New Kids, Backstreet make play for Fenway show

Photo by Faith Ninivaggi

BLOCK PARTY: Donnie Wahlberg, donning a Red Sox cap, performs with New Kids on the Block in a 2008 show at the Garden. The boy band may retune its 2011 summer tour with the Backstreet Boys to add a date at historic Fenway Park in June. 

 

Reunited boy bands New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys hope to show off their choreographed dance moves and smooth harmonies at a Fenway Park [map] concert this summer, the Herald has learned.
The Boston Red Sox [team stats] applied for show permits for Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12, when the team is out of town for a series in Toronto. But the bands would have to rearrange their schedules to play the storied ballpark.
The groups have already booked and sold tickets to perform at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on the 11th of June and the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on the 12th. A source close to the situation said the groups would reschedule one of those shows to make the Fenway date a reality.

“The New Kids really want to play Fenway,” said a second source familiar with the plan. “They grew up here going to shows at the Boston Garden and ballgames at Fenway. This is their heritage. They’re coming home. They are willing to reroute a bit to play Fenway.”
The Fenway show would come just days after the bands’ June 4 show at Boston’s TD Garden, which quickly sold out when tickets for the “NKOTBSB” tour went on sale Dec. 11.
The Sox’ permit application does not list what band will perform. A Red Sox spokeswoman referred calls to concert promoter Live Nation, which did not return a call seeking comment yesterday. Kristen Foster, a spokeswoman for the bands, declined to comment.
Ever since John Henry and company bought the Red Sox in 2002, they’ve been seeking ways to squeeze more revenue out of the 98-year-old park through non-baseball events.
Fenway’s summer concert series started in 2003, when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band sold out two shows. Since then, Jimmy Buffett, the Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band, the Police, Neil Diamond, Phish, Paul McCartney and Aerosmith have performed at Fenway.
The New Kids, founded in the 1980s by producer Maurice Starr, broke up in 1994 but have been “Hangin’ Tough” since reuniting three years ago. The pop group’s members - brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood - hit their hometown of Boston during a 2008 tour.
The Backstreet Boys - A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter - formed in Orlando, Fla., in 1993 and have sold more than 130 million records.

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