I was reminded today that I should really get around to telling my story about our Josh Groban concert adventure. You know, the concert that I’ve been talking about since February? It’s been nearly a week already! Be warned, this is not a short post! I’ve inserted several images and a video or two to keep you from getting too bored though : )
I nearly had heart failure when Casey’s school called at around 10:30am. It was the school nurse calling to say that Casey was having an issue with his braces. I had NO time to take the boy to the orthodontist to deal with such nonsense! Luckily, by the time she heard the phone ring twice, he had fixed it himself but she didn’t want to hang up knowing I was likely to answer any second. Dodged that bullet!
We left nearly as soon as Sarah arrived home from school at 2:15pm. The plan was to meet Laura (friend who was going with us) in Shrewsbury at 3:00pm as that was where we planned to get on I-83 to make our way to Hershey. Everyone arrived on time and we got on our way. It was a good omen that we had no difficulties making our way to Hershey and finding the arena.
We had to pick up our tickets at the will-call booth and I simply could not relax until I had them *in* my hands. That also went smoothly and we found ourselves with just a little more than 2 hours to kill before we could get into the arena. Our original plan was to go to the Outback Steakhouse some 15 minutes away but we had passed the Applebee’s on our way to the Arena. I was concerned about getting all turned around trying to make our way to the Outback and back. So, we chickened out and went to Applebee’s. In the future, I must remember that I really do not like Applebee’s and should avoid it all costs. Again, it worked out despite the food and we found ourselves with still too much time to kill before we could get into the arena.
I swear the clocked slow down to a crawl at this point. I was starting to think 6:30pm would not come no matter how long we waited outside. I had Laura take the obligatory “outside the venue” photo of me and Sarah:
Finally, the doors opened and the lines started crawling forward. The next decision we had was whether to buy our souvenirs before or after the show (we decided after). Then we found our way to an entrance into the seating area and found ourselves faced with A LOT of steps to go down to get to our floor seats.
It was so exciting to keep walking and walking and walking forward to our 12th row seats! Then the big wait began. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30pm. We knew there was an opening act that was to perform before JG would come on. I had heard it was a pianist of some stripe but had tried to keep from learning too much ahead of time because I wanted it all to be “fresh”. While we waited, we practically had to chase down somebody to get the cotton candy guy to come our way. Sarah couldn’t live another minute without some pink cotton candy!
Waiting impatiently!
Promptly at 7:30pm, the house lights went down and ELEW came onto the stage.
Talk about some funky music!! Never have I heard or seen a piano played like that before. During several of his pieces, he actually reached into the grand piano’s string area and played it like a guitar! I liked him well enough but at a point, some of the songs went on just a tad longer than I would have preferred. I plan on checking out his music at some point to get a feel for some of his recorded stuff. He played for 30 minutes and got a very nice response from the crowd.
Another 30 minutes passed as the stage was reset for JG. Just before 8:30pm, people in front of us started standing up and turning around and pointing behind us. Obviously, they had heard what was going to happen from previous concerts. After a couple of minutes the house lights went down again, then a spotlight started scanning the whole arena. Finally, screams erupted from the crowd as Josh took to a small round stage on the middle of the arena floor.
He started off by thanking all of us for welcoming him and his crew back to Hershey. He bantered for a bit and then got down to business singing a cover of “Changing Colors.” I’m not sure who originally sang this but is a fabulous song. I hope to find it on a recording of his someday. If you know of where I can get it now, please tell me!
(video from VH1 website, not from Hershey 06/15/2011 concert)
He followed this up with my favorite “February Song.” I’m not sure how many more songs he sang there before moving up to the main stage. The show was full of energy and amazing music. Josh was in prime form….obviously very comfortable on the stage. He really spent a good deal of time speaking to and engaging the crowd. I feel we got a good glimpse of the “real” Josh. He is quite the cut up and very endearing all at the same time. He went into the crowd several times during the concert. The crowd went wild each time.
Photo credit: PennLive.com
Some things I did learn about from early concerts were also done at our concert. Including reading questions submitted by txt message from the crowd which included a request to sing with Josh. As had occurred at previous concerts during this tour, Josh brought a young lady up on the little mid-arena stage and sang with her. Can you imagine? As lovely as that girl was and she sang very well, considering how nervous and excited she must have been….Sarah would have done even better :P
Speaking of singing, I sang my heart out with every song. I thought it was loud enough in there that I couldn’t be heard. Sarah said that was NOT the case and she’s sure the person next her sent some dirty looks my way a few times. Oh well, I can’t control myself sometimes and I when I go see him again…whether this tour or the next, I will sing myself silly once again.
Photo credit: PennLive.com
Sadly, after two hours the show came to an end. Josh initially left the stage after singing “Per Te” but came back for an encore. He sang a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Play Me” which he did masterfully. His final song was “You Raise Me Up”. He joked they couldn’t bring along a gospel choir like on previous tours because of the big fake crumbling wall that was built on stage, so he invited the crowd to back him up instead. We were more than happy to comply!
As with any concert event, getting OUT of the parking area was the hardest part of the night…besides waiting for the concert to begin, that is! Even after we got on the road that would lead us back to our first highway, it took a good deal of time to get to a point where the traffic diverged enough to start really moving. Still, we made good time getting back to Shrewsbury where we dropped off Laura at her car. We hit Wendy’s for a drink and late night snack of French fries. From all the yelling and singing, my throat was raw.
We finally came through the door at 1:00am. Talk about tired! Boy howdy! The adrenaline that had been pumping all day and night up to that point had a very distinctive crash about then. Still, I was too “alert” to be able to go right to sleep, so I didn’t crawl into bed until nearly 2:00am. I am so thankful I thought ahead and took the next day off from work too. It was probably Saturday before I was truly “recovered”.
I have “borrowed” several of the images seen here are from other sources. I’d like to especially thank Stacey F. for sharing her images with me. She was so kind to send me full resolution files that I’ll be putting into a scrapbook page or two in the coming weeks. Her front row seats allowed her a better vantage point than even my 12th row seats allowed. I have to say that my fellow Grobanites are some really great people whom I’m proud to come to know through our shared experiences and love of all things JG. I think that JG himself brings out some of the best in his fans who in turn share it with those around them.
It was a special night made even more special in that I was able to share it with my fabulous daughter and with a great friend. Hopefully, I didn’t drive them too crazy : )
More photos: These are from my fellow Grobanite, Stacey F.
