Josh Groban

[Jailcrow_of_Mandos]

I love the music Josh Groban sings. Generally, the ones in other languages are better because you cannot tell how the lyrics are sometimes a little lame. Any comments on him? Well, now comes the hate part. He can't perform live, and I paid money to see him try. Has anyone else made this mistake? Well, if not, I'll take you on the grand adventure in my newspaper editorial/review:

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The San Antonio SBC Center was packedwith screaming and flitting fan girls. The Josh Groban concert, despite any love I have for his recorded music, was the worst and most expensive concert Ive ever seen.

It was 50 dollars for a spot in the nosebleed section, while the much more impressive Trans-Siberian Orchestra had cost only 20 dollars for a floor seat. The stage was very plain, a corner for the orchestra, a corner for a jazz band, an oddly placed piano in the center, and a higher catwalk stage that was the target of three separate sets of stairs.

When the jazz band opened the show to the anxious and disheartened fan girls, I was more interested in a different catwalk. My entire party was staring at the ceiling, wondering if the guy walking back and forth up there would jump so the band would stop playing. They claimed to have the best-selling jazz album for four months running, but all the trumpeter ever did was squeal as loud as he could, sometimes growl, then drum the keys a bit to make it seem he was going down the chromatic scale. This went on for a good 45 minutes.

Finally, Josh Groban came on stage, allowing the girls a reasonable amount of shrieking time before plunging into a terrible [i]Oceano[/i], and [i]Per Te[/i] from the 2003 album Closer. It seemed like he hadnt warmed up at all in the extra time hed been given. He barely hit the high notes and couldnt hold those that were meant to be very long. Even his pronunciation on [i]Per Te[/i] was bad, though that could have been the echo.

Yet none of this compared to the two massive screens placed on either side of the stage to zoom in on Grobans faceand the inhuman, exaggerated expressions he revealed as he sang. At times it looked like a shot from the [i]Blair Witch Project[/i], and he seemed only able to lift one eyebrow. The stairs also seemed to cause trouble in the act, providing Groban with an unavoidable urge for constant happy feet. I tried to count how many times he went up and down the stairsin the same songbut I lost track.

The concert was looking up when he stopped singing. Groban seemed very laid back and had a good sense of humor, though he was often much too hyper, probably accounting for his constant lack of breath during songs.

I singa like Luigi just for youa, Groban told a fan attending on her birthday, then broke into an opera-style happy birthday song.

The fans saw these small breaks as chances to give him gifts, which by the end included a box of pixie sticks, a got Josh? hat, a cowboy hat, a stuffed bull, an angel bear beanie baby, a Josh Rocks! T-shirt that was given to a flamboyant guy in a pink shirt on the front row who smelled it repeatedly on camera, and a few marriage proposals.

These breaks unfortunately occurred after every two or three songs, which became extremely annoying. The security guards agreed, as they had to escort many young ladies back to their seats, since they continuously delayed the concert by going up and asking for autographs.

Do you know the way to e-Bay? Groban sang after the third or fourth with only the vaguest hint of irritation.

The highlight of the concert was when the violinist got a random solo between songs. It started slowly, mournful and beautifully played. Then the piano joined in with the familiar tune of Queens [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i], which the violinist also played beautifully all the way to the classic head banging section before fading back to the tune she started with.

Grobans whole thing would have fallen to pieces were it not for the Queen and the song [i]Vincent[/i], about the artist Van Gough, which gets me every time, but the assertion of [i]Troy[/i] as a good movie made even that appreciation fade all too quickly. Other songs included [i]Remember[/i] from [i]Troy[/i], [i]Broken Vow[/i], [i]Caruso[/i], [i]Remember When it Rained[/i], [i]You Raise Me Up[/i] (where the stairs finally came in handy for a choir), and a double encore with [i]Never Let Go[/i] and something else I didnt pay attention to because I felt sick by this point.

Save a few bucks and just buy the CD. Itll save your ear drums from the shallow fan girls and your eyes from the cheap light show.

[fallenangel]

Jesus Christ, asking for autographs [i]during[/i] the show? Thank god I don't like any groups that are attended by mostly young girls.

Can't say I'm familiar with his music, but it doesn't sound to be my taste anyway. Fifty dollars for shit seats is crazy. I paid that to see Bowie...but it's David Bowie! He can get away with charging that, and it was sold out, but I've barely heard of Josh Groban.
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"I care about people as much as I care about lawn furniture" - Dexter/Michael C. Hall

[Beatlechick90]

He's got a great voice, i can't deny that, but his lyrics... are a bit derivative.
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[url=http://dollyrockersinc.piczo.com][img]http://pic.piczo.com/img/i122379787_59088_3.gif[/img][/url]

[qtlilhunnibear]

i think its sweet he did a cover of my december

[Charcoal_Eyes]

I love Josh Groban's voice. It's so incredibly hot and makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I love the song "My Confession". It's so beautiful SLASHY in my opinion or for all you guys in anime fandoms- yaoish. It reminds me of Sirius/Remus

[iamem0tionless]

I love his voice, too. I saw him on the Opera show When he sings "When You Say You Love Me" it gives me goosebumps. I probably wouldn't go to a concert anyway and I don't really care to meet him, I just like his voice.

[Jailcrow_of_Mandos]

Yeah, I've noticed the lyrics are pretty lame- especially the foreign language ones. I also recently discovered something even more depressing. My friend Maryam takes violin lessons from the guy who played 2nd violin during the show, and he gave us lots of interesting tidbits that I wans't allowed to use in my newspaper story for the sake of the guy's job.

1. His piano teacher says he sucks at the piano. He can play, but has no form, etc. You can tell by the odd rhythm in "When it Rains" or whatever the name of the song was.

2. He was using monitors during the show and still got the songs wrong, which means he doesn't know the languages at all. This is most upsetting. I appreciated the language most :/

One of the only reasons I wanted to go was to do the newspaper story on it--and because I was feelign pissy and didn't want my money to go toward paying back my parents for the car that I didn't want. But yeah- it was extremly upsetting. Trans-siberian Orchestra is the win, though