I thought you guys would be all over this by now, so I didn't say anything.

My quick review?

I give him a solid B+. Great energy. Good musicians around him. He's grown way past the Boy Band stage of ten years ago. He's actually singing live. He gave props to the Kid when asked which musicians he admired. He actually played guitar and keys on stage--nothing too fancy, but it's hard enough to sing, dance, and play an instrument, all at the same time. Prince just makes it *look* easy.

All in all, a nice job.

Could have done without the crotch grab though, 'cause he still has a lot of pre-teen fans and of all the moves influenced from Michael Jackson, that's the one to skip. Guitar and percussion and back-up vocalists were slamming. Timbaland could have dressed up a lil if he's gonna go on stage and be seen by millions of people, but that's neither here nor there.

Justin's still a little raw and goofy on stage, alternating being cute and being outrageous, but it'll come.

I'll say this much. Justin and Cristina are the best product from the Disney machine in the past ten years.

(Ten years from now how many High School Musical people will have their own MSG concerts? )

my friend who i went to opening night with watched it, and said it wasn't as good on tv as it was live and thankfully they skipped the 20minute Timbaland Intermission.

The only musicians I saw on that stage were the back-up band. His robot routine is played out and the MJ rip off for most of the set was a joke. Playing multiple instruments? If you call that playing...just soul less.

I tried to watch it but couldn't finish. From what i watched, my grade is a D, and that was just because he did sing a little while doing his robot dance routine.

The list of comparisons by the choreographer in the beginner made me laugh out loud. They actually mentioned he was as good as Gene Kelly as a dancer.

Slave2daGroove said:

Justin is NOT a dancer. He'd be ok in a club, but in terms of choreography? LOL!

I didn't watch the whole thing, just bits and pieces. Music today is like the movies. All effects, little substance. I give Justin credit in that he is actually trying to be a musician unlike most of the dreck that passes for music these days. (What John Mayer ever saw in Jessica Simpson (other than his ***) escapes me.)

Well I was actually forced to watch it when I really didn't want to. Some friends came over because they were bored but I didn't know that they just came over to watch this dreadful concert. I would told their asses to stay the fuck at home. So I had to be a good sport and watch that shit. Justin was okay but if he could just grow out his cheesy attitude then it would have been a bit better. My thing is this why did he end the concert on a slow song? Seemed to me he should have ended with "sexyback" but that's just him I guess.

Alasseon said:

You must've been watching a different concert. Justin sucks balls

I've seen him live. He sucks ass.

When's football season start?

His concert sucked. He lost me with the intro ... intro's supposed to be slammin' his wasn't


Everything else ... eh. He needs top decide if he wants to be a dance on stage or a musaician on stage and better that. I say that because he isn't to good at either and if he concentrated on just one, it would be much better.

so no malfunction of any kind??

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I didn't see the show yet (I recorded it and didn't have time to watch it), but I think Justin wants fans to think he is a multi-talented musician that dances well (like Prince or someone similar). As for his musicianship, you must remember that he is probably a spoiled brat that was forced to take piano and guitar lessons. He learned to play his pices well (for recitals) and his parents put it in his head he is "GREAT".

I heard our local station here talking about the concert (when it was in town) and several of them claim that it was one of the best concerts they have ever seen. I think that may have been stretching, but I'm sure the show was "good". Maybe not as good as the Victory Tour, or the Musicology, or Lovesexy or the Janet tours, but I'm sure it was "great" to the 20-somethings that think he is a god.

As for Justin's dancing...I don't think he is a natural dancer at all. You can tell in his music videos that he really tries to have rhythm. The rhythm he has is "manufactured" and not "natural". Look at artists like Janet, Michael, Gene Kelly, Fred Astair, etc., you see that their rhythm and grace was "natural".

That' just my 2cents...take it 4 what it's worth.

Slave2daGroove said:

I agree with you. It just seemed really soulless from what I saw. I first had to get over how much the set felt like a Musicology rip, musicians included. JT is just too robotic. I didn't get any genuine feeling or emotion from him. It just looks like he is going through the motions. He just comes off as fake and insincere. He tries too hard to be cool, but just looks like a big goofy to me. Also, his voice is weak. He really is not a singer. I wasn't impressed by him playing "at" those instruments either. I will say that he works hard at whatever it is he does, but it's still lacking to me.

Ah shoot I missed it. I saw him back in 2002 on his joint tour with Christina Aguilera and I wouldn't say it was awful, but I wasn't too impressed. I am not a Justin fan so I don't know if that has anything to do with it and I'm not trying to hate on the dude just for the sake of hating but I just DON'T GET what people see in this guy. He has no stage presence whatsoever. When I saw him in concert, I was more focused on his backup dancers than him. I mean his dancing is a sort of a joke. I really don't see how anyone could think this guy is some great talent. He has a whiny annoying falsetto, can't dance, has no stage presence and is just missing that overall "It" quality. He isn't particularly good at anything and is really a marginal talent. I mean damn, I'd even rather see his ex Britney perform because at least she has some stage presence and keeps you interested in her shows.

Justin has got to be the most overhyped, overrated artist that has come out in recent years.

With all that said though, I still plan on watching his concert on HBO though when they re-run it lol. I have a few friends who are big JT fans and they keep telling me how great he was so I want to see for myself what all the hype is about with this guy 'cause I just don't get it at all.
[Edited 9/4/07 13:27pm]

I flipped the channel, saw him on stage with Timbaland prancing around the stage like 2 rookie rap cats, with his background band shrouded from sight. That 20 seconds was enough for me. Maybe the rest of the show was better, but that captured the essence of JT for me . . . an interesting studio creation and video star, with little live "presence" per se.

When it comes to live performances, JT seems like the young teen trying to best his old man in a game of 36. He's gaining ground but still about 12 points behind the old man.

I think I'll just wait to see it on dvd...

Cinnamon234 said:

I missed it too. Had better things to do, like watching paint dry.

namepeace said:

See? That's the same vibe I got. I got nothing against Justin, but he seems to be the best of a bad lot. And he's been doing this since he was a kid! Justin is a hard-working, nice-smile-having, marginally talented studio creation. I keep waiting for him to grow into his talent, but maybe that's all there is now. He *is* better now than two years ago, and he's still a young guy. *Some* people find him irresistible.

But you see a guy like Robin Thicke just sing one song and you see the gulf between real talent and manufactured talent. Justin is better, way better than Hasselhoff, but he's got a ways to go to crack the Prince and Jackson levels.

"What do you think of Michael Jackson?" "Genius."
"Janet Jackson?" "Sister of a genius."

Alasseon said:

He didn't say that, did he?

namepeace said:

Prince said it!

lilgish said:

And I love him all the more for it. Mwah to Prince

Ellie said:

Whew . . . P might could get away with that. Not JT.

lilgish said:

Aww, Janet stole Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from Prince and the three were like a dream team after Prince fire them. I guess they were suppose to not be successful like his other protege's and actually make a big name for themselves. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Anyway, Justin's concert did look rather interesting during the exerpts. Guess, I didn't miss anything.

DawnD said:

HUH?! Janet didn't steal Jimmy and Terry. The record company got them together because they liked the stuff that Alexander O'neal, Cherelle, SOS and Gladys Knight (among others) had done with Jam and Lewis. Joe Jackson was against the idea because he thought that Jam and Lewis were Prince-knock-offs and he wasn't a fan of P's.

I wouldn't consider Jam and Lewis to be protoge's at all. Their music and careers took off only after doing stuff on the side (away from P).

daPrettyman said:

Touchy, touchy! I was being sarcastic. I'm well aware of how they became famous and successful, being that I grew up in the 80s. Either than MJ, Prince and his crew were the main one's I listened to so I'm more than aware of how they started. But, Prince is egotistical and behaves as though no one from where he's from is suppose to be as successful as him. You wouldn't consider Jam and Lewis to be protege's at all. I would. The Time was Prince's band. He had the first, middle and last say concerning those talented men when agents and managers and record execs were not involved.
Ahh, so happy Jam and Lewis made a name for themselves away from Prince. Prince is a bad mutherfucker on his own and so are they. Don't get the animosity, cause there appears to be some from Prince. I dig Prince reguardless, though. Someone on the org, I forget their name said,"Prince is the shit and he knows it." Damn! If that's not a true statement, I don't know what is!
Anyway, reguardless of how allot of us feel Justin's concert seems to have been a success.

I actually enjoyed the concert and both of his albums for what they are worth. He is the most talented individual to come from the boy band/Disney era by far. He is not the greatest, but he is good at what he does, his little niche. My wife commented that she thought that this was it, that we were witnessing his zeinth and I happen to agree with her. I think he will change and evolve enough to grow and to remain successful, but that he may have gone as far as he will go with the big album, tour, HBO special thing....but only time will tell.

The most interesting thing to me was the segement after the opening number where he and the band, including a very restrained John Blackwell, made a toast to the NYC crowd and all took shots of what looked to be Patron.....I was surprised that John B. drinks.....

artstfn said:

Yeah, I agree. Cause, he was constantly trying to shed that boy band image. It seemed to have worked. I also agree about this/his being at the zenith of his career in terms of album, tour and the HBO special.
What's so ironic to me is that it appears as though artists' well, some artists' reach their peak/pennicle at the age of 24 or 25.

I think the concert was good. I loved the visuals and lightshow. He was ontune most of the time, and sang live.

"FS/LS" and "Sexy Ladies" are probably my favorite performances.
My least favorite, are my favorite songs "WGACA" and "CMAR".

DawnD said: