he cavernous Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario was filled with screaming fans Sunday.
The cause wasn’t some Halloween monster. It was smooth-faced teen-idol Justin Bieber performing a sold-out concert for his Inland fans on a school night.
The arena was configured for an audience of about 9,000. At the last minute, 100 seats were added and another 150 seats were released. Concert officials scrambled to tell radio stations so they could alert disappointed fans.
Early arrivals, mostly female, were treated to a preview of Bieber’s music from vendors and radio stations with booths outside the arena. KGGI 99.1 FM held a football trivia contest to compensate girls’ dads for being there.
Many of the girls wore Bieber T-shirts and carried hand-lettered posters on pink and orange neon paper.
Bieber, 16, is at the pinnacle of teen-idol superstardom, enjoying a popularity only achieved by a few. He has joined the ranks of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
Bieber, described as a “soul-singing phenomenon” on his website, signed with a major record label in 2008 with Usher as a mentor. He has two CDs out, “My World” and “My World 2.0″ with song titles such as “One Time” and “Favorite Girl” and “One Less Lonely Girl.”
His memoirs, “First Step 2 Forever,” were released Oct. 12.
Bieber launched his headlining “My World” tour last summer, bringing him to Ontario.
Most of Bieber’s fans lined up at the arena were teens and pre-teens, not old enough to drink, drive or vote in the upcoming elections. But their lungs are fully formed and they put them to use drowning him out on such numbers as “Baby.”
It was a long evening for fans. Bieber took the stage around 9 p.m., two hours after it started.
Bieber’s show didn’t skimp on spectacle. At one point he road a heart-shaped metal swing out over the audience playing an acoustic guitar and singing “Never Let You Go.”
He made his entrance riding an elevator through a trap door in the stage in a burst of fog, an LED light curtain glowing behind him.
His talents include milking applause, as he did in “You Smile I Smile,” constantly putting his hand over his heart and then up to his ear for the audience singalong.
The program ran like clockwork. Opening acts Burnham and Jasmine V did 15-minute sets, followed by 45 minutes of 20-year-old rapper Sean Kingston.
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