By Columnist: Isaac Guzman
"Even before the show started, it didn't take much to get the girls screaming Sunday night at the Nassau Coliseum. A little fog rising from the stage: Screams. A commercial reminding them that Sears is the official sponsor of the Backstreet Boys' Millennium Tour: More screams. A hand, most likely belonging to a security guard, popping out over the top of a mysterious black box from which the Boys were clearly planning to make their entrance: The most screams of all.
With peals of adulation so easy to come by, the Backstreet Boys could have easily knocked out an hour's worth of hits, done a little dancing and gone back to the bank happy in the knowledge that the Coliseum was just one stop in a 39-city string of sold-out shows that-- prior to sales of Backstreet T-shirts, band photos and Millennium glo sticks -- had already generated $30 million in ticket sales.
Befitting the industry leader in syrupy dance-pop, however, the Backstreet Boys did no such thing. Having grown up in Orlando, Fla., with Disney World in their backyard, the Backstreet Boys appeared to have soaked up a serious sense of Magic Kingdom showmanship. Nick, Howie, Kevin, Brian and A.J. ultimately did rise up out of that black box, suspended by harnesses attached to what looked like faux body armor. Then, with glow-in-the -dark, skateboard-like wedges under their feet and music from "Star Wars" playing, they appeared to float toward the stage. Upon arrival, they sang "Larger Than Life", a song in which the Boys complain that fame ain't easy, but good audiences make it all worthwhile.
What followed was a 2-hour, 19-song set during which the Boys changed costumes at least 10 times, performed acrobatics while dangling over the audience with another set of cables, played ballads on a piano lowered from the rafters and called up from the crowd five sets of mothers and daughters (one for each Boy) to sing "The Perfect Fan", a song about how dedicated the Boys' mothers have been.
One didn't have to like the music to enjoy the razzle dazzle, which was fortunate, because with the exception of the driving groove of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," the Boys specialized in lightweight romantic ballads such as the monster hit "I Want It That Way," and "I'll Never Break Your Heart." So limited is the range of Backstreet themes that A.J. named "Don't Want You Back" his favorite song on the group's new "Millennium" record because it was "a complete opposite" of other Backstreet songs in which the Boys always want to get the girl, not get rid of her.
Although the Boys have modeled themselves on late-'80s New Jack Swing groups such as Boys II Men, Shai and New Edition, they showed none of those groups' innate vocal flair. Together, the Boys made pretty harmonies, but when members took solo turns their vioces were thin and despite a lot of wavering highs and lows, sounded like they were affecting soulfulness, not summoning it from within.
The Backstreet Boys rose up from a long tradition of formulaic boy bands (Bay City Rollers, Menudo, New Kids on the Block), but they were the first in the recent surge of teen sensations that includes Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Boyzone and 98 Degrees. Being first doesn't always make a group the best, but it tends to make them memorable, and the Boys' great success has been crafting an indelible image despite the disposability of their music. The Millennium Tour is just the next step in the process, a production so extravagantly staged that it makes the Boys' dominance of the pop charts seem more like an inevitability than an accomplishment."
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