One of the shows I was looking to the most this summer was Keith Urban. Urban is one of the most recognized artists in country music. He has career that has spanned over 4 decades which has garnered four Grammy Awards among other numerous accolades. He played a sold out show this past Saturday night at the OLG stage with Mackenzie Porter as the opener.
Medicine Hat’s own MacKenzie Porter took to the stage at 8pm sharp. Her 8-song set consisted of songs mostly from her latest effort ‘Nobody’s Born with a Broken Heart.’ In the 8 songs she did, she played an acoustic guitar and fiddle in her set. She also added 2 covers “Something in the Orange” from Zac Bryan and “Tim McGraw” from Taylor Swift. She stated that the song “Thinking About You” that Dustin Lynch wrote for her totally changed her life. She also apologized as she said that the last time she performed at the venue in August of 2023, she was 2 months pregnant. I thought Porter did well with her 30-minute slot time.
Headlining the show was Keith Urban. It’s been 12 years since I saw Urban live (at the Avalon Ballroom in the Fallsview Casino to be exact) and was curious if he would deliver the same type of rocking country show I saw back then?
Urban isn’t on a traditional tour supporting an album. He is just out doing some scattered dates to keep his live chops up and have some fun while he and his band are at it. Boy, did the band have some fun and then some! This show had everything. Urban went out into the crowd and performed on a makeshift mini stage. This was behind the general admission pit they had set up in front of the stage. After the two songs he did, he then signed the acoustic guitar and handed it to some lucky fan. He also showed his talents by doing some percussion with his guitar neck by slapping his hand to the rhythm of the beat for “Long Hot Summer.” Bassist Jerry Flowers joined in on the fun to help sing the fan favorite “The Joker” with Urban. They really made this a fun song to hear performed live. Urban performed twice with a video screen backdrop. Once it was with Carrie Underwood for “The Fighter,” and the second time it was with Pink for “One Too Many.” A blast of rainbow confetti fell upon everyone as the last song of the evening played in “Wasted Time.”
Overall, the spirit of rock and roll is alive. Urban has taken that spirit and breathed that into his live shows. His guitar playing and vocals are still fantastic. Personally, I really appreciate both Urban and Brad Paisley for truly playing electric lead guitar and holding their own. This show is a rock show in every sense of the word and if you don’t go and see Keith Urban live, you don’t know what your missing!
Setlist:
Straight Line
Somewhere in my Car
Wild Hearts
Days Go By
Cop Car
Messed Up as Me
Where the Blacktop Ends
Better Life
The Fighter (with Carrie Underwood on the video screen)
Long Hot Summer/I Had Some Help
The Joker (Steve Miller Band cover)
One Too Many
Flowers/You’ll Think About Me (B-Stage)
Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot cover)/Anti-Hero (Taylor swift cover)/ Somebody Like You (medley)
Blue Ain’t Your Color
Wasted Time
We would like to thank Erin Stitt from the Fallsview Casino for the credentials to review the show.
