'N Sync, with Ron Irizarry and Preston Creed, Rice-Eccles Stadium, Saturday, June 17, 7:30 p.m.; one performance only.
'N Sync was "Bringin' Da Noise" to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night — and only about half of it came from the enormous stage and thunderous sound system.
The rest came from the screaming fans, who came close to drowning out America's most popular musical group. And 'N Sync fans are nothing if not devoted. How devoted?
"Majorly," said 13-year-old Kat van Uitert, one of the 30,000 or so on hand for the show. "I'd die for them."
From the screaming, you almost thought some of the fans were dying.
The least necessary question of the evening came from group member Joey Fatone, who asked, "Are you guys ready to scream?"
The noise actually began outside the stadium. Some of the concertgoers were screaming while they were in their cars on the way to the parking lots. And some of those cars were decorated with pictures of the guys — Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Lance Bass and Fatone — and slogans declaring undying love.
The crowd was predominantly female and young — teens and pre-teens — but there was a good share of guys (many of whom seemed to be attempting a look that mimicked one or another of the band members), and there were a good number of parents in attendance, too.
"I'm am so totally excited," said 12-year-old Casey Doyle. "I can hardly stand it."
And her mother, Kat, was no less into it.
"I love 'N Sync," she said. "I know all the words to all the songs because (Casey) plays the CDs all the time."
Their enthusiasm was not without reason. 'N Sync enraptured its fans and could have made believers out of the unconverted. From the moment the lads descended to their high-tech stage like marionettes — this was the latest stop on the "No Strings Attached" tour — through their 13 song, 85-minute show, they kept the energy high and the show full of surprises. They rose from the stage on pedestals, they disappeared into it, they stood on a piece of it that rolled out through the middle of the audience.
(Which led to a few scary moments as teenage girls rushed the moving stage.)
Pyrotechnics, lasers, holograms, video clips (including a guest appearance by "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" host Regis Philbin), and energetic choreography abounded.
Not that 'N Sync is all flash. These guys can sing — how many bands would dare do a number a cappella as this one did with "I Thought She Knew"?
And for all of their huge success — they sold more than a million tickets to this concert tour in less than a day — the guys still come across as humble and grateful.
"I remember when we started this group, we never, ever, ever thought any of this would happen," Timberlake said.
The guys went through some of their biggest hits and familiar songs from their two albums, including "I Want You Back," "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You," "Tearin' Up My Heart," "It's Gonna Be Me," "Drive Myself Crazy," "Just Got Paid," "Space Cowboy," "It Makes Me Ill," "I Promise You," "Digital Get Down" and "Bye, Bye, Bye."
And, when it was all over, the fans still didn't seem to have screamed themselves out.
Salt Lake's Preston Creed (sort of a solo boy-band type) got a polite — sometimes enthusiastic — reception from the hometown fans during his 15 minutes of fame and four-song set, although some of the fans left no doubt as to why they were really there. "I just want 'N Sync!" screamed one girl.
Not that the other opener, Ron Irizarry, fared altogether better. When he announced his last song, another fan yelled, "It better be your last song!"
And there might have been more fans in the stadium to see Creed if not for a ridiculous snafu that forced everyone with seats on the field to fight a huge mob to get wristbands at one site before dispersing to their seats.
"I love 'N Sync, but this was the worst way of handing out wristbands I've ever seen," said Kat Doyle. "We got here early and had to wait an hour for wristbands, and we missed the opening act."
The crowd had swelled by the time 'N Sync took the stage. And "Da Noise" had barely begun.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com