St. Paul, MinnesotaOpener: Zac Brown Band
The venue seats 18,000 for hockey games. Seats were available in the first row of the club section this week.
The first-ever concert at Xcel Energy Center featured the Barenaked Ladies and The Corrs on Sept. 30, 2000. To date, some of the world’s most legendary performers have appeared at Xcel Energy Center, including the Police, the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Pavarotti, Elton John, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Simon & Garfunkel, and three consecutive sold-out shows by hometown-favorite, Prince.
9 comments:
Are we all waiting for nomorefan's review, even though she won't be there? She's all-seeing and all-knowing, ya know!
Just curious...how many of his concerts have you attended?
..."and three consecutive sold-out shows by hometown-favorite, Prince."Ha! Hilarious, Target stores benefactor who the orb could barely outsell in it's first week release of their cd releases... had 3 sold out shows...and the orb is so lucky he can barely sell for one show...sounds about right.
...ps...
..so, just a few updates...on the billboard charts this week, the orb was actually able to get his cd from #24 to #19 after a weeks worth of live gigs. Sound impressive? Not when you realize that country's taylor swifts latest cd has moved up from #9 to #7..and you realize that swifts cd has been out for 26 weeks as opposed to the orbs cd which has been out for only 6 weeks and is already struggling to stay in the top 20. (and just noticed another swift development, her previous cd, "Taylor Swift", is at #48 and up one spot from #49...and has been around a whooping 133 weeks...so how much longer before swift's previous cd laps the orb's lackluster current cd on the charts?! Which begs another question... Why is swift opening for the mediocre orb? And an update on the orbs "You'll Think Of Me" fan video mash up campaign over at youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/user/kuyoullthinkofme
..it is now, at the 2 week mark, up from a whopping 37 videos submitted a few days ago...to a whopping....38 videos? Wow, that must be the limit of the monkeylanders fansie club membership these days!
Not fair comparing him to Taylor Swift, the radio has her in supercalifragilistic rotation as opposed to a normal rotation for him. Same goes for Scarrie.
I didn't expect his cd to be on top for any length of time. There's just too much competition anymore and with the likes of TS & CU it's a wonder anyone has a chance at charting. There's an awful lot of really good music out there today that never gets a good shot because of the inequities in radio. Don't just lay it all at Keith's door.
Keith's album does have a few really decent tracks on it and he deserves credit for that.
And while you're comparing him to Prince in the twin cities, that's akin to comparing apples to oranges. Prince is from there, Target is based there so comparisons are not justified IMO.
I will say that ticket price does have something to do with attendance moreso than Keith himself.
Hey realitycheck - here I am. It is 8:28 central time, and I am not at the Xcel. I'm not like some of his fans who twitter or log onto MV to give a live report from the concert. Keithy should be taking the stage by now. Since I know all, Xcel can hold 14,000 - 16,000 for a concert - depending on the stage. If you look at TM, club level seats are premium price tickets. First time Keithy performed there, every seat was filled. Second time, I actually saw empty rows, this was post-wedding, of course.
notachance - you are correct, Prince is a MN boy. The river scene in Purple Rain was filmed right down the road from me. He is well liked here - no doubt. If you are ever doing a road trip for concerts, I highly recommend the Xcel for a venue. It is a VERY nice facility, and every artist I have seen there has commented what a great arena it is for a concert. They are very impressed with the acoustics of the arena. Bon Jovi wanted to do two shows here because they love the venue, but they couldn't get two consecutive nights, so they returned later on in the tour.
BTW, I got to see The Zac Brown Band today at my radio station (oh that will really tick off rc). The radio/CD does nothing for Zac's voice. You have to hear him live to really appreciate it - even better in a small setting. I love having the fiddle in the band too. They also performed a song they are currently writing for their next album - another future hit!
Well, here's a review from Jon Bream, and I am really glad he reported on this concert. Jon has done the reviews on Keithy's concerts for as long as I have been following him, and with each review, Jon has noticed a change in Keithy's performance. It began a year after Keithy got married. Jon does give Keithy some credit, but read the review all the way until the end.
It was a crowd pleasing show of more than two hours Thursday night at Xcel Center.
By JON BREAM, Star Tribune
Keith, you have some balls venturing out into the crowd like that, especially the 2nd time after everyone had been drinking beer for 2 hours!
Keith Urban is the only country star who dares to be a guitar hero.
To be sure, Brad Paisley and Vince Gill have hot licks in their arsenal, but they tend to play economical solos in concert. But Urban cuts loose.
On Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, he unleashed some bent blues as an intro to "You Look Good in My Shirt," soared at the end of "Rainin' on Sunday" and revved up the usually lightweight "Stupid Boy." The dude from Australia rocks!
He was at his best on "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me," rocking out with a country solo, dancing across the stage to this liberating country stomp. (He even shouted "Yee-haw" at song's end.) Too bad he wasn't in that zone more often on Thursday. That would have transformed a very good, crowd-pleasing, 125-minute show into an electrifying thriller like his 2007 Xcel concert, the best Twin Cities arena show that year in any genre.
Xcel was only the third stop on Urban's current Escape Together Tour. After warming up with two nights at America's biggest Indian casino (Mohegan Sun in Connecticut) and one night at a college gym (Penn State), he hit the road in a proper way.
Like last time, he worked runways extending from the stage, ventured into the crowd with his cordless guitar and appeared on a ginormous HD video screen behind the stage. This time, however, the screen was divided into five vertical panels with blinding lights in between them. The panels shifted angles (at one point forming a roof over Urban and his band) and featured some artful videos (rippling water, psychedelic designs) as well as live shots.
Urban, 41, definitely had more visual pizzazz this time. But he stuck to guitar (last time he played bass and piano) and didn't do any rock covers or sneak in any guitar passages from classic-rock hits, favorite gimmicks of days gone by. Maybe he hasn't hit his tour stride just yet or maybe it's because this show had a bit more of a romantic vibe.
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