Keith Urban @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 28/8/2025
It has been a big week for shows in Adelaide rock city but shows don’t come any bigger than Keith Urban. Wow! Good time vibes were aplenty treating Adelaide fans to well over two hours of music from his highly esteemed back catalogue with a few surprises thrown in along the way. Adelaide was the last stop on the “High And Alive World Tour” in Australia continuing the celebration of relatively new album High which celebrates its one year anniversary next month. No ego, no bravado, just a down to Earth rocker who is humble and has not forgotten the journey to get to where he is today even reminiscing about those early gigs across the road at The Gov. It is plain and simple to see why the fans love him.
A white sheet projects Urban’s back lit silhouette and once that dropped the fans screamed loudly as Keith and band barnstorm their way through Straight Line. Where The Blacktop End followed to which Keith “you’re too quiet Adelaide! Is there anyone celebrating a birthday?” There must of been eight hundred birthdays being celebrated yesterday! Keith also said that he was impressed that there is a South Australian location called Keith and again everyone said they were from Keith. With the promise to not let fans think about their lives outside for the next two hours he delivered everything and more than what you would expect.
Guitar mastery was on show in Long Hot Summer which featured a teaser of Bob Marley’s Is This Love? I thought there might have been a few more from High but judging by the response to Messed Up As Me that was a winner. Show staples Parallel Line, Better Life and You Look Good In My Shirt went down famously with the Adelaide faithful and “because we’re in Adelaide” Keith threw his first curve ball with a cover of The Angels Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again complete with the audience sing-a-long extras “no way, get f*****, f*** off!” Awesome way to get the crowd in to it. That energy continued on Somewhere In My Car and the hazy blue lights was a dead give away before Cop Car got going.
Old or new, it didn’t matter, the crowd knew all the words singing the words back. There was another teaser with Men At Work’s Land Down Under snuck in at the end of Days Go By. ‘Til Summer Comes Around and Heart and Like A Hometown were great moments. Keith spoke candidly about quitting school at the age of fifteen to follow his passion of playing music in a band and showing an immense amount of gratitude. Kicking it up a notch on Kiss a Girl / Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me it was the duet with guitarist Katie O on vocals on The Fighter that stole the show. The crowd sung a long with much gusto on Somebody Like You and One Too Many which featured Pink on screen.
Leaving the main stage and walking through the crowd to the smaller stage towards the back of the floor it was the perfect chance for fans at the back of the venue to be a lot closer to their hero. The Chappell Roan cover Pink Pony Club was a surprise inclusion but an absolute masterstroke in adding this one to the set list with one more to follow in You’ll Think Of Me before return to the main stage, thanking fans along way back with high five’s, it was Blue Ain’t Your Colour and Wasted Time that brought the main set to a close.
Returning for an encore Keith said “holy shit, you’re still here Adelaide!” acknowledging that people have travelled far and wide to be here and have to be up early for work the next day. The solo version of Memories Of Us was poignant and an absolute gem. As the clock nudged past eleven o’clock there was a couple big ones left with Jeans On and the aptly titled New Radicals cover You Get What You Give which was the perfect send off for everyone to head home in to freezing Adelaide night. Let’s hope it’s not nearly three years for a return visit.
Live Review By Rob Lyon