“What the Hell are They Drinking in Hazard?” as Said by Keith Urban, of Course.

So I have to admit, I am not really a country music fan. But after watching the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban show tonight, I can no longer say that. I liked both acts so much that I will be buying their CDs.

The night started out with Carrie Underwood. The fans were screaming so incredibly loud as she made her way up through the floor, even if I tried to speak, I wouldn’t be able to hear myself. She was dressed in all black except for the coolest looking belt that was made of some kind of rhinestones. The way they had the stage positioned allowed her to kind of “walk through” the crowd and let everyone see her up close. I had attended a 3 Doors Down concert a couple years back and they just had the one stage up front. So there would be no way, unless you had one of the first rows that you would actually get to see what the band looked like. That’s why at tonight’s show, almost everyone on the floor and all around the bottom of the arena gave you an up close and personal view. Not only did they have the cool stage, but they had two big hanging projection screens. So if you were unable to see Carrie as she moved around, you could always watch her on the bigger-than-life screens.

Carrie’s song set included most of her hits songs from her two CDs. I think the song that I like most from her was “I Ain’t In Checotah Anymore.” She told the audience that on the big screen behind her were pictures she took herself in her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma. It’s so easy to forget that she actually is a real person, who has a life outside of performing. I really enjoyed seeing pictures of where she was from and knowing that she took them herself. Her set tonight was really amazing; there is definitely a reason she won season four of American Idol!

I do have to say though, my main motive for wanting to come to this concert tonight was to just see Carrie Underwood. I knew who Keith Urban was, and had heard of a few of his songs here and there, but never have been a real big fan. All I can say after watching him perform live tonight is, WOW! He is an awesome performer, and not to mention one of the best guitarists I have heard. I could have just sit there and listen to him play guitar all night. He wasn’t all that bad to look at either…

Right up front, Keith let everyone know that they were filming tonight’s show for an upcoming DVD. Therefore, the show was going to be extra long and that we are all to be on our “worst behavior.” And trust me, some of the people in the crowd definitely were. There was one girl behind us that was just dying to get backstage and was doing everything in her willpower to do just that, if you know what I mean. How cool is it that they picked Lexington to be the place to film their DVD?? The crew had all of these handheld cameras in the crowd taping everyone. I am sure there will be a lot of people who watch the DVD that will recognize at least one person.

One of the coolest things that happened during the show though was someone from the crowd got to come up and play guitar with Keith as he sang! Evidentially a few people in the crowd all had the same sign. “Let her play your guitar” and were all pointing to this teenage girl. After Keith was done playing one of his songs, he said okay, if you want to play my guitar, then come up here. So this young girl comes up on stage and says her name was Leslie from Hazard. Keith asked her what she wanted to play and she said she knew the solo of one of his songs. So she played the lead guitar and he played backup guitar and sang. How cool is that???? I was amazed that he asked her to come up on stage and even more amazed that she was so freaking good! As she was walking off stage, Keith asked the crowd, “What the hell are they drinking in Hazard?” He was really amazed that she was so good; I am sure like the rest of us were too! All I can say is that I am glad I stayed to listen to Keith Urban; otherwise I definitely would have missed out. I can guarantee that even non-country fans would have liked tonight’s show!

Editor’s Note: The above recap was written by Julie Johnson for use on the Rupp Arena Blog. All photos shown were taken by house photographer Michael Wright. More photos will be posted up here in the next week.

It’s official. The American Idols Live Tour will be coming to Rupp Arena this summer, August 16th. This will be the only appearance they are making in Kentucky. We will be reminding you when tickets become available so you can be sure to get one of the hotly-sought-after seats.

There is not a lot of information available other than the date they will be here and when the official on-sale date is, which is May 17th at 10 AM. As information becomes available, you can check it out at our page dedicated to the concert on Rupp Arena’s website, or general tour information on the tour page on American Idol’s website.

We have a winner for our Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood Ticket Giveaway that ended last week. Her name is Daena, and her favorite song is Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood.

Congratulations Daena on being the first winner on the Rupp Arena Blog and snagging yourself a pair of great seats and some concert shirts. I will be on-hand at the concert with camera in tote ready to snap some shots of our winner and her guest to put up on the blog.

To everyone else who entered, thanks a bunch. The contest had a much larger response then we could have ever expected and it is safe to say that there will be many more to come. In fact, there is a Blue Man Group giveaway going on right now up until this Wednesday, April 23rd at 5:00 pm EST. There will be many more ticket contests in the future, as well as some giveaways of other items. Stay tuned… same blog time, same blog channel.

I know what you are thinking, “What? Another Giveaway?” After hours of trial and error, various experiments, field research and rigorous testing, I can finally confirm once and for all that there can never actually be too much of a good thing. With that settled, we thought it would be great to run another giveaway on the blog. The show of choice this time around is the highly anticipated Blue Man Group : How to be a Megastar Tour 2.1 which is sure to be one of the most exciting and elaborate shows this year. One random entrant will win a pair of tickets to the show. To enter in the giveaway, we are asking you to comment with the bands/groups/shows that you would like to see come to Rupp Arena. We definitely get a fair share of ‘megastars’ on the arena floor, like the Blue Man Group, but there are so many events out there that we sometimes miss ones that you would love to see.

Follow these easy steps to enter:

• Leave a comment on this post.

• Include in the comment your top event (or more than one if you would like) that you would like to see come to Rupp Arena. These could be musical acts, sports events, or any other type of event.

• Be sure to leave the comment under the email address you want us to contact you at if you win

It is quick, painless, and lets us know what you would like to see come to Rupp Arena so we can try to book them. We will once again run all the comments through our super-awesome-state of the art-crazy-monkey operated-random-post comment-picker-machine to select a winner. Since it is random, as long as you make sure that you suggest at least 1 event you would like to see, then you have just as good of a chance as anyone else who enters. Please enter only once as all duplicate entries will be removed. Need some encouragement? I have just the right kind of thing…

The contest will be running starting today, April 17th until Wednesday, April 23rd at 5pm EST. The winner will be announced the following day, Thursday, April 24. The contest will run for about a week, and then we will announce the winner the day afterward which will still allow you plenty of time to make plans for the show that following Sunday, April 27th. With our usual recap of the show, we’ll post a picture of the winner and their guest!

Let us know what event(s) you would like to see at Rupp Arena below!

UPDATE: More sections opened up for the $10 ticket deal including the some in the endzone section of the upper arena. Remember, you still only have until Saturday at 9:00 PM to purchase them, or while they last.

Guess what? The promoter just gave us a heads up that there will be a limited number of seats available for the Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood concert for ONLY $10 for a limited time! It should be known that these seats are in the double letter rows of the upper arena on the sides (wider portions of the arena). This deal excludes sections 213 and 231. Those seats are pretty high up, so you may want to stock up on food with lots of iron in it to prevent your nose from bleeding. That being said, they are $10 tickets! Normally those tickets are $60. You could see a movie on Saturday night, or you could spend the same amount of money and be at a live concert with two great musical artists. We actually got a call from the Arena Manager from another venue who was raving about the show and said it was in the top 5 of best shows he has ever seen. See the seating chart below for $10 ticket sections. The $10 tickets are shown in red.

The $10 seats will go on sale starting tomorrow, April 16th at 10:00 am, and will be available until Saturday, April 19th at 9:00 pm or while supplies last. You can pick them up at all locations: Lexington Center Ticket Office, Ticketmaster outlets, via phone, or on the internet.

Sweet Sixteen took place a few weeks ago but it’s worth bringing up again so you can check out another of our time lapse videos…this time of the ENTIRE Sweet Sixteen tournament. Before you watch, take a look at some interesting stats Rupp’s Concessions Manager, Brian McMillin, compiled from the event.

117,212 – Total Number of People in Attendance
110,000 – Items Sold at Concessions
6,230 – Gallons of Soft Drinks Slurped
2,000 – Pounds of Popcorn Popped
700 – Gallons of Ice Cream Enjoyed
17 – Football Fields of Hot Dogs Scarfed (6,100 feet)
16 – Teams Looking to Make Their Mark in History
15 – Intense Games Played in the Tournament
8 – Sessions of Games Played
2 – Steinway Grand Pianos Worth of Meat Consumed (2,732 pounds)
1 – Amazing Tournament to Remember for Many Years

THIS CONTEST HAS NOW ENDED – CHECK BACK ON MONDAY, APRIL 21 FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNER

Today marks the start of a contest for one lucky person to win a pair of tickets and a pair of concert T-shirts for Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood’s Love, Pain & the whole crazy Carnival Ride Tour coming to Rupp Arena on April 26th. This will be a great way for you to get tickets to the show if you missed out. The tickets we are giving away are in Section 22, Row PP. In case you didn’t know, that is located on the end risers in the bottom half of the lower arena. You will be only a number of rows away from the tip of the stage. Here is a map, since visuals are always better. Check it out!

You need to do the following in order to be able to win the tickets and shirts:

• Leave a comment on this post.
• Include in the comment your favorite Keith Urban and /or Carrie Underwood song.
• Be sure to leave the comment under the email address you want us to contact you at if you win.
• Sit back, wait patiently, and enjoy the ‘whole crazy carnival ride.’

Pretty simple huh? We will then run all the comments through our super-awesome-state of the art-crazy-monkey operated-random-post comment-picker-machine to select a winner. Since it is random, as long as you make sure to post your favorite song by either artist, then you have just as good of a chance as anyone else who enters. Please enter only once as all duplicate entries will be removed and passed along to the worst spam mail site we can find (only kidding, although they will be discarded).

The contest will be running from today, April 11th until Friday, April 18th at 12pm EST. The winner will be announced that following Monday, April 21. The contest will run for a week exactly, and then we will announce the winner almost a week before the concert (technically five days), so there is plenty of time to decide which of your friends or family is going to join you in your extra seat. Not only will you be in some great seats, but you will have concert shirts on your back, all courtesy of the Rupp Arena Blog. With our usual recap of the show, we’ll post a picture of the winners! Think about it, you can be super internet famous as the first Rupp Arena Blog contest winner!

Leave your comment with favorite song(s) below and good luck!

You may remember a weekend back at the beginning of March where there were some events going on. The staff remembers it well since it was one of our busiest weekends this year. Earlier in that week was the Linkin Park concert which also marked the official launch of this blog. That weekend was the George Strait concert on Friday, Monster Jam on Saturday, and then UK Hoops (University of Kentucky Women’s Basketball) was on Sunday. Amidst the madness, someone around the office thought about how cool it would be to show a time lapse of the entire weekend. All three events vary so much from one another and require a lot of setup which would make a time lapse interesting to watch. WKYT was kind enough to run with the idea and set up a camera in one of the spotlight sections above the upper arena. It turns out that the video was a great idea. Everyone around the office enjoyed it a lot, and even the people who were here all weekend found it interesting to step back and take a look as it all unfolded. For you viewing pleasure, we added some music, some time stamps, and uploaded it to our Youtube page.

* The following took place in an undisclosed building (psst… Rupp Arena) between the dates of February 29st and March 2nd. This has been captured from actual events and is not a dramatization. This post will self destruct in two and a half minutes. *

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQjBBxtOVe0]

This last Saturday, the Lexington Horsemen played their second game of the season against the Pirates from Peoria, IL. The game was all about defense. It was great to see a game with such a low score in a sport that usually warrants scores of more than 100 for each team. The Horsemen are prized for their defense, and introduce the starters one at a time at the beginning of the game, when usually teams focus on their offensive starters. On Saturday though, the defenses on both teams were extremely tough which made for an interesting game with lots of surprises.

The game started out with the Horsemen leading 7 to 6 in the first quarter. The next quarter, the Pirates fought hard and scored two more touchdowns to the Horsemen’s one, making the score 14 to 20 going in to halftime. At this point of the game I happen to be sitting in a seat next to some people who were passing through Lexington and decided to catch a game. One of them asked “Aren’t these games supposed to have ridiculously high scores, with scoring back and forth all game?” It hadn’t really dawned on me until that point. This game was going at about the same pace as an NFL game, but with a much smaller field. That just pays tribute to the amazing defenses on both sides of the field. Although there was some scoring, it was nothing compared to an average AFL game. The scores stayed low in the third quarter as well, with the Horsemen getting 7 more points, and Peoria missing another extra point to get 6 more points, making it still a close game at 21 to 26. Unfortunately it was the fourth quarter where the Horsemen came undone. There were a few mistakes made, which is all Peoria needed to steal the game away. The Pirates won the game, 46 to 28. A lot of the Pirates success came from the outstanding job that number 7 on their team, Kofi Amoah did at Defensive Back and on special teams. It made one wonder if he was drinking the same water as another great Illinois defender, Brian Urlacher.

I made a panoramic of a series of photos I took from one of the corners on the floor. Click the images below to view the extremely LARGE version. Who knows, maybe you can pick yourself out in the crowd.

As mentioned during last week’s recap, I was working to get access to the floor to snap some more photos of the game. The Horsemen staff was more than accommodating, so I was able to take a whole slew of photos from the sidelines of the game. I went ahead and uploaded them all to our Flickr account and placed them in a Horsemen collection along with a few of the photos I snapped from last week. Here are some of the ones you can find in that collection.

The next home game for the Lexington Horsemen is May 10 against Mahoning Valley Thunder at 7:30. I will be field-side snapping some more pictures for the blog. Be sure to bring your game face and your cowbell and you may find your way into one of our game albums or even in the recap.

I am sure by now everyone knows about the Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood Concert at Rupp Arena two weeks from this Saturday. I am sure some of you already have tickets to the concert as well as some spare cash set aside for a Tshirt or two. Alas, some have neither tickets in hand, and thus no ability to buy merchandise. These unfortunates are stuck at home listening to a studio version of the songs. No need to fret! The Rupp Arena Blog is going to hook you up!

This Friday will mark the start of a contest for one lucky person to win a pair of tickets and a pair of concert Tshirts for Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood’s Love, Pain & the whole crazy Carnival Ride Tour coming to Rupp Arena on April 26th. This will be a great way for you to get tickets to the show if you missed out, or perhaps this could relieve you of the pair you got last minute which are ‘nose-bleeds’ up against the wall. The tickets we are giving away are in Section 22, Row PP. In case you didn’t know, that is located on the end risers in the bottom half of the lower arena. You will be only a number of rows away from the tip of the stage. Here is a map, since visuals are always better. Check it out!

Here is what you need to do in order to be in the drawing for the tickets and shirts. Come Friday, when the official contest is posted, all you need to do is leave a comment on the contest post with your favorite Keith Urban and/or Carrie Underwood song. Be sure to leave the comment with the email you want us to contact you at if you win. Pretty simple huh? We will then run all the comments through our super-awesome-state of the art-crazy-monkey operated-random-comment-picker-machine to select a winner. Since it is random, as long as you make sure to post your favorite song by either artist, then you have just as good of a chance as anyone else who enters.

So stay tuned until Friday, when the contest goes LIVE and you can enter. The contest will be running from Friday, April 11 through Friday, April 18 and the winner will be announced that following Monday, April 21. The contest will run for a week, and then we will announce the winner almost a week before the concert (technically five days), so there is plenty of time to decide which of yours friends and family is going to join you in your extra seat. Not only will you be in some great seats, but you will have concert shirts on your back, all courtesy of the Rupp Arena Blog. We will be sending out an email reminder of the contest to anyone in our First In Line Club, so if you aren’t in the club then you may want to sign up for free.