Josh Groban & Judith Hill at the Prudential Center 10/30/13

I was very relieved that the sound quality at this concert was much improved over when I heard Josh at the same venue in 2011. At that earlier concert, the high frequency distortion was such that the music was essentially lost. This time it was merely too loud, which could be remedied with ear plugs. I didn't wear them all the time, but a lot of the time.

My favorite song of this concert was Remember When It Rained.  I had seen the YouTube videos of this song, but failed to appreciate how truly brilliant it was until I saw it in person. The arrangement is haunting. The way Judith and Josh move around the circuit of the In The Round stage, while staying on opposite sides was amazing choreography. I know Josh doesn't think he's dancing in this number, but it it's in fact a slow dance that illustrates isolation and lack of communication.  There were the spotlights shining upward from around the edges of the stage, which made it visually beautiful. This piece is really a tour de force, great Art with a capital A.

First my discussion of the pre-show with Judith Hill

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I became a fan of Judith Hill for three reasons: 1) her appearance in "This Is It," 2) her singing at Michael Jackson's memorial service, 3) her totally amazing song "I'll always be missing you," of which she distributed millions of copies totally free of charge after Michael Jackson’s death.

Since I’m such a fan of “I’ll Always Be Missing You,” I should mention, perhaps, that it’s more of a classical/pop crossover piece than her more recent performances.  Obviously, since I’m here as a Josh Groban fan, I’m going to prefer classical/pop crossover music.  But there was more to it.  Her ability to convey her grief over Michael Jackson’s death by use of her voice in that song was probably the best emotive singing I’ve ever heard.  Also, the lyrics were positively brilliant.  That song is just in a category by itself.  I still like to play it.

I wasn't as wild about her appearances on The Voice.  The earlier appearances showed this talented, beautiful, emotional, vulnerable young woman in relatively informal performances. More recently she's been trying to glam up, which totally doesn't interest me. I mean who could be a Josh Groban fan, if they were into glamour?  He's so anti-glamour.

Her show was good. She sang well. Her backup people did well, also. Since I tend to go for quiet, I appreciated her starting with a medley of just her at the piano. Also I enjoyed the numbers where the backup ensemble did choral harmonies.

Still the sublime genius of her earlier song, "I'll always be missing you," was not in evidence.  I know she doesn't want to get back into the pain she felt about Michael Jackson's death. I understand that; and maybe it takes that kind of pain to bring out genius, so maybe we're just not going to see it again. Perhaps she'll be a better, happier person, without going there, but, as a fan, I'm definitely not as happy.

Also, the super high heels made her walk awkwardly. I thought she looked better in ratty jeans and a homespun cotton craft shirt, and her hair flying wild all over the place.  They they didn't show her up on the screens, the way they did Josh. I wanted to see her face.

Her backup ensemble was all male and all black. Huh?  What's that about, in this day and age?

Apparently she was at the Meet & Greet, but did not come out to the busses afterwards to meet with the great unwashed masses, the way Josh did.  I wasn’t prepared to pay a lot for a Meet & Greet to see Josh, because I’ve met him a few times already.  If I had realized that that was the only way to meet Judith, I might have done it.  Oh, well.

Now to the main feature.

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First, the seats we got from the fan pre sale were not good.  They were high up and near the end – pretty far from the stage.Fortunately, we were able to move closer, because there were lots of open seats. We moved twice and ended up with very good seats. Still it was disappointing that the fan seats weren't good.

Now if you've been following this blog, you know I have a mild autism spectrum disorder. This means that I tend to focus on details that might not be important to others, but this is what I noticed.

First, I'm very sensitive to loud noises. This concert was definitely loud, in most places, so I spent a lot of it wearing ear plugs. But, and this is what was very curious, when we moved closer to the stage, the sound wasn't as loud. I figured out afterwards that the speakers were near the ceiling, so the upper seats were getting higher volume than the lower seats, not what I would have expected, but there it was.  Once we moved forward, I was able to spend more time with my ear plugs out.

Another thing that I got into was Josh's appearance on the screens. Josh seems to have developed a habit of dropping his jaw slightly to one side when he sings. His nose tilts slightly to the other side. When enlarged on the screen, these tilts give Josh an oddly distorted appearance, as if his face were bent.  The curious part of this was that the insides of the screens showed the mirror image of the outside of the screens. Where we were sitting, we could see the outside of one screen and the inside of the opposite screen. So on one screen he was bent in one way and on the other he was bent in the opposite way, kind of like a pair of parentheses.  Weird.

There were ominous warning signs at the entry to the concert that strobe effects were going to be used in the lighting.  That sent a little chill down my spine, but, fortunately, I’m not one of those people who goes into epileptic seizures in response to strobing.  Phew!

I did think that the lighting was beautiful in many cases.

Ok, now to the part of the review that is going to reflect that one tweet that Josh sent me “You’re always disappointed in me” (and then there was that other tweet of “why are all your questions so negative?")  OK, yes, I tend to be a griper.  Very true. 

I’ve been to several Josh concerts this year, which you’ll notice if you look at the back issues of this blog.

I really loved the sound at the Allen Room, in Lincoln Center, in February, at least after they turned down the volume. Due to the smaller number of instrumentalists, the sound was more focused; and I loved the slow, insistent beat.  The concert was hypnotic.  I was paralyzed by the music.  Afterwards, I saw myself on video, and saw that my face was stony serious, while other people were smiling.  I suppose that was a downer for Josh looking at me, given that I was front row center, but I was really transported, despite my stony demeanor.

I loved the sound at the Hollywood Bowl on the fourth of July even more.  I still cry when I think about that concert.  The volume level was perfect.  The acoustics were excellent.  The setting was beautiful.   It was the third time the performers had performed that same concert, so the timing and coordination were just perfect.  Josh was in excellent voice, with lots of subtlety of sound.  The whole thing just combined to be the absolute perfect concert experience.

So those were my major previous experiences with Josh this year. (see previous blogs for more)

The ITR concert was more rock-like.  To me, aside from being unpleasantly loud, the music sounded somewhat chaotic.  This could have been due to the amplification.  Still, I wonder whether using a different orchestra and backup choir at every concert is really working.  Obviously, they’re not going to be as good as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but even the LA Phil seemed to profit from doing the same concert three times.

Also, Josh’s voice was less subtle.  He’s still having problems with some of the higher notes, even though he’s transposed down.  It could have been the amplification, but it also seemed to me that his dynamic range was poor.  There were a few moderate volume notes, but mostly he seemed to sing loud, louder, and loud enough to make the amplification system go non-linear.  When he got really loud, you could hear odd buzzing sounds in the amplification.  Also, in duets, when he gets really loud, you can't hear Judith -- which is really the fault of the audio engineers, I think.

To me, the real joy of Josh’s voice has stemmed from its multi-textured quality.  It’s less boring to listen to songs over and over if every note is in a slightly different tonality.  His ability to do that has always been a great wonderment to me. 

Unfortunately, though, that multi-textured quality was largely absent from this concert. 

I sent a recording of my voice to a new vocal coach, recently.  I met her on the airplane flying to Los Angeles to hear Josh at the Hollywood Bowl.  I figured that I ought to take advantage of her being put in my way to see if she could help me with my voice.

Unfortunately, though, she was a real downer.  She said my pitch is starting to waver due to age, so she didn’t think she could help me.  She also said that my lung capacity is going to be reduced due to age, so she didn’t think she could help me with my breathing to create more emotional effects with my singing, which she felt were mostly to be achieved with breath control. She also said that the best singers are all under 30.  Bummer.

I told her about being a Josh Groban fan, and how he seemed to be losing his high notes.  She said that they worked him too hard when he was young and likely permanently damaged his voice.  There was a former voice major on the Bad Grobanites of the community bulletin boards who said she feared the same thing. 

I sure hope not. 

In any case, the Prudential Center had a lot of empty seats, even with the upper balconies closed off.

Sigh.

Maybe I should just give up on trying to see Josh in arenas.  Though I thought the show at Madison Square Garden was decent in 2011.

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Now I'm going to post my miserable photographs.  Ick.  Eventually, I'll get a cell phone with a better camera.

First, the view from our first seats taken at about 7:15 p.m. before the concert started:

I took this one, because I was surprised to see people sitting in the balcony, as I thought Josh wasn't planning to sell any balcony seats.

Here is Judith Hill.  You can see that's she's wearing a gold metallic dress and super high heels, but you can't see much else, as it's blurry.

Here are Josh & Christian.  This was after we moved closer to the stage.  We were maybe 6 rows from the front? Not sure.  Once we moved, we had excellent seats, as you can see here.

So this was my vain attempt to photograph Josh on the overhead screen.  Didn't work.

This was my attempt to photograph the chandeliers, when they were turned on.  Also didn't come out too well.  They definitely were pretty.

I did go out to the busses to see Josh after the concert.  I asked him where his Halloween costume was, but he didn't answer.  I forgot to ask him my favorite question "Have you called Stevie Wonder yet?"  I blogged about this a while back.  Here was my first attempt to photograph him. Blurry.  That big black thing is Darren's shoulder.

So then he moved on and I had to tilt my cell phone to get him.  You can see a bit of Darren's chin here. 

I've always been frustrated with photographs of Josh.  His face slants deeply way from his nose, so looking at him is a very 3D experience, and 2D photos don't capture him at all.  These were my very first attempts, not that they were successful. 

I've always thought that Josh looked best in his glasses and informal.  There's something very angelic about his face in person.  I don't think that comes through on the photos either.

I also tried to get Ruslan, but my cell phone really started acting up.  Sometimes, when it's been too long since it's been restarted, it starts throwing up black shadow menus over the screen and you can't do anything.  Ruslan was pretty patient, but eventually he moved on.  He has a much flatter face than Josh, so his photos tend to come out more true than Josh's do.

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Addendum:

I *thought* I had blogged about my frustration with Josh's reports that he never took Stevie Wonder up on his offer to co-write a song with Josh, but I can't find that.  I wanted to add the link here, because I metioned my perennial question as to whether he has called Stevie.

Josh reported that Stevie asked to write a song with him, because Stevie thought they might write a song that would save the world.  This was related to my quixotic quest for the world anthem, which I *have* written about on this blog.  

Josh said he was too chicken to call Stevie back.  This made me crazy.  It so reminded me of his being afraid to go rehearse with Celine Dion back when he was 17 -- only now David Foster isn't there to make Josh do it.  

So, I try to do my little part, and keep bugging him to call Stevie. 

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Addendum 11/4/13

I am just looking back at a duet from 2011 from the STY tour, and how relaxed Josh seemed having someone come up on stage from the audience.  My sense of Josh at this last concert was that he seemed less relaxed, somehow.  

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Addendum 11/6/13

Ruslan was very excited about the upcoming HBO special.  He really loved watching these kids learn how to write songs.

Ruslan also explained that sometimes they can't do the second encore because of issues with agreements with the unions who do the backstage work.

Also, I went to the Grobie pre-show gathering place, at the Brick City Bar and Grill.  People were scattered over a lot of tables, so I didn't get to see most people, but at least I got at a table with some Grobies, which was nice

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Addendum 11/7/13

I suppose that issue with the unions might explain this sense I had that the pace of the concert had a certain rushing feeling about it.

I noticed when Josh was playing the piano that his playing seems to have gotten a lot smoother than it used to be.

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Addendum 11/8/13

On the FOJG boards, there was some discussion of people not daring to go to this concert, because it was in Newark, which has a poor reputation as a high crime area.  The turnout for this concert was not great. I wonder how much of that was because of a largely female audience fearing crime.