Future Sex Love Show

What: Future Sex Love Show

When: September 8th, 2007.

Why: I was genuinely interested in seeing the former second best boy band member (I always preferred BackStreet Boys) turned hugely successful solo artist.

Where: Tacoma Washington. Couldn't get tickets in Vancouver even though I was on TicketMaster the second they went on (35 seconds is what I read for GM to be sold out).

Who: Myself, My Wife, My Brother In-Law, & Sister In-Law.

Verdict: The man can sing and dance, and move, and perform and any other synonym for dance. My first time in the Tacoma Dome and at first I was a bit skeptical. Unlike GM Place, the setup was circular telling us there would be times when we would see the backs of the performers. The opening act, Good Charlotte, did not disappoint as they made full use of the stage playing to all four corners and doing a great live performance. Its impressive that I knew almost all the songs they played and they really got the crowd (myself included) going.

Justin sent out some decoys to hype the crowd, although we had a great view of where he was coming from and saw him sneak into a box that was wheeled in. To enhance his part of the show, large mesh-like screens were dropped from the ceiling to act as a backdrop. Imagine being able to see the entire performance but close-up images being projected on the see-through screens. I was ripping on Dell (a sponsor of the show) for not having a large screen for the cheap seats, although Tacoma Dome is quite small comparatively. This feature definitely made up for that fact. There was also 4 bars on every corner of the stage for the high rollers.

The show lasted from 8:00 to about 11:10pm. The only other show I have to compare to this is the "Up in Smoke" tour with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Warren G. While the venue at GM place was better, the FSL Show contained more of the performance element. JT can dance and proved it on stage while actually singing live. The only other difference was that when JT asked people to put their lighters and cellphones in the air, the cellphones outweighed the lighters 50 to 1. At one point of the show, PG 13 would have been appropriate as the dancers became a little burlesque (no actual nudity) but it fit with theme. I also noticed that Justin is a smart guy. He would have a few heavy performances and then play 2 vocal chords while on the piano (or the keyboard, or the guitar) and let his performers do the work. There was also a an intermission about 8 songs in. I knew most the songs, but some of the ballads were beyond my knowledge of his music. The mix of the crowd (as you would guess) was primary females most of whom were in their early teens.

A give the show an arbitrary grade of B+ - essentially I was entertained and only with the thought of driving 2 hours to get home was I looking for the show to finish early. I would give it a higher grade if they had entertainment in-between performances instead of two projection screens where Verizon Mobile was making menu charging people for text messages (by the way, from a business perspective, I think this was ingenious). I am sure this grading will become more defensible as my experience with concerts improve. I am going to Akon and Rihanna this coming weekend.

My 2 thoughts anyways......