Like any good tourists, we did a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Ryman Auditorium and famous Studio B (where Elvis recorded about 250 of his songs). A lot of bars and restaurants were also worked in, like Red Door Saloon, McGuiness Irish Pub, The Flying Saucer, Beer Sellar, Wildhorse Saloon and 12 South Taproom and Grill. And in my never ending quest to hit every brewery in America, we visited the new Jackalope Brewery and followed that up with a visit to Yazoo Brewery, just down the road. Both were fantastic. For the record, here's the new beers we tried between the 2 breweries at happy hour(s) on Friday:
* Jackalope Bearwalker Maple Brown
* Jackalope Dire Wolf IPA
* Jackalope Thunder Ann American Pale Ale
* Yazoo Nitro Stout
* Yazoo Gerst
We also stopped by Frugal MacDoogal Wine & Liquor Warehouse and dropped $100 on some bring-home bottles and cans of 12 (and 22) ounce love that we can't get here.
But enough, you want to know about Keith Urban's Nashville homecoming on his 2011 Get Closer World Tour, right? I'll start by saying it was a packed house, sold out and rowdy from the get-go.
Jake Owen opened and I thought was fantastic. I can see why Keith Urban and he are paired together as he's loaded with energy, really works the crowd and is never dull during his set. I'm not familiar with all his songs but he played quite a few that I did know like "Anywhere With You", "Yee Haw", "Startin' with Me", "Eight Second Ride", "Don't Think I Can't Love You", "Trip To Heaven" and of course the wildly crowd-pleasing song-of-the-Summer "Barefoot Blue Jean Night". During "Don't Think I Can't Love You" he let a couple out of the audience, who was celebrating their anniversary (at least their sign said they were), come on stage and slow dance, then they shared a group hug.
A quick set change and it's time for Mr. Urban. They reveal the stage and there are also several secondary stages with two offshoots of the main stage and two platforms stationed in the audience, which are so low to the ground that fans could grab his legs while he played. He ventures into the audience a few times as well, making his album name, "Get Closer", a bit prophetic. He even said "There really is no me and you. Tonight it’s us, Nashville."
He plays a bit over 2 hours and it's pretty intense at times and even emotional as he talks about his parents, his wife and daughter and his love of Nashville. He's very passionate and it resonates throughout the night in not only his voice but his guitar. The guy can really solo like he means it. He tells stories with his guitar as often as he does with his vocals.
He comes out and kicks it off with the poppy, melodic triple-punch of "Put You in a Song", "Days Go By" and "I Told You So" and the place was already on it's collective feet in total party mode. When he hit the big ballads and radio numbers the entire crowd sang along with every word it seemed. You couldn't even hear him during "Raining on Sunday" it was so loud of a singalong.
He went into the crowd and back to a small platform with just a mic set up and said "Who has the good seats now?" before playing a couple of songs then plopping down on a stool with his acoustic guitar for "You’ll Think of Me" before the platform rises into the air like a KISS drum solo is powering it.
Back on the main stage, he reads through the fan's signs and gets people on stage... this time some ladies to take a picture and also 3 fans to sing "Kiss A Girl" with him and the band in sort of a singing contest. There's a huge screen also that shows close-ups live but also allowed Little Big Town to do a duet of "Boondocks" via video and later Waylon Jennings singing "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way."
And as usual (at least when I've seen him) he let several members have the mic during their introduction to belt out their own short tune. This tour, bassist Jerry Flowers did some of U2’s "With or Without You", Danny Radar did a portion of Tom Petty’s "American Girl" and Brian Nutter knocked out a killer section of AC/DC’s "It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n Roll)" which really fired up the crowd, although I got a feeling a lot of people didn't know it was an AC/DC song, but did know it was a bally rocker.
Finally he went back into the audience, ending up at the back of the arena, for "You Look Good in My Shirt" as he signed his guitar and gave it to a screaming fan (who may or may not have had an orgasm) before heading back to the stage to finish the song with another guitar and laying flat on his back.
To start the encore he had Jake Owen come back out to assist in a cover of John Mellencamp’s "Jack and Diane" before finishing the awesome night with "Tonight I Wanna Cry" and "Better Life" as the confetti fell from the rafters on the still partyin' crowd.
It's the 3rd time I've seen Keith Urban live and it was also the best. The added adrenaline of being in Nashville really pushed this show over the top. A classic. I've posted some pictures that I took, plus 3 really good ones from the show that were on Keith's Facebook. I think you can tell which are which.
Here's Keith's setlist for the show (I think?):
* Put You In A Song
* Days Go By
* I Told You So
* Raining On Sunday
* Long Hot Summer
* Stupid Boy
* Making Memories Of Us
--- back on the small platform in the middle of the arena ---
* I'm In
* Jeans On
* You'll Think Of Me
--- back to main stage ---
* You Gonna Fly
* Boondocks (Little Big Town cover... snippet)
* Georgia Woods
* Til Summer Comes Around
* Sweet Thing
* Kiss A Girl (Fans sang on stage with him)
* Without You
* Raining On Sunday
* Somebody Like You
* Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way (Waylon Jennings cover... snippet)
* Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me
* You Look Good In My Shirt
-- Encore ---
* Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp cover... with Jake Owen)
* Tonight I Wanna Cry
* Better Life
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