On Monday, June 3, one of my dreams came true. Not only did I get to see Josh Groban perform, yet again, but in a European setting. This has been one of my goals since his 2007 tour when I was living in Vienna. My sister, who lived in Munich at the time, and I tried to coordinate tickets for a concert on a tour that didn't visit either of our towns and it never panned out. But the idea stuck with me.
When it was announced that Josh would be in Hamburg, I knew I would go no matter what. Not only did I not have to go alone (thanks, EJ!), but the venue was so close, I was able to walk there.
As someone whose first concert was The Beach Boys and currently only attends Josh Groban concerts, who doesn't tour every year, this was kind of a big deal. But it was also a little tough because it was my first one without my mom and sister.
But on to the concert. I highly recommend CCH (Congress Center Hamburg -- Saal 1 to be specefic) as a venue. It was a fairly intimate setting with seating for a couple thousand. It was basically the opposite of the United Center in Chicago. Josh's sound, complete with orchestra and chorus, was so full -- you could feel it and hear it.
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| CCH Saal 1 |
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| And the tickets were so pretty! |
Our seats were perfect aside from the super smelly person sitting in our vicinity. We never identified the culprit and just when we thought the scent had vanished it always wafted right back to our nostrils. Also, there were a lot of men and not so many younger women in the audience. Correlation to the body odor situation?
My sister's big question was, "Did he tell the same kinds of jokes as in the US?"
The answer: nope!
First, you have to know that Josh is a major Entertainer. He's quick-witted and improves and says silly things that come to mind that are probably supported by the adrenaline rush from being on stage. Secondly, it makes you like him more.
Here's a fun video, that is more fun if you know German, where Josh says things in English to the German crowd and a German girl from the choir "translates" them into German for the German crowd who basically all understands English anyway.
Also, Josh randomly threw out some German words like "Pfirsich" (peach...his favorite German word) and "Stuhl" (chair). And he received quite a few gifts and he reacted quite wonderfully to each of them: cakes made of gummies, tea, stuffed creatures, etc.
He only made one mistake when he mentioned how great Berlin is in very beginning (he'd just played there the day before) but he called himself out and, as always, it made us like him even more.
Josh also had a lot of fun with the crowd Q&A (pretty standard for a Josh concert) with the very German names and the very strange questions: "Can I smell you?" He'd also like to live in space.
Plus, he had some autograph requests. One gal even asked him to sign her iPhone case to which he replied (in song), "I just met you...and this is crazy...but here's my iPhone case...sign it maybe?"
Lastly, there was a super cute little girl dancing in her seat, so Josh came over to give her his drumsticks because he received some drumsticks at a concert when he was young. The girl only wanted one. He was like, ok? And then some other lady rushed over to snatch up the single stick.
I didn't take a lot of video because I was enjoying the concert, unlike the many people in front of me who must have recorded all two hours on their mobile devices, but here's a short clip of "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)" which appears on this year's All That Echos album. It's a song originally written by Stevie Wonder and Josh's version is amazing.
I hope you like Josh Groban as much as I do :)
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