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

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Friday May 20, 2011, is a day that I will not soon forget! After the hour and
twenty minute drive from Tahlequah, OK my friend Penny and I finally made it to our destination the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK to see the one and only Josh Groban live in concert. This is something I had ben looking forward to since his Closer Tour Performance in 2005 in Oklahoma City, OK. My friend on the other hand had not heard much about him and really had not heard a lot of his music before the night of the Tulsa show. The excitement truly began two days before the show when I was notified by the Josh Groban Team saying that I had been named the Road Reporter for the Tulsa show. I hardly slept the two nights before the show after getting that exciting news. We arrived early to the show to pick up our meet and greet passes and my press pass, which I found was not needed because I had bought such good seats for the show. After some time had passed it was finally time to meet the man that inspires me to want to sing professionally. We were led back into a hallway and held in a corridor covered with a curtain. Then there was another curtain, which covered the entrance to Josh’s dressing room and that is where he was standing to meet each member of the meet and greet group, sign an autograph and take a picture. This moment was amazing and I will never forget it he welcomed me to the show, shook my hand, signed my concert ticket and then took a picture with me, but I said very little still too in shock that I was actually standing next to a man that was famous because of his angelic
singing voice. After this the security and BOK Center staff proceeded to usher us back onto the arena floor to find our seats before the show started.

While looking around the audience I noticed that the majority of them were older probably 25 and older, with a few groups through out the arena of the obsessed teenage girls. The set was very plain to begin with a simple white wall that had an ancient Greek look to it. Many instruments were on stage so he must have brought a lot of accompaniment players. Then finally a gentleman arrives on stage with an afro and silver cuffs over his black
jacket. This, I later found out, was ELEW the classical jazz pianist that was to be the opening act. It was a very interesting mixture of recognizable tunes and amazingly tricky interludes he used to create what he called a mash up of familiar tunes. He played several tunes and like Charlie Brown theme, Katy Perry’s teenage Dream, and even Mr. Brightside by The Killers. His technique was amazing he played with no music and with no bench simply standing in an awkward stance in front of the piano with his legs spread apart, his eyes rolling back into his head and jolting around when he was really feeling the music. It was a short opening act with only about three to four mash ups of tunes and then he left the stage as gracefully as he had arrived. The girl sitting next to me said he was on YouTube and he is just as real on stage as there only the setting is a nice hotel room instead of a stage. ELEW was not a well-known act, but it is one that I will be looking up and adding to my iTunes list for sure.

After a rather short intermission compared to other concerts I have been to it was time for the reason fans packed the BOK Center. Josh Groban was about to take the stage and it would be the beginning of a two hour-long visit that will leave Tulsa wondering, “When will Josh Groban return to WOW us again?” There were two stages the main stage at the one end of the arena where the band and small orchestra stayed and then a center stage with simply a piano and microphone on almost the opposite side of the arena floor by the sound booth. Josh entered from the back with a huge cheer coming from the crowd upon his entrance and spot lights illuminating his body as he moved quickly towards the second stage to begin the concert. He began the concert with a song I had not heard of before, and it shocked me because I like it a lot. Changing Colors a song about falling, but understanding its not the end, saying that the “it’s a pretty good view from down
here, too”. This song is very good and Josh sang it just like he would every song the rest of the evening with grace and power in true Josh form. Second on his set list was a song from the Awake album February Song this is the point in the concert when my friend really listened to the lyrics and began to cry. This song I believe talks about friendship and Penny is a great friend, but the mixture of meaningful lyrics and Josh’s huge range baritone voice was too much during this song. Next he moved on to sing You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up), which is another emotional song that tugs on your heartstrings as you hear it being spread through out the room like a beautiful aroma by his angelic voice.

The fourth song on the set list was Oceano a song from his Closer album. This song was in a foreign language, but even though the majority of folks in the audience probably had no idea what Josh was singing did
not stop them from applauding his magnificent voice after the song concluded. This was followed by another song off his Closer album called All'improvviso Amore, which sounded absolutely beautiful as it left his lips and flew around the arena. Then we finally arrived at a song from his new Illuminations album, Bells of New York City, which he described as writing while missing the New York City area. He also told the audience that he needed to write the song while he missed New York, but he has recently relocated and is now living there. Higher Window was next and was loved by the audience just as every song before it. He then began talking about appreciating veterans and how when they return from war that they are still fighting a war. Mentioning his thoughts on the government cutting veteran benefits and then the music starts and he begins to sing War at Home. There was another song in a foreign language after that, but I was unable to identify it. Then Josh goes off stage and all of the sudden the band begins to play while a set crew places a set of drums on stage, and then as quickly as he left he returned and began to play the drums. He can play not only play the piano, but also the drums, which made me, wonder what other instruments he plays. He truly is a one-man band as one of his songs says.

After playing with the band during a long intro he leaves the drum set and begins Voce Existe Em Mim. When he finishes singing he returns to the drums and plays the outro for the song. At this point in the show Josh took a break from singing to answer audience questions that had been collected before the show. The first question was about what Josh would do if a zombie apocalypse happened. He proceeded to say that they had boarded the doors and would be creating weapons out of wood boards and nails. HE then finished that question by saying what he would really do is smother himself in peanut butter and wait to see what happens. Someone then questioned crunchy or creamy? He replied with crunchy because he thought that was what the zombies would like. He went to the next question that was if you were able to use a dinosaur as transportation what one would you use? He turned the question on the audience member and she said a pterodactyl and Josh said oh yeah-good choice then you could fly over all that crap. He then proceeded to tell us that he would put an ostrich saddle on a veloceraptor and ride it around demonstrating this on stage. The last question was “Josh it is my wife’s birthday will you sing her happy birthday?” He of course ran over to where they were sitting and sang the best rendition of the happy birthday song I had ever heard he should perform it at every concert. Finally he went back to the set list and began with Galileo, which is a song that I love as much as Stary Night and of course he hit it out of the park, it was a home run performance.

Following that was Awake which was not on the album titled that as he told us because of the people he was working with at that time and he said he is no longer working with now, which made the audience chuckle. Weeping was the next song he sang which was complimented by a very interesting screensaver type background projected onto the white background to the set. For Machine the visual effects where awesome, they had lights on the outer rim of the lighting set up illuminating the rest of the lights that were hung above the stage, they were moving but were not lit, it created the perfect effect for the song. Next Josh came into the audience and brought the birthday couple from earlier in the show, a young girl, another women that was having a birthday, and a single lady that he found while singing Beyoncé’s Single Ladies and dancing through the audience. He took them to the stage and brought out a couple of inflatable couches for them to sit on, served them milk and wine, then sang to them Broken Vow, which he then said was too sad of a song. He then sang another song to them that he said was happier cause it meant for you, which was Per Te. He then said thank you for being such a great audience and left the stage and in true Tulsa fashion the audience clapped, cheered, and yelled demanding an encore. So he returned to the stage and said he would sing a couple more songs for us, then he took off his jacket and people began to cheer again and he said whoa it’s just my jacket, and everybody laughed. He then sat at the piano and sang a Neil Diamond song called Play Me, which was absolutely beautiful and has become on of my favorites. The last song he sang was one he has become well known for because of its uplifting message, You Raise Me Up. He began singing and then cut out several times and allowed the audience to sing the lyrics, while we were somewhat hesitant at first once we realized he what he wanted us to do everyone joined in.

He then called all band members out to the front of the stage and they all took a bow. He then ran from one side of the stage to the other sending out a bow and a thank you goodbye before leaving the stage for good. I continue to look forward to the next CD or concert Josh will perform for once you get a taste of his ability to perform and sing, you simply can not get enough. HE has a voice that has WOWed Tulsa and many other locations around the world and will continue to for many years. HE is a nice, kind, and down to earth person that was given a gift and he is truly using it for good as you can see by going to his website and clicking on the Foundation link and see how he gives back. It was amazing to be able to act as the Road Reporter and help the Josh Groban Crew document the show from a true spectator’s view. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity and want to say Thank You to the Josh Groban Team and to Josh himself for the amazing concert and opportunity to meet you!