Title: Good Clean Aaron
Author: Dan Aquilante
Source: New York Post
Source: http://nypost.com/entertainment/57071.htm
Date: September 16, 2002
Topic: Summer 2002 Concert Review
Aaron Carter proved he is the luckiest teenager on the planet at his Jones Beach Theater gig Friday.With narrow vocal talent and limited dance abilities, this handsome 14-year-old made his Long Island fans scream 'n' squeal.
Sure he takes heaps of abuse because he rides the pop 'n' fluff pony, but his fans - many half his age - don't agree. Carter makes millions singing and dancing for these kids because he offers them a stage extravaganza that says he respects them.
Carter's reward is he's living every 14-year-old boy's fantasy. He's a pop star with half-a-dozen incredibly sexy, boooooty-shaking fly-girls in the production doing that shimmy, shimmy, shake thing just to please him. If he isn't having the time of his life, something's wrong.
What powers his girl magnets is his ability to croon odes to puppy love that preteen girls can adore and that parents who buy the records and drive their girls to the concerts can approve of.
Sure, the leather biker dad sitting nearby probably would have preferred seeing the Rolling Stones, but his delight at the good time his pixie-ish daughter was having was obvious.
This show was billed as the "Rock, Rap & Retro" tour. To that end, young Carter delivered on all three counts. His rock was all pop. His white chocolate rapping was practiced and nimble-tongued. In the retro department (for the old folks who didn't stay home), he offered a respectable "Eye of the Tiger" and a better cover of "I Want Candy," the Bo Diddley beat classic.
Carter also made a non-verbal statement that said he isn't just a pretty boy. During the 90-minute show he played a solid piano solo (on the ballad "Do You Remember"), and he also showed off some decent guitar chops.
It's as if Carter knows he's at the end of an era where just being a pretty face who has a few dance moves isn't enough.
