The Suite Life of Joyce and Amy

Friday night's Keith Urban concert was an adventure in suite hopping. Total credit for the blog title goes to Amy Paige, my partner in crime.

We were there as guests of Capitol records, who had a very nice VIP guest room down in the lower level of the arena. Beer, wine, lots of munchies. Since I'd worked right up until show time, Capitol provided me a very nice dinner of pinwheels, chips and salsa and diet coke. (It was peach salsa, which reminds me... someone still owes me pictures!) However, from there, you couldn't see the show. Good marks on food, bad marks on the view.

We made it into our seats just before show time, and from our seats, we were practically backstage, lol. But we were nice and close to Gary Allan, and fortunately Amy shares my umm... fondness... for looking at him.

The last time I saw Gary was at a PACKED club in Nashville during Country Radio Seminar. It was an awesome show, completely rockin'. It's hard being an opening act, I think. You can't crank the sound up as loud, you have a limited set. I think Gary's one of those acts who's better in the small club setting. But I could be way wrong. I'd like to hear from people who have seen him other places to find out what they thought of the show.

Our next stop in Suite Hopping adventure was in the UMG Suite - home to Gary's record label. If I told you how we got in there, I'd probably have to shoot you. Munchies there was popcorn and pretzels, and the view was EXACTLY across the arena from where our seats were, which was pretty funny. Average marks on food and view.

From there we headed to the SonyBMG suite, which was also amusing, because they didn't have an artist on this show. But Amy is well connected there. The view rocked from there, and our own personal garcon (told ya she was well connected!) made a run to the concession stand and delivered Diet Pepsi's. (Such wild partying Mamas we are.. a night out without the kids, and we're drinkin' soda.) We parked it here for Kieth's full show. Sara Johns was there, and I had a nice conversation with her about opening up the George Strait tour. I hadn't realized it, but the tour opens in Austin, TX. Talk about sink or swim -- opening for King George in Texas, wow! She also said she gets lots of comments about her episode of Driver's Ed. We laughed about the thing she had to redo in order to keep it a family friendly show. ;-)

I think I've seen more Keith Urban shows than I've seen any other artist perform full shows. Going back to the world's longest road trip when I was working at CountryCool.com in 2000, when we took a bus load of winners to Florida. This was in the height of Keith's addiction problems, and let's just say, it was not a pleasant trip. Took me a long time to forgive him for that. I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember any of it.

The last time I saw Keith was also during CRS, at a club, and it was an awesome show, I believe I blogged about it. But Friday night quite possibly topped that. I'm sure there are plenty of reviews online, but I have to tell you, as good as the show itself was, the encore, which went on forever, was my favorite part.

Of course, having just seen Garth, and Kenny not long before that, I couldn't help comparing and contrasting a little. The big bonus Keith had was the big video screen -- not as big as Kenny's but definitely something that Garth was lacking. He had all kinds of energy, some unexpected moments (including pulling a girl onstage, and a VERY cool run into the lower bowl to play a song) and an encore where he just winged it. I'd put it up there in my Top 5 concerts ever.

I think the big difference between Keith's show and Kenny's when it comes to what makes an Entertainer of the Year is just the sheer number of people Kenny plays for. But I gotta tell you, I'd much rather see any of them in a small arena like that than an NFL stadium.

Following the show Capitol hosted a post-party. The food here was to die for. Amy and I completely resisted the (very strong) urges to just park ourselves by the dessert bar. I did have some awesome grilled pizza and hot chocolate. Yummy!

There's no way to graciously name drop the people who were at the post-show party, but I always think it's interesting when folks come out to check out other artist's shows. So I'm just gonna drop names. Martina and John McBride were there (Martina came out during the encore) with their 2 oldest daughters. Delaney is only a couple of inches shorter than her mom. I totally live in that world too. ;-) Jeff Hannah (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and Matraca Berg were there, as was Jon Randall and his new bride, Jessie Alexander. Saw Lorianne Crook and we commiserated over our ears ringing. LOL. Lots of media types, including CMT.com, who didn't have a review up last time I checked, but probably will soon.

And of course, the world famous Amy Paige was there, who I'm hoping to butter up enough that she's gonna give me her blessing to share the adorably cute photo I took of her and Keith together.

It was after 1am by the time we left the party, and that wild woman was headed to the Wildhorse to check out the other Keith in town that night. I was headed home to bed. Although in retrospect, I'm not sure I made the right decision. I've been told I could sleep in December, and we were only an hour into December at that point.