I hate to rub it in, but I had a really good seat for Chris Brown’s concert. How good? Put it this way: The self-proclaimed “Prince of R&B” wore Fruit of the Looms. With a gray waistband, your slightly uncomfortable reviewer might add. Then again, this was the Up Close and Personal Tour.I also was close enough to ascertain that Brown, 18, lip-synced many of his vocals Sunday night at The Q in Cleveland. There was no faking his phenomenal choreography, however, which probably left him too winded to sing much anyway.

If anyone else in the three-quarters-full arena noticed the put-on, nobody protested. Audiences these days are willing to overlook a less-than-live performance, as long as the overall entertainment value is there.

On that count, no corners were cut by Brown, depicted as a sci-fi superhero in a pre-show cartoon. No sooner had he rescued a damsel in distress than Brown appeared in the flesh, decked out in spy gear as he was lowered on wires from the rafters, shades of Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible.”

A high-octane version of “Wall to Wall” got the party started, followed in short order by “Gimme That,” “Yo (Excuse Me Miss)”, “With You” and other postcards from Brown’s frequent visits to the top of the charts.

The greatest strengths of this precocious song-and-dance man from Tappahannock, Va., weren’t his fairly cookie-cutter songs, but his elaborate dance routines.

One particularly memorable production number featured the elastic-limbed Brown and his troupe of dancers in a break-dance battle of the sexes. Think “West Side Story” meets “Beat Street.”

Later, Brown and two sidekicks relocated to the rear of the venue, where they gyrated on a rotating and tilting secondary stage.

Throughout the proceedings, Brown jettisoned various items of clothing. This led to at least one catfight among several young women, each of whom stubbornly refused to let go of Brown’s shirt until a security guard mediated.

Brown’s 90-minute show culminated with a fun rendition of “Shortie like Mine,” featuring tour co-headliner Bow Wow (real name: Shad Moss), the Columbus-bred rapper.

During his own set, Bow Wow, 20, crammed an overview of his career into 55 action-packed minutes, ranging from “Bow Wow (That’s My Name)” (a hit in 2000, back when he was known as Lil’ Bow Wow) to slightly more mature material from his latest album, “Face Off,” a joint effort with Omarion.

Like Brown, Bow Wow also seemed to rely heavily on prerecorded vocals, with impunity.

Also on the bill were Shop Boyz and Soulja Boy, who got the crowd’s blood pumping with “Party like a Rockstar” and “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” respectively.

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