LAS VEGAS PHOTOS AND REVIEW

Well I'm back from 2 exciting and fun filled nights seeing Keith in Reno. Man he
just keeps getting better and better! Both nights I had a front row table, 2nd seat
back and I was thrilled to say the least. Oh, first things first. 30 minutes after I
arrived at the Hilton Friday, my husband and I were walking through the casino on
the way to pick up my tickets at will call and I saw Keith's mom standing alone so I
went up and introduced myself and we had a nice chat for about 5 minutes. She is
such a sweet, gracious lady, I thought looked much younger in person than her
pictures and also smaller, she's about my size I think. The first thing I said was
"are you Keith's mom?" and she smiled very shyly and said "yes I am, how did you
know, we don't look anything alike" and she laughed because of course they look
exactly alike.She was waiting to meet a friend for lunch and wasn't in a hurry so I
got to spend some time chatting, she thanked me and all fans for all the love and
support we
give to Keith and I thanked her for giving us Keith! It was a thrill for me to meet
her.The shows were so much fun, he made them both a little different each night.
A song from Be Here he sang Friday night was Memories of Us, OMG it was just
beautiful! On Saturday night he did Song For Dad, the first time I got to hear that
one live, once again done in true Keith fashion, heartfelt and passionate.Saturday
night he told us how some of them took the Harleys out for a ride to Lake Tahoe,
his mom rode with him and his trainer and bus driver also went. He said they got
over there and it was so beautiful they wanted to go for a swim but hadn't brought
any swim suits, the audience whooped and hollered and he said thats what he was
thinking but he'd probably get arrested and miss the show so they went and bought
towels and swimwear and went swimming in the lake. What a visual that is, I'm so
happy he got to do that and had a nice relaxing day. At one point toward the end of
the show, he
actually went off the end of the stage and walked all the way through the middle of
the audience and came back around and got up on the other side of the stage, when
he got back up there, he had a big lei around his neck.Man he was having a total
blast and the had the crowd eating out of his hand, What an entertainer!!His shows
are just so much fun not to mention his extrordinary singing and guitar playing, I
don't think I will ever get enough.He called a man and his girlfriend up on stage
and the man proposed and they danced while Keith sang YE, it was so sweet
especially when the man was telling his story about how her first gift to him was
Keith's first album and YE became their song and since then Keith has been their
guy. Keith was so cute when he was telling that story, you know how he looks down
and shakes his head like he's kinda embarrassed, smiling the whole time. WOW this
is really long, I could go on forever about what an amazing entertainer Keith is
but you all!
know
that, I am so happy and proud right now, next up Cache Creek on Wed. Can it get any
better? I don't see how but then he always seems to pull it off.

I live in Las Vegas so I know Henderson pretty well where Keith was playing.
My friend, Donna, and I had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant in the Sunset
Station Casino around 5:30 to 7:30--Great food but very slow service and dirty
silverware--we had to send ours back twice before we ordered but the
Margaritas kept us in a good mood. We saw lots of Urbanites sitting around in
little clumps waiting for the concert all over the casino--there were some
tables pushed together but very few Urbanites sitting there--most of them were
milling around all over the place trying to catch a glimpse of our star--and
who could blame them. Around 5 til 8 we had finished, paid our bill, and got
in this huge line--thank goodness we already had our tickets, because it
seemed like we see-sawed back and forth in that line of happy Urbanites for a
long time going into the Amphitheater. Wow, there was a lot of people
there--we had really good seats on the left close to the stage and a huge
speaker. My three favorite DeeJays, Brooks and Mitch from my radio station's
Wakin' Crew were there, and little Stunt Runt was there in his cape. Later in
the day, they had a "Hunt the Runt" contest going at our country radio
station--Stunt Runt was off in the KWNR 95.5 radio van, running all over Las
Vegas and Henderson, and you were supposed to try to find him. He would call
in and give clues on where he was at--After about the 4th clue, he still
hadn't been found, and I was about to give up hope because whoever found him
got two free tickets, a M&G with Keith and two backstage passes. Finally some
excited and trembly voiced lucky winner calls up and joyfully reports she has
found the Stunt Runt--she was so overcome with happiness, she was almost
crying. So she got her free tickets, M&G and back stage pass, and it made her
night, and mine too because her happiness was contagious and put a rosy edge
on my mood before I went to the concert. Anyway, the long line finally winds
its way into the concert area. Donna and I found out we had pretty good seats
but I didn't use mine much. She's 6 ft tall, and I'm not, so I was able to
wiggle in to the railing up against the stage where they were letting some
people in the front row stand. That's the advantage of being barely five feet
tall in my barefeet. It was packed and I got jostled but not injured. Donna
decided to sit in her seat most of the time until Keith came out and then she
was up like everyone else. I came back to my seat from time to time because it
was simply too hot to stand up there crammed together like sardines. The last
time I came back, I went to get Keith's condolence card that I had bought him
for his grandmother, one of the security men decided to play hardball and made
me stay--he decided to be mean and not even take the card to Keith for me, but
I found one of Keith's guys who said they would give it to him.

Keith had the crowd in his pocket before the band even struck up Who Wouldn't
Wanna Be Me. He looked great--he's got a little scruff altough not as much--he
looked clean, lean, and ready! He had on his favorite working uniform of holey
jeans and tee shirt--He seemed to be in a great mood and kept talking to the
crowd--ad libbing, and it looked like he and the band were having a grand old
time--This guy Keith has great biceps. and his hair looked great but it blew
all over his head like a dandelion in the hot wind that seemed to come in from
out of nowhere(it reminded me a little of Hawaii, and I thought "Uh-Oh, here
comes the Monsoons.") Sure enough, he managed to get through "Raining on
Sunday", "Better Half", "You Won", his little tribute to Johnny Cash ("I Walk
the Line") and a wonderfully long version of "But For the Grace of God" in
which he and Jason had their famous guitar and fiddle duel, before it started
to rain. It was so hot it just felt good, like running through a sprinkler or
something, and Keith started singing an old Credence Clearwater Revival song,
"Have You Ever Seen the Rain." Then he did this absolutely beautiful tune that
I hadn't heard him do before. I think it was called "She Leaves Me Love"--I
don't know who sings it but the crowd and I seemed to know all the words, me
being tone deaf and off-key just sang them under my breath. He did "You Look
Good in My Shirt" and then took his little chair and went into his acoustic
set. He had said he was going to read some of the signs earlier, and he read
one that said, "I am down to my last penny, I need a hug" and he hollered out
like they do on Price is Right, "Well come on down if you can get to the
stage!" Well, that lucky gal was walking on air so high she literally flew
down there, and got her hug, and I believe she got a kiss on the cheek too,
but that got kind of blurred for me because there were so many people milling
around and standing on their tiptoes to get a good look. I may have this out
of order a little, but I remember him calling up some man who had asked Keith
if he would sign his wife's purse, and Keith autographed it for him. I thought
that was really sweet of some lucky gal's husband. Before I forget, it was
during the acoustic that I thought I saw his mother standing up at the back of
the stage with some more of Keith's people but when we kept getting these
little sporadic rains, she moved out of my line of vision before I could say
hello. Any way, Keith did "Homespun Love" and combined it with "I Hear You
Knockin", then he did this song I've always loved--I think Meatloaf did it,
and the name of it is "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad"--I personally think he did
it better than Meatloaf--it gave me goosebumps. Then he did "Your Everything"
and called Jason and Robbie over to help him do a crowd pleasing "Jeans On."
Then he did "You'll Think of Me" and the crowd went wilder if possible--they'd
been pretty wild every song he sang and screamed their lungs out no matter
what he said or sang (l0l). He went back to his band, started playing with us
doing his "Way-Oh's" and his other crazy little sounds and trying to see if we
could follow him. The other concerts I thought he was singing "Day Oh" but
this time I had wiggled in so close to him I could see his mouth work and
taste his sweat. He started singing Free Falling and on the words "I'm a Bad
Boy" he got tickled and said "Heck, I'm just a bad boy." He had the crowd
singing, but here in Vegas I don't think the crowd sang as enthusiastically as
they did in Reno. I also noticed that here in Vegas, people didn't stand up as
much except for the younger ones and people like me who forget they're not
young. Even with the tables in Reno which I thought were a little inconvenient
to move around during the concert, the crowd seemed to be more animated. It
was okay throughout the front rows but when I would look back, I'd see a lot
of people sitting down, and the place was packed. Oh well, we had the front
first fifteen or twenty rows on each side working like ants. They were dancing
and hollering and made up for the tired people or "drunk people in the back"
as Keith usually calls them. But the funny thing is the people sitting down
seemed to love Keith's music--they were hollering and clapping like
crazy--maybe they just didn't like the rain--I thought the rain felt great. It
didn't bother me at all. Anyway, Keith teased the crowd and said "There aren't
no good girls in Vegas." Then comes the sound I love and hate at the same
time--those first banjo rifts of "Somebody Like You." It's bittersweet--I love
the song but I can't stand to hear it start up at Keith's concert because I
know it's all going to come to an end in just a few minutes. So he and his
band did Sly and after the long version, they went off the stage, and of
course the crowd screamed and yelled for them to come back which they did. For
their encore, Keith sang "Where the Blacktop Ends" and dedicated "You're Not
Alone Tonight" using the words "our brothers and sisters overseas--they are
not just people in uniform--they are our brothers and sisters." Then it was
all over--he said, "God Bless You," and Donna and I sat there in our seat, not
wanting to leave because it may be a long time before we see him again, but
knowing that we have to go. This time it really took us a long time to get out
because we were watching the girls making a bee-line for the doors--some of
them said they were trying to find out where the buses were parked--others
were running to get to their cars and find out if Keith was going to head to
Las Vegas--they wanted to follow him--others were trying to find their way to
the back of the stage to see if he was still there--those gals were after him
like hound dogs after a rabbit--we were listening to them shouting at each
other in excited voices trying to figure out which way to go--one girl was so
excited she rocked back on my little toes that were sticking out of my
sandals, and boy, did that hurt! She said "Excuse me" but she was in a dither
she wasn't watching what she was doing--I forgave her--she had one thing on
her mind--get to Keith! This convinces me that if this Keith craze keeps up,
he's going to find himself on par with the Beatles as far as his fans are
concerned! I have never seen such a bunch of excited women pouring out of that
concert in all my life--Before I have always been too busy trying to find my
way out and get on the freeway to get home, but this time we had time to kill,
so we got out of the line and just watched the action. It was not just young
girls either--it was women of all ages rushing madly to catch up with Keith!
None of them appeared drunk to me, just wildly enthusiastic. To me, that is a
good sign that he really has become a major superstar--he has an appeal to
women that transcends any other country music star I have seen in concert this
year! I can still vaguely remember what they called "Beatle Mania"--I think I
just saw the first wave of Keith Mania hitting the United States, tonight. The
man is not just an outstanding entertainer--he's a powerful entertainer and a
master guitarist--his concert tonight was unbelievable. I don't know if it was
the few flashes of lighting or those big drops of rain, but he literally set
this town on fire. I didn't see any Press or Television people at the concert,
so there will probably be nothing in the papers tomorrow as usual--Las Vegas
doesn't often pay homage to country music unless it's Tim McGraw or Faith
Hill, but it's their loss, not ours. I found out tonight that Las Vegas has a
lot of people (male and female) who really love Keith Urban's music. It made
me long to shuffle on down to California tomorrow and see him again, and I
would have but that concert is sold out! What a wonderful night! Vive Las
Vegas and great job, Keith!!