Salt Lake City Concert Preview

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Oct 07, 2001 Source: The Salt Lake Tribune Submitted By: Gina Cates The Backstreet Boys return to the Delta Center tonight to perform. BY DAN NAILEN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The formula for moving pop music from MTV and the radio to a live concert stage is tried-and-true by now; anyone with access to the Disney Channel has likely seen the formula in action. Huge pyrotechnics. Gaggles of backup dancers. Trick entrances to the stage. Massive video screens and multiple cameras to bring the stars "closer" to the crowd. Every move, every song, every spotlight is meticulously planned and choreographed to the point where a concert seems more like a television show or Broadway musical than anything related to rock 'n' roll. Young or old, from Britney Spears and 'N Sync to Madonna and Janet Jackson, the formula is in play. And it works. When the majority of an act's records are bought by teen-agers, these artists have learned, the more eye candy on hand the better. Three American albums and countless tours into their career, the Backstreet Boys can probably be considered masters of the pop-concert formula. The Boys -- Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson -- have no problems producing multi-platinum albums or getting their videos in heavy-rotation on MTV, and their tours just keep growing in scope. The group's current tour, supporting the "Black & Blue" album and stopping in Salt Lake City tonight, features a multi-level stage, runways that jut 10 rows into the audience and a giant bridge descending from the rafters that runs nearly the length of every arena they have played. "The fans have told us they want to get as close as possible to us and when we put this tour together, we worked with the set designer to find ways for us to be near our fans during the show," Dorough said when the first "Black & Blue" tour started last winter. On the Boys' last tour, supporting the "Millennium" album, they managed to pull plenty of fans from the crowd to the stage, so it's hard to imagine the group getting much closer to its fans without risking serious bodily harm. An argument can be made that the boy-band phenomenon exemplified by Backstreet Boys is in decline -- neither the Boys' or 'N Sync's latest albums sold as quickly as their predecessors -- but it's an argument that falls on deaf ears if you are debating the groups' fans. They might not be the same fans as four years ago, but the current fans are as rabid as ever. The Backstreet Boys are older, some of them are married and McLean is recovering from a well-publicized bought with depression and alcoholism that caused a mid-tour hiatus. Still, the group's skills with vocal harmonies are undeniable and they are responsible for some of the better ballads to hit radio in the past decade: "I Want It That Way" and "As Long As You Love Me." If the Backstreet Boys are able to continue recording songs like those on future albums, they could prove the prognostications of teen pop's death are indeed premature. Comment on this item. Next Item: Olympic Torchbearers Announced Prev Item: 'NSYNC, Backstreet Boys Help Madonna Launch Latin Label