Max is a long time volunteer turned employee for mindyourmind as a Youth Outreach Assistant. He enjoys blogging, cats, and the state of Utah. Check him out on Twitter: @maxamilli

You know that feeling, the one you get where goose bumps line your arms and you can feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up? That moment where you feel completely vulnerable, the moment that feels like an eternity pouring over your soul. Yes, that’s right, I saw Josh Groban. On Tuesday July 19^th at the John Labatt Centre in downtown London I was treated to seeing a performance that I would not soon forget, and the best part about it was I was sent to write a review about the show to share with other people!

The evening was lining up to be something special as the sweaty droves of people poured into the arena from the hot outside, refreshingly sitting down at their seats in the cold air conditioned venue (thank goodness for AC!) I took my seat and waited, taking in what the night had to offer. Josh walked out onstage to an uproarious cheer, and immediately dived into a wonderful rendition of Great Lake Swimmer’s “Changing Colors” (shout out to the indie kids). As he made his way in and out of songs you could see just what made him so special, his voice itself contained the comfort of a warm glass of milk, with all the boldness of dark roasted coffee. It’s a special mix lost on a lot of singers nowadays, which makes Josh a very rare commodity. Seeing every song he played from “The Bells of New York” to the closing opus “You Raise Me Up” only further validated this point.

The best part of the evening though was when Josh ventured into the crowd – which was frequent. He made it very clear that he is not only a singer, but also a performer and an entertainer to the highest degree. He sauntered his way amongst the people, taking gentle jabs and making jokes with fans, he worked the crowd in a way that a singer hasn’t been able to do since Dean Martin. It was an intimate style and vibe that you could only get from a club of hundreds, yet somehow he did it with thousands.

Moments like the one previously described are almost impossible to capture. But you could tell that as Josh was speaking, a hushed silence fell amongst the crowd. The entire audience of people clinging to his every word, this was the magic of Groban’s show, capturing and owning the attention of every single person in that crowd. And that’s when you realize it, this is his voice, his works, his legacy. And on this one evening in London Ontario, we were all ears.

Thank you to everyone on Twitter and the John Labatt Centre (@JLC) for allowing me to be a part of this event and for reading this review.

-by Max