Yesterday
my wife and I saw Josh
Groban live in concert in Fort Lauderdale.
If you don't recognize his name, I'll bet you know his
voice. This year Josh
Groban was nominated for
an Oscar and a Grammy!
The Oscar nomination was for his performance of
"Believe" from "The Polar Express"
soundtrack, [Josh also sang on the "Troy"
soundtrack] while the Grammy was for Best Male
Pop Vocal Performance for "You Raise Me Up".
Groban
has sold well over 5 million albums and his 2003
PBS Great Performances Special became a number
one selling DVD and the best selling long form
music video the year it was released. Josh
also sang at the closing ceremonies of the Salt Lake
City Olympics which seen by over one billion people!
Still, I find that a lot of people don't know who Josh
Groban is. Ah, but I digress.
At any rate, my wife is a huge fan and for her
birthday I decided to surprise her by taking her
to see Josh
Groban live. I figured she love the concert and
I'd enjoy it.
The
first indication that this was going to be a really cool
night was that Chris
Botti was opening for Josh.
What? You don't know who Chris Botti is?
Chris is a jazz musician.
A very, very talented jazz musician. Botti's
current cd "When
I Fall In Love," is the #1 selling jazz
album in the US and for a good reason. The
kid plays the trumpet like Tyson used to
punch. I heard Botti play before, but had no idea
that I'd be seeing him live. Botti came on stage
at just after 8PM. Botti seemed very much
at ease in front of the sold out crowd [although
he did say that he was honored to be playing in such a
huge venue and thanked the crowd for coming out
to hear music that wouldn't be found on MTV or
performed by someone with a belly ring]. Botti and
his band played for just over 30 minutes and definitely
left me wanting more.
Then
it was time for Josh
Groban.
Truth be told, I'd listened to Josh's music and
while I thought that he had a great voice for the
type of music that he sang, I was worried that I'd grow
tired of hearing him sing in Spanish and Italian
and... well, you get the picture. Boy, was I wrong!
Josh sang for almost two hours [including
his two encores]. I was never bored. And neither
were the over 12,000 fans in convention center.
I think that if Josh had sang all night, the crowd
would have been there listening as it came time for breakfast
to be served.
Lucia Micarelli is one of the featured soloists
who performs with Josh. She plays violin
and when she takes center stage she owns it.
As you can probably tell, it was just an awesome experience.
Had it not been for my wife's birthday I'd have missed
out. I wonder what she'll want next year?
I
dropped in on 
Ok,
ya just gotta 
Christopher
Mills is a writer, editor and graphic artist. Last year
he teamed with Rick Burchett and produced one of
my favorite comics of 2004,