BACKSTREET BOYS
Girls love to scream. Their shrill fucking screams destroy the hell out of my ear drums and threaten to ruin the majority of the Backstreet Boys' two hour set. Nothing could really lessen quite how brilliant tonight is though, for I am a pop-monger at heart. I have never been a fan of experimental music or instrumental bands as, no matter how exquisitely composed, they never grab me for I want a hook. After fifteen years of producing hit albums, the Backstreet Boys have an arsenal of hits that they can unleash whenever they want, and they really do control the set list expertly tonight.
It is 8:35pm, five minutes after showtime. The crowd are entertaining themselves with Mexican waves while I am cringing. I'm about to get used to cringing. The lights suddenly cut the latest wave in half and the shrill screams reverberate around the arena. On stage is a boxing ring. The screens light up and we are introduced to each member individually, dressed like boxers and with their boxing stats beside them. It looks like sports television and is extremely exciting. They each end up in the ring, the curtain drops and they launch into Larger Than Life. Tonight just got brilliant. From here they tend to play three or four songs from the latest album and then a hit. They then take it in turns in between songs to play solo songs, one each. Howie's is pretty poor Latin effort, Nick sounds like a child making terrible 'rock' music, AJ runs around like the BSBs' version of Robbie Williams and then Brian sings a pretty good Christian song. The highlight amongst this is when they play my favourite, Show Me the Meaning Of Being Lonely, and are all sat around a table in suits (bar AJ who refuses to ever dress up for the occasion) pretending to play poker while soft lighting falls on their blemish less skin. But ultimately the first half of the set is dominated by new material and no one really cares for that, they came for the hits (and to scream seemingly).
After around an hour the best thing happens. A medley of hits consisting of: Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)/ As Long As You Love Me/ All I Have To Give/ I'll Never Break Your Heart. When the medley ends I am considering screaming too. And from here on in there are four songs and only one of them is off the new album. It is incredible. Ending with the inevitable Everybody (Backstreet's Back) there are fireworks and all kinds of crazy brilliance. And then the one song encore, Shape Of My Heart, and it is over. Tonight was cheesy (randomly throwing in Stronger by Kanye in the middle of Larger Than Life, breaking into Beat It by Michael Jackson when introducing the band, and throwing Walk This Way into the middle of Everybody and doing the dance while linking arms really only add to this already mature cheddar), but it was also bloody brilliant. When bands/groups play venues of this size and don't bother with a stage show I think that it is greedy. So often this year I have seen bands in large venues but still half this size and they have offered nothing to look at or remember. Fireworks, boxing rings and pretend poker games, I want it that way.
http://www.myspace.com/backstreetboys
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