FLORENCE - Keith Urban stood back with a smart grin as he aimed his mike to the audience and let them take over.
"Stupid boy, you can't fence that in / Stupid boy, it's like holding back the wind," they sang, and it sounded like all 16,000 people who had passed through Country Thunder's gates Friday were singing along.
For Urban, that moment might have seemed like coming full circle. Ten years ago, he stood on that stage for the first and only time, an Australian import with two songs to his credit and some crazy mad guitar skills that rivaled rock's guitar dynasties.
And here he was, a decade later and surely lots of goals and dreams realized, performing in the headlining spot with all that glittering superstar bling: dozens of songs, shiny guitars, a brilliant video light show blasting on a humongous screen behind him.
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But the bling is only eye candy. The merits of Urban's show rest on his ability to interpret an achingly beautiful ballad like "Stupid Boy" so convincingly you could swear he's choking back tears. Or deliver the boot-stomping romp of "Days Go By" with dizzying energy.
Urban's pop-country catalog is weighted equally between soaring monster ballads and spirited dance songs. Each is punctuated in his live performance with rock-worthy guitar solos that turn songs like his ballad " 'Til Summer Comes Around" and the rocking "I'm In" into epic events.
During the guitar rant for "Where the Blacktop Ends," Urban jogged the length of the center catwalk that jutted into the audience, pausing to squeeze outstretched hands and dodge the few women who tried to grab his behind. All the while, he never skipped a note.
Throughout his two-hour show, he used the catwalk to amazing effect, especially in his acoustic encore of the ballad "Tonight I Wanna Cry."
Just before his encore, he jumped off the side of the stage and made his way around the crowd with a security detail of four to six officers. He even leaped over a fence to shake hands with fans standing in the lawn section.
The security came in handy as throngs of fans tried to rush him.
Urban capped a day that included the Country Thunder debut of Kevin Costner & Modern West, and performances by Southern rocker Randy Houser, neo-traditionalist Luke Bryan and the hopping trio Trailer Choir.
Costner, who quietly took the stage with no introduction, took on the role of country music newcomer with the disadvantage of having little known material to support him.
But he delivered the goods in an hourlong set and showed off some real talent: rough-hewn vocals that nearly growled on his post-Hurricane Katrina rocker "Five Minutes to America"; a lusty growl on the sultry "Long Hot Night"; and a gently worn baritone on the pop-country ballad "Let Me Be the One," which he sang with his daughter, Lily.
On StarNet: Go to for a slide show of photos of today's events at Country Thunder.
If you Go
2010 Country Thunder festival at Canyon Moon Ranch, 20585 E. Price Station Road, Florence. Festival wraps up today with performances starting at 1 p.m. Tonight's headliner: Kid Rock.
