Cleveland, OH- July 1, 2000
Concert Review

This is from memory, so please forgive me if things are out of order and/or slightly inaccurate. I'm getting old. ;0)

The concert began with Steve Fatone coming on stage to warm up the crowd. Like they needed warming up. I was primarily excited since he was the first one on the stage and I could see him so well cause I was close (!!!!). He looked a little different than pictures that I have seen, but he was a cutie. And his voice is kinda like Joey's. He has the Fatone charm goin' on. They are defidently brothers. :)

He introduced Ron Irrazarry and he came on to sing. He was okay, not wonderful, but not horrible. I could have done with one less song or so.

Steve came back out and introduced Boyz and Girlz United. They were pretty bad. A little too... peppy for me. I didn't like the girls at all. But that one guy was hot. Robin, I think. And the other guy could sing. So I survived.

Then there was a bit of a break. Steve came back and introduced Pink. She was awesome. I really like her. She is very talented and very pretty. And she is all about Girl Power, but in a good way. Not in a "men suck, women rule" way, in a "girls rock, they can do anything" way.

After Pink, Johny Wright came onstage while the crew worked behind him. He talked a little, and in the process scarred me for life. He said the show would be a little late in starting, causing the Tennies to gasp. The reason: he was checking in on the guys before the show and found Joey in a red thong in front of a mirror singing the "The Thong Song". Lord help us all. The Teenies squealed in delight. I shuddered. That one was high up there on my "Mental Pictures I Never Wanted To Have" list.

So then there was another break. A long one. I took this time to look around me and observe chaos at it's finest. I watched overly excited teenies huddle and squeal. I watched the spot light operators crawling up on the trusses above us. (PS- Michelle saw them too and has decided that she wants that job. She is gonna try to get her boss to get Anton the Rigger Guy to hook her up for the NSYNC tour next summer. LOL.) I marveled at the amount of glow sticks and exposed skin of pre- teen girls. The girl in front of me and the girl in front of her got into a HUGE screaming fight. I was a little scared it might turn physical. The security guard nearby us was OF COURSE the one skinny wimpy short little white guy that couldn't have stopped the fight anyways. Sigh. It was entertaining at least. A way to kill time.

Before the bloodshed can comense, the lights go down and the screaming begins again. Well, it never really stopped, but now it is deafening. I had seen pictures, so I knew they were going come from the ceiling, but still it was pretty freaking cool. The opening was awesome with all the tight choreography timed perfectly with the pyrotechnics. "No Strings Attached" was suprisingly good. I really don't like that song, but I was like NSYNC is right in front of me. This is so cool. LOL.

"I Want You Back" was basically a blur to me while it sunk in that NSYNC was right THERE in front of me. But I dealt and moved on.

The guys left the stage after that and Lance came back on welcoming us to night number 2 in Cleveland. He has a really cool voice and he is a cutie, but you already knew that. ;0)

They did "God Must Have Spent..." next and it was beautiful. I have always loved that song. And JC and Justin live... Sigh. :)

Next came "TNL"- Total NSYNC LIVE hosted by Ananda Lewis. Cheesy. Hmmm... what WILL the audience choose? Although, I am ALL about forming a plot to get the audience to vote for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" instead of "Tearin Up My Heart". Who's with me?

I have to take a minute here and say something. These guys put on one HELL of a show. They grab you and pull you right in and don't let go. Waaaay back when I first saw a tape of the guys singing "Tearin Up My Heart" and I heard that ridiculous "When I say N, you say SYNC!" thing they do, I VOWED to myself that I would never participate if presented the opportunity, cause it was just... silly. But, at this concert, there I was the audience, jumping up and down, squealing "SYNC!" with the best of them. So much for my resolution. *Sigh*

Justin's little beat boxing thing came next. Started of by himself then the bass and keyboard joined in. Then Billy on drums started and Justin stopped. He pouted at the audience eliciting many a squeal (dang, I even squealed. That pout is hard to resist.) He walked over to Billy and was like "Man, what're you doin'?". There were words exchanged and the started a battle. Justin first, then Billy would copy. It ended up the whole band jamming with Justin. It rocked. The kid is pretty dang good. I was impressed. I am beginning to agree with Lance: "Justin is good at everything he does... which makes me sick". :)

"It's Gonna Be Me" was next up. I LOVE that song and it rocked. The choreography is tight. One of my favorites of the night. I had been snapping pictures all through the show and I had been planning to get one in the part right after they do the "gonna gonna gonna gonna gonna..." thing. I did but RIGHT as I took it, the girl in front of me put her hand up blocking it. GRRRRRRR.

It was here when I noticed that Joey kept grabbing my attention. His dancing and facial expressions just draw you to him. I now have a newfound appreciation for Joey's utter adorableness.

Next was the intimate little living room couch and lamp setting. Chris came out and asked how many people were from Wayne county. (That is where he went to high school in Dalton, Ohio.) He said he was happy to be back in Ohio. :)

They did "I Drive Myself Crazy" next. I love that song too. It even better live. Chris rocks. I love his solo at the beginning. JC was all about REALLY getting into at the end. You know what I mean. Dude. I though he was gonna pop a blood vessel. Oh yeah, at this point in the concert I noticed something else. JC sweats ALOT. Like an abnormal amount. Every five seconds he was mopping himself down with a towel. Heehee.

"I Thought She Knew" was next. Wow can they sing. They are even more incredible a cappella. I was excited for Joey's solo cause he is too adorable.

Through this next part, I was nearly in tears from laughing. Up on the big screen it showed the guys leaving the stage to go change, but suddenly they were in a park and there were jugglers and fire eaters and other circus type people. It showed JC playing chess with a monkey. "You're just mad cause ya lost!" LOL. Chris and Justin were playing basketball with a clown on stilts. It flashed to the monkey picking fleas off of Joey's arm. Joey hands the monkey a chess piece, which it proceeded to eat. Then the guys went into a screening room, but there were only 4. Hmmm... where had Lance run off too? They sat down in front if a TV and next to Chris up popped a mechanical guys like the one from "Mystery Science Theatre 3000". With a face of fake surprise Chris exclaimed "What are you?" and "Looks a little like Lance... got his hair." The 5 silohetted figures began flipping through channels and commenting on them. By this time, I was laughing so hard I was about to pee my pants. But everyone around was just staring. They were all too young to know what "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" even WAS. Though that made me very VERY sad, it also made the situation even more humorous to me. Suddenly they landed on Lance on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". Oh... THAT'S where he went. *smacks forehead* His million dollar question? "Which of the following is NOT a Poekmon?". OH gee, he doesn't know so he phones his "friends back home". All the guys cell phones ring. They talk over each other and fight for 30 seconds, not helping him at all. Lance uses his ask the audience lifeline. Justin turns to the crowd and pleads for us to help Lance win **Dr. Evil impression** "one MILLION dollars". At this time I would like to start another revolt. Those of you that haven't been to concerts yet, scream for Pikachu. I wonder what they would do if Lance's DIDN'T win the million...

So blah, blah, BIG surprise, Lance goes with the audience and wins the million creating the PERFECT segue into "Just Got Paid". Hmm.. it seems so... planned to me... :)

Now, dang. I have to say this song was an adventure all on it's own. The confetti cannons shoot of loads and loads of green and white confetti into the audience. Kinda cute. Then the song starts and the guys kinda act it out. Justin was adorble with the "Check the mirra, lookin' fly" thing. It was for this song, that Justin took off his bandana. This one stray curl right in the center kept falling in his face and bouncing up and down on his nose while he danced. It was cute. He kept trying to get it to stay up but it wouldn't. I felt kinda bad for him. LOL. Then there was the "booty shakin'" line where they did the obvious choreography. Yay for whoever made up those lyrics. ;0)

So there is a little building on the stage that says "The Klub". The guys go over and there is a security guy at the door. They try to get in, but he won't let them. It was so adorable, this one part Lance gets up on the ledge and tries to shimmy past the guard. It was really cute. LOL. But once he "realizes" who they are, the doors open and there are a bunch of dancing fans. Joey was pimpin' it up, man. The confetti cannons went off again. And stayed on. And on. And on. It got to the point where we couldn't see the stage anymore. The confetti was hitting everyone in the eyes and mouth. It was really quite funny, but at the same time a little annoying. We were sptting it out. I think I STILL have some in my hair...

Next came the laser light show. They crew had to get the freakin' confetti off the stage and the guys needed to um... breath, lol, so there was a little break in the action. We all watched the pretty lasers make nifty designs. Weee...

Suddenly there was this big white mask thing. They projected an image of a face onto it and since it was a curved surface, it looked real. It was kida creepy. It was a clown that gave this weird random riddle. I wasn't really listening, I was marveling at how cool the effect was. Then suddenly it morphed into pscho freaky clown. I feel bad for the Teenies, cause damn, that thing scared ME.

The guys popped up and "Space Cowboy" started. I am not really a fan of this song. But I have to say that it was awesome. Plus, JC looked really hot. What a outfit. Muscle shirt + tight red and black snake skin pants= massive amounts of drool. Good thing I had all the confetti in my mouth and hair to soak it all up. And as an added bonus, Lance in leather pants is ALWAYS a good thing.

Next up there were sirens and the lights came up on JC, Joey, Lance, and Chris in long white doctor coats. Justin's feet could be seen dangling off of a gurney. He sat up and began "It Makes Me Ill". This is my very favorite song on "NSA" so I was excited. The dance moves were a tad on the cheesy side though. But Joey was wearing a hair net and that made me smile, so it all evened out in the end.

After they had "died" at the end, they got up and pulled stools to the center of the stage. They did a little bit of "you've been great, we love you all, thanks for coming" and JC said we were louder than the last concert. :) They were about to sing, but JC said he wanted to get closer. The guys agreed and pulled their stools closer to the edge of the stage. JC was like "Naw, CLOSER!" So they all grumbled and did. Chris pretended to almost fall and was like "Dude! I was listenin' to you babble over there and I almost fell of the stage! We can't get any closer than this". But JC was like "Naw, CLOSER!". So then the middle section of the stage lifted into the air. I had heard that something like that happened, but I didnt really know how they were gonna do it.

They started to sing "This I Promise You" and the stage turned and began to move down the center isle. The platform was glass, so the audience could see from underneath too. It came by me and I was 7 in from the center, so I got a pretty good view. Joey was on our side almost the whole time and he was smiling and winking left and right. LOL. Someone threw a little basketball at them and it nearly hit Joey in the face. He ducked in surprise but Justin ran to catch it. Through most of the rest of the song he bounced it around. The platform got all the way to the back and turned around. Justin sat with his legs dangling, waving and winking. He looked so... happy and like he was having so much fun. The platform was right by me again when JC did the "Over and over I fall.." verse which is my favorite. I could see the passion and love for music completely overtake him. It was amazing how much passion he has and I really respect him for it so much more after having seen it so close up. Hmm... what else? As they passed someone threw a hat to them. It was one of those visors with the green clear visor and the rainbow band with the little flashing red and green lights. You know what I mean? LOL. Anyhoo... Joey was on our side and concertrating on flirting...lol.. so hard he didn't notice Lance come up behind him and put it on his head. I will never forget the startled look on Joey's face. I almost peed my pants. LOL. So all in all, the platform thing gets a thumbs up from me. It was a very clever way to get closer to all of the fans. And it was freakin' cool. :)

They said goodnight and ran offstage. They came back in the dark and sang Digital Getdown. The outfits had random glowing things like a circuit board. It was a little bit cool in the dark, but the outfits looked well... stupid in the light. The choreography was cool. How could it NOT be with the subject matter of that song? *Evil grin* The stage had these nifty convaer (how do you SPELL that?) belts that made the guys move though at the one part they are flapping their arms around and they look like chickens.

They left again and the lights became all red. The screen showed a distant blurry red and orange sunset. Five guys in long dark monk robed walked onstage. Hmmm.. whoever could they be? Random eerie instrumental music plays and it soulnds kinda like, you guessed it. The robes come off and "Bye Bye Bye" begins. EVERYONE is singing and dancing along. It was pretty cool. The song ends in a big ole burst of pyrotechnics and, you guessed it... even MORE confetti. Sigh.

I stick around as people file out and the band jams along to the instrumental "Bye Bye Bye", cause I don't want it to end yet. But it does and I gotta leave. But, oh yes, I WILL be back. :)

So all in all, my first NSYNC concert experience ROCKED.

Final thoughts from me:

JC was exactly what I imagined. He was energetic and jumpy and talented and passionate. He amazed me. I loved it.

Justin is a hottie. LOL. He really is. The bandana is a good look for him. He is a very good dancer, he makes you watch him, kinda like... captivates you with his whole... being. You can't look away... he lights up the stage.

Lance was a cutie. Shorter than I imagined. He is a pretty good dancer now and you could tell he was having the time of his life.

Joey, as I said, was adorableness personified. He is such an entertainer. Smiling and winking and livin' it up. I just wanted to... hug him. LOL. What a cutie.

Chris. He was fun. He is a crazy man and it showed. He can dance too. But what I loved the most was the faces he made. Those cute little half- smiles.... they are like... mischevous but serious at the same time and... I don't believe I am saying this... kinda sexy. LOL. He looks as though he is trying to seduce the entire audience, yet I don't think realizes he is making a face at all. I love it.