Finally the critics are picking up on the NSync tour being bombastic and too big. I knew you'd be happy to see that:
'N Sync's 15 minutes of fame is about to 'Pop'
STRINGS ATTACHED: The boy band's Rose Bowl spectacle marks the point of no return.
By Mark Wyckoff, Staff writer
PASADENA -- Were the "Behind the Music" cameras rolling Tuesday night at the Rose Bowl? Let's hope so, because they would have captured a seminal moment in 'N Sync history: the beginning of the end.
Whether it's the end of the band itself, or simply the end of a remarkably successful chapter in the group's history, remains to be seen. But there's no question about this: The bloated, multimedia spectacle of the boy band's new "Pop Odyssey" tour, and its equally garish soundtrack, the just-released "Celebrity" album, mark the point of no return.
If the guys -- Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Lance Bass and Joey Fatone -- don't implode from the sheer pressure they're under to tour and record, they're very soon going to be forced to step back from the madness, reevaluate their music and image, and scale it all back to a level that will connect themselves once again to the audience on a human level.
Yes, the 50,000 screaming fans in the Rose Bowl were knocked out by the show. Some even started to cry when their parents made them leave early, before the group closed the show with its biggest hit, "Bye Bye Bye." But lost amid the screams, the towering steel stage and the piercing laser lights were the band members themselves.
They were so busy dancing, so busy trying to make costume changes, that they had little opportunity to show any real personality or charisma. Sure they looked cute, but so does a two-dimensional Tiger Beat pinup. And the Tiger Beat pinup, history tells us, does not have a long shelf life.
Nor do they call their own shots. Despite the band's declaration last year that they had "No Strings Attached," this new tour still finds them playing the role of puppets. What else could explain the embarrassing array of stunts band members are forced to perform during the "Pop Odyssey" evening?
Over the course of 90 minutes, they bounced on huge rubber balls, sang to a stuffed dog, Velcroed themselves to a wall and humped silly-looking mechanical bulls. It was like a warped musical Romper Room. What credibility-craving pop star would do any of that on his (or her) own?
Rarely did the music matter. But when it did, it came as a refreshing change of pace. The group's new single, "Pop," blasted out of the speakers with considerable force, and the well-known hook of "Bye Bye Bye" proved hard to resist.
The band came across most heartfelt when it was singing such ballads as "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You" and the new "Gone." Still, even on the slow songs, the group's over-processed vocals quickly started to wear thin.
Even more irritating was the group's callous insistence that fans not take handmade banners and posters into the venue, ostensibly for the "safety and enjoyment of 'N Sync and all their fans and friends." Instead, fans had to dump their creations into cardboard trash bins.
Although bright yellow signs pasted on the bins promised that "all gifts, banners and signs" would be "brought to the 'N Sync dressing room prior to the show," many of the bins were still overflowing with fans' handiwork after the concert ended.
That 'N Sync has already survived so long in the fickle teen marketplace is a remarkable achievement. But how they handle the fall that will inevitably follow "Pop Odyssey" will be the true test of their staying power.
Stay tuned.
-- Mark Wyckoff's e-mail address is mwyckoff@insidevc.com.