 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| ||||||
| Thanks to Sheri bflysmle@martnet.com for sending me her review:) Last night was unbelieveable. I had no idea that the final night of the show was prank night, but man was it! From here on in, if I see no other BSB shows, I will see the last show of the tour!!! ;-) There was so much happening, I’m sure others will have more details, but here’s what I can remember. First off, Nick’s hair was NOT GREEN! I repeat, Nick’s hair was NOT GREEN! Whatever he did to it was ‘undone’ by the time he hit the stage. Does it amuse anyone else to think of Nick spending the day in at the hair dresser with tin foil on his head and wearing one of those little smocks. Bwahahaha! He definitely had something done to it, though. It looked more blond than in Bakersfield and he kept playing with it, obviously self-conscious about it. It looked dry and it kept flying up and he’d kept patting it back down. During the first costume change, I turned to my friend Beth and said he was either going to throw gel in it or come back with it wet. Got it in one – came back up with a bunch of gel to weigh it down. He still kept playing with it, though. ;-) On to the pranks. 1. During Not For Me, AJ’s tear away sleeve wouldn’t tear away. I didn’t see his initial reaction (excuse me! Nick and Kevin were on the stage!!!!) but after it didn’t work someone (Brian maybe?) went up and tried to help him get it off. Wardrobe had obviously sewn or pinned it so it wouldn’t come off. Then during the break, Brian told us that this was not a normal show, because it was the last night of the North American tour, we’d see some crazy things. And was he right! ;-) 2. Intros – AJ SANG HIS SONG!!! Beth and I were screaming so loud, I don’t think anyone near us could hear (sorry!!!). He sang 2-3 verses and ended with the chorus and saying that now he was happy. The boy brought tears to my eyes. ;-) Then Nick came up and did this whole bit where he made AJ stay on stage and pointed out that his toaster moved slower than Nick’s and he wanted to use his… yadda yadda yadda. He ended up riding back down in AJ’s and then coming back up and declaring that that was ‘the dumbest thing I’ve done onstage during this tour’ – thanks for clarifying that Nicky! He was so cute, though! ;-) Kevin missed his cue, coming up from the wrong spot after some silence on stage. 3. Yes I Will – this was the best! We were sitting on the left side of the stage in the upper level off the floor, so we had a really good view of the pit. During the beginning of the song, a whole gaggle of people in tie-dyed t-shirts (crew) came out and sat by the barricades. Nick saw them and refused to turn his back on them even when the dance called for it, certain that something was coming. About 1/3 of the way through the song, a TON of ping pong balls feel from above the stage. It was a FABULOUS PRANK! OMG! And our boys never even missed a dance step (which is good, because someone could’ve tripped on all those things!!!). Of course, many ping pong ball fights ensued (thoughout the remainder of the show – and security even started pelting the boys with the balls!!!) and during the song, AJ and Brian both used their canes like golf clubs and shot balls off the stage. 4. I Want It That Way – one of the crew members came up and stood next to Howie. He proceeded to mimic Howie’s dancing. It was so cute! Once the boys noticed him (took Nick a while to clue in because he was singing to the audience!), they put the spot on him and Kevin came over and on one knee he sang his part to the crew member. Too funny! 5. Medley – Crew members to the right of the stage did the entire Medley dance with the boys in sync, completely cracking the boys up! 6. Wardrobe change – this is the one everyone will have pictures of because the flash bulbs were blinding!!! First, the two wardrobe women carried the box out which amused the guys, then when they couldn’t open the box Kevin was all chivilrous and opened it for them, only to be pelted with a stream of smoke and confetti that popped out of the box! ;-) AJ then declared that "the box is broken." Then the entire crew proceeded to come OUT OF THE BOX and walk across the stage. It was like a clown car. At one point Brian clued in that he could go down and come back up through the box. He liked that, he did it like 4 times! ;-) This was when Carlos hurt himself. He came up through the box but instead of going down the stairs, he jumped off the front of the stage back into the pit. I saw him fall when he landed and the next thing I knew he was holding his leg (could have been his knee) and looked like he was in complete agony. There were a bunch of security and what looked like a medic there during the video bit and then Carlos was gone. ;-( Hope he’s okay. Yes, during the Wardrobe change, Nick and Brian BOTH ran across the stage in only their socks, boxers and t-shirts. It was too funny. Nick did it first, taking his pants off in the box and then giving us a peek at his boxers (black boxer-briefs, btw. damn!!!). When that went over well, Brian did the same thing. They proceeded to come up the stairways in unison and run across the stage. I am dying for the pictures of that!!! ;-) I can just see Nick and Brian under the stage – ‘dude, dare you to go up like that.’ lol! 7. Small Stage aka SILLY STRING FIGHT! This is where the security team gets the boys back for all the silly string antics during the tour. During the first song, the crew back at the small stage (including security) all had on masks (dunno what they were but they were all the same). I could tell they were holding silly string, but I don’t think the guys could see that. When it came time for them to sit on the side of the stage for the next song, Nick SOOOO didn’t want to do that. He knew something was coming! And they say our boy isn’t smart! ;-) During that song, AJ and Nick’s shoes got taken off. ???? and then they were PELTED with silly string. Nick was so covered you could barely see him. Of course, the silly string fights continued throughout Time. Nick was too cute (gee, is that a theme in this review???) when he went onto the bridge, he was just scanning the audience looking for somone who could give him some silly string. ;-) 8. God Bless America – no pranks, time to be serious for a moment. Is it just me, or does Nick remind anyone else of a kindergartener when he’s standing there trying to be all serious? Like he can’t quite contain himself but he knews he had toooooo! If he’s a good boy he gets to play with the drums!!!! 9. Answer to Our Lives – before ATOL Kevin turned around and saw the back of his head on the large screen and made them pan to the other side so he could pick all the silly string off (yes, they got kevin too!). The song just rocked. Nick was playing like two times faster than he should have been, but who cares! He was having fun. At one point, Kevin went over and tried to slow him down but Nick just ignored him! ;-) The crew running the spotlights were making fun of Howie, doing the arms over your head and hip shake thing. Too cute! 10. All I have to give – the guitarist moved away from Nick so he had to follow him around the stage to get the hat. ;-) During the interlude before Stay we got the world’s biggest pelvic thrust from Nick. Oh my lord!!!! (Btw, it was a night of Nick’s pelvic thrusts and booty shakes. Like everytime you turned around Nick was shaking his booty at us!) 11. Stay – the microphone came up at the beginning and it was like 7 feet tall! They just carried like it was normal. Then when the chairs came up they were all turned the wrong directions. Kevin is the only problem solver of the group and everytime he had to use a chair, moved it to it’s correct position. Whereas Nick and Howie had this great moment of ‘how do we do this’? You could literally see the hamsters running around as they tried to process the change! ;-) Love them too much! 12. Shining Star – Nick’s dance partner came up to him with a glow stick in her mouth which shocked him and was cute. Expected the other one to tied him up in the phone cord, but that didn’t happen. ;-( 13. Band Intros – During the keyboardist’s intro, Brian, AJ and Howie came up and they did the Nsync Bye Bye Bye dance to an extraordinarily rocking version of the song. Priceless! Oh, Ithink the other three had wigs on. There were lots of wigs happening throughout the night. 14. The Call – Before the song, AJ went out onto the boxes in front of the stage and had fun walking back and forth and freaking security out. Then he looked at someone (Marcus?) and said, ‘should I go out there?" (meaning the audience) and then shook his head. Next thing you know, AJ’s in the pit and on the barricade. As soon as he was on it, though he jumped back and someone caught him. AJ staying on the barricade for a while and Nick came out (someone else with him????) with somethink – like a yellow and black nerf bumper – and started pummeling him. AJ whined ‘hey, I bruise easily’ but Nick kept hitting him. Nick, too, was in the pit, I think someone got to touch him, too! At some point, AJ ripped off his shirt and then during The Call intro was posing for us, ‘how does my stomach look from this side?’ ‘And how does it look now?’ Cute! At another point, Nick came back out onto the stage with yellow tape and tried to tie AJ up. Dunno why he thought AJ was just gonna play along and let him do that. AJ scolded him, saying ‘we have a plane to catch!’ That intro did go on for a while, but it was soooo funny!. Finally the phone rang and AJ dissed the ex, screaming ‘why are you calling me, don’t you know I can’t stand you anymore!" Ouch! 15. Backstreets Back – came up with the wigs (same as Bakersfield) and then when Nick stopped playing the guitar he threw it so far that it nearly landed on the keyboardist’s head! 16. Shape of My Heart – generally sillyness poking one another with flags and being silly. ;-) There was a lot of water and a water fight. At one point Nick got DRENCHED and just kind of stood there like, ‘what do I do now???" 17. Drowning – beautiful. God, I love that song. And then we had to go home! ;-( I’m sure post concert (and for me, post vacation as I’ve been on vacation for the last week 1/2!) will settle in next week. But for now, it was a fabulous show and I’m so glad we came! ;-) -Sheri ------------------------------------------------------------- Theres always bad reviews too. GRRR. Bye, Bye, Bye Are Backstreet Boys and other 'boy' bands on their way out? By Kirk Baird LAS VEGAS SUN For millions of teenage girls, it was the hottest act on the planet. For a majority of us old enough to see past the studio-crafted musical polish, boy-next-door looks and paint-by-numbers personalities, it was the worst thing to happen to music since K-Tel discovered the compilation album. It was New Kids on the Block later renamed NKOTB in an ill-fated effort to toughen the quintet's image and at one point there were few bands bigger. During the group's eight-year career, which began in 1986, it sold tens of millions of albums, appeared on the covers of almost every teen-oriented magazine in circulation, spawned a Saturday morning cartoon and comic-book series and had a recorded message hotline. In fact, without fear of hyperbole, there can be little argument that New Kids "re-energized" the boy-band craze, which can be traced to the early days of the Beatles, the Monkees and later to the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds. But as the axiom states, what goes up must come down. And down the New Kids came, in a pile of sinking record sales, management turnover, scandals involving sex romps and allegations that they didn't sing on all their hit songs. For better or worse, however, the New Kids did show there was a new market for boy bands. And Lou Pearlman took notice. As the owner of an Orlando, Fla., transportation provider, which had worked with the New Kids on a major tour, Pearlman saw firsthand the financial potential in the boy-band phenomenon. In an effort to capitalize on that opportunity, Pearlman helped create the Backstreet Boys in 1993, followed by 'N Sync three years later. With both, he struck gold. Between Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, roughly 70 million records have been sold in the United States alone. Those stellar sales numbers created a shot in the arm for the previously ailing record industry. Gone was the hangover from the grunge music of the early '90s and its sagging record sales. Pop music was back with a vengeance. Even as the Backstreet Boys take the stage tonight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena (a rescheduled show for the band's canceled Aug. 17 date, due to group member A.J. McLean's stint in an alcohol rehabilitation clinic) there are signs -- depending on your perception -- that the glory days of Backstreet and 'N Sync may be fading. Not fade away Backstreet's latest CD, "Black & Blue," which was perfectly positioned as a sales monster last year with its holiday-season release, sold 1.6 million copies in its first week and 8 million overall. After one week at No. 1, however, "Black & Blue" was replaced by the Beatles' latest compilation album, "1," which, incidentally, remained at the top spot for two months. "Black & Blue" is also considered a disappointment in some critical estimations, because it failed to break 'N Sync's single-week sales record of 2.5 million for last year's "No Strings Attached." It's a record, ironically, 'N Sync couldn't eclipse either. The band sold 1.9 million copies of its latest album, "Celebrity," during its first week of release in late July, and 5 million total to date. The numbers may still work in the bands' favor. But considering 'N Sync is the "Biggest Band in the World," as Rolling Stone proclaimed in a recent cover story, and an earlier cover piece by the magazine gushed similar praise on Backstreet, are the sales figures high enough? Any sign of slippage in sales, as there has been, is a sign in the jaded minds of many music critics that the boy-band craze is subsiding. And with the downward spiral of the New Kids' career still fresh in the minds of the pop-culturally obsessed, it's little wonder, then, there are those in the music industry performing last rites on the boy-band phenomenon. Based on what he has seen, Rik McNeil, program director for KFMS 101.9-FM, said it might be a bit premature to write off boy bands completely. "I would have to say that just as a pop phenomenon, absolutely (boy bands) has run its course," McNeil said. "Has it run its course, overall? I don't think so." McNeil said KFMS has three boy-band singles in rotation: "We Fit Together," by O-Town, another Pearlman creation; "Drowning" by Backstreet; and "Gone" by 'N Sync. McNeil said it's too early to tell if O-Town's single will make a significant impact on the record charts. However, both Backstreet and 'N Sync have a top-15 and top-10 single, respectively. Last month, though, the station put a single by boy-band trio LFO into rotation that did not materialize into a hit, McNeil said. He also acknowledged that the dominant boy bands -- Backstreet and 'N Sync -- are only charting one song at a time, whereas last year, during what was perhaps the pinnacle of the boy-band phenomenon, both groups were able to land multiple hit singles simultaneously. "I think we would not have had more boy bands" on rotation last year, McNeil said. "But more records by boy bands." Stephanie Kirby doesn't see the craze slowing down at all. As public relations coordinator for Boy Crazy!, a Norfolk, Va., company that specializes in trading cards featuring teenage boys (and which recently launched a magazine by the same name), Kirby is keenly aware of trends among teenage girls. She said that boy bands are not dropping in popularity, it's just that teenage girls are also becoming more diversified in their musical tastes. Consequently, 'N Sync, Backstreet, O-Town and 98 Degrees, as well as the other major-label boy bands, are finding their sales dwindling in the face of increased competition. "Girls are buying 'N Sync and Backstreet, but they are also buying Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit," Kirby said. "Maybe it says that boy bands don't have the market cornered for teen girls. But they're not going anywhere." Part of that reason for survival is money. Record companies have already pumped millions of dollars into these bands, and continue to invest even more as they sign new boy bands. It seems there's a significant amount of money to still be made. And since when did a record label shy away from making money? Kirby said teenage boys are also helping to keep the boy-band phenomenon alive. "For every high school in the United States, there is probably a boy band," she said. "I just don't know how well they're going to do." 4-gone conclusion 4NOW, comprised of four male singers now in their early 20s (two of whom are from Las Vegas), was destined for greatness. Or so thought Laura Herlovich, the group's former publicist and manager. Herlovich, owner of P.R. Plus, a local public relations firm that specializes in entertainment, discovered the band in April 2000 after the members came to her for help with their publicity. At first, she said, she was content to focus on public relations for the band, putting together a press kit that included biographies, pictures and anything else that might help the group get signed to a major-label deal. Herlovich then signed on as the band's "temporary" manager while she began a search for a permanent personal manager -- someone to "help them find the right music, the right image and the right label -- to essentially create their careers for them." After a few months in searching for her replacement, however, Herlovich began to realize the potential for the band to strike it big was dwindling along with the boy-band craze. "I went to some people I know in the business, who I respect greatly and who've worked with Kiss, Bon Jovi and Motley Crue. They thought the guys had talent and encouraged me to stay involved with them on whatever level I wanted to. "But they told me they weren't really looking at picking up a boy band right then," she said. "That's when I realized maybe the boy-band thing wasn't as big as I perceived it to be." Nevertheless, Herlovich persisted, and eventually secured 4NOW a deal with a small, independent record label that works with Sony. Unfortunately for her, the band recently moved to Los Angeles and decided to hire new management. For her part, Herlovich wishes the band well, and is confidant that 4NOW will succeed. After researching the history of boy bands while with 4NOW and observing the trends, she said the boy-band craze, while slowing down, will not go away entirely as it did post-New Kids. "Music goes in cycles," Herlovich said. "And if you take the cycles for today's boy bands, it's lasted longer than New Kids on the Block." In other words, 15 minutes -- and counting. |
 Sign Guestbook |
 View Guestbook |
|
. |
| Visitors: 00775 |