Giddy in Green Bay: That Keith Urban High

Well I am on one of those Keith Urban concert highs – what a great night!! My daughter asked me which of our 3 concerts in a row I liked best. They all had their special high points but I picked tonight. I am feeling so good and no alcohol was involved!!

I’m now able to sing along with many of the Zac Brown songs and I broke down and got their album at the merchandise booth. Tonight they were sweet – drumming up support for an organization that works with troubled kids. Zac was funny too – at one point he had us all light up our cell phones, so I was expecting something like Keith’s cell phone wave last tour. But no, Zac stopped right there – once we had our cells open they began another song. Maybe they just wanted to feel that “Bic Lighter” aura of the audience showing support?

There was a big solid block of floor seats that were empty during the opening act which then filled suddenly when it came time for Keith. A special party perhaps? Corporate sponsors?

Keith and the boys totally rocked the house with Hit the Ground and Days Go By. Tonight they created a huge cloud of vapor that totally hid Keith’s ascent through the stage floor. Instead he suddenly burst out of the fog, like a genie out of a bottle, to the cheers and screams of the audience. So it seems they are trying for a different opening effect now. The brown plaid shirt was back (is this the first repeat?) with darkish blue jeans..

Daughter Annie is no longer timid. Tonight she was determined to get a front view of the songs performed on the satellite stage. In Green Bay females started surrounding that stage during the break between Zac Brown and Keith and security did not chase them away. So Annie staked out her spot in that crowd and stood there through the first four songs performed on the main stage. I, not being quite up to the crush of the crowd for that long, stayed in my seat until Better Half began. Then I moved to the rear of the arena and, with some quick moves while others were distracted by the screaming when Keith first began his journey down the side aisle, found a spot just 2 gals away from the microphone on the small stage. But then, in an instant, a huge crowd surged in towards the satellite stage and we were all totally smashed together, body against body. And the screaming of this group made my ears absolutely ring!! It was like the same thought entered everyone’s mind at the same second –“Keith is coming – scream as loud as you can!!!” (I didn’t scream, but I was excited about my nearly “front row” position. Oddly enough when Keith finally reached the back of the arena his security decided not to take him up the small stage steps. Instead they forcefully split apart the crowd close to me and boosted Keith up to the microphone!! Then the crowd immediately snapped back into position, body against body!! I had some trouble even getting an arm up to take photos and would periodically get rocked in one direction or another, the crowd swaying like one amorphous beast. Keith looked pretty amused by this and told us we were all crazy!

Besides the special treat of being up front for his songs on the small stage, I was surprised and delighted when, after Once in a Lifetime, Keith mentioned that they had a new album, Defying Gravity, out and he wanted to play Only You Can Love Me This Way from the album!! So he sat on his stool and sang that song oh so sweetly just 4 feet from me – so wonderful! (except for those dozens of bodies also trying to get 4 feet from Keith!), followed by Making Memories of Us. Of course the crowd once again went nuts as Keith handed off his guitar and left the small stage. Although I’m sure he was touched by many many hands it didn’t seem to be the aggressive grabbing this time. As I walked smiling back to my seat I can’t tell you how many gals were standing there looking stunned, trembling, crying, holding out the hand that had made contact, or just exclaiming in amazement that they had been THAT close to Keith!! Lots of happy happy fans!! Daughter Annie had made her own contact with Keith’s sweaty arm J and was ready to go again if the opportunity arose during You Look Good in My Shirt! ( it didn’t – he went to the other side of the arena).

Back up on the main stage Keith and the guys next played the three in a row from Defying Gravity with one change that I noticed tonight. Although they began Til Summer Comes Around with the video panels forming a low ceiling over the vapor filled stage, during the song the panels lifted, still positioned horizontally but higher now so that the audience could better see the intricate designs being shown on them.

I Told You So gets everyone singing again. I don’t think that I’ve mentioned that during the final percussive closing bars of the song Keith leaves the stage, but a camera (filming now in black and white) follows him down the steps as he towels off some of the sweat and under the stage, where on the final beat comes face to face with the camera for an instant and then the screen goes black. Very interesting ending! This was followed by the half dozen or so videoclips of fans performing You’ll Think of Me as a lead in to Keith singing this song from a stool on the catwalk.

For the second time this week some silly fan toss a bra up on stage towards Keith. Once again he responded like it was a dead rat, gingerly using the head of his guitar to nudge it out of the way, clearly indicating that he wanted nothing to do with it. Good for him!

During Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me, just after Keith kneels on the stage edge with Brad and Brian, playing that distinctive bridge, Keith got silly and leaned in to go nose to lens with the camera filming them, making a funny sideways face at the audience.

Before You Look Good in My Shirt Keith went back to his series of classic guitar riffs, including a couple new ones I couldn’t place. I’ll post my videoclip and maybe one of you will recognize the last couple right before YLGIMS. (In Chicago he included the theme from the Pink Panther in his series – it had been a while since I heard him play that bit!!)

Once again tonight Keith treated us to a little improvised song, just for Green Bay, after he had strolled out on the catwalk to sing Raining on Sunday. I don’t think I can quote it exactly but something along these lines:

Went out riding on my motorcycle today

And the wind nearly blew me right off!

It was a little bit chilly

But this state is sure pretty

During the closing song, Days Go By, someone near the right hand ramp offered Keith a big bouquet of white flowers when he came over to that side of the stage. He not only came down the ramp to accept them, he managed to give the woman a nice hug without a break in the song!

Click here for one video that could not be uploaded here for some reason.

Sexy Serenades in St. Paul

Blue skies, sunshine and low sixties welcomed me and my teenage trio (daughter Annie and friends Katie and Randy) to the Twin Cities. We did a little shopping so didn’t arrive at our hotel across from the Xcel Energy Center until close to six. I guess I should have gotten there earlier – I ran into Blue-Jeans-Gal in the elevator and she had seen C-Rod jogging and Brian driving his T-Bird during the afternoon. She is another Iowan and won tonight’s Backstage BBQ Experience pass from iLike! iLike has been good to us heartlanders!! Kingsford Charcoal made their presence known with an enormous blow-up BBQ grill serving as an archway through which to enter the arena (“I walked through hot coals to see Keith Urban!”). They had a little “EDS” problem and it collapsed into a big heap at one point (luckily before the crowds arrived). Once inside we got our Monkeyville Minnesota scrapbook pages stamped and headed for our seats.
My daughter and friends came prepared with posters, one saying "My mom smelled your neck!" and the other "We want to smell it too!". Oh Lord!

The Zac Brown Band were fun openers – mostly lively numbers, a couple surprisingly with a nice reggae beat. I’m going to have to check out their album. After they finished, the Kingsford/Masterpiece BBQ Sauce folks showed kind of a nice promotional video on the side video screens. It began with the sound of a heartbeat to get our attention, but then included shots of Keith and his motorcycle and a big white (?) tour bus, all obviously going out to a BBQ in the country. Then lots of live footage of Keith and the guys at the BBQ that has been featured online and in promotional materials. Later there were some shots of setting up the stage and the racks of guitars. They also used those side screens to announce who won the signed guitar from Keith (and Verizon) this evening (I guess this tour the guitar giveaway happens behind stage before the show rather than out in the audience like last tour.) During the break, as the crew set up the stage for Keith, I kept expecting them to pull shut those big black curtains like they did out east. But no curtains tonight! Maybe they decided they weren’t worth the trouble. Tonight they did create quite a cloud of vapor centerstage to focus attention on Keith’s mysterious rising out of the floor during Hit the Ground, but it was almost too thick – if I hadn’t been sitting off to the side I’m not sure I could have seen his ascent. Still working out some of those little details I guess. No matter – the crowd still screamed their heads off as the show opened!

It looked like the Xcel Center was pretty much sold out – even the highest rows of the nosebleed seats up in the rafters looked full and Keith called attention to them several times during the night. I was sitting in the second row of the second set of risers from the stage (right near row 22 of the front floor). Pretty good seats except for the 6’8” big guy on my stage-side that I often had to peer around whenever Keith came over to the microphone on our side L Tonight the satellite stage was set up about 6 feet beyond the sound mix area and perhaps 20 feet in front of the risers at the far end of the arena, leaving a large area of empty floor for fans when Keith made his trip out there.

Keith looked especially fetching in a red/black/white plaid shirt and blackish jeans tonight. The video screens really showed him to his best advantage so there were times I couldn’t help but give out a little moan or felt a little weak in the knees. And I think he knew it too, so we got more sexy looks than usual. He also seemed to make a point tonight of holding picks in his lips or in his teeth for a bit, then tossing those out to the crowd (in addition to those he flings when he is playing) – what is that about? A guitar-y way of blowing a kiss? Tonight they sometimes used the 5 big video panels to show five Keith’s at once! Gosh I might blow a fuse if they keep doin’ that!!

The music was wonderful as usual, the guitar solos stunning – no departures from the setlist tonight. The crowd was thrilled when Keith made his first trip offstage towards the end of Better Half, all those fans slowing down his progress to the back of the arena. No sign reading from the small stage tonight and no one was invited up. He introduced Making Memories of Us with a slightly different lead-in:. “This is a song for anyone who is getting married, thinking about getting married, wishing you could get married, have got no intention of getting married.” :) When I knew the song was nearly over and Keith would be returning to the main stage via my side of the arena, I leapt (okay, lumbered) from my second row position, over the first row chairs, so that I could be immediately above Keith as he passed by. And it paid off – the first row folks were happy for the “alert” so they had their cameras ready forclose-up shots, and I slid my hand down his bare arm as he passed.:)

He was cute to watch grooving in the background to Chris R’s, Brian’s and Jerry’s little vocal solos. And I think I caught some good video of his dancing, clapping silhouette during that wonderful percussive ending to If Ever I Could Love. Tonight Keith added or really emphasized a rhythmic, plucking, slapping, pulsing beat of the guitar during his (short) walk down the catwalk at the start of Raining on Sunday, then said in a deep sultry voice “Are we still feeling okay?” “ How about you guys sitting up high around the arena?” and then said, no actually sang to us “Do we feel like singing?” and then again “Do we feel like sing-in’?” before actually beginning to sing ROS.

Fun guitar play before You Look Good in My Shirt, but not the usual classic riffs. Maybe someone will be able to put a name to it, but I didn’t recognize it, just enjoyed it! I jumped up and down when I realized that tonight Keith was going to come down the ramp on my side of the arena for YLGIMS and hoped he would either choose to climb up either the aisle close to me or the one close to my girls.

Well he did cross right in front of us, but tonight the crowd that rushed towards him was so overwhelming that he never made it to any of the staircases! I was worried for him because it seemed so many were reaching for his hair and head I thought he could lose an eye! He and his body guards finally had to retreat to stage without the usual perching on a chair somewhere to sing a little. I hope that kind of crowd response doesn’t lead to him abandoning the trips offstage!

The thunderous applause and echoing screams were so loud after Somebody Like You that when Keith came back on stage for the encore he just looked at the audience and said “Holy Hell Minnesota!!” shaking his head in disbelief. “Thank you so much for making us feel like family every time we come up here!” Wow – I am loving the acoustic guitars of Keith and Chris during You’ll Think of Me. They have such a full resonant sound - just beautiful.

I’m worrying a little about Keith’s voice. Although most of the evening he sounded just great, towards the end he got a little froggy and needed the audience to help with the vocals. I’m afraid his madcap schedule in Canada did not give him the break he needed after the previous three concerts. Chicago show tomorrow and Green Bay Saturday – I hope they won’t strain his voice too much! Take good care of yourself Keith! Thanks for another wonderful evening!!

Post Script:

I sat next to a couple great gals, Lori and Julia, who host an afternoon show on FM107 here in the Twin Cities. They were a lot of fun and shared a nice story of their experience meeting Keith and Nicole in New York on the red carpet for the opening of Australia. They shouted to Keith and said that they were from Minnesota. Even though it was her big evening, Nic called Keith’s attention to these fans who had traveled all the way from the Midwest and both Nic and Keith came over and chatted with Julia and Lori – one of the only (if not the only) stops the couple made on the red carpet.

Secondly, my teen trio were completely overwhelmed by Keith’s show this evening and are frantically trying to figure out a way to see him again this tour. They weren’t Urban “virgins” but they definitely have fallen more deeply under his magical spell!

Videos to come but I have to sleep now!