New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys at Burswood Dome
Tuesday June 29
NKOTB + BSB was always going to lead to a heavy dose of nostalgia but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for walking into a semi packed Burswood Dome filled predominantly by over ‘40s ready to relive their childhoods. Both NKOTB & BSB opened together with an interpolation of NKTOB’s Single and BSB’s The One with a healthy dose of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida thrown in… and the crowd went nuts. The tone was set for a night of boy-band-heaven as they began to swap between the two acts and inject us with their hits.
I have to be honest that although I am no spring chicken, I can say with a small amount of glee that I was not around for the NKOTB era, so some of the songs they sang were lost on me. What made up for this void were the plethora of middle-aged women sitting around me singing to each and every one of NKOTB’s tracks like they were still wearing fluro socks, crimping their hair and playing with slap bands.
Next to take the stage were the BSB. I was on a real high to think that in a few moments I would be hearing the band that not only had a place in my heart, but also a place on my wall in the form of an A3 poster for most of my teenage years. But then, four men in their mid 40’s came out on stage to belt out I Want It That Way and it dawned on me that the band I once loved were now all grown up, which could only mean one thing.. so was I. Nick Carter, a once stunning blonde babe to whom I would have given my first child, was looking rather tired and left me feeling I would probably pass him by if I met him in a nightclub.
Neither the BSB or NKOTB sounded like they did all those years ago, however at least 30% of them still had decent voices, which great to see – and they all sung live. Everything aside, both NKOTB and BSB delivered a great show with incredible lights, sound, a track listing of pretty much all their old songs with only one track from a current album, a deliciously cheesy spot where BSB brought four women on stage and sung to them and we were even treated with a little underwear and topless action just for good measure.
Review: TimBee Images: Claire Alexander
