Kick It Off

Chris gives a speech to all the techies and earnestly thanks them for being a part of their show. Always the worrier, JC says "we're a week away... and I gotta tell ya, I'm a bit nervous." Hooked into a fly rig, he says they're not sure whether they're going to come out of the floor or come out of the ceiling, so they're testing different things out. Montage of rehearsing the timing for the opening. Wade counts out in his cute choreographer voice to try to get the timing exactly right. They get close a few times. Graphic says "6 Days Before Tour Starts".

The guys rehearse the beginning of their opening number "No Strings Attached", including the awesome synchronized taking off of their wrist straps and stuff. I love that part, seriously. During the part right after "you don't have to be afraid to fall in love", they're flown farther downstage but the timing isn't perfect. Justin stops the rehearsal. Wade points to him and says, "He was way too early" to the guy who's controlling their flight. Rehearsal montage, including one shot of Wade yelling at someone.

Joey introduces the laser segment to the camera. Joey and Chris mimic "Austin Powers" and do fingerquotes around 'laser'. From the way they're sitting, Chris really does look like a mini-Joey so that makes it even more funny. I'm going to have to get a screen cap of this because it just kills me. New clip. The lasers are being tested, and Chris is talking to their stage manager Anthony.

Chris: Can I go light something on fire?
Anthony: No.
Chris: Someone already said I could.
Anthony: No, you can't.
Chris: I was already given permission!
Anthony: No, you weren't.
Chris: Aww.

Lance talks about how this is their dream tour and how they're getting everything they ever wanted years ago. Chris asks Anthony what happens if he stares at the laser for too long. Anthony says, "you'll go blind", which makes Chris stare at it with wide eyes. Lance thanks MTV for coming today and says it was a very big step in their tour. He smiles cheesily and walks away. I just realized that he's been carrying a box around the entire time. It's about the size of a textbook. Doing the math, this should have been shot within a day or two of Lance's 21st birthday, so maybe it's cigars.

Graphic: "5 Days Before Tour Starts". Random shots of the guys walking into Lakeland. Joey points off-camera to a tree with a big furry thing sticking out from behind it. Oh wait, that's Justin's head. He pokes his head back behind the tree, and then over to the other side. It's really much cuter than it sounds. The guys are all wearing backpacks or messenger bags. I wonder what they need backpacks for. Shot of Justin, Wade, and a black guy I don't ever remember seeing before walking towards the screen. Oh. Duh. I'm stupid. The black guy is Tony Michaels, another of the choreographers. He's very good looking, too. What's with *NSYNC's choreographers being hotter than they are? Not that I'm complaining, but it is kinda eerie. Tony goes over the Digital Getdown dance with them and works with the conveyor belts. Digital Getdown rehearsal montage. Tony says that they're still trying to work with the treadmills to get everything right. Justin comments to Tony that the choreography should be more "jumpy" and Tony agrees. Tony tries something different and a little faster and Justin says "yeah, yeah! That's what we need to have." Justin is awesome.

Chris is talking to the camera while Justin and Joey are messing around on the conveyor belts. "Joey's so serious. Check him out. Look at this move. You can always tell when he's serious by his lips."

"It's mentally and physically challenging," says JC. Lance says that the energy they put out each day "just drains you". He's doing that thing again when he means, "just drains me" or "just drains us" but he says, "just drains you". Now, I learned in psychology class that referring to oneself in the second person is used to remove oneself emotionally from the situation, which makes me feel like Lance is still, after six years, not totally comfortable being interviewed. Or maybe I'm full of crap.

Digital Getdown rehearsal montage. Tony and Wade mention that there are going to be 18-hour or 20-hour rehearsals for three days straight before the tour kicks off and there are still a lot of things to do. Wade's eating Skittles. I like Skittles too! He so wants me.

Lance: "Right now, we're gonna do a little firework display... that is, the pyro test." Boom. Something explodes. Joey says, "while we hang out, we're going to do a little tapdance for you." The camera pans to the right, and Wade and Tony come into frame and start tap-dancing. Hah. Joey says, "thank you, thank you very much." Let me note that Joey's feet did not move one inch during this clip. Lance points out the pyro guy who's going to give them their cues. "He'll say, don't be -there- on -this- and it's gonna go BOOM!" Lance's mom (I think) is there. She's so cute. "This is the fun part," Lance says, "blow up things." The guys go outdoors to watch the bigger explosions. JC comes out of the door riding a BMX bike and saying "oooh, ahhhh" like a little kid at a fireworks show. When I say "a little kid at a fireworks show", I mean the ooh, ahh part. Not the BMX bike-riding part. I haven't seen too many kids riding bikes at fireworks show. Come to think about it... why is JC riding that bike? Kinda strange.

Some girl (maybe a fan?) is outside. Lance says "this is what gives us entertainment." The girl is laughing really hard and Justin's got his arm around her and he's flapping his hand over her mouth so she sounds REALLY strange. This whole scene is really strange, especially because out of nowhere Matt Morris (from Mickey Mouse Club) shows up. I'd originally thought that Tony Lucca was in this scene, but no, it was Matt. (Thank you, Carrie!) Those Mousketeers, man. They stick together. If they weren't all famous and stuff, I'm sure they'd still be haniging out in a street gang somewhere stealing people's wallets.

Cut to the pyro test/fireworks show. Joey's singing the national anthem in a really strange voice and everyone (there are about 20 people there) laughs. Lance says, "Needless to say, our Fourth of Julys are really great."

Mini-montage of explosions. Lance says "There was only one little mess up, but that'll be fine. If it woulda happened on stage, it would have like burned up and exploded and stuff... but it's okay." More explosions.

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