What i wrote by 9:15 pm before Josh came on stage
I vowed never to go to another Josh Groban arena concert because they were too loud and hurt my ears and I felt that wearing ear plugs to a concert sorry of defeats the purpose; however, I got a new pair of concert ear plugs that are supposed to preserve the sound quality, which I wanted to try out.
I think they worked well, because I felt like could hear without pain.
I got here late, but still got to hear a fair amount of Jennifer Hudson. She is a fantastic singer. She was loud, but my ear plugs made me OK with it. I got a few brief recordings, but didn’t try to record the whole thing. I missed her lowest notes and also some of her high, quiet melisma. Curiously, at one point she lowered her mic and I could still hear her and I’m clear across the arena at the far end.
I got a good seat in section 102, having waited until the night before, when someone got desperate
The best seats on the floor seem to be pretty much sold out. The other sections have quite a few empty seats
I think one goal of this pairing was to get a broader base of fans. I did see some black people, who are normally not present at Josh Groban concerts—but not a huge number.
Jennifer Hudson is supposed to have a younger fan base than Josh. I do see some younger people. I’m not sure how many of them are here for her. I also see quite a few men — less likely to be at a pure Josh Groban concert.
Here’s a Google discussion of their fan bases
https://share.google/aimode/0YSR8aOq2wCPcMGhw
I do feel that this is a nice pairing. Josh has frequently chosen to duet with altos. Typically I cannot hear them over his voice. He sings very loudly. They blend well. The audio engineers don’t adequately compensate. He really sounds better duetting with sopranos. Their high voices contrast more with his and are more audible.
However no one is going to drown out Jennifer Hudson. The fan recordings I’ve heard online sound fantastic. She comes though loud and clear even though her voice is low. Also her distinctive melisma comes through.
I hope Josh doesn’t try melisma tonight. The times I’ve had him try sounded pretty lame. I don’t think it’s a strength for him.
I’m also hoping that being lower in the arena should make the sound better. I think the balcony tends to be louder because the sound from the speakers near the ceiling kind of gets trapped.
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I am going to write more, but here's a link to my concert clips on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?igsh=MTMwZHl4Y21uZTJvNg==
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Jennifer Hudson was extremely loud. Fortunately, I had my new concert earplugs. https://a.co/d/0f2teXjv These were billed as reducing volume while conserving fidelity. I think it worked.
Josh was in excellent voice. He sounded fantastic. His hair looked a bit wild, tho probably somebody made some kind of decision about that.
Here is an instagram post of Josh in Pennsylvania. https://www.instagram.com/p/DZc9l8nli12/
Josh's most loyal band member, guitarist and music director, Tariqh Akoni was there.
The pianist, Danae Greenfield, was new to me
https://www.danaegreenfield.com/
https://www.instagram.com/danaegreenfield/?hl=en
I hope Mark Stephens is ok. The last time I saw him on stage he was looking pretty old.
I guess Josh hires local orchestras when he is on tour. He used a bunch of Broadway musicians, who he knew from his stint as Sweeney Todd on Broadway. They called themselves "Josh Groban's Meat Pie Orchestra" in memory of that show.
He had a video of his dad playing Trumpet. His dad is 80 and not touring with him. He alleged that the video was live Zoom, but I think he was joking, because you can't sound sync with Zoom like that. There's a delay. https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=14
He did introduce the drummer, but he's had so many drummers I didn't really notice. He didn't play the drums himself, which he sometimes does during concerts. I felt a bit sad about that.
I was at the far end of the arena from the main stage, but he had a satellite stage very close to where I was sitting, so that was lucky.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=13
He went down to the satellite stage twice, walking back through the crowd to the main stage while singing & shaking people's hands.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=16
I remember that from the "Awake" DVD -- seeing him go through the audience singing and shaking people's hands -- tho he was running more when he was younger. I was glad to see him still doing this walking through the audience thing. There were two aisles down on the floor. He used both of them.
The tech people were near the satellite stage, so you can see them on some of my videos. I always enjoy seeing them. There are a lot of people working behind the scenes at these shows.
I'm going to try to embed my Instagram post here. Curiously, they won't let me tag Josh on this post. He might have restricted me, I suppose. That might also be why I can't report imposters who follow me pretending to be him.
Google said that Jennifer Hudson was supposed to attract a younger audience, so I assumed that the young woman sitting next to me was one of her fans -- but that turned out to be wrong. She was much more interested in Josh -- filming his singing with her cell phone, and sighing longingly at him and her recordings of him.
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