Play that funky music, white boy.

In the past five years, Justin Timberlake has transformed himself from the pretty-boy face of manufactured mall pop into a legitimate, in-the-pocket soul man.

That metamorphosis was on display last night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, where the singer and his eight-piece band and nine dancers put on an old-fashioned soul revue.

That is, when you could see him.

Timberlake was shrouded throughout the night in an array of sheer screens--think mosquito netting--on which he was projected for the people in the nosebleed seats of the 18,000-seat arena. But because the show was in the round--a departure of sorts from Timberlake's stated preference for putting his "D*** in a Box"--he had to run to the edges of the stage just to give the crowd a clear glimpse of him.

But ill-conceived stage setup aside, it was a good show, albeit a bit long for someone who has only two solo albums from which to draw.

Following a raucous set from opener Pink, who seems to have the market cornered on the Joan Jett-goes-glam persona, the stage lights turned red and the screens dropped. The arena, filled to the brim mostly with girls and young women, seemed ready to explode.

When Timberlake emerged singing "Future Sex/Love Sounds," the opening song from his album of the same name, the squeals were deafening. The track wasn't scorching, but the crowd didn't seem to mind.

Timberlake picked up an acoustic guitar for "Let Me Talk to You," a brief intro to the electro soul-laden "My Love," perhaps the top pop song of 2006.

The song, by far the best of the night, featured a lengthy choreographed dance routine with Timberlake and his pack of dancers, pop-locking and shape-shifting like funk-infected robots.

The singer then stood at a keyboard and performed "Senorita," his Stevie Wonder-esque ode to a lovely lady from his debut album, 2002's Justified. There aren't many living artists able to fill a huge arena with tight, well-crafted soul music that invokes Stevie Wonder.

"Sexy Ladies" came next, complete with an 80s-inspired three-keytar breakdown, and a rousing version of "What Goes Around ... Comes Around," Timberlake's latest single.

The night then took a sharp turn, as Timberlake deferred the next 20-plus minutes to Timbaland, the man who produced the bulk of FutureSex and who has a solo album, Shock Value, on the way in March. The crowd stayed into it for a while, but with no live performers other than a DJ and Timbaland making beats behind the curtains, it was tough to sustain the momentum.

Timberlake re-emerged with a bouncy version of his hit song "Rock Your Body" followed by a three-song section that featured the singer on acoustic guitar.

On several songs in the second half of the show, Timberlake leaned heavily on his backup singers and a backing track. On "Losing My Way," Timberlake merely provided hand claps while a gospel choir--projected onto the screens--sang the chorus.

An up-tempo version of Timberlake's smash hit "Cry Me a River" followed, and he closed the main set by bringing "SexyBack" one more time, with some help from Timbaland. He closed the night with a sweet rendition of "All Over Again" and a lengthy thank you to his fans.

The night was a vivid reminder of the Nas song "No Idea's Original," in which the rapper says, "No idea's original, there's nothin' new under the sun / It's never what you do, but how it's done."

There isn't much that Timberlake does that hasn't been done by Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Michael Jackson. But those are royal bloodlines to draw from, and if the one-time NSYNC-er is able to get a fleet of school girls listening to rock-solid soul music, that can't be a bad thing.