February 03, 2016

Concert Stories #31: Keith Urban


Keith Urban 

Love, Pain, + The Whole Crazy Tour

BMO Harris Bradley Center

July 26, 2007

Age 24


Keith Urban gave by far the best concert that I have ever been to, and I think that's saying a lot with how many I have seen!  Let me also back-up and explain that at the time, I knew two songs of his "I Told You So" and "Stupid Boy" off of his Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing album.  I was given the tickets to the show as a gift and even though I only knew those two songs, still the best concert ever.  

Why I loved this concert so much was that to start, the stage setup and the graphics that were used were my favorite ever.  The stage was seriously simple, a clean rectangle with his band on it and behind the stage was the projection screen that was the same size. I can be a person who needs balance, so while yes this is an incredibly small detail, it pleased my mind that the stage and screen were the same size.  I can not really explain the graphics, they were not anything ground breaking and were not played with every song, but they made perfect sense when used.  I am not a musician, but if I ever for some reason went on tour, I would want to know who was in charge of lighting and graphics for this tour because it was spot on!

Then of course there is the performance of Keith Urban.  His voice was amazing live and sounded exactly like his album, not an easy feat for many artists sadly, and he played with such joy.  I can only imagine what some performers go through in their personal lives and how hard it most be to go on stage and smile, even when they are not happy.  Sometimes it's not obvious to the crowd and other times it is painfully obvious, or I have seen performers and could tell they could not care at all about the audience, just running through the motions.  Keith Urban was none of that.  He was, to this day, the happiest performer I have seen on stage and he seemed genuinely gratefully to be doing what he does.  It simply radiated out of him.  Urban also was engaged with the crowd.  The stage had a long walkway out into the middle of the crowd and he utilized that so well.  I also discovered that I liked many more of his songs and ended up getting his older albums after that show.  

Now that I write this out it does seem a bit odd to me how much I love this concert and it is because of the visuals: great stage, amazing lighting, and seeing someone happy.  The music was great as well, but this was a great example of how having a great attitude can spread to others.

And as I finish I now will stop complaining to my co-worker about my other co-worker chewing so darn loudly, I am probably spreading my "annoyed" mood today and that's not a good thing.  Lessons learned every day!

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