The One Where Backstreet's Back (ALRIGHT!)

In the late 90's/early 00's (Is that right? Is that how you shorten the early part of the 21st century?), I was a teenager. I turned 13 in 1997 and remained in the throes of teenagerdom until I turned 20 in 2004. That period of time, obviously, was the Age of the Boy Band, and, badass as I may have (or may not have?) been, I was not immune.

I was actually an *NSync girl, as I may or may not have mentioned previously. Like. . .obsessed. Ridiculous obsessed. I was absolutely going to marry Lance Bass (Um. . .after I get my sex change?), and I knew every song on every album. Even the lame ones. There were several lame ones. And! I was taking piano lessons at the time, and had a songbook for their first two albums. (I never got terribly good at any of the songs, but I can still play the intro to "I Want You Back.")

Then, of course, there were the Backstreet Boys, who were older than *NSync and who did more ballads and the like. I liked them, but would fight to the death anyone who insisted they were better than my boys.

I saw *NSync in concert in. . .2000, I think. I still have the concert T-shirt and I wear it when I go running sometimes. (Yes. . .I exercise occasionally. Sometimes.) It was epic.

All of this to say, I have never lost my Boy Band Love. Call it lame, call it stupid, call it whatever you want. I wasn't listening to Nirvana or Eminem or Limp Bizkit (what the EFF kind of name is that? Honestly.). . .I was listening to the boy bands. I still do. I have the *NSync Greatest Hits CD in my car.

Point of ALL this being, a few weeks ago, I put on Twitter something to the effect of "Hey! Backstreet Boys are coming here in a couple weeks!" I don't remember exactly what I said, but my friend Ashley (with whom I was in middle school during the Boy Band Days and who was all about some *NSync as well. JC was her Syncer of choice, if you're wondering.), looked up ticket prices and texted me saying, basically, "Um, this is a thing that needs to happen."

So last night, we went to the show. It was. . .exactly what you would expect it to be. Epic. And awesome.

It was held in the new amphitheatre downtown, which was, as amphitheatres are, outside. They were calling for rain, but the sky had looked good all day. I got a ridiculously overpriced beer, just because I could.

When the show started, they had an opening act, which I don't think was actually the opening act they advertised on the tickets. It was these four African-American kids (I say kids because they looked to be between 13 and 16) who danced really well and who sang (?) through a synthesizer. They were entertaining enough, I guess, but they only lasted about half an hour, which meant another half-hour wait before BSB came on stage.

When they finally started, it was. . .kind of awesome. The kid of one of them came on stage (he was about 3 or 4, I'd say) and was all like, "Are you guys ready for the Backstreet Boys?)" (Screaming.) "Are you ready for Howie? AJ? Nick? . . .My daddy?" So much screaming, and I could hear the ovaries of 85% of the women in attendance exploding from the cute.

So they started, and it was awesome. The first song was "Everybody (Backetreet's Back)", which I totally called. Everyone was singing and dancing and having a generally awesome nostalgic time. BSB was a little more. . .subdued than I might have expected, but they're also getting older. Not that they're old (despite AJ's receding [sp?] hairline), but oldER. Only one of the songs would I consider lame (I think it was called "PDA." It was. . .well, it was pretty lame.) But they did all the hits, all the songs everyone would know. . .it was awesome.

It did, incidentally, start raining about an hour in, but the only person who seemed to mind was this greasy Hispanic dude in front of us who was pissed that his white leather shoes (which he was wearing with an all-black ensemble) were getting wet. Bought a T-shirt for an obscene amount of money, and was able to be, for at least 2 hours, firmly ensconsed in my adolescent years.

Awesome.