Hangin' Tough!

As many of you know, I had been anxiously awaiting last night's concert, New Kids on the Block. What some of you may NOT know, though, is that 20 years ago, NKOTB was my first ever concert! So you can imagine the whirlwind of emotions that went through me last

night!. And the crowd was so diverse... not really. Picture an amphitheatre of 95% 30-something year-old women, and that was the concert. The security guards were lovin' this gig! I know the group of girls that I went with had a blast!

There were two opening acts: Jabbawockeez (a kick ass dance troop) and Jesse McCartney. Jabbawockeez was pretty cool to watch, especially if you like watching dancing of any kind. When it's a group it tends to impress me more because it takes a lot of practice to nail things with other people trying to nail the same thing, at the same time. LOTS of practice (which I remember from being on Sundancers, myself). And Jesse, the young heartthrob that he is, almost made you feel guilty for watching such a young guy perform!! he did assure all of us he was legal, though - a whopping 22!

Finally, New Kids took the stage! It was like I was back at the O-rena watching them, only it was outside and I didn't come down with the Chicken Pox this time. But screaming girls - check!! Songs everyone sang along with - check!! Cute boys on stage who knew they were cute - check!! It was all still there! They did a good mix of their old songs and their new stuff (since they reunited). But it was definitely the old songs that had the loudest sing-alongs! Which they knew what demo their audience really was - they even kept Hangin' Tough as their encore!

One really cool thing they did was a tribute to Michael Jackson. It was very sentimental and appropriate. It started with a pictorial biography of MJ with an instrumental of Man in the Mirror going in the background. Near the end, you could hear the audience all just singing the song as they played. Then the boys came out and initiated a sing-along to I'll Be There. I tried to video it, but you can only do so much with a point and shoot. But you can attempt to watch this. It's about 6 minutes long, though...

I had heard that New Kids on the Block put on a good show, even with them all near 40, and it was. They still have their following, only now instead of young teens, it's 30-somethings (mostly). I'd see them again - it was well worth the lawn seat and I'd be willing to say it may even be worth a pavilion seat next time. But until then, I'll just be Hangin' Tough!*

*I know, I know... bad, bad joke/play on words....