Backstreet Boys took over Firstar Center Monday night and proved they're the undisputed boy-band kings of entry-level pop.
After a big entrance that found the five of them soaring over the crowd, suspended on wires and riding "hoverbaords," they delivered a two-hour spectacle filled with fireworks, fance lighting, an automated hexagonal stages, loads of costume changes and a variety of special effects. THey gave the sell-out crowd of more than 16,000 the show of its young life.
The audience was, naturally, 90 percent female, the vast majority between the ages of 8 and 16. The rest was made of moms reliving their own Davy Jones/Bobby Sherman/David Cassidy girlhoods, along with a smattering of beleaguered dads.
And while the girls shrieked their hearts out, the Boys' preoduction was good enough to make their parents feel they'd gotten their money's worth.
There was no comparison with the group's hottest boy band competition, 'N Sync. The 'N Feebled show that group put on at Riverbend this summer wasn't even in the same league.
Monday's concert opened with Mandy Moore and her four boy dancers, who also opened for 'N Sync. Singing and lip-synching to recorded tracks, she's gotten no less mediocre.
EYC, who opened for Ohio's 98° at the summer's Nickelodeon fest, has improved. But their lyrical references to loving "nice and slow" were grotesquely inappropriate for a crowd still contemplating it's first kiss.
Backstreet Boys, on the other hand, showed how they 've sold 30 million records in just a couple of years. The group's music uses R&B production and melodies, but the lyrics retain and innocence.
For Lexington-born Boys Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell, it was a homecoming, with friends and family attending. Mr. Richardson showed his colors in a UK ball cap.
The audience didn't play favorites, though, screaming for all five members, as Mr. Littrell, AJ McLean, and Nick Carter took turns singing lead.
Howie Dorough, of Puerto Rican descent, took over for "Spanish Eyes."
The show was divided into segments of ballads and dance tunes. On up-tempo tunes like "Get Down" and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," they were joined by 10 dancers.
Despite the futuristic "Millennium" set, there's not much new about the Backstreet Boys. The music is the same pop-R&B that's been a chart staple since Michael Jackson's Thriller. It can get pretty sappy, notably Mr. Littrell's song to his mom, "The Perfect Fan," sung Monday to five sets of mothers and daughters.
Sentiment ended at teh souvenir stands, as the Backstreet Boys set records for high prices. T-shirts were $30; programs were $20, both about $5 above average.
