donnie asked bsb out for a date, apparently.
9 people (well, 7 people since I haven't seen anything from Danny or Jon in print) means having a whole lot of articles from a whole bunch of different sources. I think I'll quote the best bits of mediocre ones, like from this:
“We’re each sending spies to see what the other group is doing.” (Me: Really, Jordan? Was Howie BSB's spy? Because the other 3 can't be freaking subtle if their lives depended on it.)
And put in the full text of the *really* good ones, like the one where Donnie Wahlberg compares inviting BSB to perform with them to asking a hot girl out for dinner and something more. (Seriously they're not even *pretending* to be clueless about what we think!)
New Kids, Backstreet Boys to rock Garden, Fenway
By Jed Gottlieb
Last August, Donnie Wahlberg sat in the 10th row at the Aerosmith/J. Geils Band Fenway show and loved it. But watching hero Peter Wolf belt out “Must of Got Lost,” the New Kid couldn’t help but wonder, “Could that be my group up there?”
“I kept texting my manager from my seat writing, ‘One day we have to find a way to do this,’ ” Wahlberg said from Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where he was rehearsing for the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys megatour.
That “one day” arrives June 11.
Saturday, NKOTBSB, as the boy band supergroup has dubbed itself, plays a sold-out TD Garden. The following Saturday, the boys play a sold-out Fenway Park.
“I went to see J. Geils and Aerosmith because I’m a huge J. Geils fan, but I also had to go to see local bands at Fenway,” Wahlberg said. “We’re Bostonians, we know what it’s like to be Red Sox fans, we know what it means to play Fenway. And we knew it was a huge risk, but - and I would never compare us to Aerosmith and what those guys have done - we believed this show could happen.”
The New Kids reunion has been huge. In 2008, they sold out the TD Garden; a year later, they packed the Comcast Center in Mansfield. But Fenway is twice the size of those venues. Not a problem.
Teaming with Backstreet Boys, their boy band bonanza is unstoppable. The two acts have sold a combined total of more than 200 million albums (compared to Aerosmith’s 150 million) and demand is so strong they’ve added second dates at arenas in Chicago, Toronto and New Jersey.
The epic tag team began last June when the New Kids invited the Backstreet Boys on stage for a duet of BSB’s “I Want It That Way” at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. There was an obvious chemistry between the two.
“Yeah, we invited them,” Wahlberg said with a laugh. “But it was more than that. You don’t invite a hot girl to dinner just to have dinner, you invite her with hopes of something more happening down the line.”
The Backstreet Boys were down with something more.
“We’ve known these guys for years,” Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough said from Mohegan Sun. “So when they invited us to Radio City to shock some fans, we were in. After 15 years and so many shows and albums, to do something with real shock value is rare. And when they approached us about this tour, again we were in.”
The Backstreet Boys are the best-selling boy band of all time. They know the New Kids blazed the tween-market trail for them. They also know NKOTB have a dozen enduring pop hits.
“I’ll admit it,” Dorough said. “I did record a cassette karaoke tape to send in to (New Kids creator) Maurice Starr auditioning to be the sixth New Kid. Hey, they were the boy band before us. We know that.”
They also know how big a deal Fenway is.
“Honestly it’s crazy, to do this, and to do it with the New Kids in their own back yard,” he said. “Management talked to us about a second night at the Garden and the New Kids wanted Fenway. We said, ‘If you guys believe in it, we’re behind you.’”
So are 40,000 screaming 30-something women and probably a few guys, too.
And another one where Howie impresses me. A lot.
NKOTBSB give fans that old feelin' again
By Nancy Dunham
If loving the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block is wrong, many crowds don't want to be right.
That seems the best way to explain the enthusiasm of the mainly female crowds that have begun to jam arenas to see the two boy bands that are now all grown up.
"I always say we are entertainers," said Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys. "We have been tied up with this band for many years and are proud to put on ... quality shows for families of all ages. ... People like to live in the moment and also live in certain songs and memories."
Although the bands broke out in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, that doesn't mean they rely on old-school members to reach fans. They used social media to allow fans to choose the songs they wanted to hear in concert and on their joint recording. Dorough makes it clear that while they are happy to play the old favorites, the new music has progressed with the times.
"The subject matter we are talking about, whether in interviews or songs, had definitely grown and naturally progressed," he said. "We don't want anything to be too forced. We do what comes naturally."
Apparently, so do their fans. There has been plenty of speculation that many fans -- now in their 30s -- would introduce the NKOTBSB to their kids. Some expected a bit of a low-key nostalgia fest.
Recent concert reviews report that couldn't be further from the truth.
"It wasn't so much squealing as constant, loud screaming. People 30 rows back would constantly yell the name of their favorite Kid or Boy, just trying to get a look," wrote Marah Eakan for A.V. Club of Chicago in a review of the May 25 show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. "A woman, there with her 5-year-old son, brought a whistle that she blew, constantly, like a track coach. There were neon poster-board signs. There were people clearly angling to get backstage. There were a lot of custom-made shirts, and there were hardly any men there."
Although some of the bands' members have made headlines through the years, they've settled down into adulthood themselves. That's something that will be reflected in the shows, said Dorough.
"I have always lived the motto if I'm publicized, I want my mom and my family to be OK with it," he said. "My mom taught me to be good to others. I live a normal life. We've never been crazy rock/pop stars searching for attention. I am myself, in my own skin."
comments at Dreamwidth. Comment at either place.
“We’re each sending spies to see what the other group is doing.” (Me: Really, Jordan? Was Howie BSB's spy? Because the other 3 can't be freaking subtle if their lives depended on it.)
And put in the full text of the *really* good ones, like the one where Donnie Wahlberg compares inviting BSB to perform with them to asking a hot girl out for dinner and something more. (Seriously they're not even *pretending* to be clueless about what we think!)
New Kids, Backstreet Boys to rock Garden, Fenway
By Jed Gottlieb
Last August, Donnie Wahlberg sat in the 10th row at the Aerosmith/J. Geils Band Fenway show and loved it. But watching hero Peter Wolf belt out “Must of Got Lost,” the New Kid couldn’t help but wonder, “Could that be my group up there?”
“I kept texting my manager from my seat writing, ‘One day we have to find a way to do this,’ ” Wahlberg said from Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where he was rehearsing for the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys megatour.
That “one day” arrives June 11.
Saturday, NKOTBSB, as the boy band supergroup has dubbed itself, plays a sold-out TD Garden. The following Saturday, the boys play a sold-out Fenway Park.
“I went to see J. Geils and Aerosmith because I’m a huge J. Geils fan, but I also had to go to see local bands at Fenway,” Wahlberg said. “We’re Bostonians, we know what it’s like to be Red Sox fans, we know what it means to play Fenway. And we knew it was a huge risk, but - and I would never compare us to Aerosmith and what those guys have done - we believed this show could happen.”
The New Kids reunion has been huge. In 2008, they sold out the TD Garden; a year later, they packed the Comcast Center in Mansfield. But Fenway is twice the size of those venues. Not a problem.
Teaming with Backstreet Boys, their boy band bonanza is unstoppable. The two acts have sold a combined total of more than 200 million albums (compared to Aerosmith’s 150 million) and demand is so strong they’ve added second dates at arenas in Chicago, Toronto and New Jersey.
The epic tag team began last June when the New Kids invited the Backstreet Boys on stage for a duet of BSB’s “I Want It That Way” at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. There was an obvious chemistry between the two.
“Yeah, we invited them,” Wahlberg said with a laugh. “But it was more than that. You don’t invite a hot girl to dinner just to have dinner, you invite her with hopes of something more happening down the line.”
The Backstreet Boys were down with something more.
“We’ve known these guys for years,” Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough said from Mohegan Sun. “So when they invited us to Radio City to shock some fans, we were in. After 15 years and so many shows and albums, to do something with real shock value is rare. And when they approached us about this tour, again we were in.”
The Backstreet Boys are the best-selling boy band of all time. They know the New Kids blazed the tween-market trail for them. They also know NKOTB have a dozen enduring pop hits.
“I’ll admit it,” Dorough said. “I did record a cassette karaoke tape to send in to (New Kids creator) Maurice Starr auditioning to be the sixth New Kid. Hey, they were the boy band before us. We know that.”
They also know how big a deal Fenway is.
“Honestly it’s crazy, to do this, and to do it with the New Kids in their own back yard,” he said. “Management talked to us about a second night at the Garden and the New Kids wanted Fenway. We said, ‘If you guys believe in it, we’re behind you.’”
So are 40,000 screaming 30-something women and probably a few guys, too.
And another one where Howie impresses me. A lot.
NKOTBSB give fans that old feelin' again
By Nancy Dunham
If loving the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block is wrong, many crowds don't want to be right.
That seems the best way to explain the enthusiasm of the mainly female crowds that have begun to jam arenas to see the two boy bands that are now all grown up.
"I always say we are entertainers," said Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys. "We have been tied up with this band for many years and are proud to put on ... quality shows for families of all ages. ... People like to live in the moment and also live in certain songs and memories."
Although the bands broke out in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, that doesn't mean they rely on old-school members to reach fans. They used social media to allow fans to choose the songs they wanted to hear in concert and on their joint recording. Dorough makes it clear that while they are happy to play the old favorites, the new music has progressed with the times.
"The subject matter we are talking about, whether in interviews or songs, had definitely grown and naturally progressed," he said. "We don't want anything to be too forced. We do what comes naturally."
Apparently, so do their fans. There has been plenty of speculation that many fans -- now in their 30s -- would introduce the NKOTBSB to their kids. Some expected a bit of a low-key nostalgia fest.
Recent concert reviews report that couldn't be further from the truth.
"It wasn't so much squealing as constant, loud screaming. People 30 rows back would constantly yell the name of their favorite Kid or Boy, just trying to get a look," wrote Marah Eakan for A.V. Club of Chicago in a review of the May 25 show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. "A woman, there with her 5-year-old son, brought a whistle that she blew, constantly, like a track coach. There were neon poster-board signs. There were people clearly angling to get backstage. There were a lot of custom-made shirts, and there were hardly any men there."
Although some of the bands' members have made headlines through the years, they've settled down into adulthood themselves. That's something that will be reflected in the shows, said Dorough.
"I have always lived the motto if I'm publicized, I want my mom and my family to be OK with it," he said. "My mom taught me to be good to others. I live a normal life. We've never been crazy rock/pop stars searching for attention. I am myself, in my own skin."
comments at Dreamwidth. Comment at either place.