One 5K, a two hour nap, 90 minutes typing a paper, 3 hours of computer pinball, 30 minutes of getting ready…chugging some Gatorade in the car as we listen to Black and Blue, getting pumped up for the experience. Even though I knew what to expect, I was hyper as ever, spirited with Black and Blue Backstreet Pride through everything I was wearing, including face paint. I could forget about my contacts killing my eyes because I was walking into the arena where I would be breathing the same air as Nick and Brian, Howie and Alex, and Kevin...

Our seats, section 102 row A…yeah I knew they would be the front of the section, I was just thinking they would be a little more off the FLOOR than they were! We found our section and walked the steps until we found row A, each step down we took we were closer to the floor and closer to the center stage where I knew I would go crazy, especially since Brian was gonna be on our side! I could not wait for the lights to be turned down low and them to go on with the show and see these larger than life guys again...

And they did. And I screamed…for Nick and Brian and Alex and Howie and Kevin…for Nick and Brian especially (my favorite guys!). The fan-dedicated songs opened the show, “Everyone” and “Larger than Life,” and the guys in black and blue garb sang and danced their way through these up-tempo tunes. And they can dance! Though not as together as before, which is expected since they have only been on tour for this was their 2nd day back, they are awesome! But it was most definitely not without any bloopers. At one point during LTL Nick jumped from a platform and his pants almost fell down…and I almost fell down laughing! So they did a cool little dance break before running under the stage and changing for the next song while one of the female dancers did a solo thing on the left side of the stage.

Brian in the spotlight, wearing all black with a red accent on the neck, singing the next song. In line with the lyrics, he pulls a white note from his pocket…”I found a note with with his number/Its just another clue/(That leads to you).” I really like this song for some reason, it’s just a cool song. So I am screaming and dancing and stuff while they dance (no, I won’t say it again!) and sing the song. The coolest part is when, during the bridge, they stand in front of the fans and it blows the red accent things on their neck…and they take of one of the sleeves of their shirts (I didn’t notice that before, but whatever). But so that song ended and they all disappeared, except for Brian.

After retelling about how he from Lexington and stuff, and how he came to be in the band (April 19th of ’93 he got the call, the next day he auditioned and joined). He asked who in the audience was from KY (the majority, it seemed) and who was from OH (he’s got in-laws in Columbus…who knew that?). Then he thanked us all for coming to see them, and introduced the next person as "someone with a lot of prayer.” AJ aka Alex came out on the stage, welcomed by screams from nearly everyone. It was so great to see him and he seemed really happy to be back on tour and to see all of us there, still in attendance despite his term in rehab (he has been sober for 52 dayz and counting…that is since July 4th [to August 25th] if I did my math right!). He gave everyone a big hug and kiss, saying he wished he really could hug everyone that was there, but there just wasn’t enough time. He left and out came Nick (and guess who went crazy?). He was not out there for very long, enough time to ask us all to scream loudly and show our love to AJ, to thank us all for coming to see them and to pick up a teddy bear that had been tossed onto the stage. (He really does *not* like talking in front of big crowds, poor Nicky). But he was so cute, esp. when he was leaving: “Me and my teddy bear have to say bye-bye now…” as the platform lowered. :-) Howie came out and did his round of thank you’s to “Cincinnati, Ohio” for filling the seats in the venue. Then Kevin came out for a quick speech before introducing the next song “What Makes You Different,” written by Howie D. and dedicated to “all of the ladies in the audience”…most of whom didn’t know the song (SHHH!).

Dressed in all white suits, they looked really great for this and the next three songs. This was also when Nick was kinda starting to show he was tired, as he was starting to act sorta strange…:-) Actually not really, he’s just not too coordinated! He took AJ’s hat and was wearing it, but then decided to try spinning it on his finger and it flew off to the back of the stage; he then tried to kick it to Alex, but it only went a little bit. AJ decided to show him up and kicked the hat to his hands (think “All I Have to Give” hat routine) and put it back on. Well, then came “Yes I Will,” yet another great song from Black and Blue and their little cane routine thing that I love because its like what we do in color guard with out rifles/sabres[frosh yr]. The promise that “I will love you more than that” followed, a chorus of screams erupting because this is one of the best singles they have released yet, and, it seemed, one of the most popular. There other popular single “I Want it That Way” followed. Poor Nicky looked really tired during MTT, at the end of the song he was on his knees with his head on his arms leaning on the front of the platform like he was sleeping (aww). And during IWITW he actually laid down on the stage during Alex’s verse until the chorus began and he had to sing. (But this can be attributed to the fact he was with Aaron for a lot of their time off!)

Video Break #1: Backstreet Boys in 2050 … hilarious! These guys just have wayyyy too much fun on their job! :-P

Now it’s time for blue suits with really cool SHOES! (and I’m the only one who noticed, right??). A medley of “Quit Playin’ Games” their first single in America and “As Long As You Love Me” the first single I heard of theirs…ending in a capella ALAYLM and getting cheered on by me cuz a capella is cool! Then came the promise that “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” (have you ever realized how many promises these guys make in their beautiful ballads?). A really, uh, interesting dance came and then AJ finished a capella (yay) as Howie interrupted him: “I can’t believe you, you’ve been lying these past eight years not only to us but to all those people out there. (mocking high voice) ‘I’ll never break you heart’ what’s that all about? You really should be singing something else…” And the guys all take of their jackets and shirts, revealing light blue tank tops with black dragons on them (these are one of my favorite costumes!) and sing “Don’t Want You Back” and too bad I know parts of the dance and so yeah…I bet I looked pretty dumb, too! :-) Then came an interesting discussion about wardrobe…asking if we liked their costumes and stuff and then Nick and Brian and AJ were arguing about something as to whether or not they could change costumes right there or something, I couldn’t understand what was going on, just something about “contract stipulations” (and Nick was the one who said this?)…whatever. Then they climbed down in the box, Nick (who didn’t take his shirt of this time) was “afraid” to follow Brian in, Howie was like “I am NOT going in there!” and AJ was really slow in getting down, after attempting to do a “Kevin and AJ Show” then Kevin sat down and talked, joking something about “solo material” before going ‘below.’

Video Break #2: Tour of the dressing room. Wow I didn’t remember it being so funny! I did understand what was up with the changing area argument etc. Very funny and must’ve been fun to film :-)

Oh yeah, and this was when I kinda died cuz they came out on the little stage for about 10 minutes…that is, they were TWENTY FEET IN FRONT OF US for 10 minutes of the concert. They sang “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” while being bombarded with stuff. Brian was right there in front of us, with Kevin and Nicky on either side so I was pretty happy snapping (unallowed) pictures like crazy. Then they didn’t sing “I Promise You” which upset me, but its all good. Then Kevin and Nick and Alex sat down and Howie and Brian sang “How Did I Fall In Love With You” to screams of us people in the back. The last time through the chours, dude I will write this without going psycho, I had been waving at the the whole time. Howie waved at us during the first verse of HDIFILWY (that looks funny!) and then the guys sitting down, they stood up and walked around and Nick waved at/towards *US* and I screamed (and went psycho!) and then Alex came next and he waved at/towards us :-) It was sad to see the bridge lower as Brian spoke (and Nick came from behind and put a pair of sunglasses over Brian’s eyes!). They two had been playing with a stuffed basketball earlier (it was really cute!) and then they were now striking funny poses before heading off the little stage onto the bridge back to the front, while “Time” began. (they played that on the radio today, “Time” as in Pink Floyd “Time” as in our opener last year)

And of course the silly string-Carter parallelism started again! Nick walked along the stage and girls were spraying silly string at him (there were sheets of silly string hanging from the bars of the bridge!) and he gestured like “Give me a can, toss one to me!” and got about 4 or 5 cans of silly string thrown up to him. It wasn’t *as* crazy as Lexington or Aaron’s Party, but it was quite funny. They all arrived on the main stage as the song ended. Nick took a seat behind the drum set, Brian took his guitar, Howie picked up a wood block thing, and AJ took over the percussion rack. Kevin introduced all the charities they were involved with or sponsoring before starting the next song, a song about “making the world a better place” … “The Answer to Our Lives.” Nick sound really nice on this song, not that he didn’t ever before, but his voice was fuller during this song and was just like WOW! :-) The went away for a very short time and there was a guitar intro for the next song which drove me the craziest I ever get during concerts…”All I Have to Give.” I don’t know why, I love the song and Nick just sound so great when he sings the first part…and when he smiles I just kinda go a little crazy :-) !! Oh, and Nick was hitting some really nice high notes which just impresses me a lot and makes me scream more! They followed Nick and Brian’s verse with a hat routine followed by their really cool pretty new song “If You Stay” which I really like. They do a really intersting “dance” and then the stage goes dark except for a spotlight on them around a mic, singing the chorus of “If You Stay” a capella and it was sooo cool. Dark except the guys singing, and only their voices (aside from screaming etc) filling the arena…so nice.

Dance break which gave away the next song, “Shining Star” with its Latin-tinged rhythm. I really like the video screen during this song, but their dance is cool too. And the song, I love the song. Great up-tempo song to end a string of ballads with, even though I love the ballads best of all. But I really like how they do this song, with AJ alone until his verse is over, then all of them, then Nick alone during his verse, etc. Except with Nick’s verse, the blonde dancer during “Doesn’t matter if the phone might right/Cuz I won’t hear a thing/Baby, when I’m in your arms” is a little close to him and I personally didn’t think she was very pretty (That is, I think this translates into one word: “jealousy”). But the second break (“You know that I adore you/Wanna be there everything for you/etc…”) I like how they did it with Howie and Nick (on our side!) and then Brian and Alex switiching off between runs of the break. When the left the stage I was sad because I knew there was only 4 more songs left before they left for St. Louis and I left for home and school in 2 days…and this was the last time I would get to see “my” Nicky for a long time (three times in 3 months…too much Carter is unhealthy for ya!).

So they introduce the band (Kev, then Nick with a towel on his head cuz its cool! [I est. that fact myself last month…no more comments!]) and the dancers (Brian and Howie…rapping!!!). Then they came up in an explosion for “EVERYBODY (BACKSTREET*S BACK!)”!!!!!!! Fun song and fun dancing :-) Though not as crazy as Lexington, I was dancing and going a little crazy. Nick was hitting random high notes the first time through the pre-chorus (“Am I original?/…/Am I the only one?/…/Am I sexual?/…”) but hey, whatever. Their costumes, these are my very favorites, the black pants and silver chainmail shirts over white tanks/t-shirts (except Brian was wearing his “Healthy Hearts for Kids” shirt). Then came the song which has my favorite dance…”Get Another Boyfriend.” This is like sooooo cool! Nick’s part, “You go get on with your life/STOP … actin’ like you givin’ up!” they stopped for a really long time after “STOP” and Nick did a random improv thing with his voice and dance (more random high notes!) before finishing the line up “…actin’ like you givin’ up!” AHH I am going crazy just remembering this stuff from last night!

Alex then was left alone to chat to us in the audience (oh yeah, did I mention he all but took off his shirt?). He was being weird, but that’s Alex for ya! Well so he’s asking us how we’re doing, if we’re liking the show etc etc. “The guys asked me to come out and talk to you all out here…blahblah…but…yes there is always a ‘but’…we only have time for one more song…I’m sorry, but they sent me out here to tell you…” *RING RING* “Should I answer it? (screams) Should I?” and he does, after asking the band if it was any of theirs. Now starts “The Call.” I really like their dance for this song (how many times do I say this??) and they sounded really good on this (they normally do, but I just am so used to them sounding different on fast tunes than ballads and this time they didn’t…make sense at all?). The disappeared before the bridge and came back with chior robes on, then finished up the song and disappeared. I though they were going to change into their basketball jerseys like they usually do, but they didn’t (UC…that was my prediction, or the Reds, but if it were basketball exclusively UC would be my guess!).

So here they are again. Nick is on our side! (Hey hey I will not be saying anything because *I* did not pick these tix out!). “Shape of My Heart” yay I love this song! AJ threw water over the audience, Nick was up on the edge of the stage shaking people’s hands, there was not as much craziness going on this time as in Lexington, but it was cool. I was having so much fun still yet! But it’s their last song so I wanna cry or something, cuz summer is over as soon as they bow and disappear beneath the stage for good on this 1 hour 45/50 minute concert stop in the *wonderful* (that is sarcastic, BTW) city of Cincinnati, Ohio. But it’s allllll good cuz I will see them again no matter where they are in the tri-state :-)

This was a nice first concert for my little sister, too, except it wasn’t really her first concert (she was @ Aaron’s Party with me too), but that’s OK. It’s her first indoor concert, that counts for something, right? Alex, in his intro, said the concert was gonna be clean and fun, two things describing Backstreet very well. But his mouth kinda slipped later when he was having trouble with an onstage costume change (suits to tanks) …”(censored) cumberbun”…for the most part he was a lot less suggestive (well, a *little* less suggestive) and a lot calmer, happier to be on stage, and not taking any moment for granted. Nick, on the other hand…he was totally crazy for parts of it, after the exhaustion passed [I know what’s up with that, I am the same way sometimes!], he was just jumping around {Brian did too! I was like “he reminds me of…” and my sister guessed who I was thinking of} and stuff. It was such a fun concert after the Boys came out [no comment on Sisqo…and Krystal, Supergirl!, wasn’t there :-( …I was disappointed, but whatever] and I really love these guys now. Three times in concert total, and twice this summer, three times for seeing Nick…it’s all good cuz