Justin Timberlake: Tiny Desk Concert

Published March 16, 2024, 12:10 a.m. by Courtney

Stephen Thompson | March 15, 2024

Walking into the room shortly before Justin Timberlake took our cramped stage, I overheard someone on his team wondering aloud if this was to be the most densely populated Tiny Desk concert in history — which is to say, the most musicians we've ever fit in a single frame. It's not, but we don't often find a way to cram in this many human beings (15 in all) and this much gear.

Timberlake has never been one to give partial effort, but this is a production befitting the occasion: namely, a set timed to drop concurrently with the release of his new album, Everything I Thought It Was. Eschewing the rootsier feel of its predecessor, 2018's Man of the Woods, the new record is a throwback, an epic and a blowout — and so's this lavish set, which scales the Timberlake experience down to 25 minutes of maximalist celebration and, when the moment calls for it, chiller vibes.

Backed by his band The Tennessee Kids, Timberlake's Tiny Desk debut leans heavily on his early solo catalog, as he kicks it off with two songs from 2002's classic Justified and weaves in three more from 2006's magnificent FutureSex/LoveSounds — including a set-closing "SexyBack," which finds the singer trotting out a megaphone in a truly meme-worthy moment.

By the way, in case you're wondering, the all-time record for musicians behind the Tiny Desk is a whopping 23, a feat pulled off by the fantastic Mucca Pazza in 2015. But Timberlake and company rival that classic performance's energy — in both cases, the real triumph lies not in the Tetris of it all, but in the way that many people still find ways to move, buoyantly and as one mighty organism.