Young female fans at the heart of Nick's solo effort
By JANE STEVENSON
Once a Backstreet Boy, always a Backstreet Boy. Nick Carter -- touring in support of his pop-rock solo debut, Now Or Never -- proved his BSB membership remains intact on Wednesday night during a sold-out show at Kool Haus in front of hundreds of screaming, mostly young, female fans.
The youngest Backstreet Boy, who is playing considerably smaller venues than the arenas and stadiums his former boy band enjoyed in their heyday, got the loudest response when he trotted out a trio of -- you guessed it -- BSB hits.
Quit Playing Games With My Heart, I Want It That Way, and Shape Of My Heart, came during the unplugged and seated portion of the concert, about mid-way through Carter's 85-minute set.
The audience responded with a spirited singalong when fans were actually passing out amid the pandemonium.
Otherwise, the sweet-voiced singer, dressed down in an "ARMY" T-shirt and baggy jeans which showed off black Calvin Klein underwear, put away the choreographed dance moves, big sets and special effects that were BSB's trademarks.
Instead, Carter went for the stripped-down and sweaty bar band approach with his five backing musicians happily following his animated lead.
The problem was there's nothing really remarkable about his material which gives major shout outs in the influence department to Tears For Fears, The Cars, A-HA, Guns N' Roses, and Bryan Adams.
In fact, he even inserted bits of Tears For Fears' Shout, A-HA's Take On Me, Adams' Everything I Do (I Do It For You) and GNR's Paradise City into his own songs while outright covering The Cars' Just What I Needed.
Occasionally, Carter even strapped on an electric guitar, but it seemed more like a prop than anything else, and such horrible rock songs as Girls In The USA, or saccharine ballads like Who Needs The World and Heart Without A Home didn't further his credibility.
Meanwhile, with the Backstreet Boys filing a $75 million lawsuit against their label for holding up the release of their fourth album last year -- opting to produce and record Carter's solo album instead -- clearly all is not well in the BSB camp.
And with Now Or Never hardly flying out of record stores, Carter may find himself playing even smaller venues than Kool Haus should he return.
Maybe when you've sold 36 million albums, as the Backstreet Boys have done, it doesn't matter.
NICK CARTER
'Backstreet's already back'
-- JANE STEVENSON