Where was I? Well, I'm not going to bother to re-read my last entry,
so if I repeat something, just think of it as a
friendly reminder. Anyway...
Before the concert started at 7:30, the three big screens on stage played
a few music videos and commercials. The
music videos were almost completely hip-hop and r&b. No thanks
to that! I couldn't even tell you who or what was
played. Nope, instead I danced to my own tunes in my head. I showed
off to Jessy my "cool London moves", which
mostly just involved me giving a very cheesy thumps-up sign. Jessica
told me that could be my signature move,
assuring me that in London that very well could be considered cool.
However, I did keep my eyes glued to the commercials in between those
insipid videos, because you know, they
rocked. No, seriously. Okay, so the Nabisco or whatever one was kinda
loopy in a non-interesting way (some concept
about the band arriving, a truck load of cookies, and girls screaming
that I just didn't bother to understand), but the
NSync anti-drug ad was pretty gosh darned funny. Aw, those boys are
cute. There were a bunch of short clips of the
NSyncers naming their anti-drugs, such as "family" and "acting". Chris
spent most of the ad trying to remember the
name of some childhood toy ("They were red and green..."). At one point,
Justin channeled Mike Myer's Sprockets
character, proclaiming in a German accent, "Now we dance." Then he
and JC jerked about, proving that they do know
their SNL skits. In another shot, Justin and JC at the same time shouted
"I know what you're going to say!" very
clumsily, as if they in fact did not know what the other was about
to say. At the very end, Chris shouts "Stinky
winks!" followed by "Don't touch me!" as Justin races after him.
Aaaand get this! In the middle of the ad, Lance gives a very cheesy thumbs-up! "Hey, he stole my cool London move!" I was very indignant (but in a secretly pleased way, of course).
So the anti-drug ad was wicked cute, but I was extremely thrilled at
the commercial that came on a tiny bit after: a
preview for On the Line. Aaaah! Woo! The first time I saw a preview
of any sort for Lance's new movie, although I did
catch MuchMusic's "On the Set of On the Line", which was pretty nifty.
But the preview was an awesome plus. It
might actually be a really cute movie on its own merit. "I'm tired
of being the guy that always falls short," Lance's
character says (well, something like that anyway) right before he drops
a pile of papers. Now, that's almost as much of
a Mary move as the cheesy thumps-up sign. Like most previews, it ended
with a "starring Lance Bass...Joey Fatone..."
at which the crowd erupted into cheers before falling silent again.
Then came "...Jerry Stiller...and Dave Foley." Dave's
character said something, but it was drowned out by my own screaming.
Dave Foley is my absolute favorite sitcom
actor! I am definitely seeing this movie. Okay, so I was "definitely
seeing this movie" when I first heard that Lance was
going to be in one, but now it's set in stone.
These ads were shown two or three times more before the concert started
(so I was able to listen for Dave Foley's
quote, although I still was only able to make out "offer a puppy!").
I was having a good time, bouncing up and down
and dancing all around, so for me the time went fast. Then about 7:15
or so, a guy walks on stage and starts talking. I
don't remember exactly all what he said, though I'm sure he started
out with a "whazzzzzup Cleveland!" But he was a
pretty cool guy, laid back but charming at the same time. "Who's that?
Is he NSync?" one mom near us asked her
daughter. "No, he's nobody." Au contraire! He may not have been NSync,
but he was the pretty darned close. It was
Steve Fatone, Joey's younger brother. And as Jessica pointed out, he
sounded a lot like him. He also brought out with
him a couple of really young boys, who turned out to be Chris' nephews.
I don't remember their names, probably
something like Cute and Adorable. So with Cute and Adorable's help,
as well as another, older Chris relative, Steve
threw a few cellular phone headsets (because the concert was partly
sponsored by some cell phone company) and
Fuman Skeeto (Chris' clothing line) t-shirts. They all had weak
arms though, so nothing even came close to our row 39.
Then Steve had the stadium compete in a shouting contest, telling
one of the nephews to judge who was the loudest.
The boy must have had money down in a bet or something because he determined
that the right side was louder
before we lefties even had a chance to compete! So much for that.
Steve then told the boy to announce the first opening act, so the boy
said, "Tinyie Itchle" or something equally
indecipherible. Tinyie Itchle was actually Tonya Mitchell, but she
might as well have been Tinyie because I still didn't
know who she was. But ah well, she could dance and sing like any good
performer, and her dancers were pretty neato
as well.
Hey, did I mention it started to rain? Well, it did. A nice, cool sprinkle
to make the concert a bit more exciting. Let it
rain, I said.