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| Crowd at intermission |
Tonight we have Josh Groban and Elew (Eric Lewis) in the house. I like Josh's music. Honestly, never heard of Elew but kinda excited to check him out. Kind of a jazzy funky artist. We'll see. We just opened the doors about 30 minutes ago and the crowd is moving in slowly. We're expecting a little over 6k tonight which isn't a huge crowd but the arena feels nice and intimate with the drapes up.
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| Groban picking people out of the audience |
Earlier in the day I was out backstage when Josh arrived with his dog Sweeney I think. Much like most artists he nonchalantly headed off his tour bus and headed to the dressing room. Later while he was on stage doing his sound check I walked down the dressing room hallway and saw the pooch. His assistant was throwing a rope toy down the hall. I asked if I could pet him, and she said, "Sure." He's a cute dog. Of course, can't compare to George Bennett but dogs, like kids, we all think ours is the best.
It's 7.10p now. The meet & greeters are getting ready to head back by my office for their big pic with Josh. We've got several casino guests who are a part of it so my guys are giving them a little VIP treatment, escorting them back. I'll pop out to say hi and make sure everything is fine. It's more just face time for me. My guys run this building better than anyone. That's why I can step aside and let them do their thing. I'm NOT a micro-manager. I hire people who can do the job and then step back to let them DO their job. Otherwise, what the hell's the point.
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| Elew rocking the ivories |
M&G went well. A little debacle with a casino guest canceling but word never trickled down to us. Oh well. I spoke to the guest and he was all good. Just another day of jumping thru hoops.
Elew was cool. Different that what I expected. All instrumental. He rocked contemporary music and laid in the occasional "Peanuts" theme and the like.
Groban hits in about 10 minutes. I'll stick around for the 1st song or 2 then I'm off for dinner upstairs. I told Alison I'd head to Nob Hill but I should prob stay a little closer to home so I'll prob hit Seablue instead. Never a bad thing to hit Seablue.
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| Groban singing Broken Vow |
Got back to the arena around 1030ish, just in time to hear a bit of Machine and then my fav Groban tune Broken Vow. Truth be told it's only my fav because of Chris Botti. I heard it first on Botti's Live from Boston show on PBS. In my current heartbroken state, yes, tears came to my eyes. Luckily I was sitting in an empty row in the back of the floor and it was dark so no one could see my eyes well up, but yeah, they did. I miss Counselor. The wound is still fresh. He has probably moved on, not even thinking a thing about me but it still hurts. I might need more than a week to get thru this one. Anyhow, back to Groban.
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| Groban with the 'couch' gag |
He is definitely engaging with the audience. He's much like Buble & Botti in that respect. Love that about these kinds of performers. Makes the show so much more personal.
Last song is coming up soon. He's doing a "runner" which means he goes directly from the stage to his car or in this case his tour bus. We LOVE runners because it means they're not hanging out in the dressing rooms and we can clear out our staff. Nothing worse than after parties when we have to stay for 2 hours after the event because the bands wanna party. Now days that rarely happens but because we're Vegas it happens more often than most venues. I guess you take the good with the bad.
All in all a good night. It might have been great but I'm in a funk so I should prob have waited a week or so before posting this but I wanted to get words down while they were fresh in my mind. I'll prob go back and edit out the poor-Amy parts later but for now, to all, goodnight.
Groban Set List
Straight To You
Changing Colors
February Song
You Are Loved
Oceano
Alejate
Bells of NYC
Higher Window
Alla Luce
War At Home
Live and Let Die
Voce Overture
Voce
Falileo
Wandering Kind
If I Walk Away
Weeping
Machine
Broken Vow
Per Te
Play Me
You Raise Me Up
