The concert, scheduled for June 25 at the Route 66 Raceway, had to be postponed.

The storm struck less than 48 hours before the boy band was to take the stage in front of an estimated 60,000 fans. The stage was reportedly twisted and so badly damaged it couldn’t be salvaged in time for the scheduled performance.

“We are going to reschedule the show,” Jerry Papesh, a part-owner of the Route 66 Raceway, told the Joliet Herald News. “We want to do it as quickly as possible. We have two open dates in July and two in August” that are reportedly being considered.

‘N Sync’s itinerary has them on the road through July 30 in Hershey, Penn.

The show’s radio station sponsor, Chicago’s WBBM-FM, played a recorded announcement from the boys in the band over the weekend prior to the canceled show time, that said “no tornado will keep ‘N Sync from Chicago.”

That wasn’t enough to mollify some out-of-town ‘N Sync fans, who were unable to get word of the cancellation: neither Ticketmaster nor the band’s Web site made mention of it.

Joliet police officers and raceway security personnel broke the news to would-be concert-goers at the gate the night of the canceled show.

“Basically everybody was shocked,” Route 66 security Lt. Jack Ross told the Herald Tribune. “There have been a lot of people, but they are all from out of state. I have heard of people coming in from as far as Nebraska.”