Source: Boston Herald
*NSYNC Delivers Sights To Go With Pop Sounds By Sarah Rodman Friday, June 1, 2001*NSYNC at Foxboro Stadium last night; also tonight.
Bells and whistles? Check. Smoke and mirrors? You bet. A good time? Absolutely.
*NSYNC touched down last night for the first of two sensory assaulting ``PopOdyssey'' shows at Foxboro Stadium and proved that they've learned how to do behemoth absolutely right.
In fact, the steadily maturing vocal quintet could give some of their elders a few pointers about why a stadium show should be as visually entertaining as it is musically.
A mammoth silver stage that spanned almost the entire endzone held a myriad of treats to prop up their effervescent pop. There were mechanical bulls to ride for ``Space Cowboy,'' a conveyor belt that floated the guys across the stage on the new ``See Right Through You'' and a Letterman-style Velcro wall for the agreeably bouncy ``Up Against the Wall.''
Joey, JC, Justin, Chris and Lance also made the most of a central gangplank that jutted out from the stage halfway into the center of the field, dancing in tight formation on the techno-infused new single ``Pop'' and the swaggering, pyrotechnic closer ``Bye, Bye, Bye,'' much to the delight of the shrieking crowd of 42,000-plus fans.
Fireworks sparkled and exploded, the group and their dancers were energetic and costumed colorfully and their eight-man band was tight and funky. They even read their fan mail and dedicated a lovely new ballad to the Newton children who died in the recent bus accident.
In between numbers comical video clips including one in which they themselves describe their music as tuneful, uptempo and repetitive charted the groups short course to multi-platinum sensations and showed off their self-effacing sense of humor.
Even admidst all the show biz magic and some poorly paced transitions the music was not lost. As hard as they were working, the group sounded spot on in their layer cake harmonies, thankfully avoiding long renditions of their overwrought ballads. ``It's Gonna Be Me'' was a tasty slab of dance pop funk and several new songs, from their forthcoming album ``Celebrity,'' found the group marrying yowsah-yowsah sounds of the 70s with skittery club beats to positive effect.
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