Friday, May 29, 2009

Escape Tour - Friday, May 29th



Roanoke Civic Center, Roanoke, Virginia

Opener: Dierks Bentley

Capacity: 10,500

Tickets available through box office or Tickets.com; as of Tuesday, two seats together available in the upper level, close to the front of the arena.

A review from the Roanoke Times:

Concert review: Energetic Urban keeps fans screaming with country-rock mix
By Tad Dickens/ The Roanoke Times

Keith Urban makes women feel randy.

How else to explain why an otherwise normal, attractive young woman would walk up screaming to a relative stranger and yell, "I just touched Keith Urban! I got his back sweat on my hand!"?

More later on how Alex Jaxtheimer, 20, of Lynchburg got a palmful of coveted music superstar perspiration. First, a few words about the music and the showmanship that Urban and opening act Dierks Bentley brought to a nearly full house Friday night at the Roanoke Civic Center Coliseum.

It's one thing to make the women swoon -- and they did -- but these crossover country artists seemingly at the height of their pop powers brought wall-to-wall hits, spot-on showmanship and high-octane backing bands onstage.

Attendance was 7,455 in the 8,242-capacity coliseum, slightly fewer than last year's Urban/Carrie Underwood show, which sold out the 8,426 tickets available.

Most of Friday's crowd stayed on their feet -- even on their chairs -- from the first notes of Urban's show opener, "Hit The Ground Runnin,' " and throughout the set, which ran well past 10:40 p.m.

Urban gave them reasons to be excited -- the monster guitarist channeled fellow Australian Angus Young's style in the closing solo.

Yes, it was a country show. Urban's versatile backing band made much use of mandolins, banjos and more. But it also was a rock show, with chest-rattling, often martial drumming that underpinned the Scots-Irish-worldbeat and Aussie musical mix.
Urban made sure it was a show for everyone, walking the coliseum floor to a smaller stage in back while playing the closing solo to "You're My Better Half."

He stayed back there, playing to the $20 dollar seats. Jaxtheimer and her friends headed back that way during "Once In a Lifetime," which he played acoustically, with only Chris McHugh's bass drum and conga backing him.

Later, Urban brought his old friend and Nashville, Tenn., neighbor Bentley onstage to duet on the Eagles' 30-year-old smash, "Take It To The Limit." The combination seemed almost too much for the screaming crowd to bear.

Bentley had already put in his work, a 45-minute, smash-laden set of roadhouse-ready, hard hillbilly rock mixed with music reminiscent of "Missing You"-era John Waite -- but with Bentley's smoky baritone making such tunes a much more palatable listen.

His mix of hitting-the-road tunes ("A Lot of Leavin' Left To Do"), party anthems ("Sideways") and love songs ("Come A Little Closer") also had the crowd on its feet from jump.

Go to blogs.roanoke.com/cutnscratch to read more on a Ticketmaster.com snafu that forced civic center employees to switch tickets with 750 people who had prepaid tickets that wouldn't scan into the venue's system. The problem made many of them miss a good deal of Bentley's set.

4 comments:

Chris Bertolini said...

Ok I have admitted it several times..I am a KU fan and I was at this show and since I cannot stand NK and the way KU has been behaving since she became the chain to his ball (no pun intended...well, maybe) I was more than open to find something wrong with this show. I simply couldn't! Dierks was fantastic and was very entertaining and great at interacting with the audience. Keith did a few stellar guitar solos throughout the show and NOT ONCE did he mention or even refer to NK or "the babee". Man am I glad because as I had already determined that if she were mentioned or her mug showed up on the screens, I was going to BOO. I didn't go there to see her or to hear about her in any capacity. He didn't disappoint there either. He played well over 2 hours and was very high energy. AND he didn't forget any lyrics....If NK was present at this show (and I certainly hope she wasn't) it was not mentioned or noticed. He didn't dedicate any songs to her or yammer on like a sap about how "she saved him". He seemed more like himself this show than any show I saw on the last tour and it did seem more about the music and performing than I have seen him behave in quite awhile. Time will tell (I don't see another of his shows until August) if things get slow in the media and photo ops whether or not the battle axe steps in and demands alittle "air-time" (his) during his shows. Let's hope not and just maybe his career will survive a little longer without her taking him down as she watches her stardom disappear.

Imahick said...

Glad you had a good time! It sounds like he's focused and on the top of his game. I hope he continues to give the fans 100% ... there is no one better than Keith Urban live, when he is engaged.

frankie said...

I was at both Mohegan Sun shows, (yes, I'm a big KU fan, but NOT NK fan) and that's exactly what I was saying, too. He never mentioned her, or dedicated any song to her - the only thing was that when the show was over and people were walking out, there were credits running on the big screens, and a recording of "Thank You" was playing. I think A LOT of people appreciated the fact that he didn't mention her at all. BTW, the shows were GREAT!

banbotox said...

I was here too and loved the entire thing. Dierks was fantastic and Keith and the guys were amazing! So glad I went and I'm so very glad there was no mention of kidman-Thank You Keith!!!!!