Backstreet Boys still larger than life

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/08/2022 (1124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Omigod, they’re back again.

The Backstreet Boys swung through Winnipeg for the second time on their pandemic-interrupted DNA World Tour Monday night — but the fact that they were here in July 2019 didn’t stop nearly 12,000 screaming (and largely millennial) fans from packing out Canada Life Centre for a night of nostalgia and slickly produced pop.

Arriving onstage just after 8:30 p.m. in an explosion of smoke, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson — perfectly choreographed, of course, right down to their co-ordinating red and black outfits — kicked it back to ‘96 and opened the show with I Wanna Be With You followed by 2000’s The Call and Don’t Want You Back from 1999’s Millennium. They know who their audience is and exactly what they want to hear.

The Backstreet Boys have been titans of pop since they stormed the charts with their 1996 self-titled international debut as part of an explosion of boy bands in that decade. (If it felt like the Backstreet Boys were particularly ubiquitous in 1997, it could be because that was the year their debut dropped in America, dovetailing with the release of 1997’s sophomore album Backstreet’s Back.)

But no groups of their ilk have gone the distance the way BSB has. Save for a brief hiatus in the 2000s and those few years when Richardson — the elder statesman of the band — left the group, the Backstreet Boys are on pace to celebrate their 30th anniversary as a band next year, having formed in Orlando in 1993 — a fact they, too, seemed in disbelief about. They’ve released nine studio albums, including 2019’s DNA — which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — making the Backstreet Boys the world’s most enduring boy band.

Boy bands, of course, are not built for longevity by design — there’s a reason why the boy band in the FOX animated series Bob’s Burgers is called, hilariously, Boyz 4 Now: the boys, eventually, turn into men. Men who belong to a “vocal group,” not a boy band.

But the fact Backstreet Boys are still packing out arenas on multi-leg tours also serves as proof positive that one should never, ever underestimate the career-making — and sustaining — power of fan girls, especially the ones that grow up to be fan women with disposable incomes.

“The Backstreet Boys would not exist without you,” Littrell acknowledged before launching into a smooth solo snippet of Nobody Else. (He’s been candid about his struggles with muscle tension dysphonia and, while he wasn’t always the most powerful singer on the stage, four other guys always had his back.)

With the absence of live instrumentation, a show like this is about two things: vocal performances and dancing. The Boys delivered on both counts — you couldn’t tell these men and their knees are in their 40s (and, in Richardson’s case, 50s) — though sometimes their harmonies struggled to soar above the din of the crowd, especially during hits such as Get Down.

Still, there were some muscular vocal performances, particularly on slow jams such as Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely, which brought the night’s first costume change, and Incomplete, which was a soaring showpiece for all of them.

Interactions with adoring fans in the front half of the set were minimal but heartfelt. And adoring fans they were: “We’ve waited 25 years for a selfie” read a sign. At least one bra made it up onto the stage. McLean and Richardson returned the favour, tossing briefs into the crowd. (You’d think it was a bouquet toss at a wedding the way people moved on the floor.)

While the stage setup was deceptively basic, it made excellent use of lighting, and two screens suspended directly over their heads ensured there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. During No Place — with its refrain “ain’t no place like you” — a video of the Boys and their families played on the screens, a reminder that they are in a different chapter in their lives.

They then took a few minutes to reminisce about the old days and gently razz each other like brothers before performing an a capella Breathe, which underlined the fact that these boys are best when they are singing together.

The show really hit its stride near the end. The boys donned white suits for an absolutely monster rendition of Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) — easily the song of the night — which was quickly followed up by We’ve Got It Going On.

The nearly two-hour main set was capped with the pop confection I Want It That Way, with the fans doing a lot of the work on the chorus.

The band returned — clad in Winnipeg Jets jerseys — for a two-song encore that included a swaggering Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and closed with Larger Than Life, the titanic single from 1999’s Millenium, which was accompanied by a dizzying light show and a burst of streamers.

The Backstreet Boys offered plenty of escapist nostalgia and a whole lot of fan karaoke, especially on the monster hits Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) and the Carter-led As Long As You Love Me.

But that’s OK. Monday night was a chance to relive those school-dance, first-crush feelings via the music that soundtracked it all.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @JenZoratti