Now, there was a lot of hype about the PopOdyssey Tour. It was said to be the biggest tour (stage, production, whatever) in history so far. Because we love the boys, Becca and I (Olivia) are biased and would probably have liked it anyway...but we still walked away going "WHOA!" because it definitely was *nbelievable. If you're an older fan, you probably appreciated it because they have grown from the kiddie-oriented NSA Tour to THIS. So here's our inital reactions of Night I. BexXx's additional comments will be in white.
For opening acts, there was Tonya Mitchell, 3LW and Eden's Crush. It was the last night on tour for all of them. But before I get into them, I'd like to take this opportunity to bash Stever because he was the MC again this year. Now, I'm not going to waste too much time on him, but one of his finest moments that night was when he "called out" this older lady. Seriously...the bastard was mean to her.
"Is everyone having a good time? [scream] Good...because that lady down there isn't. [points at woman] She looks really mad. What's the matter? Come on!" Didn't anybody tell him to respect his elders? If I were Mommy Crunkness, I would have gone out on stage, took hold of his ear, and yanked him off the stage. Jerk! Anyways, Tonya Mitchell came out first. Now, you all know that Mommy Crunkness is her manager, so of course we were on the lookout for her. Low and behold, there she was at the control booth under the second stage.
We forgot all about Tonya and instead, I decided to see if I could get her to take a picture with our action figures. Beck was too chicken to go with me, but she let me take Justin. So I toted Buddy, Ghetto and my camera to where she was standing and called out to her, "Hey Mrs. Harless!" as I waved the dolls around. She looked up and waved back. I asked if I could get a picture, but she said no. :( But, she did like the whole action figure thing. She pointed at Buddy and Ghetto and said, "That's SO cute!" SCORE! That was good enough for me. :)
To be honest, neither of us paid much attention to 3LW or Eden's Crush. Beck siezed the moment to have a smoke and get us some drinks. I noticed she was gone a long time and when she came back, I found out why:
Okay, so I'm smoking a cigarette and minding my own damned business...and homeboy comes walking up to me talkin bout "Hey girl, you sure are a star in that shirt! Let me buy you a drink, baby girl." So I'm thinkin'...YAY! He's gonna get me a beer! WRONG! He bought me a Mountain Dew from the guy walkin around with the sodas. Oh well, I got a free drink out of the deal. lol
All right, on to NSYNC. We took 1 good roll of pictures before my camera started acting ghetto, but for the most part we took the opportunity to soak in the hype on our first night seeing the tour.
*Ntroduction - Joey comes out lookin' all dorky, and he teaches us the meaning of pop, odyssey, and popodyssey. Then he told us all about the history of the band...AGAIN. When they showed the part about being on all those magazine covers, we were both like, "I Have that one! And that one!" They looked incredibly hot dressed up as punks. Because...as Liv says, "We like 'em dirty." Yes!
Pop - This is the only song from "Celebrity" we knew completely. lmao BexXx thought it was cool how they came out of the pyramid thingymabobber, while they had the dancers as decoys in the monk robes. But really, I was ALL about the thrusts and floor-humping. Once again, GOD BLESS YOU WADE ROBSON! Beck adds that anything is better with a little floor humping thrown in.
Tearin' Up My Heart/I Want You Back/God Must Have Spent - *yawn* been there, done this... lmao But Liv liked the way that Tearin' Up My Heart was the VMA '99 version, kind of mixing it up.
Two of Us - JC's "love song." It has a catchy little finger thing that we picked up on real quick...like, REAL quick, and we did it for the rest of the night...repeatedly. lmao Then there was the hook that Becca didn't know the words to, but still had it stuck in her head the whole weekend. "Lalalala...two of us, the two of us."
Western Skit - The McDonald's plug. Joey dancin' round the campfire. "We must be, Pop!" lololol Liv basically summed it up with her favorite part: Chris - "It's a critter!" Lance - "Get it!" Chris - "Must be broke." Lance – "Sniff…that was our supper!"
Space Cowboy - "Oh...My...God." *jaw drops* BexXx simply said, "I want to lick the bulls." LMAO I think that's pretty much the extent of our verbal reactions to that song. The rest was jaws dropping, salivating, and squealing. That was as beautiful and sexual as Digital Getdown and Jayce's "lick seen around the world."
Chris' Strip Tease - "Whoa, singles. Calm down!" Liv bet me he was pointing at Lux. lmao That was sexay, too. Chris in those chaps…whew! Chris and chaps are not two things I had EVER thought about in the same sentence before that night...but then the band started playing "The Stripper," and my life changed forever. roflmao
This I Promise You - They brought out the candleholders, a la the Grammy's. It's such a purdy song, we got nothing funny to say about that one...lol I got teary...they did that beautiful harmony break right after the bridge. It was *almost* a cappella. There were only a couple instruments.
Silent Film - Liv already knew about this, and looked forward to it. She's fascinated with the whole 20's thing. It's our mob story!
Gone - Bex "cried like a dope...*hangs head in shame*" The lady in front of us turned around and asked her why she was crying. I was hugging her going, "Aw. It's okay to cry," because Beck kept saying, "I'm such a dork." She was looking forward to the end, though. She's fascinated by Justin's crotch being thrust repeatedly toward the air. But then Chris hit him with the boxing glove, ruining a perfectly good perverse fantasy. LMAO
Toys - They got new toys. We thought that whole spiel was cute. JC did Bonzai Buddy moves and yelled, "Thank you for riding the Red Wagon Express...NOW GET OUT!" The guys had super soakers, silly string, stuffed aminals, bikes, and the bouncing puppy in the middle of the stage! I love the bouncing puppy! It's Patrick the Pup from FAO Schwarz!
It's Gonna Be Me - Bex yelled out, "Yes Justin...yes it is..." During the second verse, they rode the bouncy balls! Boing! And speaking of bouncing, JC's hair was bouncing all over the place. lol It reminded me of the FRO the year before. I was totally ecstatic when they did their freak nasty VMA version at the end. Mmmmm freak nasty...*Homer drool*
Audience *Nvolved - This is like what they used to do with Tearin' Up My Heart. JC and Lance were on one side, Joey and Chris were on the other, and Justin was center stage directing the whole thing. "Y'all know that we came to rock!" *yells it back* "Give us some of that dirty Pop!" *yells that back too* They kept going back and forth to see which side of the crowd was the loudest. Our side lost. :( We were with Lance and Josh.
See Right Through You - It's got the cool treadmill thingy. Basically, it's Digital Getdown without the lasers and glow sticks. The highlight of the whole thing was JC singing, "Does he FREAK you the way that I do," as he gyrates and dances down the conveyor belt on the catwalk.
*Ntroducing the Band - *waves* Hiiiii band! Hiiiii Ruben! You now it's sad when you can name all the band members before Lance and Joey formally introduce them. Liv knew them all, and did her latina yell when Ruben played. lol I only know Ruben, and I'm proud of it! Oh...and there's Kevin, the bandleader who used to work for New Kids.
Up Against the Wall - JC gets freaky once more. Becca says she worries about him sometimes. I said I'd take care of him. ;) They looked good in Velcro and denim, pointing at disco balls and strobe lights, bouncing on trampolines, and Josh yelling TWO STEP! =D Beck added, "I'd let them hold me up against any wall they wanted to."
Cell Phone Skit - That was the funniest skit in the show. Joey yells, "What up, DORK?!" with a celery stalk in his mouth. Lance is sitting in a lawn chair, rocking back and forth asking, "What are YOOOOOOU doing?" Chris says, "Well you don't have to get an attitude about it." Justin adds, "Yeah, what a jerk!" Jayce brings it at the end. "Do you want me or do you want what I can buy you?" Liv yelled, "Booya biatch!" Hello, Bobbie much? NEIGH BABY! *tosses a bag of sugar cubes into the crowd*
Celebrity - The first thing I noticed was JC…can we say, Liberache much? LMAOOOOO Lance was the one doing the demonic chanting instead of Wade - as it should be. Lance should do any and all demonic chanting, period. Our only other thought on the whole thing is, WE WANNA BE ONE OF THOSE GIRLS ON STAGE! Why are they all hoochies? Ugh!
Something Like You/Falling/Selfish - Joey pretended it was story time and read letters before each song. And…CHRIS SANG! Chris sang the song HE wrote! ALL BY HIMSELF! What a beautiful song it is, Falling. "Something strange has come over me, a raging wind across my seas…" And Selfish…Liv thought Josh was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. She squeezed my hand and almost cried. We held hands like a pair of pansies. lmao
No Strings Attached - The guys were spread out on different parts of the stage, which was cool, so everyone could see them. Remember during the last tour, in the middle of his verse Justin made all the pyrotechnics go off? This time, we *thought* Justin lost his touch, but he was only fooling! At the end, they all said thank you's and tried to play it like they were done, but it was obvious the show wasn't over yet.
The Game Is Over - Okay...I want that video game. Liv said that was the most visually stimulating part of the entire show. I liked it a lot, even if Joey did bite the big one doing that number in rehearsal. The way they popped out of the stage, it's no wonder it was concerning.
Bye Bye Bye - NOOOOO! This mean's it's over! I like the way they incorporated the VMA screens when they sang the first verse. Just a thought: Were they nekkid in those videos, because I swear they didn't look like they were wearing clothes? lmao It was Nsync porn! Afterward they got into their cages *rawr, cheetah beast* and did their disappearing act. I KNOW WHERE THEY WENT! Where'd they go? And how'd they do it? The staircases under the cages were hollow! They just slid down into the stairs! I'm so smart! lol
Credits - I didn't really pay much attention to the credits...lol. There was always the second night. Liv said they were funny, with the behind the scenes footage of the photo shoot for the Celebrity album cover. Then there was a huge fireworks display and all the flashing lights.
The verdict? The show was incredible, definitely living up to the hype. I liked the way they launched the tour before the album and introduced the new music that way. The stage production and new props and effects were HUGE, making the show seem even bigger. I also loved the way they brought new flavor to their older material by bringing back special renditions previously arranged and choreographed for award shows. Does it get my squeal of approval? Hell, YEAH! I even strained my voice. LOL
