Last week I was roped into going to the NKTOBSB Concert at the United Center in Chicago. This was to be my 5-year-old daughter’s first concert and originally her mother, a huge New Kids on The Block fan, was supposed to take her. Well, life doesn’t always work out the way you think it should and she had to work. There was no way I was letting my daughter down. We had watched about a million videos on YouTube, and she had settled on “the one with the golden hair” as cute and thus her favorite, this was Nick Carter. What I couldn’t really explain to her was that the videos that we were watching were in some cases, 15 + years old, and people change. Honestly, I figured 8 middle-aged chubby guys lip syncing to a bunch of out-dated tunes is about the best she could hope for, but hey, she’s 5 and doesn’t know what it really should look like, so we should be good.
The audience turned out to be probably about 18,000 people. Me, my daughter, 7,000 girls under 18 with their 7,000 fat 40-year-old mothers, 3,000 other random girls and a decent representation of the gay community. I was not shocked by this, nor was I shocked by their dogged devotion. I was shocked by $40 t-shirts and $30 programs. Had I not just sold a bass, I wouldn’t have had the money to comply with my pleading daughter’s merch request (and request for $8 nachos and $6 pop… she’s hard to resist, what can I say?)
In the pre-show, a number of the guys had their solo videos playing. Honestly, all pretty solid. I was pleasantly surprised. The strangest one was A.J. McLean’s video, where he is apparently admitting to the world that he is into the Furry life-style. Who am I to judge? Just kind of shocking. I, unfortunately, knew exactly the message of that video because I spend way too much time learning about the weird side of everyone, the rest of the crowd figured it was some odd costumed routine and found it cute. So A.J. McLean is a Furry. I learned something new and felt justified for having gone.
An opener came on, Ashlyne Huff. I’m not sure where or why she is on this tour, but let me say this. Great vocals, looks like she’s 40 and there’s nothing wrong with that but then don’t act like you are 20, not great backup dancers and the worst part was the constant pushing of her album, twitter and whatever other new media whorish thing she had. She had a DJ who just kept screaming random commercials during the set. Irritating, and by looking at her digital properties and presence, it apparently is the main strategy that she’s chosen. Problem is, it’s old, annoying and ineffective. Sorry Ashlyne, I think you have great talent, but your management is horrible and have guided you down a transparently desperate path.
Then Jordin Sparks rolled on stage. She felt bigger than she was, did a fantastic job, but since I have no familiarity with her, I wasn’t sure who it was… felt like a big time guest spot. She was amazing vocally, ultra charismatic, wonderful smile and engaged the crowd in a big way. The last time I saw her, it was at her uncle’s tractor sales booth at a farm equipment convention… wish I was kidding about that but family is a bitch sometimes.
Just as I prepared my arteries for what I KNEW was going to be a phone-it-in cheese fest, NKOTBSB hit the stage. I could go on and on about this show, but I’ll keep it brief. They are pros. They sounded like pros, they looked like pros, they engaged and played the audience like pros. I have not seen a show like this, EVER, and I have been to a TON of shows. Having been to about 200 local shows in the past 3 months, this came as quite a shock to me. Even local acts have shown lack of passion as of late, and they certainly do not have their shit together. This show reminded me of the hard work, the preparation, the experience, the difference between making it and not making it. Say what you will about boy bands and “instant” fame, laugh at their costumes, their dance moves, their lyrics, whatever, but there is no way if you are in tune with the music industry and artists that you would have watched this show and thought they had some how taken the easy road.
They could have phoned it in. They could have just been the joke that everyone makes them out to be. But they were anything but that. They know who they are, they embraced their rolls and they weren’t letting anyone tell them that they were anything but amazing. They turned the hate into drive. They were skinny, ripped, in amazing shape, looked years younger. Their vocals were unreal. Sure there were a couple of pitchy parts, and yes, Donnie Wahlberg couldn’t carry a tune if you gave him a handbag, but he knew that and he had fun with it. Overall though, dead on vocals backed by an amazing live band and they CRUSHED every song. They were reliving the old days. They were playing to 80,000 people in an 18,000 people venue and it was glorious.
I found myself yelling a lot of “WOOOOOO” and cheering right along with my through-the-roof happy 5-year-old, jumping up and down with each opening bar of the greatest hits. I have not seen a band work this hard to entertain in years. They brought it like they had something to prove, like they were hungry, like they appreciated every single screaming mom wearing a “I Love Donnie” t-shirt from 1990 that wasn’t quite fitting any more. They sang, danced, had top-notch sound and production and rocked the house for more than 2 hours, never stopping, pulling out every concert trick in the book and it was nothing short of glorious. This coming from a guy who grew up in local punk music, a guy who was hanging in the alley with heroin addicts during shows while NKOTB and BSB were at their peak. I would have laughed had I seen one of those guys on fire in the street at that time, but then again, I was young and thought I understood what “real music” is.
Now I’m old, and I know that real music is what people deem it to be. It changes from person to person, from culture to culture and age to age. Pop is no worse than Zepp. I’ve come to appreciate the joy that all kinds of music brings people, and that’s why I do what I do.
So hats off to some of the hardest working guys in the music industry. You’ve certainly earned your stripes and MOTU wishes you continued success and hope that all artists stop and take a good look at what you have done, worked towards and sacrificed to end up where you are today. Thanks for helping put a huge smile on my daughter’s face and creating a memory that we’ll both remember for the rest of our lives.
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