It began sometime Saturday with the influx of cowboys and cowgirls in State College, competing with the Valentine's Day couples for the streets, wandering in and out of bars during the early afternoon and singing their own rowdy renditions of Toby Keith hits on the buses.

They all gathered at the Bryce Jordan Center to pack the arena and see the country music superstar, who did not disappoint them.

Keith put on an incredible and enthusiastic performance. His energy and his heart went into each song, as did that of his band and the dancing girls.

Blake Shelton opened the show, performing his big hits "Austin" and "The Baby," and then some. As Shelton started to play, he looked around the full house, commenting on how impressed he was by the number of country music fans in the area.

After a short break, which was too long for the fans dying to see him, Keith entered the stage, jumping out of a pickup truck that opened up like a space ship. The audience went crazy.

Keith didn't talk much, but segued from song to song, with little comments such as "There's not enough red-necked drinking songs," which was how he prefaced "Beer for My Horses," or by simply asking the crowd, "Who's YOUR daddy?"

Keith opted against romantic music, instead celebrating the holiday with livelier, and definitely less lovey, songs like "You Ain't Much Fun (Since I Quit Drinking)."

Because it was his Shock'n Y'all tour, Keith played a lot of songs from his latest album, including its two "bus songs," which are the tunes he and his band write to entertain one another on the road. Keith and another guitar player sang "The Taliban Song," after announcing that "the world is too politically correct."

Keith dedicated the other bus song specially to his friend Willie Nelson, tactfully describing its subject as "Willie's medication" -- the song, obviously, being "Weed with Willie."

At one point in the show, Keith got one of his band members to dance for the crowd, which, as Keith disappeared offstage, somehow turned into most of the band lining up for a confusing yet hilarious, disco dance.

Keith ended his concert patriotically, performing his new song, "American Soldier," while pictures of the military and their families flashed across the Jordan Center's big screen. Lighters and American flags waved throughout the arena as the mood turned sentimental. As Keith ended the song to a standing ovation, giant posters of Uncle Sam with a guitar and a cowboy hat, along with an enormous flag, dropped from the ceiling.

Then flames shot up as Keith went straight into his finale, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." Machines began shooting out colored confetti to complement the music, and little kids turned their oversized cowboy hats upside-down to catch the paper that littered the Jordan Center.

Non-romantic and country-style isn't the most traditional way to spend Valentine's Day, but everyone who was a cowboy for the night with Toby Keith left just as happy.