Justin Timberlake Live!

Justin Timberlake
Allstate Arena, Rosemont
Monday, March 12, 2007

As Justin Timberlake’s tour supporting his latest effort, Futuresex/Lovesounds, rolled into beautiful downtown Rosemont Monday night, the whole experience could be summed up in one word: perfunctory.

Timberlake can be a dynamic performer, and he’s already getting critical kudos for his acting turns in Alpha Dog and Black Snake Moan, plus, his *NSync days firmly established his dancing cred. Yet it seemed on Monday, he was content to let his cadre of backup singers and dancers do the heavy lifting.

The show started promisingly enough with a rousing version of the Futuresex/Lovesounds title track, but quickly settled into midtempo sugar, with Timberlake assuming the role as nattily dressed lothario. The audience, composed of roughly 75 percent teen girls, dutifully did their part and treated the whole show as an episode of “Saved By The Bell” or any other Saturday morning “Whooo” shows: the kind of show where every hint of sexual promiscuity, no matter how small, is greeted with an ear-splitting “WHOOOOOO!!!”

Naturally, Timberlake does want to have an extended career and be taken seriously as an artist on his own merits, who in their right mind wouldn’t? The thing about Monday was that he didn’t seem to have the confidence in himself to go all the way with it, which leads to the night’s biggest problem: Whenever he would take center stage with piano or guitar at Allstate’s in-the-round setting, he would either be obscured by the giant scrims that came down to also serve as video screens, or by a perfect circle of band members facing the crowd. This created a strange disconnect between artist and audience. You knew he was in there, yet you never felt like you were part of the show, instead watching from the outside. This does a great disservice to the kids that shelled out 95 to 500 bucks of Daddy’s hard-earned coin.

After a 20-minute “intermission” featuring a DJ set by super-producer Timbaland (that seemed like an hour), Timberlake gamely tried to amp it up again with “Rock Your Body” and “Damn Girl,” but the energy clearly wasn’t there, and he simply managed to play out the string and hit the right stage marks.

While he may be trying to bring sexy back (as if it every truly went away), all JT truly managed to bring back this night was boring.

— Timothy Hiatt

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly