Review: Justin Timberlake is a terrific performer with a mediocre songbook

Justin Timberlake has been performing since he was a kid — going at least as far back to the early ’90s when he was a TV contestant on “Star Search” and, later, Mouseketeer on “The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.”

So, he’s pretty much seen it all when it comes to audiences. Yet, he still seemed mighty impressed by the reaction he was getting from the packed house of some 12,000 fans on Monday (May 6) at the SAP Center in San Jose.

“Y’all go so much energy tonight,” said Timberlake, who also was set to performed Tuesday at the same venue. “That’s how we feel tonight in the Bay Area?”

How could we be feeling any other way? After all, one of the best pure entertainers in all of pop music was in the house and grooving like nobody’s business.

Timberlake is nothing short of a marvelous performer, boosting great dance moves, plenty of charisma and star power, the ability to connect deeply with a crowd, solid comedic timing and a knack for showing his fans a good time.

The one hole in his game remains his songbook, which — six full-length studio albums and a plethora of other musical projects into his career — remains mediocre at best. The result is that so much of the 29-song, two-hour set was pretty forgettable, musically speaking, as Timberlake chugged through one shiny but bland pop-soul number after another.

The fact that these mostly mundane numbers worked in the moment, and evoked much excitement from the crowd, is certainly further testament to Timberlake’s prowess as a stage performer.

Taking the stage just after 9 p.m., Timberlake opened this stop on The Forget Tomorrow World Tour by leading his 11-piece backing band — dubbed the Tennessee Kids — right into “No Angels.”

It was the first of 11 songs he’d play from his latest studio effort, “Everything I Thought I Was,” which certainly didn’t help his cause when it came to trying to put together a winning setlist.

The album is shaping up to be Timberlake’s first real bomb, having just been released in March and — shockingly — already fallen out of the Billboard 200. (To help put that in perspective, consider that 2001’s “The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates” currently sits at No. 87 on that same chart.)

It continues a trend that began with 2018’s “Man of the Woods,” which also was a commercial disappointment, at least by Timberlake’s own once-lofty multiplatinum standards.

The upside of JT no longer being the top former boy-band star — a title firmly wrestled away by Harry Styles a few years back — is that we seem to be inching closer to a possible reunion tour with NSYNC. Timberlake already recorded some new music with his old band — including the song “Paradise” on the new album — and he’s certainly savvy enough to realize he needs to do something to stay in the spotlight in the years to come.

Right now, however, Timberlake still has enough fans at his side from his first three albums — the blockbusters “Justified” (2002), “FutureSex/LoveSounds” (2006) and The 20/20 Experience (2013) — to not only draw, but thrill huge crowds.

The tour’s production elements helped keep the fans entertained — of special note being a large video screen monolith that was moved, tilted and hoisted in different ways throughout the show. It resembled the big stone monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the brilliant 1968 Stanley Kubrick film that many of the younger fans in attendance probably wouldn’t be familiar with. In one moment, it seemed to pulse with cosmic energy, like what you might see in a film like “Avengers: Endgame” — and I half expected that Thanos might pop out of it at any second.

Now that would have been good entertainment!

Timberlake did a great job connecting with the crowd throughout the night. Notably, he charmed the audience when he stopped to chat with a 10-year-old girl — named Bella — near the front of the stage. He then turned and playfully scolded Bella’s mom.

“Do you know how much profanity I have in my show?” he joked.

Sixteen songs into the set, Timberlake and company partied their way through the crowd — while belting out “Play” — to a small stage set up in the back of the area. From there, he’d deliver one of the best moments of the night as he led the crowd in a lovely singalong of “Until the End of Time.”

“That is without the best I have ever heard that song,” Timberlake remarked at the song’s conclusion. “Thank you, San Jose.”

He’d then move back to the mainstage — while singing the “Trolls” film anthem “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” — and then rolled into “SexyBack,” a tune that certainly hasn’t aged well and is feeling more and more like the “I’m Too Sexy” of its day. (Actually, come to think about it, the Right Said Fred number is much better than the Timberlake hit.)

Like the best entertainers often do, Timberlake saved the best for last and closed the show in high-flying style as he boarded that same video monolith and floated out above the crowd while powering through a fine version of “Mirrors.”

Setlist:

1. “No Angels”
2. “LoveStoned”
3. “Like I Love You”
4. “My Love”
5. “Technicolor”
6. “Sanctified”
7. “Infinity Sex”
8. “FutureSex/LoveSound”
9. “Imagination”
10. “Drown”
11. “Cry Me a River”
12. “Let the Groove Get In”
13. “My Favorite Drug”
14. “Señorita”
15. “Summer Love”
16. “(Expletive) Up the Disco”
17 “Play”
18. “Suit & Tie”
19. “Flame”
20. “Say Something”
21. “Pusher Love Girl”
22. “Until the End of Time”
23. “Selfish”
24. “What Goes Around… Comes Around”
25. “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”
26. “Good Times”
27. “Rock Your Body”
28. “SexyBack”
29. “Mirrors”