Silly Little Country

Who's Got the Best Seats in the House Now?

(Click to enlarge - you can see the relationship with the fans.)
I was delighted last week to get a phone call telling me I had won a draw for seats in the Toronto Star box at the Air Canada Centre for the Keith Urban show. I don't normally like going to large audience rock concerts, but I suspected that Urban's country self-identification (i.e. as a country star) would change the character of the audience in a salutary way.
And in fact an immediate difference was obvious as I approached the ACC - girls in cowboy hats everywhere!

It turned out there were five draw winners, each getting a pair of tickets, so ten of us, plus the Toronto Star rep and his date, and catering staff. SillyWife had come down with a cold, and I failed to identify any obvious spot for trying to give away her ticket, so arrived with one unused ticket in my pocket. Shortly after I had settled in, a couple arrived, who had decided with a small amount of guilt to use their two tickets themselves rather than give one to their daughter, a big Keith Urban fan. When the Star rep shared the information that I still had a free ticket, they called the daughter and she arrived just after the opening act and in time to see the whole set Keith Urban did.
Small-worldishly, one of the other ten guests in the box knew me from a pub I frequented some time ago. She proved a good resource, as she could tell me the name of the opening act, and also pointed out to me the little stage in the middle of the floor seating area. I had really enjoyed the opening act (Lady Antebellum) so much so that I commented to her that perhaps Urban himself would be an anticlimax. She assured me no. And warned me of his likelihood to get into the audience.
She was right on all counts. Twenty minutes into his set, Urban stunned me by wandering right into the audience, through crowds, as people reached out and touched, playing and singing all the way to the small stage in the middle. The pictures above are of him there, and the subject line of this post is more or less what he called out after finishing his first song on that stage. He played more than a a half hour out there before returning to the main stage, which, it should be noted, had a catwalk out the middle into the audience and ramps on both sides that allowed the performers to go down and make contact with the audience, which they did with amazing frequency.
Impressions?
This is one performer who can sure project a likable image and who works very hard to connect to his audience. He does it very well.
Now the ACC is a hockey/basketball arena, so expecting to hear the lyrics of songs is a fond wish. I know from my YouTube research that Urban can sing quite nicely, but what I DID not know from either that or from hearing him on the radio (my YouTube research had me listening to many songs I had heard on the radio, though I had not identified them with Urban), was what a stunningly good guitarist he is. This being country music, that gets to play a really prominent role in his performances, as well. The Wikipedia article linked above notes that his career included a phase as a studio player on multiple instruments, so this is no surprise.
He did a couple of 'acoustic' numbers, though what that means in a 15,000 seat arena is worthy of question. The top picture above is his performance of 'Only You Can Love Me This Way', and he managed to subdue the fans by dedicating it to Kidman. Later, from the main stage catwalk, he performed 'You'll Think of Me'; the very pleasant social atmosphere of the box up until then resulted in the daughter's turning to me and saying "There's your song!".
I'll mention it again. He and the whole band were constantly moving out to the audience and making contact. Really impressed me. And at the very end, he called all the roadies out on the stage, and they too ran out the catwalk and down the ramps to make contact. I have never seen anything like this at my previous arena concerts. (In fact the sheer sterility of 'The Who''s second final farewell concert, at the same venue, is still in my memory.)
The fans were devoted, obediently sang back lyrics on request from the stages, waved their arms, fired off useless flashes in taking pictures, held their cellphones open, and all that stuff, but it never felt so creepy as it often does in the few rock concerts I go to (I am always thinking Nueremberg). Part of it, I think, is that Urban just projects such a pleasant image, unlike most of the rock lead singers I see (one whose band is devoted totally to his self-absorbed and rather boring ruminations, in almost endlessly long whines.) Urban spares himself this trap by singing songs largely by other people, which allows a little ironic distance. And let's face it, 'take your cat and leave my sweater' has a mastery of tone one rarely hears. (UPDATE: See Marina's comment below.)
And now on to the opening act. Lady A were excellent performers, with good songs (they write theirs, but they are not stupidly self-absorbed), and I think it is fair to say they were great eye candy for all persuasions in the audience. Hillary Scott's Wikipedia entry includes this touching and amusing observation:

Scott claims that being part of Lady Antebellum, as opposed to being a solo artist, lessens the pressure on her on the stage.

She seemed to be handling it well!

This is not Hillary but rather her image on the big screens behind the stage.

(Usual advice about clicking to enlarge.)
My one disappointment of the night - that Lady A did not decide to emulate Taylor Swift's goofing around. They did join Urban for a nice version of 'Seven Bridges Road' late in his set.
Another observation. That guy Keith Urban (and his whole band) must be VERY fit. He did only one set but it ran over two hours. He was not standing still.
And one other thing I love is the sheer circus aspect of this 'bread and circus' sort of event. Lights flashing on and off, amazing amplified sounds coming from everywhere, and those large screens do so much to mitigate the size of the arena. And that funny mix of the intimacy Urban went out of his way to create with the larger scale of the fireworks and the like.
For me, the topper as a result of this night is that I would go see Keith Urban, or Lady Antebellum, and actually pay for it, at some time in the future. I had a GREAT time.
Thanks, Toronto Star. That was so much more fun than I expected!

posted by Alan Adamson @ 12:41 PM