Justin Timberlake - 8/5/2003 - Avalon, Boston, MA
My memory is odd. I tend to remember things by connecting thoughts and as general feelings, which sometimes means you get a very long, overly complicated retelling and also sometimes means I think I remember things, but I remember important moments more than clear details. So some quotes here may be off and the occurance of events may be a little scrambled. Having said that, here to the best of my abilities is last night's concert.
Justin. The Boston After-show.
Cameras bad and security checks thorough. Getting our tickets went perfectly okay though and we got into Axis by about 10:20 or so. There weren't that many people in yet, 50 maybe, but we get into the room and there's just this pack of people pressed against the stage. Axis is small, very small.
Obviously, considereing the insanity about to occur, maintaining your spot was an important part of the evening. Ours was beautiful. Close to the stage, but just up on the stairs, so our view was completely clear. They threw open the curtains and began setting this up at about 11:30 pm and I looked at the man assembling what was clearly the main microphone in it's assigned place and then. I looked at the face of the man assembling the microphone and. then. I looked at the eyes and the nose and the eyebrows and the hands and realized, good lord, the one, the only Justin Timberlake, was going to be right there.
A lot of waiting, turf wars, and occasional bouncing to the music goes on [here].
Suddenly, after an age or two and my knees complaining like I'm fifty and not 25, the stage is just full. All the singers are in place and good lord, they're starting with the music. It is, in fact, the Inspector Gadget theme song. That builds and then huh, is that Justin Timberlake in front of me? Yes, I believe it is.
They swing into "Cry Me A River" first. The whole night it feels like I'm hearing these songs I just love, but I'm also hearing something completely new at the same time. "Cry Me A River" is very loud and very rock, but also still "Cry Me A River" and he throws that first swear word at the audience like he's just gotten all A's on his report card and he's throwing it at his momma.
Everything is right about this song. It sounds phenomenal live, much more raw, harder than at the Striptified shows, and then there's gleeful swearing and throwing up of the middle fingers from the singer. Clearly, he enjoys playing for an 18 plus crowd. They stretch out the different parts of "Cry Me a River" and Justin makes us all shout the "oh!" bits back at him. I'm told that instead of saying "would have blown it" he mimed a blowjob. Sadly, I missed this.
When "Cry Me a River" closes Justin talks to us about being in Boston before at Fleet and "...other places!", but how this is all special-er, yadda yadda, very sincere-like. But then he's done and he grins, says something about "enough of that bullshit" and asks if we're here to have a good fucking time. Then he places his hands on his hips, shakes his head at us and says, "no no, are you ready to have a..." and then proceeds to thrust his crotch at the audience on the words "good. fucking. time." Because if we're not there to have a good fucking time the exit is Right [points] There.
Natually, we all agree that we're here to having a fucking good time. The music segways into the next song and I think "Senorita" was next so I'll talk about that. Justin moves on over to the piano and just kinda casually plays around on that for a minute or two before moving into "Senorita". The band's playing the intro and Justin asks "can I cut in right here?" and goes. We're all singing along and he's very encouraging about that. The girls and boys bit comes around and we all act like it's the first time we've heard him explain that there are two parts, one for each group, and that we need to sing. Then, of course, everyone yowls happily away.
After this song ends I'm pretty sure Justin does the band intros. He goes through the band and is very amused with the way he's saying "from round this way" about the Antunes (apparently this means they're from Boston). Also his drummer is from Fishbone and he seems very pleased about that too-- as he should be.
Next I believe Justin picks up his blue guitar (JT in studs on the strap, of course) and begins "Take It From Here". We all sing the "la's" unpromted and he looks beyond thrilled with us. Then that shimmies into "Like I Love You". At first it's hard to recognize what they're moving into and I think, overall, this is one of the coolest things about the set last night. Every song began with some bit of music or lyric that usually gets buried. It was everything we all know, but always with a twist.
"Like I Love You" was crazy. Bananas, even. Justin kept playing the guitar, the electric ones from the band burst in... It was the same with "Cry Me A River" and the others. The songs manage to be suddenly shockingly rock, yet R&B at the same time. This is the time when all the N.E.R.D. side of the Neptunes produced songs just exploded. The club setting, the stripped sound created by it and the smaller band moved it from a polished summer tour sound into this crazy, loud, raw show that is was packed with energy.
It was a completely different experience than Striptified and a whole different type of energy. All the dancing, the staging, and the video that is so pivotal in that polished Striptified setting just drops out, it's gone. There's no choreography, so you're just watching Justin move, twitch, stand still, and pogo like a maniac; whatever he pleases in the moment.
"Like I Love You" is a moment where this all comes together. Justin's on the acoustic, pogoing like crazy person to the music. He's singing, hitting the high notes, and the audience is singing everything back at him as loud as it can. The sound is loud and twangy, Justin's looks like he's gonna fall apart he's grinning so hard, and everything just works.
When that one's over, and it takes a while to wind down from it, Justin talks to the audience about how that night he performed with the Black Eyed Peas at Striptified and calls them a "hip. hop. group" in his best snarky Barbara Walters mocking voice. Then the Black Eyed Peas leas out and bounce all over the stage. The energy in the place just triples in about 30 seconds or less.
They switch into "Where Is the Love?" and Justin looks pleased as punch to be standing there. He pulls his microphone up to the front of the stage with them, stands next to Will.I.Am and sings. When the song winds down he starts to beatbox, then the Black Eyed Peas all freestyle for a while. Eventually Will.I.Am takes over the freestyling and Justin stands next to him and starts this fairly complicated sounding beat. The highlight is when he starts to slow it down and drop out beats and Will.I.Am matches him all the way through.
Will.I.Am winds down from the freestyle bit and then they all come back and do some dancing and breakdancing. Justin does a dance, but he refrains from attempting serious breakdancing-- probably a wise choice until it's mastered. The Black Eyed Peas thank us, Justin and Christina, and leave, so Christina is officially "outed" as being there and moves out to the front of the VIP section for a bit after this.
The beat boxing winds down and into "Rock Your Body" which suddenly sounds rock, R&B, and just swanky at the same time. I swear, it was like I'd never heard it before and the place exploded. I was bopping my ass off at this point in the night. Fuck the girl in front of me who's (ew) rubbing her hair all over my arms, fuck the shrimp next to me that stole a girl's spot and refused to move, fuck the boy elbowing me, my knees wanting to go on strike, and the fifty million of us sweating all over each other like we were recreating a Nelly video. I may have even been willing to wave my hands in the air like I just didn't care.
"Rock Your Body" continues. Everything quiets down for a minute so we can sing like crazy at them for the chorus and then everyone's just clapping along to the beat. Over this, Justin thanks us and says his good-byes and we all break into one last repeat of the chorus. The lyric ends, the guitar hits one last time, and he's gone before I can register that he's even walking away. The band keeps going a moment more, but everyone's going off. VIP disappears, the band clears out, and I've just got "Rock Your Body" imprinted on my brain. I'm exhausted and buzzed up the fucking walls all at the same time.
