Ok here's my review for the October 4th concert in Columbus, Ohio! Our seats were in section 329, row A (the first row! they were awesome!) seats 6 and 7. They were great seats, we saw the whole stage, since we were on the first row of the balcony. I took a whole roll of pictures, so I'll have those posted on my site soon. I'll be posting them on my personal site, ShimmerS at Night, because the pictures will take up too much memory on this site. So go there to see the pics!
I'll start from the beginning, while we were driving there. I brought a bunch of paper and markers and pictures of them, just because it was a 2 hour drive to Columbus and I figured we'd get bored. We ended up seeing so many cars that were completely decked out in BSB pictures and writing. It was awesome! Some woman kept driving past us and waving when she read our signs. When we finally got there, there wasn't any traffic, we got right into the parking lot, and it wasn't too far away either. It was about 5:45 then, and me and my friend, Melissa, ran out and went right up into the crowds of people. Right away I bought a tour book program thing for $20, it has a lot of really good pictures in it and it names every person involved with the tour in the back. While we were waiting to be let in, these people started screaming, saying that the Boys were in these windows waving at us. Umm....??? I didn't see anyone!
When we got inside, I got my camera through sooo easily, they didn't check anyone that went through! And a woman handed everyone a thing to send away for a free tour picture or something. When we went up the stairs to our level, we found our seats, and found out they were sooo great! The woman that worked there was telling us all excitedly that they were going to have a special entrance at the beginning... lol Like we didn't already know about it! We went back out and I bought a glowstick for $6, an 8 x 10 of A.J. for $5, and a poster of all of them for $10. *ok fast forward to the concert already!*
We were sitting there for about an hour until it was finally 7:30. These people, a woman with her two kids, a boy and a girl, talked to us the whole time in between the acts. Turns out the woman absolutely loves Howie and A.J., and thinks Nick is dumb... lol. She said she didn't really like Kevin either. aww! She was asking me all of these questions about rumors she heard, and she asked me if Kevin was really married! And I said no of course! But then she told me I was obsessed because I knew all of these things about them! lol Ok ok, the concert already!
The lights finally went down, and everyone started screaming like crazy. 4 dancers came onto the stage, and they were dancing. Then you could see Mandy Moore walking up the steps off to the side. She sang 2 songs I've never heard before, but she was good, Her dancers were good too. Then she introduced herself, and thanked the Backstreet Boys (everyone screamed at that!) and all of the wonderful fans in the audience. Then she sang something like "Lock me in your heart," I've heard that before, it's a pretty song. Then she talked about her single out, "Candy," and performed it. I had that song in my head all day, so I was happy to hear it. She did an overall good job, I thought she was good! But the people beside me didn't really like her.
About 5 (? estimate) minutes later, the lights went back out and I honestly thought it was the BSB at first! There was a purple spotlight going around the stage, and me and my friend started hugging each other and freaking out because we thought it was them! But it wasn't! 3 guys came up onto the stage with hoods on, and they started with "Express...Yourself...Clearly!" and they sang a few songs. I didn't like them at all, I caught myself looking around at the rest of the audience and daydreaming while they were performing, that's basically what I thought of them. They introduced themselves sometime in there, and they kept trying to hype up the crowd, telling them to scream all the time. There was one song, where all they said was "5,4,3,2,1, SCREAM! 5,4,3,2,1, SCREAM!" That's all it was for like 3 minutes! They kept dacing and jumping around like crazy, and I thought they looked stupid! Then they said, "Do you want to see the sexy side of EYC?" and then they kept asking it a few more times, just to get the little girls to scream. Then they started dancing under red lights, and they started basically stripping their clothes off! They still had pants, don't worry! But that's what it looked like! Complete with pelvic thrusts! Then this annoying girl behind me kept screaming, "Dave you'r so sexy!" Ugh, enough of them.
The lights came back on, and every once in a while the curtain behind the black box they come out of moved, so that caused everyone to scream like maniacs. I was looking down at the floor, at all of the people standing around, hoping to catch a glimpse of family or girlfriends. There were about 6 girls all crowded around a woman, she was wearing all black, and she had dark hair just below her shoulders. She was signing things for them and they took a big group picture. I think, I THINK, it might've been Amanda Latona, I'm not positive! But I didn't take a picture, it was too far away. But that was pretty cool.
Finally, at about 8:50, the lights went out and everyone screamed the loudest it had been all night. I saw the dancers coming from one of the sides, they had the poles with lights. The star wars music was playing, and they went up on stage, sooooo slowly! it took them forever to walk up there! Suddenly, there was a big puff of smoke and I swore I could see one of the Boys hanging there already, under all the smoke. So of course I was hitting my friend and screaming my butt off! They flew out, and I FINALLY got to see them in person, I know they're real now! lol They flew onto the stage, and the dancers undid their surfboard things. Then, they stood at each side, just staring into the audience. Then, Kevin would nod his head, and they would all turn and march to the next side. It was so cute, Kevin was like the head of the group right then. he looked sooo good! Then they sang "Larger Than Life" and "The One", they were both great. The One had cute choreography.
Then after this I get a little fuzzy. I'll just tell you the things I remember, these aren't in order! They sang Quit Playin' Games, and they got back on their harnesses to swing across the audience. A.J. was on my side! I loooove A.J.! he is my fave, yes I have a favorite! He was upside down almost the whole time he was up there! it was so cute, I took 2 pictures. And I remember seeing Kevin, the other one close to me, going upside down a lot. I saw Kevin, A.J., and Howie the most. I saw some of Brian and Nick, but they were on the other side. They sand ALAYLM, and they did the chair routine. Everyone screamed so much for that. Then the boys left for another wardrobe change, they had like 4 or 5 of them total. The guy dancers kept the chair routine going, and the crowd was actually nice to everyone and cheered them on! They sang "The Perfect Fan," and Kevin introduced it, saying that Brian wrote it for appreciation towards mothers, and some other things. Then, they brought the mothers and daughters up for the guys. kevin was talking to his girl, and her name was Natalie, and her mother was Annette. She didn't look that happy! But Kevin took pictures of the three of them while they were on stage, it was so cute. Then there was this really tiny girl in the front row, and she had a balloon tied to a rose for Kevin's birthday. he went to the edge and said, "I'm going to come down and get that later ok? Just hold onto that, I'm going to bring it up here." It was so sweet! he ended up going to get it the last song of the show.
They did "Everybody," and absolutely everyone around us got up and started dancing! It was so cute, there was this little boy, maybe 5, with his mother and sister, and they were having so much fun! They also sang a medley of "That's the way I like it," "Get Down," and "We've Got it Goin' On." ( I think those were the three medley songs, I don't really remember) That was awesome, I was singing as loud as I could the whole concert...lol. They sang "Spanish Eyes," it was so sweet! They also sanf "No One Else Comes Close," and I loved A.J.'s singing in it! I love that song! They sang "Don't Wanna Lose You Now," I love that song so much! One of my favorite parts was when they did "Back to Your Heart" and kevin played the piano. Him and Mindi, on the Sax, played by themselves for about a minute, it was beautiful. Then they sanf Back to your heart, and I loved it! I love Brian's part, "I don't know how It got so crazy, but I'll do anything to set things right. Cause your love is sooo amazing, baby your the best thing in my life." I took a picture right when he was singing sooo amazing, I love that part!
They also did "I'll Never break your heart," They were in their pink pants and grey vests and shirts. They did "All I have to give," and I loved it! When they did the hat routine, it was so cute! It was on my side too! yay! When they flip the hat off of their shoes, Howie dropped his hat and it almost went off the stage! Then he tried to pick it up and keep going! But he missed it again! So he missed a few of the steps, but it was so cute how we saw them mess up. Melissa said A.J. dropped his hat at the beginning of it, but I didn't see it.
I know there were more songs, I just can't remember any more. They did "Don't Want You Back" and they danced on these ladder type things at each corner of the stage. A.J. was hanging upside down on his for the longest time! Kevin did it too, and the others I didn't see that much. A.J. was getting crazy on his though! I saw Nick too, he was doing a lot more than you'd expect, he's grown up a lot!
During one of the songs, I don't remember which, but A.J. was on our side of the stage and he blew a kiss out into the audience! Everyone started screaming like crazy! It was so cute! Awww! he's such a sweetie. They also did "Show Me The Meaning..." and I actually got a little teary-eyed when they started it! They dedicated it to Denniz Pop, and Howie told us about how he died from Cancer recently,and that they really missed him. When Kevin's part started, he had his eyes closed, and he was looking up towards the sky, it was so cute. Everyone was screaming for him, I'm so happy he got to sing more lead parts now! They did a cute little dance with the dancers during SMTM, and it was nice. No, the dancers don't get in the way, even though I thought they would.
In between one of the songs, Kevin was saying that Ohio was really signifigant to them for one reason. They were doing a show here a long time ago, before they were who they are now, and they met their record company, or someone like that. And that's when they got signed. Yay! Ohio means something to them! we rock!
When they said goodbye after SMTM, people actually started leaving! About 2 minutes later, and after a lot of chanting "Backstreet Boys! Backstreet Boys!" Tey came back out with "It's Gotta be You." It was so great, it had a lot of energy. They were in casual clothes, some people said pajamas. Brian was in jeans and a red jersey with a red hat. Kevin, Howie, and A.J. all had the same pants on, I couldn't tell what was on them, but they were an off white color with black designs in various spots. I think they might've been dragons. I don't remember what Nick was wearing, I didn't see him much. I think something black. Then they stopped the song and introduced 1 band member and two dancers at a time. Then the band member would play a short little thing, and the two dancers would dance to it and do flips. Then Nick introduced Howie as MC D, and Howie started rapping! it was so cute, Nick started dancing like an idiot, and it was so hilarious! Then they finished the song, saying goodnight again. But of couse, that wasn't the end of it! By that time, both of the groups of people on either side of us had left! I don't know why, the best was yet to come! They came back out singing "I Want It That Way," it was sooo good! They held the microphone out and had us sing it as lous as we could. Then they all left the stage afterwards, and the band stayed up there, playing away for a minute or two. Then it finally ended. I grabbed my things and we headed out.
Oh yeah, A.J. had 3 different cowboy hats he wore during the concert. The first was black and leather, there was one that was cowprint, and the last one was all silver glitter, I loved that one! And when they were singing the song when A.J. was wearing the glitter hat, Nick took it off his head and put it on his, then started dancing really funny!
I couldn't walk when I tried to get up at first! it was so funny! Neither of us could hear, and we both sounded like we had high pitched voices to each other. it was so funny. I still have a ringing in my ears that sounds like all the fans. I hope I described it well enough, because I sure did type a lot! Now I need to get to bed to go to school tomorrow.
If you have any questions, or if you want to post this somewhere with my permission, just email me at ShimmeR615@angelfire.com, my site email, or talk to me sometime online about it if I know you already! Thanks =) Have a concert review? send it in and I'll post it for ya!
