Justin Bieber played a disappointing concert last night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. After his breakup with Selena, he's just going through the motions.
Image by Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images
Look, I get it. I’ve been dumped. I know what it’s like to be in that sort of stupor where you can manage to fumble through your daily motions, but yet you’re sort of incredulous that no one notices that your heart is slowly leaking out your sphincter like you just ate a bag of Lay's with that synthetic diarrhea oil.
So I feel some compassion for Justin Bieber, who allegedly got dumped by Selena Gomez, his girlfriend of two years, last week. He’s 18, she was his first big love, and she ripped out his tender heart and did the break-dance head-slide move all over it. It’s OK, Justin. I feel you. I’ve pop-n-locked in your bedazzled high-tops myself.
Justin and Selena in better days:
Image by Danny Moloshok / Reuters
As a fellow dumpee, I understand why Justin’s performance last night at the new Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn was so wooden, so flaccid, so rote. His dance moves lacked energy, his singing showed no passion. He made almost no stage banter apart from a few scripted-sounding introductions to songs and a halfhearted “Brooklyn, are you ready to boogie?” as he descended from the rafters on wires with a huge set of steampunk angel wings. His bitter ennui was palpable as he sang to the “one less lonely girl” preselected from the audience to sit on stage with him. In fact, the only moment of pure and raw emotion of the whole show was that teen girl’s face mouthing “OH MY GOD” on the JumboTron as he crooned by. While romantic love may be as fleeting as it is devastating for a teen, admiration and fan love remain pure and solid as a rock.