Toby Keith’s rise to Hollywood country star hit it’s second wind last night. The North Charleston Coliseum was at about 85 percent capacity but there was enough energy in both Montgomery Gentry and Toby’s sets to fill two arenas.

Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry followed openers Trailer Choir and Carters Chord (in a brilliant marketing move by Keith…both acts are newcomers on Toby’s Showdog Records). Montgomery Gentry in no way gave a truncated show despite their “opener” status. They tore up a long high energy jam filled with hits (including their latest number one (the title track to “Back When I Knew It All”). The duo had energy, and-they sounded great. By the end of their set the crowd had already gotten their money’s worth. Especially the ones with the specially priced $20 “hellraiser” tickets.

Toby opened his production with what seemed like future dvd bonus footage from “Beer For My Horses,” (Toby’s motion picture that comes out August 8th). Fun stuff and another good way to “sell” the movie without realliy selling. Overall, Toby was relaxed and seemed to be really engaged. He put oout one of his best performances I’ve seen. I was told Toby had the tough job of cutting out ten number one hits to keep the show from being too long but I didn’t feel shrtchanged in the least. The pyrotechnics were top notch and plentiful. Another one of his startup Show Dog label artists Mica Roberts added to a few songs in the list including the interesting cover choice of “Smoke from A Distant Fire” a hit from 1977 from the Sanford/Townsend band.

Billed as the “Bigger and Badder” tour it truly delivers an extravaganza. With a tour like this one an the movie coming it may just be time to put Toby BACK into contention for the coveted CMA/ACM Entertainer of The Year Award.

SET LISTS:

Montogomery Gentry
If You Ever Stop Loving Me
Back When I Knew It All
Something To be Proud Of
Lucky Man
Now Yer Talkin (New)
Long Line Of Losers (New)
What Do You Think About That
Hell Yeah
Thank God I’m A Country Boy / Hillbilly Shoes
My Town
Gone

Toby Keith (with appearance by Mica Roberts)
She’s a Hottie
Honkytonk U.
High Maintenance Woman
I’m Just Talkin About Tonight
Whiskey Girl
I Wanna Talk About Me
Get Drunk and Be Somebody
Get Trashed and Throw t All Away (with Mica Roberts)
Smoke From A Distant Fire
Love Me If You Can
You Shouldn’t Kiss me Like This
She Never Cried In Front Of Me (new)
Who’s Your Daddy
As Good As I once Was
I Love This Bar
Should’ve been A Cowboy
Weed With Willie
Beer For My Horses
How Do You Like Me Now
A Little Less Talk
American Soldier (encore)
Courtesy Of The Red White and Blue (encore)

Keith Urban never even had achance to get an official standing ovation at his amazing concert last night in Charleston. Instead, they stayed on their feet for the entire show (including encore). It was the stuff rock stars are made of.

Keith’s set was preceded by a strong showing by Carrie Underwood… but when Urban hit the stage (impressive one at that with at 200 + foot catwalk) it was electrifying without being campy and without the star having to “milk” the crowd in the least.

Urban opened the show with Once in A Lifetime Love in silhouette with massive high definition video behind. The video was about the best you’ll see (Chesney may have more screens… but Urban had a certain 70’s mega concert STYLE).

Just after his next two songs Where The Blacktop Ends then Find A Way Back Keith talked to the Charleston crowd… and spotted a fan sign that read “Can We Get a Picture With YOU?” So he called he three girls from Mt. Pleasant ON STAGE to do it right! Lisa and Jordan have a few keepers for photos… If you missed it… we caught the moment Click Here For More).

The Rest of the Set List:
Faster Car
Raining On Sunday
Stupid Boy
(instrumental)Band Intros
Better Half
Making Memories Of Us
You’ll Think of Me
Stop Draggin My Heart Around (with Carrie Underwood)
I Told You So (with 19 drummers from Coastal Carolina!)
Days Go By
Guitar Rock Medley: (I lost track after Walk This Way and Stairway to Heaven licks)
Good In My Shirt
Piano Intro / Tonight I Wanna Cry
Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me
Somebody Like You

Then Urban got personal with the song This Time to Nicole Kidman, “I have a very pregnant wife at home and I’d like to dedicate this one to her” he said as he plopped a Sony Camcorder on the piano to record US.

The show wrapped (about an hour and a half longer than I expected… 11:50p before I got to the car) with confetti, Better Life, a shout to the troops and the finale dedicated to all the fans “that made the decision not to leave until the very end.” Keith wrapped with one of his more recent hits Everybody and the near capacity (maybe 500 shy of a sellout) waited for autographs and straggled out.

Without a doubt Keith Urban is a future country / rock legend and last night I saw a show reminiscent of Springsteen in his prime.

Carrie’s Set List:

Taylor Swift stole the show this week. Not just at the CMA’s (with her laugh out loud “highlight of my senior year” line and performance) but also at her most recent “Bonfires and Amplifiers Tour stop where she grabbed the audience from the first downbeat of “Our Song” on stage Saturday night.

It was clear to me than many of the fans that were in the seats (overall a much lighter crowd than I would expect for Brad Paisley) were there specifically to see her. Even in the hallways of the Coliseum a LOT of young people were singing along to ALL the songs. Even the album (non radio hit) cuts.

Here’s the Set List from the 11/10/07 show:
Our Song
Beautiful
Teardrops On My Guitar
Shoulda Said No
Tim McGraw
I Hate That

Backstage, Swift was as charming as any artist I’ve met. She was so genuine and warm she would likely get a lot of breaks even if her music wasn’t special. But it really is. On her bus she treated our radio winner to an exclusive performance of “Our Song” and was open to all questions. I was hesitant to get too personal but asked who sent her the 2 dozen red roses I saw on her bus table, “Trisha Yearwood sent me those.” She followed with “You can ask me ANYTHING like that – no, there’s not from a boyfriend – I don’t have a boyfriend right now.” I’m sure some of the guys our promo staff perked up on that.

Full disclosure: I didn’t really care for Taylor up until about two weeks ago. To me she was too “pop”. I guess I thought she was manufactured. “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops” were straying too far from a traditional sound in my mind. Then, for some reason when I listened to “Our Song” it just clicked with me how amazing it is that this teenager is WRITING these clever songs. In fact she solo “wrote ‘Our Song’ as a little ditty for a 9th grade talent contest.” I had to go back and count the grades to remember 9th grade is a freshman in High School!

I no longer think Taylor Swift is too pop – rather she is the face, sound, and future of country. Two million cds sold…. and I’m just getting on… and we’re only on the third single. Horizon Award indeed.