J 2Da T

Yes, we went and saw Justin Timberlake in concert. There. I said it. Everytime we visit the BEC I swear it can't get any busier and everytime it gets busier! What thaa? We arrived 1 hour before the concert and we were in a parking queue over a mile long. Jeez man! I thought rocking up early would be the way to go but I guess everyone else had the same brain wave...only they arrived even earlier.

After wasting away in the pre-concert parking carousel for about 20 mins I noticed an unused parking area, Parking Area 4, directly ahead. Unfortunately a traffic guard stood between us and a park and a way out of this madness. When we drove up to the traffic guard I inquired if we could park in parking area 4 (as no one seemed to be allowed to park there and hence it was vacant). The following conversation similar to an Austin Powers skit ensued:

me: Can we park in Parking Area 4?
traffic guard: what?
me: Can we park in Parking Area 4?
traffic guard: what?
me: (thinking I was talking gibberish) Can we park in Parking Area 4?
traffic guard : (damn! 3 times!) go for it!

So he sends us (and only us I might add) from a sea of about 200 cars to parking area 4! The beauty of this was that there was no "charge" for parking there and, and, it was directly in front of the concert hall!! I mean what thaa? How good can this get? :)

Once inside we were ready to be disappointed by usual horrible food for sale. The BEC have definitely got to get some better food going on.

The concert itself was setup in a different format to the usual. It was a "Arena" concert. (see pic below) allowing for even more people to pour into the same space! Aha! So this is how they crammed more people in there!






The opening act was a chick from Melbourne with beautiful voice but who's music bore no resemblance to that of JT. It was a bit of a mismatch to say the least. Anyhoo after about 4 songs she was off and everyone was getting excited for the arrival of JT.

Since this was an "Arena" concert, the singer would be facing in one of 4 directions at a time there were translucent screens which projected his image onto the other 3 directions.




I must say I was quite impressed with JT mainly because he played 3 instruments, danced for about 2 hours, gave away Au$100,000 to Steve Irwin's "Wild Life Warriors" on stage and started the show with tequila shots with the band!

I was also impressed by a full live band supporting JT and the rockified version of "Cry me a River". The light show was amazing, probably the best we have ever seen @ the BEC. Good on ya JT! :)