Crítica «FutureSex/LoveShow»: Nueva York, People

The crowd went wild at Justin Timberlake’s New York City concert on Wednesday — especially when the singer reunited with Andy Samberg for their infamous Saturday Night Live song.

Though Timberlake kicked off a raucous set at 9 p.m. that had audience members including Donald and Melania Trump on their feet, the real fun started at 11:20, when an announcer appeared to introduce «a new band» that had «the most watched video on YouTube». He ended with, «Can [this concert] get any better than this? Hell yes it can!»

Then Samberg and Timberlake took the stage — in their Color Me Badd-style costumes and facial hair from the SNL sketch and, of course, presents attached below the belt. To wild cheering they sang «D— in a Box», changing the holiday lyrics from «Christmas … Hannukkah … Kwanzaa» to «Valentine’s Day … Flag Day … Kwanzaa».

After the song, Timberlake came back onstage in a casual t-shirt, holding a mug of tea. «I’m sorry if I offended some of you, but I could not resist», he said — adding with a grin, «Watch out for the new album, late 2007!»

Then he got serious. «For a guy from podunk Tennessee, to get to live this dream out — [there] is probably one in a billion chance this happens and I’m sitting here right now», he said.

«I just want each and every one of you to know how grateful I am and how much I love you for coming out tonight». He finished up with «(Another Song) All Over Again» before taking a bow with his dancers and background singers to the Verve’s «Bittersweet Symphony.

Crítica de Manda718:

I am HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY EFFING SHIZZZZ, GUYS. IT WAS ALL KINDS OF INCREDIBLE.

First things first, my overpriced eBay tix turned out to be amazing. Truly amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better seat. We were in the lower level, on a slight angle, first row! I mean, looking down onto the floor and VIP, I wasn’t even jealous. I had the same view… but even better since I was elevated and on that angle. Plus. I had a place to sit and better yet, put my jacket! It was pretty funny seeing all the people on the floor either holding their jackets or tying big heavy winter coats around their waists.

Ummm yada yada, Pink was pretty good! Better than I expected. The lights come back on and they are setting up Justin’s stuff and we’re just waiting for flashbulbs to go off to spot celebs. On the other side of the arena, people start screaming and taking pics. We heard it was DONALD TRUMP? I have no clue, but we did see a big blonde muffin top hairdo from all the way across the floor! Then the same thing starts happening a few sections down from us and we heard it was P. Diddy.

Okay, on with it. The show is about to start and you hear Justin starting to mic check and the lights go down and I find it so freakin’ HOT that he just keeps repeating the words «future», «sex», «love» and «sounds» repeatedly. And not even in the correct order sometimes. Just over and over and the screens are bright red and the crowd is screaming and it’s just one big ball of excitement. The music started full blast and yeah, it was ON!! I love the stage, I love the lights, I love the dancers and their little formations they make on the top of the stage all together. It’s just very visually stimulating and fun to watch.

I can’t remember every song… song by song… but all you have to know is he sounded amazing and every song had the same hype and the same energy as the one before. Even when he slowed it down, people were still paying him the same attention as they were when they were up shaking their asses. He had the crowd in the palm of his hands. Everyone was eating him up! EVEN GUYS!

Random tidbits:

He asked his band members when the last time they played NYC together was. They told him in 2000. He was BAFFLED. Like it took him a few seconds to believe it. And he did the whole «it’s good to be back in the best city in the world» speech, toasted, and then proceeded to take a shot, suck on a lime, and then make funny faces afterwards. His face on the big screens was priceless.

And gorgeous.

Kenny from DanceLife? Isn’t he supposed to be on this tour? Totally didn’t recognize him as any of the dancers and I was kind of bummed about that. But maybe he… grew an inch? Or some facial hair? Was he there? Someone tell me!

Let me tell you how IN LOVE I am with Timbalands intermission. Honestly, if I can find an mp3 of that entire set, I would love it. I would have enjoyed the show just as much if Timbaland just stood there mixing the entire night. It was HOT! Looking around and seeing literally every single person up dancing for literally 25 minutes was so much fun. And the «Give It To Me» video…. ugh… just SO GOOD.

Justin comes back out and I’m pretty convinced him and the blonde dancer are hooking it up. If you can prove to me that they didn’t make out tonight during «Damn Girl», I’ll give you 10 bucks. What a lucky lady.

My favorite performances were «Chop Me Up» (him and Tim, what a little duo they’ve got going there), «Damn Girl», and I liked those quick medlies he did on the piano in the center. OH! And I also loved all the interludes he included – like «Let Me Talk To You» and «Set The Mood»… so excited to have heard those mixed in!

UM, was it just my area or was EVERYONE pretty much wasted? We missed the entire performance of «Losing My Way» (which is my sisters favorite song!) because I had to have the two guys sitting next to me PHYSICALLY removed from their seats. One of the kids passed out into MY seat, sitting on my $200 jacket. The minute he hunched over and started gagging I nearly caused a scene. The boyfriend of the couple sitting next to us almost got into a fist fight with them because I told them the kid was about to throw up on my jacket. Dumbass people.

Okay, so yes, onto the best part. Justin finishes up «SexyBack» (I LOVED the beginning when he was doing all that funky stuff on that mixing pad thing – SO HOT!!) and out comes Johnny Wright and I KNEW «Dick In A Box» was going to happen. He says you thought Pink was huge, you thought Justin was huge, well this is NYC and things are just getting started…. the most watched video on YouTube… here is «2:30AM!!!!!! Singing DICK IN A BOX!!!!» and the crowd went insane. Out comes Justin, Andy, and all the male dancers and singers with the whole 80’s R&B video get-up complete with the gifts over their crotches. Never did I ever think I would get to see this LIVE. It was HYSTERICAL.

Someone in a previous posts asked how Justin kept a straight face and didn’t laugh throughout the performance… well, HE DID. Andy goes «VALENTINES DAY… dick in a box!…. FLAG DAY… dick in a box!…. KWANZAAAAAA… dick in a box!» and Justin belly laughed. Like full out. And he did it a few times, it was just so funny. Afterwards he came back out to do «Another Song» and apologized if it offended anyone but said:

«I just couldn’t resist».

His little heart-to-heart talk right before his last song was kind of touching. I heard a girl behind me go «… I could cry right now» and I felt the same way. He sounded very humbled and just so genuine. He said:

«This is a one in a billion chance I got and I’m here right now. With you all. And I love each and every one of you».

I COULD CRY RIGHT NOW!

Oh man. All in all, amazing amazing amazing show. I am so glad I attended. MSG security were GREAT about cameras. I wasn’t told I couldn’t bring one in nor that I couldn’t take any pictures. I took a ton of pics PLUS VIDEO (THE ENTIRE ‘«DICK IN A BOX» SONG!). The lighting of this show is kind of sucky for good pics though. There seemed to always be a reddish tint on stage and it was not cooperating with my camera. But I will share the good ones!!

Hope everyone else had just as good of a time as I did. Now? It’s on to searching for tix for the final show in Jersey because damn, there is no way in hell I am missing that! GO TO THIS SHOW. SPEND THE MONEY TO GET THE TICKETS. DRIVE AS MANY MILES AS YOU NEED TO. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.

Justin, you are one hell of a man.

EDIT: WHOA. I didn’t realize how long this ended up! I tended to get long-winded after concerts. Don’t mind me. I need to get to sleep but I’m kind of wired. I’m going to see if I can get some of my pics/videos up within the next half hour maybe. If not, I will share tomorrow afternoon.