“What you are about experience may or may not be real,” reads a caption on a TV that Justin Timberlake gazes upon during an introductory vignette for his Forget Tomorrow world tour. At Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on Friday night, the pop star existed in the throes of fantasy and spectacle —an arena where he continually thrives —away from all the headlines and critiques of the past few years. Throughout his nearly two-hour set, pop artistry led the way as he toured his discography with an ease that only years of practice can achieve.
At his essence, Timberlake is a consummate showman, educated in the school of boyband philosophy where precision is key. At 43 years old, Timberlake is just as sharp and exact as he’s been throughout his decades-long career, hitting every cue and note with intent and purpose. He’s fresh off the release of his sixth solo album “Everything I Thought It Was,” a sprawling project that often retreated to past tropes and musical habits, as well as the flurry of reputation-shaking headlines that dogged him the past few years.
But none of that existed in the world he created for his electrifying performance in L.A., where throngs of millennials gathered to relive hits of the past and engage with newer, less familiar material. His last tour, in support of his 2018 album “Man of the Woods,” was an interactive affair built on a stage that snaked through the audience. For Forget Tomorrow, Timberlake opted for a simpler, more traditional assembly, with a front-venue stage and a raised platform in the back that he graced for a more acoustic set of songs. A mobile monolith that hovered above and behind him for much of the set added technical flair, flashing images of Timberlake that accented songs with a psychedelic lilt.
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With that, Timberlake let the music and dancing speak for itself; there wasn’t an abundance of banter throughout the evening, save for an endearing moment where he chatted with a young fan on his way to the B-stage. He treated attendees to a master class in pop performance, setting the tone from the moment he emerged, trenchcoat and all, from a trapdoor in the stage to “Memphis,” the opening salvo of “Everything I Thought It Was.”
The man, the myth, the legend: Justin Timberlake
