Fenway Paaaahhhhhhk.
Summary: Mayor of Boston proclaimed 6.11.11 NKOTBSB Day. Mark Wahlberg made an appearance talking about how he introduced the first New Kids show EVER at an elementary school 25/27 years ago, before Joey even joined. Started raining in the middle of the show, and everyone ended up treating the stage as a slip 'n' slide. All in all, pretty damn fucking epic.
New Kids, Backstreet Boys rock Fenway
The weather didn’t cooperate, but it didn’t really matter. New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys - collectively, NKOTBSB - made the most of the downpour at a sold-out Fenway Park on Saturday night in what amounted to an explosive show with a historic feel.
Mayor Thomas Menino and Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg, younger brother of NKOTB member Donnie Wahlberg, added to the significance of the night by introducing the two groups, the latter sending the predominantly female crowd into shrieks.
During the 21⁄2-hour show, both groups embraced the deluge by splashing through puddles onstage, engaging in liberal shirt removal and using the stage as a Slip-n-Slide. True, the New Kids are now middle-aged adults, and none of the Backstreet members has been Boys for more than a decade, but that was irrelevant. Both groups seemed to be having as much fun as their devoted fans - if not more.
New Kids, Backstreet Boys shine in the rain
The fact that Mayor Thomas M. Menino came on stage to introduce the bands (flubbing the name) and Mark Wahlberg spoke before the start of the show underscores just how important this music was to two generations of girls, as well as Boston’s civic pride.
As the rain increased, these women didn’t budge from the venue, and the two bands rewarded that loyalty by playfully skipping and slipping across a soaked stage while delivering a set that was filled with their past glories.
Fans flooded Fenway Park with boisterous ear-blistering screams to herald the return of their Tiger Beat crushes. Those women might be a bit older now, but their lungs showed no signs of aging.
Not that the two bands did anything to dissuade the noisy adulation.
Most of the former heartthrobs are in their thirties, and in some cases early forties, but the show possessed an eerie aura of time travel. Through a gauzy lens - or perhaps it was the romance of the rain - it could easily have been 1990 (NKOTB) or 2000 (BSB).
The tight choreography still rode a fine line between manly swagger and Bob Fosse musical, and the soaring vocals - particularly those of Joey McIntyre - were as well-preserved as his abdominal muscles.
comments at Dreamwidth. Comment at either place.
New Kids, Backstreet Boys rock Fenway
The weather didn’t cooperate, but it didn’t really matter. New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys - collectively, NKOTBSB - made the most of the downpour at a sold-out Fenway Park on Saturday night in what amounted to an explosive show with a historic feel.
Mayor Thomas Menino and Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg, younger brother of NKOTB member Donnie Wahlberg, added to the significance of the night by introducing the two groups, the latter sending the predominantly female crowd into shrieks.
During the 21⁄2-hour show, both groups embraced the deluge by splashing through puddles onstage, engaging in liberal shirt removal and using the stage as a Slip-n-Slide. True, the New Kids are now middle-aged adults, and none of the Backstreet members has been Boys for more than a decade, but that was irrelevant. Both groups seemed to be having as much fun as their devoted fans - if not more.
New Kids, Backstreet Boys shine in the rain
The fact that Mayor Thomas M. Menino came on stage to introduce the bands (flubbing the name) and Mark Wahlberg spoke before the start of the show underscores just how important this music was to two generations of girls, as well as Boston’s civic pride.
As the rain increased, these women didn’t budge from the venue, and the two bands rewarded that loyalty by playfully skipping and slipping across a soaked stage while delivering a set that was filled with their past glories.
Fans flooded Fenway Park with boisterous ear-blistering screams to herald the return of their Tiger Beat crushes. Those women might be a bit older now, but their lungs showed no signs of aging.
Not that the two bands did anything to dissuade the noisy adulation.
Most of the former heartthrobs are in their thirties, and in some cases early forties, but the show possessed an eerie aura of time travel. Through a gauzy lens - or perhaps it was the romance of the rain - it could easily have been 1990 (NKOTB) or 2000 (BSB).
The tight choreography still rode a fine line between manly swagger and Bob Fosse musical, and the soaring vocals - particularly those of Joey McIntyre - were as well-preserved as his abdominal muscles.
comments at Dreamwidth. Comment at either place.