Three riders galloped into CN Centre on Tuesday night. They were a posse of rock-ready country stars, each one a sharpshooter with lyrical pistols and instrumental rifles. Their names were well known before they got here, their faces up on posters all over the continent, and they proved to Prince George they are definitely wanted.
Maren Morris, the young whip cracker with the untamed colt singles.
Dallas Smith, the stud songslinger with extra punch to his flurry of hits.
Keith Urban, the leader of the gang, with looks that kill and talents that bring you back to life.
Nonconformists all, they never apply the brakes when they get on stage and they send a message to country music fans everywhere that the status quo is in danger.
The night started with Morris. She has a sizable voice, a punchy stage presence, and a bad (by that, I mean good) attitude. You can detect her outlaw perfume and it makes you fantasize about how, one day soon, this rising star might break through the Nashville fences and be part of a new movement, a new substance in the Top 40. The hit single My Church was a bright flare, but it is only the whiff of the country fragrance Morris and her ilk are capable of. She is certainly a worthy leader in the making.
You can potentially add Canadian country rocker Smith to this gathering international storm. It shows that he was once the frontman for one of North America's hottest hard rock acts, Default, not that long ago. His stage abilities are well honed, and that voice, that voice!
His vocal chops are in the range of few others in the whole genre, on either side of the border. Johnny Reid, Jess Moskaluke, Martina McBride, Darius Rucker - that's the company he keeps for sheer power and note control.
What Smith has right now in performance savvy and music tools is only a foundation. He laid down a steady list of hits, as he opened for Urban, but there was an overarching theme. Since he wore a Blue Jays hat throughout the show I'll explain it in baseball terms. He hits the ball well, his mechanics are sound, but they are singles and doubles. He is tantalizingly capable of hitting a lot of homers. Don't get me wrong, I love Tippin' Point, I love Somebody Somewhere, but if he opens up his stance and takes the risks required to hit for the fences, he is going to have folks from Key West to Quttinirpaaq buying his T-shirts and bidding on his trading cards (more baseball analogies).
When (yup, I have faith in the guy) that happens, Prince George will get to feel some earned pride with that. He used the stage on Tuesday night to talk affectionately about our city, and particularly to point out his guitar player Jer Breaks, who local music fans will know is a P.G. boy, now a full-time member of the Dallas Smith band. Breaks looked great all blown up huge on the concert screens. He has more than earned the roar of P.G. love he received alongside Smith.
After Morris, after Smith (and Breaks), came lightning flashes of white light and the thunderous jangle of a black banjo. Urban took command. Some headliners on recent tours into CN Centre felt they needed pillars of fire and bombs bursting in air to impress the audience, but Urban showed all you need is a sizzling personality and quality songs.
I wish Urban was a professor at Performance Art University. He could teach so much about giving an audience their money's worth by giving them their heart's worth. He seemed unaware that he is one of the biggest names in the music world, that he is a TV personality and red carpet celebrity on top of his country music credentials. Some acts come out on stage and seem pleased, or satisfied, or excited. Keith Urban seemed - and this is rare - happy. As a person. That affable personality infused the songs with a sort of energy no pyrotechnics can ever hope to surpass. Someone that comfortable in their own skin can't fail to be confident in their performance.
Confidence is probably where Urban's stage presence is rooted. Not arrogance, not even swagger, but life-smart confidence. I've heard some solo artists tell me they want to built their band so they are the weak link, for maximum audience value, but if you're Keith Urban that is next to impossible. He is a stellar guitar player, far beyond "good." It looks like he settled for sideplayers who were diverse and as close to equal as he could find, and the result was a world class concert experience but with a kids-next-door delivery style.
The proof of confidence came when he spontaneously invited a fan on stage, Prince George girl Sarah Metcalfe, and she told him her favourite song was Love Somebody Like You. So he got down on one knee and played the song for her, like a private serenade in front of only a wee 5,000 of her closest friends.
Never mind the fact that's one of his biggest numbers; it has a special place in every night's set list. That was just no problem for a man who knows that the audience would rather have a personal moment of unscripted fun than a rehearsed and contrived moment out of audience control.
Urban and his audience did a lovely dance, all night long. There was give and take, action and reaction, and it is absolutely guaranteed that Urban's next show and the one after that will not ever be the same as Tuesday's, and that's what separates the stars from the superstars, no matter how many gold records are on their walls.
Urban was so attuned to his audience I was actually waiting (three-quarters expecting) him to hit the guitar intro for New Orleans Is Sinking or Raise A Little Hell and really bring on the Canada. The crowd would have blown the roof off.
It was already shaking the foundations as it was. The audience gave him some rare true-blue CN Centre thunder to bring him back for his encores. That's when the fans in the bleachers do a long drum roll with their feet on the steel floor and makes the whole building rumble like a volcano about to blow. He responded by walking back out wearing Jansen Harkins' Cougars jersey.
Just... class.
Urban isn't the first headliner to wear the Cougars colours during their show, but in all my many years of professionally watching concerts and events, I have never seen what Urban did next. After all the encores were done, all the lights were back on in the house, all the musicians had left the stage, Urban stayed behind and gave a little speech about how grateful he was for all the fans to spare their time and their hard-earned money to see his show. Then he knelt down on the edge of the stage and signed more autographs as the fans were filing out the door.
Just... class.
Usually when a big act comes through this (or any) city and puts on a performance, a fair number of those in the audience put a mental check-mark beside that experience. Been there, done that. I think if Urban had announced at the end of Tuesday night that he was coming back in a week, half the crowd would have bought another ticket on the spot and the other half would have been replaced by all the ones who felt the positive vibes emanating from the arena all night long.
It really does take a spot among the best concerts I have ever witnessed and my fingers are crossed he'll be back when his next album cycle happens.
If he brought Morris and Smith as his opening acts then, too, so much the better.
