2007 tour perth

Urban Cowboy comes to town

Jay Hanna STM Music Editor
May 22 2007

THE audience might have been smaller than he's used to, but Keith Urban put on a feisty, energetic show last night that gave his fans a taste of rock 'n' roll.

They say there is nothing like a country crowd, but perhaps the trek to Perth on a Tuesday night kept most at bay because Burswood Dome was far from full as Keith Urban took to the stage last night.

Wrapping up the national leg of his Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy World Tour in Perth, the recently rehabilitated Urban looked relaxed and happy, frequently flashing a cheeky grin at predominantly female crowd.

Glowing with good health, Urban appeared tanned and toned in a snug black t-shirt, his Gibson Les Paul guitar slung low on his hip as he kicked into Once In A Lifetime, a song he penned for wife Nicole Kidman. As the crowd started moving in time with the music, Urban spotted a security guard trying to contain revellers and quickly fired off an ultimatum: "Dude, if you make them sit down I'm gonna fire you".

Then to the crowd he bellowed: "C'mon stand up". Most didn't need telling twice. They quickly shot to their feet and stayed there for the remainder of the evening.

Proving to be a feisty performer Urban seemed fired up and ready to party unleashing his hybrid brand of country rock with plenty of passion. A huge star in the States, the Kiwi-born, Australian-raised singer seemed indifferent to the fact that he was playing to a far smaller crowd than he would be in the US. He did however slam the Dome's 10.30pm curfew.

"Apparently they have a ridiculous 10.30 curfew here so we are going to jam as many in and kick this into gear before they pull the plug," Urban stated as the crowd cheered him on. Shine, another new song from Urban's latest release Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing followed.

Unlike most country stars who keep their guitar-playing to basic strumming, Urban relished the opportunity to launch into several impressive solos. It seems the bad boy of country so badly wants to be a rock star and at times he was almost there.

Urban and his five-piece band made good use of the centre runway marching down it several times and even shifting the whole stage to the end of the runway for an acoustic set that started with You're My Better Half.

The nostalgic Days Go By proved a sentimental favourite for a crowd old enough to have more than their fair share of regrets and heart breaks. Stupid Boy, Raining On Sunday and I Wanna Love Somebody Like You also went down a treat before Urban returned to the stage for a brief encore.

"Curfew my arse," he yelled. "We are going to keep going for you". Albeit it for just one song.

As star-shaped confetti fired into the air above the crowd, Urban bid his farewell. Then it was back stage for tea and biscuits, one would hope.

Perth was FANTASTIC!!! The vibe was amazing right from the start, IMO left the Sydney concert for dead (until people stood up at the end). At the very beginning when Keith started playing, a few people stood up on their chairs. The bouncers tried to tell them to get down, Keith saw and said "if you tell them to sit down, I'll fire you". With that, the whole audience stood up as one. The smile on Keith's face said it all. They absolutely rocked all night. I felt a bit ripped off as he only did one encore song, but the night was awesome. Perri and I had great seats, right up against the catwalk, so I got to high-five them a few times as they went up and down. Keith stood right next to me when he was singing "Raining on Sunday". Awesome! I haven't checked my photos yet, hope I got some great ones and will post them when I can.
Andi

Keith Urban returns to Australia for his “Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy World Tour”. He performs in Perth on Tuesday 22 May 2007 at the Burswood Dome.

Urban has become well-known for his electrifying, sweat-drenched, bang-for-ya-buck, dynamite performances, which have received critically praise throughout the world. A combination of straight ahead musicianship and the latest in concert technology, at the heart of any Keith Urban concert are the songs; “Somebody Like You,” “Once In A Lifetime,” “Better Life,” “Days Go By,” “You’ll Think Of Me,” and Urban’s latest “Stupid Boy.” All are expected to be performed, along with other surprises.

Tuesday night Jenni and I went and saw Keith Urban in concert in Perth. For those who are not in the know Keith is an Australian country music artist who moved to Nashville in the 90s, was hugely successful over there, and ultimately married Nicole Kidman. I’d never listened to any of his music until a few months ago when we first started thinking about going and visiting friends in Nashville - since then I’ve bought 4 of his CDs and I really quite like them. And from there I’ve gone on to explore a bit more of the country genre.

Keith is nowhere near as popular here in Australia as in the USA - he probably gets more publicity here because of his marriage and rehab problems than he does for his music. So I was interested to see what sort of demographic the crowd would be - would it be just middle aged women, hard core country music fans, or teenage girls? In the end it was a mix - not too many cowboy hats in sight, but there were plenty of 30-50 year olds and a sizeable minority of younger people. Women certainly far outnumbered men.

The warm-up act were West Australian band The Waifs who played a tight and enjoyable set, however most of the crowd were impatient for the main concert. Keith did not disappoint. Visually the show was great - he had a great lighting setup and they made good use of the video screen including live video and synchronized video clips. But most importantly the music. Keith is a very talented musician. He sang a good mix of mostly up-beat songs from his last few albums. He’s got a good voice and is a surprisingly good guitarist. He played the majority of the lead guitar and solos for most songs although was backed up by a very able band playing a range of instruments including electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, and banjo. Keith himself brought out an impressive armory of guitars including Gibson Les Paul and SG, Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Jaguar and a couple of acoustics. He probably favoured the Gibson SG and Fender Tele most of all though. Keith seemed friendly and relaxed although he didn’t talk a whole lot between songs. I was surprised at how strong his Australian accent was when speaking - I expected it to have more of an American twang to it after so many years in the USA, so that was nice. Overall it was a very enjoyable show. As Jen remarked, he’s definitely one artist who comes across even better live than on his albums. I would certainly go and see him again if I had the opportunity.

http://www.baggas.com/posts/2007/05/24/keith-urban/

Urban gets casual on tour swan song

23rd May 2007, 12:45 WST

They looked like a bunch of boys who live in a share house. At some point they got up, pulled on some clean clothes and turned up on stage to play some music.

But while Keith Urban and his band were deciding which ragged T-shirt to wear during their last performance on Australian soil at Burswood Dome last night, The Waifs opened with a handful of songs which would have to make any listener fall in love with them.

Vikki Simpson’s wailing on the harmonica heralded the old favourite Crazy Train and showed off all the things this West Australian band are so good at.

There’s nothing like a hometown crowd and while Donna Simpson jokingly thanked Keith for being kind enough to close their show, I could have watched them play all night.

It’s always great to see an Aussie done good so having Urban play his first Perth show since opening for comedian Billy Connolly years ago was in itself satisfying.

Given the recent circus surrounding Mr Kidman and his recent stint in rehab, the singer-songwriter on stage was humble and devoid of any posturing.

In the odd moment when he spoke you could still hear a piece of Queensland in his voice albeit railroaded by an American twang.

It was a casual affair but the band were tight and totally on with Urban’s guitar playing sometimes eclipsing the songs themselves.

Ultimately Urban comes off as a real romantic, even if it is hard to reconcile his softer songs with a guitar aptitude which just begs desperately to rock.

But at the end of it all the band looked like they’d had a great time and the audience seemed equally satisfied by the journey.

Urban rocks into city

21st May 2007, 15:00 WST

A tight-lipped Keith Urban arrived in Perth today with little fanfare ahead of tomorrow night’s concert, which will be the last leg of his Australian tour.

Arriving at Perth Airport from Adelaide just after 1pm today, Urban, dressed in leather and denim and looking every bit the country rock star trying to hide underneath a black beanie and dark sunglasses, was whisked away in a silver Mercedes.
Flanked by security and a member of his entourage, Urban politely refused to speak to a small media contingent saying it would not be appropriate, but did mention it was “very nice” to be in Perth.

The short-in-stature but tall-in-talent singer, who was raised in Queensland but gained fame in Nashville – gave a thumbs up to the media and signed an autograph and had a photograph taken with one fan.

Urban’s arrival was met with little fuss, with virtually no fans at the airport to greet the country star.

TO SEE CLIP OF KEITH ARRIVING CLICK HERE