Blame it on the moon. The full moon. The full moon shining over the deep-fried Minnesota State Fair.
Friday was country superstar Keith Urban's first time at the State Fair grandstand and apparently he didn't realize where he was. Early on, he called it a county fair. Later, he said the Minneapolis State Fair. Blame it on the moon.
No, actually during the encore he sorta blamed it on his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, who is in a play in London, and he was in England all week with her and their daughters and just flew in for the gig.
Urban left his wiz-bang video setup in Nashville and approached this almost like a no-frills bar gig with just three sidemen. No problem with that. His good-time music was good enough, especially an improvised "Werewolves of London," which was a nod to the full moon.
But Urban didn't really become fully invested until the seventh song, the ballad "Till Summer Comes Around." For the first time all night, he let his guitar pick up on the emotion of the lyrics and he soared, getting lost in his guitar playing, suggesting a searing loneliness as the bleakness of winter approaches.
The ensuing "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16," Urban's new single, was atypically loose, almost as if the under-rehearsed band couldn't decide on a reggae or hip-hop groove. But Urban got back on track on the next number, "Sweet Thing," featuring his fast-strumming, foot-stomping, windmill-fueled guitar work and the ad-libbed lyrics "On a Friday night at the Minnesota State Fair, you can get fried anything."
Ah, he got the venue and the music just right.
Urban couldn't be stopped for the rest of the 105-minute performance. Unquestionably, the highlight for the 13,038 fans was "You Look Good in My Shirt," a peppy and playful tune for which Urban jumped into the audience and eventually made his way to a small platform where he continued to perform.
