Neither the weather nor the secrecy surrounding the Keith Urban "buzz gig"
at the Mod Club last night could keep Toronto fans from celebrating
Valentine's Day with the country music mega-star.
Fresh out of rehab for a much-publicized cocaine addiction, following an
even more publicized wedding to Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, the
39-year-old Australian country singer made a stop in Toronto as a teaser for
his upcoming North American tour in support of his latest album, Love, Pain
& The Whole Crazy Thing.
The album has been a huge success.
The first single, Once In A Lifetime, set a record as the highest debuting
song in the history of the Billboard country charts and the latest single,
Stupid Boy, is currently the number one country single in Canada for the
third week in a row. Before the concert, Urban was presented with a platinum
record for his latest effort and three double-platinum awards for Golden
Road, Be Here and the Livin' Right Now DVD.
Indeed, Canada loves this guy, and -- as evidenced by the approximately 600
screeching fans at the show last night -- Toronto especially digs him.
"It's so good to finally be back in Canada -- I didn't think we'd make it,
but Happy Valentine's Day!" said Urban, to a roaring response. "It's nice to
be here. We haven't played a club show in a long time. We're not going to
act like slick professionals tonight -- we're just gonna play some songs."
And just play some songs they did.
With his five-piece band, a smiling Urban tore through most of his new
material (and a sprinkling of old favourites) with technical precision and a
surprising amount of energy.
Which was met with even more energy from the raucous, hollering,
foot-stomping (and yes, even cowboy-hat-wearing) crowd.
For those out of the know -- this ain't your grandma's country music.
It's crunchy, guitar-heavy (at times, there were four guitarists slamming at
once) and loud. If it wasn't for the twang-tinged vocals and the lovesick
bumpkin lyrical tales, you'd think you were at a rock concert.
Urban's an accomplished guitarist, his vocals are extraordinarily strong and
his band -- a talented array of multi-instrumentalists -- is bang-on tight.
Highlights included show opener Once In A Lifetime, solo acoustic number
Raining On Sunday (Urban, who seemed to get a kick out of the crowd
singalongs, gave up the mic to the audience, who in turn sang the chorus in
it's entirety back to him) and Stupid Boy, which stood as quite the showcase
of Urban's stellar guitar work.
The ladies loved the love songs, of course.
But it was You'll Think Of Me, his token pack-yer-bags-darlin' song, that
Urban sang with more conviction than any other song of the night.
Ironic that the number that Urban called his "screw you, Valentine song"
turned out to be the best offering of the evening.
