Timberlake, friends excite fans

The ladies clambered for the free roses the way drunk dudes dive for foul balls at Wrigley Field.

It was a sight for sore ankles: High heels weren't made for bum rushing Boyz II Men, who passed out flowers from the stage, eliciting the rabid, hair-flying scrum of a bunch of bridesmaids warring for the bridal bouquet like mini MacArthurs.

The list of maladies was long Friday night at Justin Timberlake's benefit concert for Shriners Hospitals for Children at the sold-out Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts.

There were lots of inflamed teenage tonsils, thanks to the shrieks of delight that greeted the Jonas Brothers' doe-eyed pop, bashed out with forceful panache as the boys sang atop pianos and scratched at their guitars vigorously.

There were all those sprained vertebrae as the dudes craned their necks to follow Rihanna's every move as she strutted across the stage in tight leather pants and skyscraper bangs high enough to imperil low-flying aircraft.

Cool and businesslike, she stormed through a trio of tunes, barely breaking a sweat, her brief set climaxing with the cardiac pop of "Don't Stop The Music."

And then there were all those weary, achy, breaky hearts, melted like Hershey bars in Hades.

The man responsible for all of those sighs?

It was the show's namesake, better known as JT to the truly devoted, 7,000 of which packed the hall on this night.

After a series of quick performances that hovered around the 15-minute mark from the likes of breathy Brit siren Leona Lewis, who bestilled the loud crowd with her stark, starry-eyed ballad "Homeless," delivered with her eyes closed, and a pair of songs from sassy Dutch sparkplug Esmee Denters, Timberlake capped the three-hours-plus show with a full set of hits.

Live, Timberlake's repertoire takes on an entirely different bent. Fleshed out with a hard-hitting backing band, his tunes feel way more rock than pop in such a setting, loaded with Guitar Hero soloing and stout, angular bass lines that reverberate like someone had fired a pistol next to your ear.

It's the difference between playing flag football and getting chased down by Ray Lewis.

This was made evident right from the start, as a show opening "Like I Love You" climaxed with strains of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and a smashmouth drum coda.

Radio-friendly slow-burner "Cry Me A River" came fattened with muscular riffs, while the band teased even more funk out of an extended "My Love," one of several tunes that grew fangs live.

As for one of Timberlake's biggest smashes, the throbbing "Sexy Back," the singer promised to retire the song after the show.

"This is the last time I'm playing this," he announced, "so you'd better dance."

Periodically throughout the evening, Timberlake was joined by a bevy of guests, from Black Eyed Peas producer/MC Will.i.am on "Damn Girl" to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine on the band's hit "This Love."

Rapper 50 Cent came onstage to trade verses on the bawdy sex anthem "AYO Technology," as well as belt out his new single "Get Up" and his signature "In Da Club" to raucous approval, as gray-haired dudes in suits swung their elbows to the beat haphazardly.

During the encore, Lionel Ritchie dueted with Timberlake on the Commodores classic "Easy," which smoldered like embers in a campfire.

After a marathon of a show, which raised over $1 million for Shriners Hospitals and which Timberlake said will return next year, things concluded with a pair of moody, slow-simmering ballads.

"Can't believe it's ending this way," Timberlake sang on "What Comes Around," while the crowd just couldn't believe it was ending, period.

Contact Jason Bracelin at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com.