Marndizz’s Goss Blog

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I attended Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex / LoveShow  on October 28th with a friend of mine and his girlfriend. We went to his second Brisbane show. I was soooo hyped for it- I mean really really excited. I did have some doubts though- I thought that maybe he would change the setlist up a bit (actually I was hoping he would) and I was really worried about how certain songs would be played and / or received by the Australian audience (like “Losing My Way”). I also had this niggling feeling that he might lip synch half or a lot of the show, considering so much of FutureSex /LoveSounds is electronic vocals and electronically influenced.

However, I had heard nothing but good about the show and I saw the map of the stage on the Brisbane Entertainment Center site and thought “fuck me, this show has gotta be good”! After seeing that and hearing the album, I knew the show had to have evolved from 2002’s “Justified” Tour. I have that on DVD and I think that show is fabulous- JT at 22 dancing his ass off and creating such excitement and some real stage drama with “Cry Me A River”.

So for the months leading up, I vowed not to view a single clip of footage from the show (The HBO version of the concert from Madison Square Garden had already been screened in the States)  and I refused to watch any of his video clips. (I’d only seen SexyBack and LoveStoned anyway and maybe brief clips of others). I didn’t want to ruin the excitement for myself.

The day before the concert, I saw the video clip to “Summer Love” which in Australia was from the MSG concert. It was amazing- I almost cried thinking about how the next night, I would see this shit live! So I printed up my Michael Jackson T-shirt and listened to FutureSex/LoveSounds the whole day, so I wouldn’t look like an idiot who didn’t know the words.

The day of the concert, I spent the day with my mate, checking out old Michael Jackson footage and discussing the 9/11 conspiracy theory. It was so much fun.  My mates girlfriend arrived and we drove to Brisbane for the concert.

We were initially pissed off because we rang the BEC to ask if we could bring cameras and stuff like that and they said no. When we got our bags checked, they were checked so loosely, we could have taken WMD’s in there and they wouldn’t have noticed. I am beating myself up that I didn’t take my MP3 player at least to get an audio recording of the  concert. Oh well, such is life.

We were also told there would be no support act. We had to endure half an hour of excruciating “performance” by some unknown Melbourne act. At least we got the time to judge how close Justin would actually be to us and how clear we would be able to see stuff. We got really great seats, by the way, considering they were the cheapest. We were in the front row, in the stands, directly above the “gold” seated section.

The show started right on time, half an hour fashionably late. We didn’t miss a thing. A lot of people did because they chose to stand at the bar and get drunk while waiting, as Aussies do at a concert.

The first song, “FutureSex/LoveSound” started with an intense music and lighting build up and the concert launched into full swing. It was incredible. The lighting, the stage, the sound, the dancing, the singing was ALL fabulous and tight- and I do mean tight. Not a single hitch through the whole show. Justin danced like he was 16 years old and on speed and his dancers, singers and band all kept up (almost). We kept looking for the “big screens” before the show, and we found out that the “screens” were actually these white translucent curtains that dropped down at different angles throughout the songs to give each part of the audience a better view, or to create atmosphere. For example, during “Comes Around Interlude”, the screens dropped down and Justin took a hand held camera and spun around while his images were shown on the screens. In “Losing My Way”, the screens dropped down either side of JT while they showed swirling crack smoke and a Gospel Choir at the end of the song. It was a great effect. Some reviewers said the screens were annoying, but even if they “blocked your view” they actually didn’t, because you could see Justin right through them and see everything on stage. I thought it was great and there was also some psychedelic video clip effects on the screens too.

The whole show was an assault on the ears an eyes- a full concert experience, far beyond singing and dancing.  Like I said, Justin never let up. The intermissions were short, everything was tight and everything looked and sounded fabulous. He even whipped out some instruments- and made it look like he played 4 instruments- he played guitar, piano, a keytar and synthesizer. He even filled in on some of the rap parts that Timbaland has on the album with some cool singing and some question-and-answer vocals. He interacted, swore, had a tequila toast for beautiful Aussie women, and spoke to the audience for about 5 minutes at the end which was candid and fun. The band and JT himself all looked fabulous, decked out in YSL suits and costumes.

A couple of songs have to be singled out. “Like I Love You” was one track I was DYING to see live. I was not disappointed. At first, I thought it was going to be crap. The intro was a slick build up of the famous guitar riff, and then JT was revealed holding a gorgeous white acoustic guitar.  He sang the first 2 verses of the song, playing his guitar and I thought “oh shit, he’s gonna do the whole song like this! I really wanna see THAT dance live!”. At the end of the second verse, the music stopped, the lights went down and within 10 seconds, he was right in front of ME (sitting up in  the stands of course) busting out that amazing choreography. I didn’t expect it at all- it was unbelievable and I have chills just thinking about it. I LOVED “Summer Love”- the use of the stage was magic and he even dry humped a dancer on stage. I was so into it. “What Goes Around” wasn’t what I expected- he played the piano the whole time, but it sounded incredible and the center of the stage rotated while he played. Wonderful! I loved the medley too- my friends didn’t know the songs, but I had so much fun, coz I know all of them and “Gone” is my favourite N*Sync track. “SexyBack”, a song I used to hate and now love, was an amazing finale. The whole crowd, who were fairly placid, stood up and danced and the screams were deafening! It was so amazing! The lights, the music and everything were all taken up a level for that song.

Now for the few criticisms I have, and they aren’t only of the show.  The Aussie audiences are so rude. Maybe they feel that they paid, so they can do what they want at a concert. I think that nothing is worse for a performer than seeing the audience walk out. So many people walked in an out during Justin’s ballads, and really took more like an hour during the half an hour intermission, straggling in one by one at sometime after the show had recommenced. They also started walking out immediately after the last note of “SexyBack” was played, and a lot walked out when JT was saying good night. It was so obvious there was going to be an encore; as soon as JT left the stage, a piano popped up onstage and the house lights didn’t go up. JT came back after about 3 minutes to do his encore and already half the audience was gone. When people heard it was a ballad – “Another Song”- even more walked out during the song. I heard, as a result, JT didn’t do an encore at some of his other Aussie shows, and reviewers and people who attended had the hide to criticise JT for not playing an encore. I know If I was him, there is no way I would play any more to Aussies!

In addition, there were quite a few drunk girls at the show who were shit faced as early as an hour before the show. I also saw one girl who had fainted on our way out. It was hot, and I guess JT encouraging people to get drunk didn’t help.

His dancing break /section was wonderful,  and even though JT said it was a “tribute to Fred Astaire”, it’s pretty obvious who it was really a tribute too. He even grabbed his crotch during one the the songs.

Justin did sing live throughout the whole show, which was a change from his Justified Tour, where he lip synced 2 of 9 tracks.  I was pleasantly surprised. However, he had a lot of help with brilliant sounding backing tracks and back up singers. His voice sounded wonderful though, especially on the ballads when you could really hear his voice without a lot of backing track. I have to admit, I was expecting to cry through all of “Cry Me A River”, especially after seeing the live version I have from the Justified Tour. He didn’t emote with that song on this concert in the way I expected him to. On the previous tour, he same out in a gothic style coat, had a line of back up singers behind him, and a real dark stage atmosphere as well as some real emotion. This time, he involved the audience (which some may have loved); but for such a personal song, asking the audience to “sing it louder now” during the chorus just didn’t sit well with me. I expected to cry… a river. The last criticism I have is about the show as a whole. The reason for it’s tightness is because JT didn’t change a single thing on the whole tour. By the time he got to Australia, there would have been no kinks to iron out. But such a show and production and set up in general had no room for mistakes. Everything was perfect- so there was no time for spontaneity- the thing about concerts I LOVE. I missed that part of the live experience. However, it’s a two edged sword- it was a great, amazing show and utterly perfect- so much so that most of the dialogue he spoke was scripted. He had used most of it at other concerts. But that’s a minor detail, right?

I mean I still saw the best concert I have ever seen in my life and he really did shit all over every other act I have ever seen, including Destiny’s Child, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Chilli Peppers and so many more.  I actually am not sure how any other live act will top Justin’s Show- his stage was totally unique and the whole set up was incredible. Unlike anything I’ve seen before. It was well worth my $100 and I can’t wait to see the DVD!!

Overall, I’d give the show an 8/10.