ABC/Image Group LA Keith Urban happens to be a superstar who can take on any size venue he likes these days. Still, one of his favorite things to do is get his band together and play a tiny club or dive bar.
That’s why the Aussie music maker hints you haven’t seen the last of his pop-up shows.
“Yeah, I absolutely love doing ’em,” Keith says. “Someone said, ‘Well, you know when you advertise at the last second, we may only get like ten people who hear about it, just in time to make it.’ And I’d be like, ‘Well, then we play to ten people.’ … So far, we’ve had enough people show up,” he laughs.
The “Female” hitmaker finds there are advantages to playing smaller venues that just aren’t possible with larger audiences.
“As a guitar player,” Keith explains, “the best place for a guitarist’s amp to be is basically right behind your back legs, about two feet away, the very place where it can’t be when you’re playing a large arena.”
“I miss standing two feet away from the drummer,” he continues, “and the whole band crammed onto a tiny little stage. I miss the audience being right there… inches away from you. I miss all of that, because that’s a particular environment that creates a certain way of playing, that you just can’t play that way in a big venue.”
For Keith, the list goes on: “The spontaneity, the liberated free-ness, the unexpectedness, the danger that’s in a place that’s so small and like — ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen here!’ It’s like loud and anything could happen. That’s exhilarating.”
We should find out more about what’s ahead for Keith in 2018, during a special livestream event that starts Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT on his Facebook page.
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