Black & Blue Concert Reviews
Review by COOLHeart@aol.com-Jun 30, 2001
I just wanna start out by saying that I thought the shows were AMAZING. I knew I would love them since I'm a BSB fan, but I still tend to set my expectations a little too high but let me say I was definitely not disappointed. Far from it. Both nights were awesome, but I'd have to say I enjoyed the first show better. There's nothing like the first time.
My seats ended up being a lot better than I thought they would be. I was the perfect distance away to see everything on stage, and on the second night I was dead center and no one was in front of me in my section, so that was rad. On the first night, I felt like a little five year old. I couldn't believe I was in the same arena as THE Backstreet Boys! They were in front of me in person! I even pinched myself once during the show, hehe. And it
felt awesome to hear them say "Hartford" or "Connecticut". I know they do that everywhere but it made me feel good. The bass was too high both nights, probably worse the first night, but we could still hear them sing, and I was genuinely impressed with how good they sounded. They hit the high notes, all of the notes, wonderfully and they just sounded beautiful in every single song. Their choreography was tight too. They're awesome dancers.
They're so professional, and they have such a stage presence. They seemed genuinely happy while performing. Nothing seemed forced or whatever. They definitely seemed to enjoy themselves as much as the audience. Oh yeah, I'm normally a quiet person in public and around people I don't know, and I never thought it was cool when I saw the audience singing along with the Boys on TV, cuz you're there to hear them, you know? 
But of course I ended up
singing along to everything as loud as possible (and still I couldn't hear myself), lol. I learned when you're there live you can still hear everything just fine, lol...So by now I'm sure everyone's either seen the show or read about a few and knows the setlist, so I'll just point out a few of my fave parts...Oh yeah, they didn't do the bridge thing with "Time" for us. =( I figured they wouldn't though, since it was an open arena and it wasn't like huge. I got over it though...And another thing. While the guys seem to be getting generally good reviews, the one thing I've heard a few times is that show is ballad heavy. I really don't think so. There were plenty of uptempos, and the ballads were mixed with mid-tempos. Most of BSB's biggest hits have been ballads and mid-tempos, so it kinda makes sense. Plus, they're moving around during the slower songs so it's still entertaining.
Another complaint a critic in my area had was that they cut short some of their best known hits (i.e. QPG, ALAYLM) but I was glad they did that and performed every song off of B&B (besides "It's True") because I feel like I've seen them perform the older stuff sooo much, and I haven't been to single concert before this...Probably one of my favorite parts of the show was "Shining Star". They sounded awesome and the choreography was just amazing. I
love how they moved to the percussion in the beginning and that clapping thing along with the song was cool. Really, every song was awesome though. I even enjoyed IPY(WEIA), lol. The canes during "Yes I Will" were too cute and fit the song well. AIHTG was awesome too, and I loved how they segued from that to "If You Stay", and again, the choreography was tight. The a cappella at the end was wonderful (I'm running out of adjectives here, lol).
And on the first night, after three of the guys went "into" the trunk to change and only Kevin and AJ were left, AJ sang along to a little bit of Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean" (I love that song) with band accompaniment, so that was cool. Then when Kevin said he had a little bit of solo material and sang a few seconds of that corny song, I actually thought he was serious at first! lol, too funny. All of the videos were cute too. Oh yeah, they all
looked so good. I didn't even think about that until I got home on Thursday night. I was watching the MTT video on TV and I was like, omg, I just saw them in concert! And they looked so fine! lol...They did "The Call" a little different than on the CBS special, which I was a little disappointed about, because I loved those moves. They started with the normal version and finished with the remix (which I am not fond of but of course I still
loved it live, lol). The greatest crowd pleaser was IWITW, of course, but GAB was right up there with it. Judging from our crowd's reaction to that song, that would be an awesome single. I really, really hope they release it. TATOL was awesome too, and they picked up instruments for this. I'm not sure if they did that on the first leg...It was funny, after the first night my mom was teasing me and she's like, "I bet you're satisfied now, right?
You don't to go again." Haha, yeah right. I'd go every month if I could and tix weren't so expensive. The first night before "The Call" AJ was like "We only have time for one more song because we don't want to keep you here for two months,"...um, I was ready to pitch a tent, lol. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to have two shows in CT, but I have a feeling they did it because they hadn't been here in so long (3 and 1/2 years to be exact).
Howie even said something to that extent, and I know they say certain things to everyone, but it sounded like he meant that, even if they probably didn't even remember how long they hadn't been here for. The first night it was really hot (since we were in that heatwave) and Kev was like, "Dang, it's hot today, huh?" Just the way he said it was amusing. And the second night turned out to be a little too cool when the wind blew. I just can't win,
lol. On the second night, it was funny, Nick was like (during the band intros), "Come on, are y'all asleep out there? Is it past your bedtimes?" and it probably was past a lot of those kids' bedtimes. So anyway, they were both amazing shows, they sang beautifully, awesome choreography, they were just wonderful. It's a little sad that they're gone now, but I just had so much fun. They so HAVE to release this tour on video. Seriously, they have
to, lol. It was an awesome, awesome show, as I've said a million times. =) It was one of the best nights of my life and I fell in love with the Boys all over again!