Friday night I headed up to Foxwoods to see the Backstreet Boys! They added a few year end shows which unfortunately didn’t include Kevin because he had decided to re-join after these shows were booked. (OR it will just be easier to sell more tix in 2013 if he wasn’t at these shows.) My friend Kim was coming with me, but got stuck in traffic so she had to meet me up there instead of us going together.
There was no opening act and at about 8:20 the boys took the stage – except that the music started and where were the boys? I turned to my left and there was Nick Carter just walking down our aisle. Then he stopped about 3 rows in front of us and sang. I had lost 2 closer pair of tickets before their fanclub let me buy these, which I was NOT happy about. Until this point. I’m not sure where the other ones were but I was so close to Nick I was over it.
They seemed to do a lot of the older songs in the beginning – We’ve Got It Goin On, Larger Than Life, Get Down… which are the ones I know the best. I have all the albums but the later stuff I don’t really listen to all that much while the earlier stuff has been pounded in to my brain from back in middle school when there was nothing better to do than listen to boybands. (I wish that was still the case!)
Each of the guys did a solo song – AJ’s was PLARS “Party Like a Rock Star”, I was not really into it at all and the guy in the row behind us said something like.. don’t quite your day job so I guess he wasn’t really much of a fan of it either. After he was done – Nick asked AJ if he was going solo. AJ said he thought about it and Nick said that if he did, they don’t want him back! And… then it was time for “Don’t Want you Back” Ah Nick, you are so good at transitioning into songs.
They all sat on the end of the stage at one point, Brian asked everyone to take a couple steps back and teased about how as they start singing everyone starts creeping more forward. They talked a bit about how there was a storm and it was difficult for them to get to the show. Howie had the hardest time – getting suck in Jersey Shore where it flooded – Nick of course got him to talk about this for a bit about how he almost needed to swim to the show. Of course – this led them in to singing DROWNING.
At this point, Kim arrived so I ran off to give her her ticket so she could get in! When we got back to the seats it was time for Brian’s solo song and he was talking a bit about the Newtown shooting and how everyone didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. He sang a song called Gone Without Goodbye.
A couple songs later it was time for CLUB BACKSTREET where they had all the girls who got Platinum VIP packages ($500+) come on stage. They said they had never done it before and wasn’t sure how it would work out. It was pretty funny to watch. Girls were taking their pics with the guys, dancing with them, etc. I think it helped make the VIP package worth it!
Howie did his solo song of 100 kisses. He seemed to spend most of his time on the top level of the stage (they had stairs going up) and unfortunately that part of the stage was really poorly lit. It was really hard to see any of them when they went up there, let alone get some photos.
Then they did some more older stuff (hooray!) Quit Playing Games, As Long As You Love Me and I Want It That Way. (My second sing a long to that song this month!) Nick did his solo song – Burning Up. He was out of control on the stage by himself. Out. Of. Control. Then the other guys joined him for The One and then…. The Call started and the guys all marched through the crowd right up our aisle again! A bunch of girls ran to get a glimpse of them, but I didn’t really want to get trampled. Next thing I know, AJ is *right* behind me!!! Once everyone else realized it I ended up getting shoved into our seats but it was so awesome! (And then I was REALLY ok that we had the further back seats!)
They ended the show with Everybody! After the show, Howie did an after party at the club in the Casino. The line seemed out of control, so we didn’t even bother trying to get in. We walked over to the Foxwoods side of the casino instead to pick up some bears from the Hard Rock and to see if we found the other boys wandering (no such luck).
I am looking forward to 2013 when they will tour with Kevin being back!