http://www.torontosun.com/entertainm...80821-sun.html
and in the audience was Pee Wee Charles...
Monday, October 5, 2009
Urban gets close to fans at ACC
By JANE STEVENSON, Sun Media
Last Updated: 4th October 2009, 12:02am
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Keith Urban performs at the Air Canada Centre last night. (Dave Abel, Sun Media) Country music cutie Keith Urban Hit The Ground Running, also the name of the first song he played on Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre, and never really stopped.
Backed by the same crack five-piece band that he brought to the Phoenix in March in front of a mere 1,000 fans, spoiling yours truly in the process, Urban proved he's got what it takes to create intimacy in a venue twenty times the size.
Energy, enthusiasm and sincerity are the trademarks of an Urban show.
Touring in support of his latest album, Defying Gravity, Urban's so-called Escape Together arena tour found him getting up close and personal with his audience with three mini-catwalks taking him out into the crowd, including two which were actually ramps down onto the floor.
By the fourth song, Where The Blacktop Ends, Urban had bravely ventured down both ramps for extended guitar solos, just inches from his fans, and by the next song, You're My Better Half, he had wandered around the floor to a smaller mini stage at the very back.
"Who's got the good seats now?" he yelled, before launching into one of the evening's highlights, Once In A Lifetime, which he peppered with a bit of Stevie Nicks' Edge Of Seventeen.
Urban then took a seat and switched to an acoustic guitar for Making Memories of Us, which he dedicated to his wife-actress Nicole Kidman, who may or may not have been in the crowd, followed by Only You Can Love Me This Way.
He then fought he way back through the audience, who jostled each other to grab at him, to launch into another crowd favourite, Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me, which prompted a major sing and clap along.
Still, it was the next tune, Sweet Thing, that really got toes tapping.
The 41-year-old New Zealand-born, Aussie-based artist definitely has looks, charm and charisma to go along with his musical talents, particularly as a guitarist, as he more than demonstrated with both his electric and acoustic playing during Til Summer Comes Around and Raining On Sunday.
And whenever the camera panned to show the back of him, the audience went nuts for his rear view, so to speak.
"I'm feeling the love tonight Toronto, it's nice to be back," he said earlier in the show. "It's a special night tonight. It's the last night of our entire Canadian tour so we might play a little more tonight. You may want to call the baby sitter and tell her you might be a little late."
Later he added: "We've been coming up here for years. And you've always made us feel welcome and warm on stage. Whatever's up here in the water, just keeping drinking it cause it's great."
Still, the bit where he put on a headband, wristband and signed tennis balls and then hit them out into the crowd with a tennis racket, with the help of Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott, was a bit goofy.
Much better were the band introductions which saw three of them take a turn in the spotlight including guitarist Brian Nutter singing Vancouver rocker Bryan Adams' Run To You.
Lady Antebellum's three singers - Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood - also joined Urban for an excellent acoustic cover of The Eagles' Seven Bridges Road, which was only topped by Urban's own massive hits, Kiss A Girl and I Told You So.
And the fan video clips of them singing, leading into You'll Think Of Me, was genuinely heartfelt.
Urban also strapped on a psychedelic guitar that lit up in different colours for You Look Good In My Shirt which saw him wandering the floor again until he made his way to another small stage in the stands, followed by the downright triumphant Somebody Like You.
In a final tribute to his Canadian fans, Urban opened his encore with a snippet of Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown before an acoustic version of Tonight I Wanna Cry, which was followed by yet another barnburner, Better Life, complete with confetti.
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SET LIST
Hit the Ground Running
Days Go By
Stupid Boy
Where the Blacktop Ends
You're My Better Half
Once in a Lifetime
Making Memories of Us
Only You Can Love Me This Way
Who Do You Love/Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me
Sweet Thing
Til Summer Comes Around
Raining On Sunday
Band member Intros: Snippets of Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Run To You, Ain't No Sunshine
Seven Bridges Road
Kiss a Girl
I Told You So
You'll Think of Me
You Look Good In My Shirt
Somebody Like You
ENCORE:
Sundown/Tonight I Wanna Cry
Better Life
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Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
Keith Urban
Air Canada Centre
Saturday night
Keith Urban-Sundown at Toronto concert-'09 and Nfld.-2012
