Keith Urban – Rogers Arena – September 10, 2016
Saturday night in Vancouver, Keith Urban’s ripCORD world tour began its arena leg with multiple stops scheduled across Canada. The Aussie country star is being joined on this leg by up and coming singer Maren Morris and hometown country/rock artist Dallas Smith.
Promptly at 7:30 JRFM’s Clay St Thomas welcomed the audience to Rogers Arena and Maren Morris took to the stage for a half hour set to warm up and launch the ripCORD world tour. The young star, belted out a number of tunes from her HERO album which made its debut in June 2016 as she joined Keith Urban’s tour. Making her Canadian debut Maren thanked the support of Canadian country radio which pushed her single “My Church” to top 3.
After a quick stage change, award-winning Dallas Smith hit the stage to a warm Vancouver welcome, as many had obviously come early to support the Langley BC native. The former Default frontman, acknowledged his rock roots and demonstrated that his powerful voice can lend itself just as easily to hard power-rock as it does to rousing country. With 5 full-length albums and EP, Smith has more than enough material for his near-hour long set. The star related how this show brings his career in a sort of full-circle, in his Default days be remembered being backstage at Rogers Arena listening to Keith Urban before coming onstage and now here he was supporting him.
The audience roared when Keith Urban burst to the stage, with Gone Tomorrow (Here Today) and heated up with Long Hot Summer. The affable star’s performance crosses all genres, appealing to the country fans and rock lovers alike. Keith Urban’s guitar skills and energy rocked the arena as he made his way through a two-hour set. While I can’t profess to being a big fan before the show, I came away a fan. I was surprised how many of his songs were familiar to me, and even those that I didn’t know were carried by Urban’s buoyant energy and performance. By the time the set got to the hit Days Go By, the audience was fully dancing, singing and whooping it up all around the arena. Maren Morris joined Urban for We Were Us, singing Miranda Lambert’s part on the duet. Carrie Underwood even made an appearance, albeit on video, during The Fighter.
Giving his backing band the spotlight, bandmates Nathan Barlowe and Jerry Flowers each sang for their intros. To the unlikely beats of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, Urban and band made their way to the second stage at the back of the arena where they were joined by Dallas Smith for Somebody Like You and Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me. The audience clearly wasn’t ready as the set came to a close and for that matter, the star himself seemed like his could go on playing all night. Urban seemed genuinely appreciative of the audience, even going so far as bringing on member onstage to record a rendition of Happy Birthday on her phone for her youngster. Signing and giving away one of his performance guitars to another fan. Then after all the singing was done he stayed onstage shaking hands and greeting the audience around the stage. It’s no wonder, everyone I spoke to who had seen Keith Urban shows in the past spoke so highly of the experience.
The ripCORD World Tour continues in arenas across western Canada through September before moving into the US and Oceania until the year-end.