Ahhh, Josh Groban. He’s my man right now. And apparently St. Louis is collectively the man, as we gave him the first standing ovation of the second half of his tour. Yay StLGrobanites!
Have to say, the set was really nice. Except for the parts where the lights would sweep up dramatically and blind anyone not sitting on the floor level. And who are those people who can afford to pay upwards of $400 for tickets? Not me. So not me. Not in a million years. I can’t even afford to upgrade my laptop or buy a keyboard. Mope.
At least when the lights were blue and teal and azure and shining up through the stairs it made a pretty picture, made better when Josh came out. We had to sit through a half-hour of a jazz lady, Mindy Avair; she was good and multitalented playing sax and clarinet and singing, but that’s just not my type of music. Then we had to wait twenty minutes before JG came on, which was terrible because we were sooo ready for him. Ah well.
He had on this really great purple oxford shirt at first. He always looks so natty. Good stylist I guess. Then later he changed into a white shirt with this crosshatched pattern on it…looked really good in the binoculars that the nice couple behind me let me borrow for a few songs. He also changed into Adidas soccer sneaks 🙂 I thought that was great.
Setlist:
oceano (a favorite! really good, loud, great opener)
per te
to where you are
mi mancherai
mi morena (spanish section, I guess, the guitar is great)
alejate (ok, one more)
canto alla vita (my absolute favorite, even if he sings it solo as opposed to the duet on the cd…started the song off by playing keyboards, which rocked, then at the end he busted out his drum chops…yes, the boy can play percussion, which is wonderful! So much fun 🙂 )
a solo by Lucia what’s-her-name, the violinist who is very very good. must find out her last name and check out her new cd. The solo included parts of Bohemian Rhapsody, which was suprising, being on a violin, but perfect. And hard, a showcase of her talent.
alla luce del sole (another favorite. I love the songs that sound classical then turn into this big loud pop song)
my december (yes, JG likes Linkin Park, and I like Linkin Park more because of this song. His voice is just wonderful on this one.)
caruso
remember when it rained (favorite off the Closer album, JG wrote it himself and plays piano throughout. Really makes me want a keyboard so I can attempt the same thing. Beautiful.)
vincent (aka starry starry night, a song about Vincent van Gogh, and how he killed himself, a favorite of JG’s, pretty, but odd.)
remember me (Troy lives! Yes! Hah. even he said he was a little disappointed with the movie. ah well. troy footage showing behind him, but no orlando, alas. just shots of buildings and battles. man, when he belts out a song there is no one to compare.)
you raise me up (the big song for JG right now, unfortunately just at the edge of his range, so sometimes he sounds like he’s straining. but pretty nonetheless. And damn me if I wanted to be the bishop dubourg high school choir…they got to sing along during the gospel section. eh. ran against them in high school…no way affton’s choir would get picked for something as high profile as this. ah well…)
And for an encore…(you knew there was going to be an encore)

After he got the standing ovation (for a goodly length of time, I might add) he came back out and played his version of simon and garfunkel’s america, which I didn’t think I knew but turns out that I had at least heard it before. He did it solo on the piano, which just boosts him into the stratosphere in bonus points. anyone who can play and sing at the same time is amazing to me, since I have such a hard time doing it. And his voice never sounded better…just him and the piano, so pure and strong, even after singing for an hour.
Then he left and so did quite a few people, but the band (minus the string section from some orchestra in st. louis but I missed it…could have been the stl symphony but I’m not sure) came back out and they launched into never let go, which is another good song. Kinda suggestive if you listen to the lyrics 😉 One of the cool parts of the set was the big video screen just behind the band. most of the time it worked really well, like during RWIR, but there were times when you could tell that the projector wasn’t getting turned off before the film ran out, because there would be this bright flash before it went black. Sort of distracting, but when it worked it was great. and if that was all the trouble they had on the first night of the second leg of the tour, after changing sets and songlists etc etc, I think it went quite well.
Met with the StLGrobanites before and after the show, which wasn’t quite as weird as I thought it could have been. Before was at the Route 66 Brewery in Union Station, which probably has better food than what they served us, since it was quite a big group, but a little on the dry side. Got a goody bag with stickers and a glowpen (which came late and I forgot to bring to the concert for its specially designated waving times) and cookies which I’ll eat tonight 🙂 and a lyric book and a bookmark and probably other things I forgot.
Afterwards was in the lobby of the Drury hotel, where we waited a while for people to come back from hoping to see JG and his tour bus. The Savvis has a protected area for the busses so it’s hard to catch a glimpse. Not like when I caught John Mayer at the Fox 😉 There weren’t that many of us at first, and I actually left early because I did have to be at work today. Started an experiment late because I took off early on friday. Of course, just as I left saw more grobanites heading towards the hotel. Almost turned around but I was really tired. Glad but sad. Hopefully I’ll catch up a little more with the people from the group on the boards later and make some friends…
Jen is a happy camper, and has a shirt and program to prove it.
Bring it on, John Mayer!
Random: I’m so glad the marriage act didn’t pass.