Tonight I took a trip down memory lane, back to the 8th grade. I went with my friend (and cubemate) to see the Backstreet Boys in concert at the Bank of America Pavilion (formerly known as Harbor Lights). For me, it was my 3rd time seeing BSB live, for my concert date it was her 6th! Now that's a true fan!
I don't know what it is, but there is something about your first celebrity crush that just sticks with you. I absolutely loved the Backstreet Boys. I had all their CDs. I had t-shirts, pens, notebooks, and keychains. You name it, I had it.
The first time I saw them live was as the headliner's for the annual, spring time Kiss 108 concert. Then that fall I saw them on their arena tour in Providence from the 4th row on the floor. I can still remember every sight, sound and smell of that night.
When we found out BSB was coming to Boston (all these years later) we jumped at the chance to go. Although our seats were a bit of a ways back, that didn't stop us from singing and dancing along to every single song. In fact, its kind of amazing how easily all the lyrics come back to you.
The boys opened with Everybody (Backstreet's back, alright!), and went on to sing so many of our favorites: We've Got it Going On, Quit Playing Games, As Long As You Love Me, All I Have to Give, I'll Never Break Your Heart, The One, The Call and many more.
It was incredible how most of the time, the crowd was singing louder than the boys. I think this group and these songs hold such memories for the people in the audience. Those were the songs you danced to in your bedroom, blasted on the drive to school, choreographed dances to with your friends, and watched the music videos over and over again.
The group is down one member, Kevin Richardson, but you'd barely notice. Brian Littrell looks exactly the same, Nick Carter looks older and hotter, AJ McLean has aged but still has a sexy voice and even smoother dance moves, and Howie Dorough, well, we never cared about him anyway.
The boys still have their dance moves, high energy level and ability to charm the ladies. While their set and costumes were definitely on a tighter budget than in years past, the show didn't suffer for it.
In between sets they showed video packages in which one group member would star in a well known film role. Howie joined Fast & the Furious, AJ joined Fight Club, Nick joined the Matrix, and Brian joined Enchanted. It was an entertaining way to distract us while they changed costumes.
For the encore, Nick and Brian came out wearing Celtics jerseys, a nod to our team being in the NBA finals!
Please enjoy this video I took of my favorite BSB song "I Want It That Way." Keep your ears open for all the Boston shout outs!
Through out the show the boys kept mentioning how BSB has been around for 17 years! 17 years! I couldn't believe it.
While they may never grace the top of the pop charts again, for those two hours I was grinning ear to ear singing along to all the songs I loved for so many years.
