Review: Keith Urban delivers 2 hours of 'utopian experience' in amped-up, high-energy show
Keith Urban is at the potentially precarious stage of a musician's career, 20 years out from being the next hot new act, and not yet a venerable golden oldie guaranteed to automatically fill arenas.
And judging by his exhilarating performance on Friday at Nationwide Arena – which, if not sold out, was still satisfactorily close to packed - he's right where he wants to be.
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Urban seems to thrive on live performance, and on making the audience feel just as at home in that huge space as he does.
Speaking in his native Australian accent, as opposed to the well-honed American country accent he has used for years in singing, at the beginning of a solid, energetic set that never flagged, he promised, “For the next two hours, I'm going to make a utopian experience in this arena.”
And he delivered, making sure to include those in the nosebleed seats as well as those on the floor, moving out into the crowd for an acoustic set, and stopping frequently, though not long enough to lose momentum, to chat and joke.
It was a carefully crafted but unfussy show, making good use of video screens and a few strobe lights, but not letting the bells and whistles get in the way of the music.
Live, Urban amps up the energy of even the most placid ballads. He's not one to sit and languidly strum a guitar. Even an acoustic version of the melancholy break-up song “You'll Think of Me” took on an unexpected dramatic flair – and even a hint of comedy – in the concert performance.
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Those familiar with Urban from recordings rather than live shows – judging by a show of hands at Friday's concert, about half the audience – were likely surprised at the number of rhythmic changes, as well as the frequent increase in tempo, when those songs were performed live. The selection of songs, which emphasized the singer's hits, may not have been startling, but the re-interpretation of those familiar songs made them come alive.
Also likely surprising is Urban's amazing guitar work. Not one of those singers who uses a guitar primarily as a prop to provide musical bona fides, Urban treats the instrument as an extension of body and voice, not showboating but frequently throwing in a brief, sizzling solo. It's also an instrument of play: In a mesmerizing version of “Long Hot Summer” - in which Urban also stopped to blow an air horn a couple of times – he performed some passages by tapping the mic and guitar.
Urban works with excellent backing musicians, who also serve as backing vocalists, and to his credit, he lets them soar. If they're not all having a great time playing together, they're certainly doing a convincing imitation of it. One of the pleasures of the concert was that Urban, rather than doing the usual perfunctory introductions of band members, gave each a chance to shine separately, whether performing a song or doing a drum or keyboard solo, in a context that made the most sense.
Urban uses country music as a home base, respecting its traditions, but he also stretches and plays with it. He's known, of course, for pulling songs like “Wild Hearts” in the direction of rock, but he's also capable of getting funky, with songs like “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16,” or drifting through some smooth R & B in a song like “God Whispered Your Name.”
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That approach makes for a welcoming and inclusive performance, full of small, and large, delights.
The concert opened with sets by two singer-songwriters a couple of decades younger than Urban.
Ingrid Andress, who joked that she has “the most Swedish name in country music,” opened with a brief, confident and comfortable set that unshowily showed off her considerable range. Wearing a Dolly Parton tour jacket, shorts and tennis shoes, and occasionally moving to keyboards, she moved through songs providing sharp snapshots of various stages of various relationships, from the playfully assured “Lady Like,” to the quietly heartbreaking “Seeing Someone Else” to a fiercely bluesy cover of the Allman Brothers' “Whipping Post” to a sweetly hopeful “Feel Like This.”
Andress was followed by Tyler Hubbard, half of the recently disbanded duo Florida Georgia Line. With an easy manner and an engaging twang, Hubbard deftly navigated the challenging of integrating new music with older music more familiar to the audience, often paying tribute to beer and small town life, with a highlight of his set being a duet with Andress on Florida Georgia Line's “Meant to Be.”