Keith Urban at Xcel Energy Center
September 24, 2005

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Country Goes Urban And Gets A Show To Remember
Jon Bream, Minneapolis Star Tribune - September 25, 2005

Memo to Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith: You put on great concerts this year. But move it on over, guys. Keith Urban deserves to win the Country Music Association entertainer of the year award in November. Urban's show Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center -- his biggest indoor concert ever with more than 13,170 people -- was highly entertaining, musically satisfying and just plain old fun. By the end of his two-hour performance, it was obvious that Urban, 37, is the best all-around talent to emerge in Nashville since Vince Gill.

Urban had a sweet emotive tenor, reminiscent of Kenny Loggins'. He showed more expressive licks on the guitar than you'll hear in an arena this side of a Santana or U2 concert. He had more crowd-pleasing showbiz instincts and daring than Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong did eight days earlier in the same building. And he's so darn good-looking with his dimpled smile, toned muscles and meticulously streaked blond hair that dozens of women and girls held up signs begging for a hug, a kiss or "to strum his G string."

Urban accommodated a few, including 16-year-old twins who said they had never been kissed. He gave them big chaste smooches. Later, he let hyperactive sign-holder Cindy from Grand Marais, Minn., hold his microphone while he played guitar, sang and cuddled with her.

Sorry ladies, he's dating Nicole Kidman. The rest of his résumé includes 3 million copies sold of his latest CD, "Be Here," which is nominated for Country Music Association (CMA) album of the year. He's also a finalist for best video, male vocalist and entertainer of the year.

Urban should be a shoo-in for best guitarist if the CMA had the award. Whether he was doing a ballad, medium-tempo tune or a rocker, he revved it up on Saturday with long emotive passages. He also managed to sneak in snippets of such rock faves as U2's "Beautiful Day" and Gary Glitter's hockey anthem "Rock and Roll Part 2" done on acoustic guitar. If you're starting to think the hatless, Australian-bred Urban might sound like a rocker lost in Nashville, you wouldn't be far off. There's not much special about his pop-styled songs, some of which have been co-written with '80s big-hair rocker Richard Marx and John Shanks, Ashlee Simpson's writer-producer. But his flair for showmanship was extraordinary in country circles. Who else would grab his acoustic guitar and jump on a trapeze to travel to a small stage at the other end of the arena?

Keith Urban at Xcel Energy CenterSeptember 24, 2005

Keith Urban at Xcel Energy Center
September 24, 2005