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  • Portland Show Review - By Road Reporter Melody!

    Here is the Portland Official Road Reporter review from Josh's Straight To You Tour by GROBanMELODY! Want to enter to win for a chance to be Josh's Official Road Reporter? Get all the contest details HERE.


    Hi everyone! I can’t believe I’m here even writing this because that means I had the great opportunity to meet and greet with Josh thanks to Sarah and FOJG!!! I had been waiting exactly 4 years and one day to see Josh again and this was my 5th Josh show overall. I flew my mom in for the weekend so she could see Josh again. We got to will call and picked up our tickets and m&g passes with no problems. The note on the envelope said we were to be at the meet up spot for the m&g at 7:10 so there really isn’t any time to get lossed or be late at all. Once we got in and were waiting I briefly chatted with Tim Curle who does percussion for Josh’s band whom I had met in 2007. Finally Darren brought us all backstage and my mom and I were in the group of the first people towards the front. Darren said there were about 120 people tonight, way larger than normal because as Josh explained later in the show there were actually 3 charity groups he was meeting with. So there wasn’t time for Josh to personalize the things he was signing. When I got up there I showed Josh the 8x10 picture I’d created of when he responded to me on twitter last year. I had wished Josh a happy national potato chip day and asked what was his fave, he had said I’m a terra chip man. I briefly explained how I came up with my username and Josh was like oh cool and reread the tweet/reply saying, I am a terra chip man. My mom has never met any one like this before and I think she was caught up in the moment and didn’t say everything she wanted to, she gave him a picture from the FOJG calendar last year and asked if he could sign it for a friend of hers. She gave Josh my silver sharpie that he used the last time I met him at the buses in 2007. The pen wouldn’t write at first and so I held out my manila padded envelope I had with me that I’d been keeping my picture in. I think I kind of confused Josh like I was trying to get him to sign it but he realized to get the pen running he kind of swirled it on the envelope. So now while it’s not an autograph, I have a swirl that Josh did :) It happened so fast and was over before we knew it. My mom and I went to grab some food and got to our seats shortly after opening act ELEW (Eric Lewis) began performing. I’ve never been to an opening with instrumental only music before. ELEW is an interesting peformer and I think went over very well with the crowd. Some of my favorites cover songs he did were the Young and Restless theme and Katy Perry- Teenage Dream. We walked around during intermission and I bought the tour booklet then made our way back to the seats for the show. I had the perfect seat- row 9, seat 12 which was right on the aisle.

    Josh opened at the back with Changing Colors and moved into February Song one of my faves from Awake cd. He said he was here to sing his ass off for us and he did. I really loved the stripped down version of You Are Loved it flowed very well. Josh chatted about how friendly Portland was. Josh made his way back to the front and I got a touch/hand slap as he walked past. Oceano and Alejate were lovely- I had never heard either of them live before. Bells of New York City is one that’s beautifully haunting. During the song this woman that had wandered up the aisle a couple times before and was kind of just lingering, wandered up again and you can hear on my video me telling her to “go sit down” She wasn’t staying in her seat. Finally security told her to sit down too and we didn’t see her after that. Higher Window was next and this is also one of my favorites on Illuminations. I melt when he sings out “I am blinded”. Alle Luce Del Sole was beautiful as always.

    I really like the way War at Home opens with the profile of Josh looking up at the stage in the dark. This is one of my favorite songs. I know Josh and I may have different opinions on many political issues, but as he says, this is not a red or blue thing it’s a human thing. It is incredible when it swells into the end half of the song. Voce Existe Em Mim is my favorite foreign language song on Illuminations and loved seeing Josh on the drums again.

    The audience participation portion was up next. I freaked out for 2 seconds when Josh said the first question was from “Melanie row 9” I thought, well maybe he got my name wrong because I was row 9 but then he said the seat two seats away from me. So close! The question was if he could be a sandwich on a menu, what kind would he be. Josh’s answer was great. “I’ll be a 30 year old piec of meat. No I’m just kidding. Skips a beat “Between really firm buns” audience laughs and he added “who’s got the pickle. How did I make a sandwich pervy I have no idea. In my sandwich it would be a wrap because I like to rap.” He acknowledged the pun and said it would be a swedish fish and beets and mushrooms the whole garden would be in there and every kind of cheese imaginable. He said he would call it the ‘Groban Grande’ with jalapeno peppers with a little miniature flag of Grobania sticking right on top. Board user TazKitty (Amy) got her question picked. She came up to shake his hand and Josh joked she was in the spit zone and should have a plastic poncho. The question was what is your most embarassing silly iPhone app. Josh said he hasn’t made a sing like Josh app yet but if there were one you could speak into it and then he sang in a very dramatic operatic voice and switched to a singing Swedish chef voice which is what he joked he thinks he sounds like. He has lots of zombie games on his phone because, beware, they ARE coming. Last but not least the Lil Wayne app which you can take any picture of yourself and make you look like rapper Lil Wayne with the blinged out gold teeth, dreads, etc. The last question was from a mom asking if her daughter could sing with Josh. I was expecting something like this. This time though, once Josh brought the daughter up to the stage in the back she didn’t seem to know what song she wanted to sing with him, maybe she really was surprised. Josh joked “we’re writing a song write now called (in sing song voice) “awkward siiiiilenccee” In the end, they sang Happy Birthday to another audience member whom he’d seen a birthday sign for earlier and the girl sang very well with Josh. He can sing me happy birthday any time! I got to briefly touch Josh’s shoulder again when he made his way back up to the stage again. Josh asked the married for 35 years couple the secret of marriage... the husband answered I know who’s the boss. The couple doesn’t drink so they brought out a “whole bunch of milk” The single girl was on stage by herself til Josh encouraged any single guy in the crowd to come up and a guy across the aisle from me finally ran up and got to experience the couch. Broken Vow I was dying to hear live as I never saw Josh in concert during his 1st two cds...It was amazing to hear it with the trumpet and even more beautiful if possible. Per Te was even more inredible live than the cd version. Amazing when that song builds. My mom is a huge Neil Diamond fan and so she loved Play Me. The audience participation in You Raise Me Up really brought everyone together I felt.

    After the “event” like experience that was the Awake tour, I appreciated the simplicity and beauty in this show. The colors and images that played off of the stage decorations were beautiful and made for bright and beautiful photo ops. And just like that the best two hours of my life had flown by! My mom and I decided to see if there was a chance Josh would come out to sign at the buses. Darren said he wasn’t sure yet since I know Josh had to get to Seattle that same night for his show the next day. Josh came out around 11:25 and first we all started shouting Sweeney because we saw him walking his dog. So cute! We were each able to get one more thing signed and finally had to leave. I was on post concert high and was up all late in the morning staring at these beautiful pictures. Thank you FOJG for an amazing experience!

Submitted by jgSarah on