Tanglewood 8/30/14

People told me that the traffic at Tanglewood is terrible, so I got there at 2:20 for our 4:00 event.  They wouldn’t let us in until 4, so we waited outside the gate until they would let us in.

We got to hear the sound check, where Josh sang 4 songs with the orchestra.  It was heart wrenchingly beautiful.  His voice sounded totally amazing.  That made me really look forward to this concert.

Sigh.

Lily was so good as to include me in her purchase of a block of seats for Grobanites.  Since this was a group sale, we got great seats at a low price.  Well, at least in principle they were great seats.  I tweeted Josh about the block and he did acknowledge our group.  I don’t know if it was because of my tweet, or if he knew about it from the boards.  In any case, he did know we were there.  If anyone has any doubt that he follows what fans are doing, they shouldn’t

I was right next to the stage.  I was also right next to a speaker.  It was way too loud for me.  I had to wear ear plugs. Even when it was quiet enough for me to take them off, Josh’s voice sounded harsh, because of the proximity of the amplifiers.   With ear plugs, it was a deadened sound, without the subtlety that I know Josh’s voice has.

I spent the whole concert wishing I had not bought a ticket and were out at the gate listening from where I first heard Josh, from where he sounded glorious.

Even with ear plugs, I could feel every strum of Andre Manga’s bass guitar as a vibration in my collar bone.  It felt vaguely like being assaulted.

At least this time I wrote down the set list, which I think was the same as at Mohegan Sun.  I thought this was a nice selection with songs from each album.

Changing Colors

February Song (includes Josh on piano)

Allejate

Vincent

Alla Luce

Falling Slowly

Play me

Caruso

Christian's solos

Voce (includes Josh on drums)

Happy in my heartache

Per Te

Children will listen / nothing's going to harm you

To where to you are

I believe when I fall in love

You raise me up

Smile (encore: with only piano — I should have taken off my ear plugs for this one)

I wonder when I’m going to decide that Josh has tortured me with sound quality issues once too often.  

Generally, he seemed relaxed and happy, which was quite the contrast with the Straight to You tour, where he seemed tortured.  He commented at Mohegan Sun that he had gotten back together with the woman he wrote “Happy in my Heartache” about.  I’m not sure if he’s still with her, but he said that he felt awkward when she asked if this song were about her.  

His voice generally sounded good.  He really seems to have come into his own with his voice, knowing his instrument and how to control it.  The only exception was the high notes of “Per Te,” where he sounded strained.

I did feel the absence of Ruslan.  Ruslan is one of those people with a very fine ear, like David Foster.  There was something about the concert at the Allen Room, where I first heard him — where there was a slightly crisper, more organized sound to the music, a bit more of a beat, a bit more insistent — that really hooked me.  Mark Stephens has a different sound, more dreamy, more of a Debussy/Monet water lilies type.  

I got to see the operation of some of the stage lights that created special effects, because they were rotating right next to me.  That was somewhat interesting.

Josh was kind enough to tell the lighting people when they were shining lights directly into people’s eyes.  He asked them to stop it, which they didn’t do immediately, but did eventually.

I went to the fan event entitled “FANily Reunion.”  This was a nice event.  I am grateful to the many people who worked on it.  

I got to meet Janle from the UK who had read my blog way over there.  Wow!  The Internet is amazing!  She told me that Josh sounded great at the concert at Hyde Park that I had blogged about, because he didn’t sound good on the video.

I had a similar experience with hearing Josh at Radio City Music Hall when he appeared on America’s Got Talent with Forte.  He sounded ok in person, but the video didn’t sound good.

I’m not quite sure what this is about, but I think I noticed at Mohegan Sun that they turned up the orchestra volume on the high notes in “Per Te” to cover his strained sound — and they might have done this at Radio City Music Hall as well.  

I found myself frustrated again as I did one time when I saw him at the Stage Door at Avery Fisher Hall  http://www.twitlonger.com/show/kjlk02  Seeing him on stage, he seems so familiar. I’ve watched so many YouTube videos of him.  I feel like I’ve memorized every gesture.  I feel like, over the years of watching interviews and reading tweets, I’ve really gotten to know him.  Sitting so close at Tanglewood, accentuated that feeling. Yet I’m just one of a crowd: no way to have a serious conversation with him, no way for him to get to know *me.*

Even the FANily event was tough.  I don’t feel very connected to most of those people.  I wasn’t involved in organizing the event.  Those people seemed very close to each other.  Of course, I was going through chemo when the event was taking shape, so I was in no condition to get involved, but that resulted in me being on the outside.

On the way home, I listened to my new Gordon Bok CD.  Gordon Bok is a Maine folk singer.  He has a number of albums, though he never got to be a big star.  I liked his album.  It reminded me of the kind of concerts that I’ve usually been more comfortable with: small concerts in schools, colleges and churches — or in concert halls — not concerts with a lot of amplification or fancy lighting effects.  That was what I heard in the Before We Begin concert in New Haven, when I first heard Josh (2010??).  I was spoiled by that.

This whole mass music scene is just very unpleasant.

addendum
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Josh revealed the name of his backup singing group at both Mohegan Sun and Tanglewood: "East Cost Inspirational Singers."  He often just says "these great singers," so it was nice to hear a name of the group.

Addendum 9/2/14
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I had an afterthought.  My mom was a teacher.  She always said that you never really understand a subject until you try to teach it to someone else.  I'm thinking about the mentoring that Josh has done on a couple of TV programs recently, most notably Rising Star.  I'm thinking that his teaching experience has helped him as a performer.  He looked and sounded much more at ease than what I remembered.

Second Addendum 9/2/14
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I stayed in the Rodeway Inn in Lee, Massachusetts.  This is a motel a few miles from Tanglewood.  It was a very pleasant place, and, I think, a bit cheaper than some of the others.

Addendum 9/9/14
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I was just sort of having a slight flashback to Josh walking out of the tent at the FANily reunion.  His security guard, Darren, who we all know, put his arm protectively around Josh as Josh walked out.  It seemed sort of sweet at the time, but, when I think of it, I do wonder if that's really the best way to protect him.  If something untoward were to happen, which we would hope it wouldn't, of course, but if something like that happened, shouldn't Darren have his hands free to protect Josh, not have his arm around Josh?

Also, it looked as if Darren thought that Josh needed some kind of comforting.  I wonder why that would be.

Also, I saw Josh's parents who looked great.  Lindy has lost a lot of weight and is almost as thin as Josh now.