Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

My day before this concert was so much different from all the other ones: no school, no 5Ks, just me having run in the morning, lazed about all day and kept my hyperness in check so I had energy for the concert. Got there early enough, got in w/out having any trouble with my camera, bought my t-shirt (and confused cuz thought Brian's wristbands would be there too...). So we sat through Kaci Brown (she was OK) and Seminole County (too much bass, plus it was rap) while people were also lined up watching the Boys walk from buses to backstage...then finally the moment came – they turned the lights down low (oops, wrong concert...) – and Backstreet came Back to Cincinnati!

Opening with "The Call" and a pretty impressive display of lights and pyros, screams filled the pavilion (and the lawn seating too) first for AJ, then Nick (and Brian, and Howie and Kev), as they sang and danced. For this set of songs, they were wearing shirts, pants, jackets (some of them) in browns and dark reds and greens, except for Brian who felt the need to show his Blue Blood and wear a UK shirt in Bearcats territory...but it's Brian, so I forgive him (fyi I'm very far from being a Wildcat fan if you couldn't tell...). They didn't do the entire dance they had for Black and Blue (which I really liked), but the modified/new version was still pretty sweet. Then they broke into "Beautiful Woman" and it was so cool: 1) Because Nick sang a lot so I screamed a lot but moreso because 2) Each line of the chorus was accompanied by them striking poses and it had a really cool effect. Then Howie greeted us in Cincinnati before inviting us on "a trip down memory lane" for "More Than That" (yay!!). For this they sat on the steps and sang for the verses, then walked around and sung to people and made me wish I was in the front row...but I will be, eventually. Then another break while Brian talked to us ("I like being in Cincinnati cuz here I am in OH (steps to one side of the stage) and here I'm in KY (steps to the other). For those of you that don't know, I was born in Lexington..."), trash-talked UC and then introduced Leighanne and Baylee in the audience (she held him up into the spot light and they were only a few rows ahead of us! -- Baylee is SOOO cute!) and the rest of his family who was there (his and Kevin's grandparents or something were behind us! And Kevin's brother Tim, who's birthday it was today, was a couple rows right in front of us!) then came what had to be the **most adorable** part of the concert: Nick and Brian's little patter before "Climbing the Walls." Nick is getting his guitar ready and Brian asks why he's going to play on the acoustic, and Nick's just kinda like "Cuz I can..." (not what he actually said, but that is what I was thinking so I don't remember his answer...) and Brian's idea is that he and Nick and us in the audience should sing the song. Then Nick says, "OK, Frick" in a *really* cute voice (and I had to go "AWW" for the combination of calling Brian "Frick" and the voice...). They were both using Brian's mic to talk into and at one point he almost hit Nick in the face with it and began a short game of Nick moving his head back and forth to make Brian follow him with the mic (so cute!) before Nick grabbed it as well so he could finish talking. Then Brian introduced "Mr. Nickolas Gene Carter on guitar" and they started the song and it was awesome! Frick and Frack are so adorable! I love this song too, so that made it so much better (except that so many of the pictures I took of them really didn't work...darn stupid grr new camera!). Then came "Shape of My Heart" and there were a lot of people singing along, loudly, and it was cool. For this one they were up on the top of the stage platform for the beginning, then came down on stage for the ending. When Nick sung his part (center stage...YAY), Brian was definately *skipping* back toward the band and over to where Nick was...crazy Brian...<3

*Video Montage* Millennium – video clips, concert clips (that took me back to my first concert – and Nicky was *sigh*) from the song set to "Don't Want You Back" [and everyone sang along!]

The Boys came back with "The One" – which meant Brian and Nick and AJ, so a LOT of screaming. Their new costumes were combinations of red, black, and white. For eg, Nick was wearing black pants and a black shirt with red and white silk screen design on the front while Brian wore black pants, a black jacket and a red and white striped dress shirt (you can tell who I watched mostly...but they all looked great!). After "The One" came "I Still..." and for some reason a lot of these songs were...well nevermind, but I really like this one too and everyone sang along pretty loudly, but nothing compared to the re-mix of "I Want It That Way," which was amazing. I like that song too, a whole lot (Millennium and Never Gone are probably my favorite albums) and they did this sort of spread out around the stage setting, a couple of them on the platform, a couple on stage, but they moved around a lot so sometimes they were all in one place. Brian made funny faces a couple of the times when Nick was singing...you know, the typical cheesy smile and stuff that makes him so cute. Nick was adorable (again...broken record, right?...) when Howie was singing the bridge, he was on the platform, but started walking down the steps and did poses for each line before making it down for his (well, the audiences') "Don't wanna hear you say—" and they finished the song on the stage. The lights went dark for a second while they brought out white stools for the Boys to sit on for "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" which, of course..., is another song I like a lot. And, after some incomprehensible patter between Howie and Nicky while they changed to head-mics, my favorite Favorite *FAVORITE* dance of the night came for "Larger Than Life" – especially when they did the dance with the strobes and green lasers and it was just so awesome!! I'm thinking I may need to watch that video and pick up on some of the dance moves (if I could dance, that is...) cuz it was so sweet! "Siberia" followed, with Brian (and then the rest of the Boys) were on the platform being silhouetted by the spot lights at first, then the lights came on and then it started SNOWING! It was great effects for a great song!

*Video Montage* Backstreet Boys – videos, concert clips of the Boys in the beginning, including videos that I had never seen before like "Get Down" (I miss that song...) set to "We've Got It Goin' On" and the one thing I had to say is that they all were so LITTLE and Nick was soo adorable, it's no wonder he is (or at least was, I think AJ's got him beat...) the most popular

Favorite part of the concert: "All I Have To Give" – especially when Nicky smiles (but my stupid camera...GRR I didn't get the pic)! So their little teasing act of leaving Nick at the top and the 4 Boys walking down the stairs after talking to Nick and/or fixing his hat or jacket, followed by Nick going down, then some dancing before actually starting the song...was horrible to live through! Not really, just the anticipation for my favorite song, which was met and exceeded. Nick didn't drop or even come CLOSE to dropping his hat, but my thoughts that he had gained coordination were dashed during "As Long As You Love Me" – somehow Nick managed to *lose his hat* while dancing (but picked it up/one of the guys picked it up later). The next song AJ dedicated to the "sexy ladies" in the audience: "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and was met by screams and screams and screams. I like this song OK, but tonight it was great and I was really into it, so it was that much better...then AJ ended with a cool little vocal of "I'll Never-I'll Never-I'll Never..." which was then mimicked by Nick (both were amazing, just...amazing) as he asked why everyone loved AJ [AJ is easily more popular than Nick now, IMO...]. "I think it's cuz he's so smooth...And he's got this [scruffy face]" were some of his guesses (lots of screaming) before AJ took a stab at Nick and why we all (OK, so me and no one else I with) love him. "Crazy funky" and "rock star" ("ooh, Nick's butt" LOL) were his first two guesses, "Can you believe this guy is single?" (!!!!...but is that really really for real or just the patter? I'd like to believe it's for real though...as if *I'd* have a chance). Kevin joined into the mix "about to cry" because his family was there and had us all sing "Happy Birthday" to his brother, Tim, who was 2 rows in front of us! Then came some shouts out to the Russians and Ethiopians (and "Howie-land-ians" [curtosy of Nick]) in the audience followed by an explanation as to why Sphynkter couldn't perform with them (they were in London) but then, after getting the audience to chant "Sphynkter – Sphynkter...," they started "I Just Want You To Know." Along with the rest of then fans, I got really into this one, I like the sorta rock-dance feel of it and it was great, so much fun that to calm it down, even for my favorite "Never Gone" song, was hard to do...but for "Crawling Back to You" I did it – but kept screaming of course. Brian and Nick singing leads? My throat started to crack with "All I Have to Give," but this whole set of the night was amazingly painful for my throat...then they came out with "Drowning." I had never heard this live before (they added it to the Black and Blue tour a couple weeks after my Cincy concert) and it was great, amazing, and I love Nick! ...OK, that went a little far, but I really like the song "Drowning" but hadn't listened to it for a while so it stuck with me and made me happy to hear it. Then came "Quit Playin' Games" which I LOVE and it was funny because Nick first started teasing Howie for saying something about wanting more audience participation, then laid down on a stack of boxes on the right (our right) side of the stage before Howie thru something at him and started laughing. Then Nick was chucking shirts (I think?) at Howie and it was just so random. When Nick's verse came up, he jumped into the crowd! (how much do I wish I had front/right seats?) which stunk for pictures, but was cool for them all... And someone passed up a banner that said "We Still Love BSB" and AJ held it up, wore it as a cape for a lap around part of the stage, then Nick and Howie took possession of it and displayed it proudly (while Brian read it...) before the bridge break turned into a disco dance for Nick and Howie and Brian (what a combination...but I was laughing more than screaming at that part, it was great) before finishing out the song.

*Video Montage* Never Gone – photo shoot backstages, recording clips, hanging out and such – and (Nick and) the guys still look awesome! Esp. Nick in glasses...

A piano on the stage for Kevin and they sat around it, dressed this time in various t-shirts and pants, to sing "Weird World" and "Incomplete." "Weird World" isn't my favorite song, but the meaning behind it is something I admire (and it doesn't hurt that Nicky sings it!) so that was met with screams (not much audience singing). It was very cute at the bridge when he sang "I'm closin' my eyes/But I'm startin' to see..." cuz he ducked behind Brian and hid his (Brian's) eyes with his (Nick's) hand [and then my camera decided not to take the pic...GRR]. When "Incomplete" came up, screams and singing erupted once again for AJ and then Nick then, before I wanted it to be, the song was done and I knew the show was almost over...but that didn't matter to me just then. They came back onstage with pyrotechnics and screams..."Oh my God we're back again!" I was jumping, dancing, screaming, snapping pictures – I did NOT want this night to end. They only did the video dance with the wrist thing for the 2nd chorus (but that’s OK) and I think Nick had his verse in there too, but there was so much screaming and dancing and talking between the guys at that point that I couldn't tell, but it was a great finish as they reminded us, and everyone that "BACKSTREET*S BACK, ALRIGHT!"

...And it was worth the wait to see them, but I also want to see them again, and again, and again...and my thing for Nick has been revived after seeing him live and losing my voice for him (and Brian..and AJ and Howie, and Kevin a little bit...although I feel cheated of Frick/Frack moments after looking at other concert reviews). My summer is nearly over and this was, once again, a great way to finish it up. Tonight was proof enough that the Boys are Back and they will keep coming back until we don't want them anymore...but we're Keepin the Backstreet Pride Alive and it better keep us telling the haters that, like it or not,