It’s 7:49 p.m. on Tuesday night and I’m standing in what I would call a MASSIVE line in front of the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd. Tonight Jay-Z will be performing live in concert to a sold-out crowd. I’d guess it’s about three blocks long but I couldn’t see the end!

My position in line places me in front of the will-call entrance. I feel tap on my shoulder: “Excuse me, son” — I turn around and it’s Sticky Fingaz from Onyx. I hear “Excuse me, please,” again — it’s “Girlfriends” star Jill Marie Jones. Celebrity after celebrity scoot by me in an effort just to see if their names are on the list for tickets — and more than a few were turned away. A fan next to me sees one celebrity pass, looks at me, then looks down at his ticket and says, “Dang! They didn’t let the dude from ‘American Gangster’ in?”

Finally, the line starts moving and about 20 minutes later, after a pat-down and an electronic ticket-swipe, I’m IN! A quick scan of the crowd reveals, as Gang Starr would say, the mass appeal that J has been able to create over the years: I see everything from ‘hood to Hollywood, from sharp-dressed kats to dirty backpacks. I’ll sum it up by saying this: You know you have worldwide love as a rapper when guys who look like the dude with the stapler from “Office Space” are at your show.

One disappointment: the warm-up DJ, who would have been great at a teen birthday party but not a Jay-Z concert.

10:00 p.m. No sign of Jay. Worried? Nawww, an inside source of mine said he would be on at 10:15.

10:05 p.m. The first of two curtains go up and the crowd begins to cheer.

10:15 p.m. ON THE DOT The second curtain goes up to reveal a live band, all dressed in white shirts, black ties and black pants: CLASSIC GANGSTER. This crowd, who had pretty much been dead for the last hour, loses their minds. Kats hollering at girls stop in mid-holla to find their spots.

Jay-Z walks out onto the stage with the lights just down enough so that you can’t be sure if it’s him or not. Come on man, it’s him … it’s gotta be him … is it him? Lights UP: It’s Jay! Wearing a Juicy Couture T-shirt that says “Give to Receive,” a noticeably slimmer J takes in the screaming crowd (all with their Roc symbols up). Bam: He’s right into the first cut on the new album, “Pray.” The swagger is so uncontrollable, walking the line of being being overly confident but not. The song has a totally different feel then on the album, his voice and lyrics are so clear that they stop the crowd in their tracks and all you hear is an “Oohhhhhhhhhh,” as if there were only 10 of us huddled around him in a cipher.

“No Hook” followed, and the crowd screamed along. “I’m feeling ya’ll energy tonight, I can’t even lie,” he says. He then points out that the front of the crowd is rocking, the back of the crowd is keeping up, but the people in the upper balcony are acting a little bougie. He lets them know they need to get it together before he has to curse them out.

“This ish right here / This ish right here,” a line from comedian Katt Williams’ HBO special is used as the base of a freestyle interlude. This immediately followed by “P.S.A.” and “Heart of the City” — but then “I Know,” from the new album, causes the energy in the room to drop. It may have been a preplanned break, because when he followed with “Kingdom Come” and “Blue Magic,” everyone was right back where they needed to be.

Another freestyle interlude leads to another great song of the night, the appropriately titled “Success.” The energy begins to flag again, but then out come Beanie Sigel (who I think might be pregnant, based on the size of the belly) and Memphis Bleek for “Crew Love.” The Roc family is soon joined by another member as Freeway comes out for “Rock the Mic” and “What We Do.” It was the first time in years I felt like the Roc crew was back strong.

Freeway and Bleek leave and J asks Beanie if he wants to get ignorant, which is the last thing you ask a dude like Beans from Philly — unless you’re referencing the song “Ignorant Sh–” from the new album.

After performing “Big Pimpin’,” Jay-Z says, “Thank you, I had a good time.” STOP!! Jay, I love “Big Pimpin’ ” but I know you ain’t going to go out like that. The band begins to play again, so Jay-Z cuts and you know he’s going to come back. About 15 minutes later, a voice goes, “We don’t have to go home!” — it’s Jay! Back onstage for “What More Can I Say,” followed by the final guest appearances of the night: Jermaine Dupri and the world’s greatest hype man, P. Diddy. You know Diddy had to get a mic even though he didn’t quite know all the words to the song, but the crowd barely noticed because they were back to head-bobbing and hand-waving. To close it out, Jay called for Beans and Freeway to come back up but Beans was literally in the middle of the crowd so he asked Freeway to hold him down on the final song, “Roc Boys.”

Overall, the concert showed some signs of opening night stiffness, but there were definitely moments of brilliance, and as fans get to know the new album better those low-energy moments will probably fade.

And you know Jay has touched the masses when you look next to you and see Mike Tyson bobbing his head.