Two generations of boy bands, plus a \u2018Glee\u2019 chaser<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Lie Shia Ong<\/em> Every generation has its musical guilty pleasure, and for\nme, it was boy bands. During my high school years, sons from *NSYNC, 98 Degrees\nand the Backstreet Boys dominated radio play, and for me that was just fine, because\nI loved their music, tried to emulate their dance moves, and like many other\nteenage girls my age, swooned over their good looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, even though I\u2019m almost 30, when I heard that NKOTBSB\u2014New\nKids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys\u2014two of the biggest boy bands ever,\nwere going on tour together this year, I knew I couldn\u2019t miss the opportunity\nto see them perform. Once tour dates were announced, I was excited to see that\nNKOTBSB would be playing at a venue closer to where I live\u2014at the Tacoma Dome\u2014on\nJuly 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As coincidence would have it, the night would end up\nbeing a big one for several generations of boy band fans. While the New Kids on\nthe Block and Backstreet Boys were performing at the Tacoma Dome, the Monkees\nwere also in town, performing at the Pantages Theater only about a mile away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once I arrived at the Tacoma Dome, memories of seeing the\nBackstreet Boys live at the same venue years ago, when their popularity was at\nits peak, came flashing back. But this time, things were a little different.\nThe show wasn\u2019t sold out (back in the day, BSB tickets sold out in mere\nminutes). IN fact, Groupon had offered a deal for discounted NKOTBSB tickets\none week earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also apparent I wasn\u2019t the only fan who had done\nsome growing up. The crowd was noticeably older. Mostly women, and they didn\u2019t\nlook like moms with their kids. There weren\u2019t a lot of guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was surprised there weren\u2019t more tweens at the show,\nsince one of the opening acts was Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schuester) from the hit\nshow \u201cGlee.\u201d As a Gleek myself, it was an added bonus Mr. Schue was part of\nthis leg of the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a very brief set from the group Midnight Red,\nMorrison opened with two songs he\u2019s sung on \u201cGlee.\u201d His version of \u201cSway\u201d and\nhis cover of the Police song \u201cDon\u2019t Stand So Close to Me.\u201d Then he sang some\noriginal songs off his first solo album, including, \u201cSummer Rain\u201d and \u201cHey.\u201d\nHis set also included covers of Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cMrs. Robinson\u201d and Kanye\nWest and Jamie Foxx\u2019s \u201cGold Digger\u201d (which was also featured on \u201cGlee\u201d).\nMorrison\u2019s musical talent (he played the ukulele and some tambourines) and Broadway\nbackground were evident, and he received a warm reception from the crowd, but\nas his set came an end, you could feel the anticipation building for who the crowd\nobviously came to see: NKOTBSB!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A little more than 30 minutes later, the house lights\nwent down, and as the stage lights started to flash faster and faster, the screams\ngot louder and louder, and just when I didn\u2019t think it could get any more\ndeafening, the curtain onstage was ripped away, revealing the New Kids on the\nBlock and BSB together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly I was transported back to being a teenage\ngroupie along with the rest of the crowd. We knew all the words, and we sand\nalong with every song. We screamed when the told us to. We dance with them so\nmuch that the stands of the Tacoma Dome shook. We held up our lit-up cellphones\nduring their slow songs, and we waved at them just because it looked like they\nwere looking in our general direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Granted, they\u2019ve long outgrown adolescence and respective\n\u201cretirements\u201d from the spotlight, but these two groups can still sing and\ndance, bringing a crowd of people to their feet and keeping them there. Each\ngroup sang their hit songs. BSB performed \u201cQuit Playing Games {With My Heart),\u201d\n\u201cAs Long as You Love Me,\u201d \u201cI Want it That Way\u201d and \u201cEverybody (Backstreet\u2019s\nBack).\u201d NKOTB sand \u201cHangin\u2019 Tough,\u201d \u201cStep by Step\u201d and \u201cYou Got it (The Right Stuff).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NKOTB still have their five main members\u2014brothers Jordan\nand Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood\u2014while Backstreet\nBoys retain four of their five original members in Brian Littrell, Howie\nDorough, A.J. McLean and Nick Carter. (Kevin Richardson isn\u2019t with the group\nanymore, although he made a surprise guest appearance at NKOTBSB\u2019s recent\nconcert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles).<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you looked closely, you realized they all looked a\nlittle bit older, too, just like us fans. (Wood and Wahlberg are the older of\nthem all, each at 42), but as A.J. McLean put it, \u201cThese guys have been doing\nthis for 24 years, and we\u2019ve been doing this for 18 \u2026 and they\u2019re going to keep\nat it for another 24 years, and we will, too, for at least another 18!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joey McIntyre added, \u201cEvery time we come to Tacoma, it\u2019s\na party, and we realize there are two generations here tonight. And for a lot\nof us, it feels like 1989, and for a lot of us, it feels like 1999!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So even after all these years, one thing remains the\nsame: Once a boy band fan, still a boy band fan. And being transported back to my\nhigh school days for one night was worth it \u2013 even if my ears were ringing\nlonger than what I remember from back in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys: Two generations of boy bands, plus a \u2018Glee\u2019 chaser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-msn-entertainment","category-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lieshiaong-sintzel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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