Keith Urban Keeps Shows ‘Multi-Layered’
If you've ever been to a Keith Urban concert, you know he's not the only one who sings during his live show. Keith is backed by some of Nashville's finest musicians, who also happen to have some powerful pipes themselves. So, during most live shows, Keith has each bandmate take the mic for a song of their choice.
"The guys in my band are phenomenal musicians, but they're also particularly gifted vocalists," Keith tells The Boot. "There's something about personalizing everyone, so they're not just in the back with the bass guitar. I like to give everybody an identity and a moment, because they're incredibly talented and any of them could be fronting their own band. I feel honored to have them in my band, and I love to show the audience what they can do."
Keith fans also know that his shows are more about the music, and less about fireworks or any fancy stage props. When it comes to the bells and whistles of a concert, the country star simply uses video on a big screen behind the band.
"I try to use the technology in two ways ... One, to take the experience to another place. But also to supplement and expand upon what we're doing, as opposed to being the thing and we provide the music for it," Keith explains. "Maybe some images take the emotion of a song to a new place. And for the short attention span people, like myself, who can only hear about three songs and then say, 'Well, what else have you got?,' I just try to keep the show interesting. Once you think you've seen everything, you see something new. The best concerts I've ever been to are the ones that went for a couple of hours but I never felt it. Hopefully it's multi-layered, so that days after, if I'm telling people about the concert, I'm like 'Then this happened ... and then this happened ...' Hopefully there are intricate parts that stay with you, and those are the concerts I love the most."
Keith certainly has a knack for throwing his audiences for a loop. During a live show in New York last year, he literally left the building while still playing his last song, as cameras followed him out the doors and into a taxi cab. And during another show in Virginia, he left the stage during the middle of a song to go up into the stands and give a very surprised fan his guitar.
"That is the greatest feeling ever," Keith says, "walking out with a guitar, playing a whole song with it and then giving it to somebody!"
Keith's next tour stop is April 16 in Florence, Ariz. For a full list of where you can see him live in concert, click here.
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