Mr. JT

Justin Timberlake is back...not that most of you knew he was gone. Dropping a couple of years after his solo debut, "Future Sex/Love Sounds", Justin's 2nd record, hits shelves on September 12. If the first single, "Sexyback", is any indication, this is a new sound for Justin and a look back at Prince and some old, funky, sexy sounds. There is even a shout out to Tipper Gore on bottom-left corner of the album cover, Parental Advisory it reads.

So, obviously this isn't an album review since it ain't out yet. This is however a concert review. Yes, a couple of friends and I saw Justin Timberlake last week at the House of Blues in San Diego and despite all of the ribbing and mocking, I don't regret it in the least. It was a fun show, it was a hot show, and it was a show I got to see up close, probably 10 feet away from the stage. Cameron Diaz was there and so was Lil' Jon. They were spectators. I may have lost my voice because I was doing my Lil' Jon impression too loud and too frequently during a brief period of time. There was another special guest on stage, but hold on, I'll tell you about him in a few.

JT kicked it off with "Cry Me a River". You remember that one. It was the anti-Britney song, calling her out for the alleged cheating. By all accounts, she's gotten hers (think K-Fed). We heard some of the old stuff from "Justified" and new songs from the upcoming album. The new songs are cool and feel like Prince and others from the past. Justin's attitude when introducing his new material: if you don't like it, F-U. :) He's on a roll lately with saying what he wants. Lucky for JT, he didn't have any Taylor Hicks comments to make at the show. He would have lost me there, for sure!

Who was the special guest? Timberland! That's right, he was up on the stage for "SexyBack" and then performed "Promiscuous", sans Ms. Nelly Furtado. The crowd of mostly girls filled in for her though and it was more than a duet. It was a great night of dancing and singing and checking JT out, up close. He's come a long way from the boy band days of the past.

The next day, my crew was mentioned on the radio by a DJ who was there. How do we know they were talking about us? They described us well, "some girls even made tank tops with Justin's picture on them." That would be us. Had we known that our shirts would be popular (at least 20 people asked where we bought them), we could have made some extra cash.

That was our night of JT.
Up next, my weekend in pursuit of Taylor Hicks, who incidentally can carry a tune without carrying a bucket too!