Who: Keith Urban
What: Light The Fuse Tour 2014
Where: Allphones Arena, Sydney
When: Sunday 22 June 2014
Right off
the top, it must be said that, when it comes to musicians with serious guitar
chops, Keith Urban is in the upper reaches of the upper echelon, comfortable
there alongside luminaries like John Mayer, Tom Morello, Coldplay’s Jonny
Buckland and fellow country star Brad Paisley. It’s simply mesmerising what he
can do with an axe – or, in Urban’s case, a serious of them – and every little
trick up his sleeve seemed to be on display Sunday night.
It is
perhaps lost in the midst of his incredible guitar playing that Urban is also a
very accomplished song-writer, with a string of hit tunes to his name. In
Nashville these days, the current trend is going away from writing your own
music. Even those who had made a living writing their own material – Kenny
Chesney, I’m looking at you – are now taking advantage of the incredible pool
of song-writing talent on offer in Music City USA.
Not so,
Keith Urban, whose fingerprints are all over most of what was played on stage
Saturday and Sunday night. Given that the name of the tour borrows from the
name of his most recent album Fuse,
the majority of the two hours’ worth of set list – particularly the first half
– was stacked with songs from that new release, including the excellent “Love’s
Poster Child” and “Even The Stars Fall 4 U” that, admittedly, sound more like
mainstream rock than real country, but are great, catchy songs, with awesome
guitar solos built in.
On stage
midway through the set was North Queensland girl Brooke Schubert. She was discovered
by a Townsville radio station, who passed on their knowledge to Urban during a
recent interview. So what does Keith do? He jumps on YouTube, likes what he
sees, and now Schubert, blessed with a strong, soaring voice, is a part of this
Australian tour, singing Texan Miranda Lambert’s parts on “We Were Us”, the
up-tempo reminisce about life and love as youngsters, with that distinctive
electric banjo opening, and the whimsical recollections of life in a small town
that went #1 in America.
Of all the
songs on Fuse, Urban’s first duet
with Lambert, a country superstar in her own right, is probably my favourite.
Despite it going #1 on the US Country Billboard Charts, the anthem of glorious
yesteryear didn’t really have a permanent home on the American leg of the tour,
but thanks to Schubert’s emergence, it’s found one here in Australia. It’s not
a stretch to say Schubert, who is clearly going to be a star, does as much
justice to the parts sung in the studio by Lambert. In the live arena, it’s a
powerful song, anthemic and catchy, the sort of music you can’t help but want
to tap your feet to. There’s the expected solo from Urban, too, but it’s far
from formulaic.
Whilst most
of Urban’s best-performing tracks are catchy up-tempo numbers, he’s written a
stack of good ballads, too. I’ll come out and say it here: I prefer Urban at
his rocking best, but you can’t help but be impressed by soaring vocals
combined with epic guitar solos – particularly on my favourite KU song “You
Gonna Fly” and the 2002 hit “Somebody Like You”.
Urban’s
work on the acoustic guitar for two songs after the encore was pretty special,
too. His voice holds up remarkably well without the backing of the band, and
the sound mix in Allphones Arena was dead on. Even when he was singing from a
tiny B-stage in the middle of the crowd, where he performed a revved-up version
of the rollicking Golden Road hit “You Look Good
In My Shirt”.
Sunday night’s
show was a reminder of how many good songs Urban has up his sleeve in that he had
to leave some great ones out – “Jeans On” and “Where The Blacktop Ends” spring
immediately to mind.
As good as
Keith is – and, you know, he’s very
good – on guitar, I never once got the feeling that he’s showing off or being
arrogant or anything like that. In fact, he’s incredibly humble, like a guy you
know next door, who’s made it big and is clearly having the time of his life,
night after night. With the reception from the Sydney crowd, it’s not a stretch
to imagine that every show is better than the one before.
Urban’s
quirky sense of humour was on display on Sunday, making Newcastle and Goulburn jokes,
thanking people who’d come a long way to the show (including those who’d
travelled from Parramatta) and especially when he saw a sign in the audience from
a kid purporting to be 16 and have never kissed a girl (a subtle nod to the
song “Kiss A Girl”, which he performed later) and invited the unfortunate guy
onto the stage. Hilarity ensued, but was all in good fun. There was plenty of
fun all night.
Not since
watching Train at the Sydney Opera House in 2012 have I left a show with such a
happy feeling. Keith Urban, you star!
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