and use my camera so much early in the night that I never can record bits of the end of the show. Just don’t know how to pace myself. Maybe I need 2 cameras or an extra memory card! The Stupid Boy solo was particularly hot tonight (see clip). Wow! After Stupid Boy Keith chatted with the audience. He must have enjoyed the audience’s response to his comments about the VIP boxes in Kansas City because he is REALLY hamming it up about that now, giving them a royal bow and thanking the VIPs for allowing the band to play for them LOL (see clip) while the audience generally boos the fat cats! 

Since I had an aisle seat I decided to make the dash back to the small stage at the appropriate moment. I got a good spot while everyone was distracted by Keith’s approach. But then a huge crowd of fans surged in on the small stage, crushing us together, body to body, so you couldn’t budge. Okay by me if I can be a few feet from Keith! But some in the crowd made me mad because they weren’t really interested in the music and talked loudly about their beers and other things while he was singing Making Memories (you can’t help but hear some on my videos). How rude! Once in a Lifetime had the “wild winged dove, just on the edge of seventeen ending” today and Only You Can Love Me was just beautiful.

Meanwhile apparently it wasn’t just the small stage crowd that had been active. When I headed back to my seat in Row O I couldn’t even find Row O! Since the seats were not attached to each other like in so many newer venues, they had been pushed all over the place - bunched together and even stacked in piles to make more standing room near the front stage!! Apparently floor security had almost completely left. Many of the rows closer to the front were nearly empty, abandoned by those who stood near the ramps and stage. So I moved up even closer to the end of the catwalk : ).

During Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me Keith, at one point, used the microphone to press down his guitar strings, and he gave us a really deep backbend on the catwalk at the end (see clip). There was a new or modified background for Til Summer Comes Around - a blue and white floral/somewhat paisley like background while the screens remained vertical instead of being lowered to form a ceiling over the band (see clip). Pittsburgh got one of Keith’s impromptu songs before Raining on Sunday : ) Generally the same lyrics as we have heard (Are you feeling good tonight, do you feel as good as you look, I’m just making this up as I go along, now I have to find something that rhymes with along,) “Take me home!” (Keith repeating a rhyming suggestion from the audience at his feet)). “That’ll do” he says. “Of  course this will be the oonly song with 12,648 co-authors. It will be a publishing nightmare!” Tee hee. Those folks must have said something else (raunchy?) to him because Keith then said “You guys started drinking way too early in the day!”

During Sweet Thing I noticed a little guy perched on his dad’s shoulder in maybe row 6 in front of me. Mom was holding “his” sign, saying “I got Keith Urban tickets for my 4th birthday.” I didn’t happen to see if see if Keith a acknowledged the little boy waving at him (I’m sure he would of if he noticed him), but Brad Rice sure did, and was making all sorts of funny faces at the little kid. You know those faces that only guys who are dads themselves really master? Fun!  You’ll Think of Me had the dramatic “I hope when you see my face it gives you hell - it gives you hell!” ending. Powerful.

After playing a bit with the light up guitar Keith again went to the risers on his left during You Look Good in My Shirt - probably right around the “Igloo Section” seat I sold to another Monkey. Oh well, I certainly can’t complain about the floor seat another gal sold to me (thanks Holly!). At the start of Kiss a Girl C-Rod, who has described himself as extremely flexible (in a physical sense), proved it by doing the old "kissing" joke (where you wrap you arms around to your back so that from behind it looks like you are making out with someone).

The audience clapped and screamed their heads off after Somebody Like You, with lots and lots of cell phone lights waving throughout the arena. Keith thanked us (“You’re too kind!”) when he came back out. But then he said “Before we go any further I want to say that today a great man in music passed away - Les Paul - he was 94. We want to send our prayers out to his family and to all the guitar players who are mourning this loss, and want to thank Les for his extraordinary contribution to music. This one is for you Les!” And as Keith went into Tonight I Wanna Cry I think I heard his voice catch just a bit with the emotion of the evening. So all of a sudden the black LP armbands made sense. Perhaps even all the ‘new’ guitars I saw made sense. I don’t know guitars myself but maybe, newly purchased or taken out of storage, possibly they were all Les Paul guitars. That sounds like something Keith would do.

On a lighter note, when Keith asked us to put our hands together for the hard-working road crew that puts together the show each night, he kind of looked around him expectantly, as if he thought there would be a rush of crazy crew like there was in Kansas City. No rush tonight (I only saw one gal come partly onto stage) and Keith kind of muttered humorously “Very enthusiastic tonight.” (most of audience probably had no idea what he was talking about)

During the final Better Life Keith did the usual round of yeah-yeah-yeahs, but in the final round, to the joy of this audience, he switched it to “Steelers rock”. Lots of handslapping, a few autographs, bows and signing, and a wonderful night drew to a close. I was tired but happy as I walked the mile back to my hotel. 

The first few are very short video tidbits.

Two longer clips that I put on YouTube:

Til Summer Comes Around

You'll Think of Me

A Little Damp in Pittsburgh

When I arrived in Pittsburgh Friday the weather was warm but lovely and I enjoyed walking through the Three Rivers Art Fair across the river from the stadium. But during the night angry thunderstorms moved into town and I began to worry about it “raining on Saturday”. And rain it did – Saturday dawned gray and drippy and went back and forth between downpours and drizzles all day long. Since this had been in the forecast I came prepared with umbrella, rain parka and plastic sheeting – nothing was going to dampen my enjoyment of Keith!!

The sky was still overcast as concert time drew near, but since the rain had temporarily stopped I decided to avoid the traffic and hike across the bridge to Heinz Field and to try to catch some scenic views of Pittsburgh. By mid-bridge I had to break out my umbrella and this time the rains were going to continue for hours. Nevertheless the tailgating lots were packed and fans willing to brave the weather were pouring into this stadium that seats 60,000+. My seat was in row 34 of the floor. But since many did not show up for the opening acts (this was true in Cleveland too even though the weather there was gorgeous), I decided to try to make use of some empty seats closer to the action if I could slip by the VERY active concert security. I watched Luke Bryant from row 24 and then managed to nab a seat next to the sandbar fence (at least temporarily) for Gary and Leann. I had a great view from there!

Perhaps because of the rain no speakers blocked the catwalk today and Gary ventured down as far as the second T (but not down the arms of the T). So I had high hopes of a closer view of Keith and prayed that those who purchased tickets for my spot on the fence had been scared away by the weather. Gary was a trooper and did not retreat to the stage despite the rain (seemed an appropriate and poetic background for his “Songs About Rain”!) The weather cleared a little when Leann came on but she still needed to remove her silver high heels midway through her first song to be able to negotiate the rain slick runways. She did the rest of the show barefoot and was just a ball of energy – so fun to watch. Her voice was amazing and I really loved her Janis Joplin song. I’m sure the men in the audience enjoyed not only her performance but her “might as well been naked” silky tanktop worn braless!

Unfortunately, during the break between Leann and Keith, the stadium suddenly filled. The rain had stopped and everyone showed up to see the headliners! Which meant security emptied the row I was sitting in (apparently ALL of us were squatters) for those who held the actual tickets. Shucks!! So back to row 34 I went – on the floor but really too far away to catch many good views of Keith except when he came down to the end of stage left. But I sure enjoyed the view on the multiple screens. Tonight Keith used Kenny’s screens rather than having his own video wall. Although the side screens are standard fare I think Kenny’s center screen is almost as clear as Keith’s (but not quite as large).

How appropriate that the sun finally broke through, just over the stadium walls, as Keith came on! Doesn’t he always bring sunshine into our lives!! He was just as yummy as usual and seemed to have a mischievious grin from the start! He was wearing a different white tee with particularly short sleeves (the Nicole tattoo was fully visible all the time) with something like “Where in the hell…..is Sun Valley?” on it (couldn’t catch all of the print or picture because of the guitar strap), grayish jeans and his favorite boots (no nakey feet for Keithy) . He opened with DGB and immediately had the entire crowd on their feet and singing. No fan video today – perhaps because he wasn’t using his own projection system. Then into Blacktop where he snuck in a line about being “so glad that it stopped raining” in the middle. He omitted the TIWC that he did in Cleveland, replacing it with the more crowd-involving Better Half. He encouraged and praised our singing multiple times throughout the show – even during Stupid Boy. He made a special point of recognizing the big group of fans standing, singing and clapping way, way up in the nosebleed seats, assuring them that he saw them up there and thanking them. He also chose to give more time to the guys in the band – doing his ‘jousting’ bit with Jerry before WWWBM and introducing each of the guys with their little song solos (which sounded amazing on that big stadium sound system and got the audience singing along with them). I thought the sound was quite good except for a couple times when Keith or Gary took a mic out to the ends of the stage and didn’t quite seem to have as much volume, but I admit I was on the floor, not the rear stands, so don’t know what they were hearing. Keith also thanked the audience for paying outrageous gas prices to come to the show and joked about how “designated drivers” were really getting a raw deal these days and that they should respond with “Sure I’ll be the designated driver, but we’re taking YOUR car!” He asked how many of us had arrived yesterday (lots of cheers) so I thought that might lead into a report of what they had done, but he only joked “Or can’t you remember??”, sensing the inebriation of many in the audience.

Keith – no surprise - was smoking hot on that guitar tonight although I thought he sped up his series of classic guitar riffs (because of his limited timeframe I guess), one following quickly on the heels of another, rather than pausing and grinning at the band and the crowd as usual. I could tell lots of the college males around me were impressed (some playing their “air-guitars” along with him). Keith also made the fans go crazy by venturing out into the audience during YLGIMS at a stadium show (brave man!!). He jumped off the stage and went about halfway up the lower risers – sang a bit standing on one of the seats– then continued down along the front row and down the side of the catwalk to where there must have been a way to get back up top. Security must not have been expecting his foray because it looked like a group of them surprisedly scrambled to follow Keith offstage to protect him. What a guy!

Keith also kept the camera man scrambling to keep up with him as he repeatedly visited each end of the stage. He was feeling playful and at one point mugged it up by leaning down and going almost going nose-to-lens with the big camera, making faces at us all. I do not believe he ventured farther down the catwalk like Gary did – I think he stayed at the first T in the stage for his catwalk songs.

Unfortunately those 2 additions to the performance (the guys’ solos and going offstage) must have meant he had to shorten his set – no SLY to close his show. But that wasn’t the last we saw of Keith!!

I was SO pleased when Kenny brought out Keith to sing with him, calling Keith one of his very best friends. They sang a somewhat slow arrangement of Take It to the Limit, with Keith providing the slow, traditional strumming background as well as singing the duet. It seemed like Kenny may have forgotten the words a couple times during his sections (the “making money” and “making time” portions of the lines) but you know that’s a song that Keith has done many times. They kind of kept their distance from each other and were pretty serious while performing, but afterwards Kenny really gave Keith a couple big hugs and even grabbed and rubbed his head like he was a kid brother. Kenny also brought back Luke for a song on the catwalk a bit later. During the show Kenny also made a joke – wish I could remember what female performer he was talking about (maybe the gal in his “Big Star song?), but he referred to her as “almost a Keith Urban in a skirt”! What a mental image I had (and it wasn’t that Keith in a dress from the Ranch days)!

My section of the floor was well behaved – a number of families dancing with their little ones to the music, quite a few middle agers. So Pittsburgh was a positive experience, rain and all! I know rowdy drunks spoiled the enjoyment of the show in some areas of the arena.