This is a little late, so sawwwy – anyways a couple of weeks ago I headed out to the House of Blues to see Timbaland in concert.  I gotta say I was a bit skeptical on what kind of show he would do on his own without the backing of his most famous artists. Of course we all know him as a brilliant producer, mean with the super psychedelic sounds, but could he really hold his own for a two hour show?

Upon my arrival I got whisked up to the VIP Level (First of all lemme thank my connect! THANK YOU!!) and me and my Fab! Friends Kita and Yvette got to a place where we could get good views of the stage.

Looking from above it was amazing to see the tween teen appeal that Timbaland has with the average age of concert goers being 17. And on a school night no less! You had the Emos to the Rockers, the Preps to the wannabee Gangstas, the Nerds to the Plaid Pushers all of them could identify with his music is a tell tale sign of his wide appeal even after all these years. This was pop music at its finest.

Sebastian and Petey Pablo

While we waited for the man of the hour to get to the stage DJ Freestyle pumped out the jams while as Timbaland’s brother Sebastian who was extremely high energy, but a little too over dramatic for my taste…i.e.: putting his hand to his hear for “lemme hear ya scream” moments did his best to get the crowd warmed up. Though I gotta say DJ Freestyle was doing most of the work bringing the heat to the tables as he gave us a short tour of the music we love by Timbaland which prompted a surprise performance by Petey Pablo’s “North Carolina” from Petey himself! I went little nuts…I didn’t take my shirt off and spin it around like a helicopter, but I kinda wanted to! NORTH CAROLINAAAAAAA – okay y’all I’m back. I’m back.

After a few more selections from Freestyle, the man of the hour, rather slothfully entered the stage took off his shirt – so unnecessary – and sat down on his “machine” – his words not mine. Now the answer to my question as to how he was goingto incorporate all of the artists that are on his latest album into his performance were quickly resolved by the wonders of technology and had two giant screens with images of the artists singing along. Didn’t add much for spontaneity, but was nice to be able to have a visual images to go along with the songs. (Yes, my girl Angel of @BostonBridalBFF you called it!)

Sup Drake?

The pace of the show, unfortunately lagged with interludes of Timbaland talking, actually rambling is a more appropriate description, started off right from the beginning with him trying to harmonize with members of the audience. I’m all for selective interaction with the crowd, but hugely stress….selective. *sigh

Next on the docket was his duo with Drake – “Say Something” and although I like the song a lot “What up Drake?” Two slow songs in a row made me feel like nodding off…zzzz . Finally he picked up the tempo with “Morning After Dark” and of course the heavily laden tween crowd got up and jumping for the Twilight theme song.

One of the things I liked best about this performance was the live band. I mean of course these are professional musicians and all, but these dudes were jammin’ like nobody’s business. It seems like it would be hard to translate the electronic ‘auto tones’ into pleasant sounds, but they did it masterfully. It reminded me how the producers of today are like the conductors of yesterday.

As pleasing as the sounds were I did feel like the show overall could have moved at a faster pace. Timbo did some very drawn out connections with the audience, the aforementioned, but the worst was before he did “Ease off the Liquor” when he kept asking people how old they were and if they were old enough to drink  and then started giving relationship advice and how he likes older women around 28 and 29….ummm random. My thought was that he was stalling because of technical difficulties, but that was the case he could have put Freestyle on to spin more songs. Please and thank you!

Fab! Friends Yvette and Kita

The last song of the night of course was the newest single “Carry Out” which went –a go-go at the end leaving the audience in an upbeat state.

Definitely a great show, but I couldn’t help but think if they just played the album without Timbaland in the building it would have been just about the same. Good music is good music. 

Grade: B+