On July 16, 2016 I went to the Keith Urban concert featuring Maren Moris and Bret Eldredge in Holmdel, New Jersey at the PNC Bank Arts Center.
Leading up to the concert, I was pretty excited. I didn't really know that many Keith Urban songs but I've always had a general love and appreciation for country music so I figured that I would just have a good time with my mom, my aunt, and a few cousins. I had no idea what to expect but what I imagined the concert would have been, was the complete opposite. When I thought of Keith Urban and these other artists, I thought of maybe a couple hundred people just chilling around, just listening to and appreciating some music (of course those of age would be drinking their beers because its a country concert).
When I got there, after getting stuck in 30 minutes of traffic just to enter the parking lot, I knew that my image was so wrong. We parked on a grass lot where there were SO many people. Of course, we began to tailgate a lil bit (but then we were told to move our tailgate to the front because they wanted to have people park behind us so it was a front-gate *bah dum tss*). When we headed over to the stage arena thingy (still not sure what it is technically) I finally notice just how big this concert was going to be -- and let me tell you it was huge.
Maren Moris, the opening act, had only been on for about 7 minutes and the 5 of us could not find a spot where all of us could sit in a line, so we had to do a lil makeshift bundle set up so that we were all still together. When I say that this stadium was packed...I mean packed. It was so crowded and there were all kinds of people than I could've imagined.
But the important part, was the music. Oh, My God. Can these people sing! Maren's vocal chords must be a gift from God. She honestly is fabulous on the radio and even more fabulous live. Her voice is genuine and pure and she is just so cute and bubbly and so excited to be doing what she loves. Bret is just ugh. He is so cute to begin with and then on top of that his entrance onto the stage was just WOW. He came out in a straight jacket with some strobe lights and crazy lighting and all for his song "Lose My Mind" and it was just so wonderful and perfect. The rest of his set was so wonderfully great and his performance level was so high and he really could control the crowd!
Now Keith Urban... When I say that he can "shred" on the guitar, I mean it with every ounce of my being. He was so into the music and so happy to be doing something that you could tell he really truly loves to do it was just mesmerizing. Granted I didn't know much of the music, a few songs from the radio here or there but I never lost interest. He himself with his talent and ability to capture an audience really was just like nothing else. It made this concert one like no other and it was seriously a night to fall in love to the beat of the music (haha its kinda punny because that's a Bret Eldredge song!)
