Josh Josh Josh Josh Josh Josh Josh: Part 2

Our seats were not super-good nor super-terrible either. We had a pretty good view of the stage, I just wish we had been a tiny bit closer.

The opening act was a piano-playing extraordinaire named Elew who called himself a Rockjazz pianist, from Camden of all placed. He was very good, a bit loud, and played hilarious medleys of Coldplay, the Waltz of the Flowers, Sweet Home Alabama, the Entertainer, the Pink Panther theme, Katy Perry, the Peanuts theme music, and much more. He also wore these insane metal arm sheath things that I guess helped him bang on the piano and play the piano strings (which he does by the way) without inflicting pain on himself, but from far away he looked like a super-hero mid-transformation. A woman behind me leaned over to the woman next to her and said hopefully "Maybe he'll be on a PBS special." Maybe, dear lady, may be.

After he finished there was a rather long wait in which we ate the rest of the Swedish Fish and felt peeved at the ads. But then the lights dimmed, the orchestra came out and started a really intense, anthemic intro. I really felt like the astronauts from Apollo 13 or Olympic athletes were supposed to be approaching. They were so good I almost missed tricky Josh running out into the audience from the BACK of the arena!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!! THE FLOOR SECTION WENT BONKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!! JOSH IS IN THE BACK OF THE ARENA!!! HE'S SO SNEAKY HAVING US WATCH THE ORCHESTRA ON STAGE AND THEN SURPRISING EVERYONE FROM THE SOMEPLACE ELSE!!!!! HE. IS. SO. CLOSE!!!! MELTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was not surprised; I knew that he has been trying to interact with the audience more so figured he would do something like that. (See all my research paid off.) He hopped up on a little stage they had in front of the sound board and started crooning away.

He sang as song called "Changing Colors" that was nice, but a little cheesy. Not my favorite song he's ever sung. But then he went into "February Song" which I LOVE. It was a much more subdued version than I'd heard previously; on his last tour this song kinda blew my mind because he really rocked out to it and IT WAS AWESOME. I missed that raw energy.

What was nice about his playing a few songs from the back of the arena was that he actually ended up being pretty much right in front of us, rather than at a longer side-angle when he was on state. I took a picture on my phone:See Josh playing the piano!!! Isn't he just the best?!?!?!?!? See all the crazy women gathering around. They were actually rather entertaining to watch as well. There were a couple of girls absolutely having a meltdown and lots of middle-aged women swaying and waving their arms in the air.

After that, Josh launched into the feel-goody "You Are Loved" which he obligingly sang to diverse sections of the audience. He only sang to my section once though. That was a bit disappointing.

Here, in an even better phone-photo, is the back section hogging all his attention:
After this he charmed his way to through the audience and got up on stage to do the rest of his singing, although he did come back to the back for a few songs later on. He did lots of my favorite songs: A La Luce, Oceano, Higher Window, Bells of New York City (sooooo good), and If I Walk Away. The only song I really missed was Awake, which is a super beautiful and deep song. I would so have preferred that over Galileo, which I really do not care for (It starts "Galileo fell in love as a Galilean boy . . . the chorus involves: "who put the rainbows in the skkyyyyyy?").

Josh did some cool drumming though. He and his two drummers had a great percussionfest in the beginning of the second half of the show and during Você Existe em Mim.

I was desperately afraid he was not going to sing Machine, which is such a GREAT GREAT song, but then he did it close to the end of the show. YAY!!!!!!!!! It was stupendous. He had a kickin horn section that really got into the jazzy attitude of it--- and to be honest, how can you not get into it, it is too fantabulous! I wanted to get up and dance; I definitely was singing along. (The one and only downside of going to a Josh Groban concert is the other audience members are 80% 50 and older, so they are not exactly super carefree, groovin people to sit next to.)

They also lit up the lights above the stage and choreographed the (not-on) lights to rotate and move around during different parts of the song, which was SO COOL. It really caught the eerily, cold, emotionlessness of the person the song is about ("Oh you're a machine!" accuses the song). It was a fantastic touch. And while I am on the subject, this tour had some super cool projections, which made the background look really detailed and 3D. I'd love to know how they did that some day.

In between songs, Josh was funny and witty and darling. He answered questions people had texted him before the show which was really adorbs because he called out their seat number and the spotlights swirled around and landed on them and they got to stand up and show-off.

Josh also started the wave when asked by a texter which was really funny because he got really excited and started running off to the back the arena to start it off (although the orchestra participated). From where were were sitting we saw a gleeful little Josh running off through the floor section being chased down by several panicked, burly body guards.

And then all too soon, the concert was coming to a close. Josh said goodbye. People started leaving.

But then the Encore!!!!

Those poor stupid people who left early! Boy did they miss out! The encore was great!

He sang a Neil Diamond song!!! A Neil Diamond song! Such a perfect fit! He sang the beautiful "Play Me" and it was glorious. I really was elated and privileged to hear that.

And then to send us all home happy, he sang You Raise Me Up, and because he didn't have a gospel choir to back him up, he tasked us to sing! It was great! I've always wanted to be in an audience that sings loudly enough to carry the song without the singer, and it totally happened! It was wonderful!

My companion and I skipped joyfully back to the car, and filled with Josh-related-happiness, narrowly avoided being killed as we left the parking lot and attempted an insane merge to get onto the highway whilst belting out Elton John and Billy Joel all the way home.