More Concert Reviews: Lupus 2000 Benefit, Orlando, June 2000

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Jul 11, 2000 Source: Backstreet.net readers Submitted By: From: Alisa, aka The Beautiful Freaky One [ladyofcolor25@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 9:25 AM I will try my best to give an account of a truly amazing evening. Bare with me it's lengthy. But trust me you won't be sorry you read it! I went to the Lupus 2000 charity benefit and let me tell you: I can't remember when I had such a good time, for a great cause. As most of you know Howie's sister Caroline died from complications from Lupus 2 years ago and this foundation was established in her name to research for a cure and to promote Lupus awareness. Myself along with the other co-founder of ArtistOnTheRise Cristin Lentine purchased VIP passes and trust me people, it was well worth the money. Kudos to Angie and Chelsea, Howie's sister and niece, as well as everyone else involved for making sure the evening was as perfect as it could be. You ALL did a first class job putting this together and I can only expect the next event will be even better. So onto the review already, right? What can I say about all the wonderful performances? Fantastic. I was surprised and very impressed with the wide array of musical guests in attendance. Latin artists like Tito Puente, jr., son of the late and very great Tito Puente put on an awesome performance. I never had the opportunity to see him live before so for me, being a huge fan of Latin music, this was a special treat. One of the songs performed was none other than one of his father's greatest hits, "Oye Como Va," revamped nineties style. Other performers Christian Davis, K5, Emanuel, Barry Williams, O-Town, Deborah Gibson (who really made me feel old, cuz I grew up listening to her, lol) and many, many more. This was also the very first time I got to see Pollyanna Dorough, Howie's sister perform. You guys, if you haven't seen mami perform, lemme tell you..you missed out, baby. The lady is supa dupa fly. Unbelievable talent bottled up in a tiny little package. And yes, I am incredibly envious of her ridiculously fabulous body. However. I am retracting my very long cat claws this time, because she has to be one of the sweetest kindest people I have ever met in my life. (note to the Doroughs: where do you all come from? Is it normal to be this nice?) Seriously, I wanted to take all of them home with me. For real *smiles.* Howie's mother, by the way, gave me and my friend a hug and a kiss right when we walked in and thanked us for coming. She is the cutest little woman, looking to be no more that 5 feet at best. Quite simply a kind, beautiful lady, who always has a warm smile to greet even a stranger. I am still in awe. It seems every one of her children and grandchildren are the same way. Her granddaughter, Chelsea was as gracious as her grandmother when I finally met her. Pollyanna performed 2 songs, "Take Me Away," a catchy, uptempo song, that made you wanna get up and move everything not glued down, and the beautiful, soulful ballad, "Fly To Heaven," a duet sung with Howie. This particular song was written for their sister Caroline, and I will even admit to becoming a little misty eyed when they performed it. I cannot wait for Pollyanna's CD to come out. Be on the lookout y'all, she is gonna tear it up, no doubt. Howie also performed "My Heart Stays With You," and changed the lyrics slightly to dedicate the song to his sister. Once again, people, my heart was putty, lol. He is such a beautiful man.*sigh* Yeah. So moving on, who could overlook our very own tattooed, no-shirt wearing wonder AJ "Bone" Mclean of the Backstreet Boys who gave a very arousing.*cough* I mean ROUSING performance of "Brickhouse" with the entire roster of performers from the evening. I was cracking up when AJ lifted Howie's shirt and exposed those very rock-hard abs. OK. So I wasn't really cracking up when he did it, but why bore you with my impure thoughts? Heh heh heh. While all this was going on, there were also plenty of people to talk to upstairs in the VIP area. I caught several glimpses of Sherman Hemsley (George Jefferson), Barry Williams (Greg Brady)..as well as Lou Perlman.. Well don't ask me why he was there! No doubt to promote his new group O-Town, I'm sure. I did get to meet all of O-Town and soon found myself ensconced in the arms of these very fine gentlemen, and God bless 'em, but I don't really watch the show so I don't really know exactly WHO had their arms around me. I think it was the ones named Eric and Trevor. *Shrugs shoulders* Sorry, you guys. Quite cheeky little fellas though, and a shade cocky too, but their still at the age where I can laugh, pat them on the head and say "Aren't you precious?" (Memo to O-Town: you might want to save some of that for when you are actually an established household name.it's just a suggestion) I met Christian Davis, who is another talented up and coming performer. VERY pleasing on the eyes as well. I was impressed with how polite, friendly and gracious he was. He even kissed my hand! *Ahem* Of course it was after I held it out to him, hee hee..but so what? I saw AJ walking past me a couple of times with his bodyguard, but nothing very exciting. Well, unless you count the endless trail of scantily clad females traipsing after him hoping to re-enact the BSB's latest single and become "The One," a fact that no doubt thrilled Amanda, his girlfriend, who was also in attendance. I was able to meet Kia the lead singer of K5, who was a very nice young lady with an incredible voice, as well as her manager Terry Martin Edwards, who, coincidentally is the former manager of LFO. Small world huh? At this point I am sure everyone is pretty much aware of the fact that the Dorough family raised over $100,000 for the foundation, with a large part of that money coming from ticket sales and the 2 dates with Howie, which went for $15,500 each. So I won't further expound if it's all right. Just enough to say congratulations on a job well done. So, believe it or not, this was actually just the beginning of the evening. Shortly after the benefit was over, myself and a few friends were invited to the after party by one of Howie's niece's friends. The party took place at the Latin Quarter, located right next door to the Groove. It was here that I was able to meet Pollyanna, who promptly greeted me, surprise, surprise, with a kiss and a hug. I told her how impressed I was with her performance, to which she was very appreciative. She says to look her album soon you guys! In the midst of talking to her, a gentleman interrupted me, though not intentionally. When he realized what he had done he apologized profusely to which I told him no problem. He asked me who I was and who I was with (again with the hugs and the kisses! I swear it must be a Latin thing, lol!), and I replied how I ran a music news artist promotion website. Well, come to find out he HAPPENS to work with Tito Puente, jr. and he asks me if I want to meet Tito and Emanuel, one of the other performers. So of course I was only too happy to oblige and before I know it he takes my hand and I am led to their table, right across from the Dorough family table. A lot of people may or may not be familiar with Tito Puente, but to meet his son for me was an honor. I truly felt like I was touching a part of history. Tito Puente, who actually passed away this month on June 1st, was truly a legend. He is one of the founding fathers of Latin Jazz, and will be greatly missed. Needless to say I was a little awestruck (inside of course, lol) at meeting him, but as with everyone else that evening, he was nothing but warm and gracious to me, giving me a hug and a kiss and not getting mad when he got all my hair in his face. But he let me kiss him back , minus the hair, so I guess it all worked out. *Smiles innocently* I did NOT do it on purpose! I DID however, purposefully exchange email addys with him so we could promote him on our site, so I was on cloud nine after that. One of the biggest highlights of the party was when, Howie, Tito, Emanuel and some of the members of K5 got on the stage for a completely impromptu jam session!! We were treated to over an hour of them kickin' it LATIN style, baby!! They performed "Oye Como Va," again, but this time though, it was the "Extended Howie Remix," as I like to call it, lmao!! WOW. Is all I can say. The WHOLE club was jamming and EVERYONE got up and was moving their feet! Howie has NEVER looked better. This was the first time I have seen him without all his Backstreet Brothers and trust me.Howie had it goin' on!!! I even forgave him for not knowing all the lyrics to "Livin' La Vida Loca," another song they performed. He pulled a girl to the stage and was dancing salsa style, hips just pure liquid, y'all. What more can I tell you? DAMN he is fine. What I wouldn't have done for a video camera to capture this special moment, almost CERTAINLY to never be seen again. As I journeyed outside to sit on the balcony, I didn't think the evening could get any better. Once again, I was in for a surprise. There I am, trying to absorb the whole evening, and everything that happened, when me and my friend are approached by Howie's brother- in-law, Tom, who is Angie's husband. At the same time, Father Miguel, Howie's priest is talking to us as well. They asked if we enjoyed the evening and if we would do it again. I told him I was very impressed with the evening and would no doubt do it again. We spoke to them for quite some time and once again, I was struck by how nice they all truly were. No phoniness whatsoever in his family. Tom volunteered to make sure to mail me a Lupus 2000 mug since I didn't get one at the end of the evening as well as a program, which I misplaced. The man even asked me if I wanted Howie to sign it! Unbelievable.I swear, you guys! At the risk of sounding completely cheesy and corny, Howie's family is truly the sweetest group of people. Almost TOO nice, sometimes, since many people use that as an opportunity to try and take advantage. And FINALLY..I reach the end of this amazing evening. We are still sitting outside on the balcony reminiscing about all of this, when this attractive older gentleman sits down next to us and quietly lights a pipe. In about 2 seconds I figured out it was Howie's father, Hoke Dorough and of course, I am just totally buggin' at this point, cuz I realized had practically met the whole family! He of course asked me if I enjoyed the evening and I said yes but I was a little upset. He asked me why and I told him, how I could never possibly remember all the wonderful things that happened that evening, like the jam session and meeting all those wonderful people and soon it would be nothing more than a faded picture in my mind. And this is probably the most special, most profound part of the evening you guys. His father smiled gently at me, in the wise papa sort of way, and told me I would never forget the evening. He says to me: "You know why? Because it will always be up here," pointing to his head, "And in here," pointing to his heart. It was here I almost actually DID start tearing up. For whatever reason, his comment struck me deep. As I sat there listening to him and as I am writing this now, I realize he was right. Putting it in print for all of you to read makes the memories that much more accessible. For me, and for anyone reading this. So it almost seemed fitting that the party ended shortly after that. Howie's papa called to his wife "Heeeeeeey Mamasita! Que Pasa!" to which we all started giggling. They really are an adorable couple. We journeyed inside where I was finally able to say two words to Howie as he was walking out. I grabbed his hand and he looked at me, grinning. He might have remembered me and my blue sunglasses, from all the BSB concerts, who knows? LOL. I just simply told him how good he was down there on that stage and he smiles that Howie grin and replies to me kinda bashfully, "Well, I try." That's Howie. *Smiles* His mama and papa stood at the top of the steps waving to everyone leaving and as we walked down the steps Pollyanna hugged and kissed me once again, thanking us all for coming out. My respect and admiration for Howie and his family has grown ten-fold. With their ability to show grace, dignity and humbleness even under pressure, they show everyone the true meaning of kindness. Well, I guess that's it. You stayed with me to the end so I hope I made it worth your while. I tried to be as detail oriented as I could be, so hopefully it was almost like being there. Questions and comments are always welcome at editor@artistontherise.com Also, if you want to look at our bio pages on Pollyanna and Tito Puente, jr. along with several other artists, check us out at http://www.artistontherise.com Thanx everyone! Alisa aka, TheFreakyOne, aka the ALWAYS Deliciously FAH-Reeky LadyOfColor CO-Founder of ArtistOnTheRise Music News. Music First. From: BSBkikass5@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 8:14 PM HI my name is Angela and I also went to the Lupus 2000 concert....although I didn't actually SEE any of it....LOL Let me explain.... My friends and I had the so-called "VIP" tickets, which we took to mean that Howie and AJ would be around and mingling with everyone...well that wasn't exactly the case! When we finally got inside of the Groove around 6:30, we were basically wandering around the whole time thinking, "where in the hell are AJ and Howie?" I don't know how we found it, but there was a special place called "the Blue Room" shoved in a little corner of the VIP section, where the celebs, including AJ, Amanda, and Howie were hanging out. You had to have a blue VIP pass to even get into the room, so my friends and I just stood outside with a few others and watched what went on in the room. Nothing really exciting happened for a good half an hour...all we could see was AJ drinking and talking to people! Then, all of a sudden the door that lead from the upstairs to the stage opened and someone stepped in front of me. I didn't realize it for a few seconds, but it was Howie! He was standing right in front of me! He gave a girl we met there, Kim, a hug and then went into the blue room. And so throughout the whole night, I didn't move from my spot because AJ and Howie kept going in and out of the room. We all kept asking AJ to stop and sign autographs, but his reply was always, "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back!" or simply "I'll be right back!" Well, he did keep his promises, and finally he stopped to sign mine and my friend's autographs and a couple more, then went back into the blue room. I didn't move from that spot the entire night until I heard that AJ was on the balcony. My friend grabbed me and dragged me out there, then pushed me REALLY hard so I was about 2 people away from AJ...LOL I just stared at him. Then we noticed Amanda was just sitting there waiting for him to be done, so we got her autograph and talked to her for a bit. She is very, VERY nice and very cool! I can't comment on any of the acts that were there because I didnt get to see any of them for fear of losing my spot by the blue room! But finally, the concert was over and they kicked us out of the Groove. As we were walking out, a guard told us there was a party on the 2nd floor of the Latin Quarter, and since we had VIP passes, we could go. So, we made our way up there and hung around for a while. We spotted Howie's dad and wanted to say Hi. We were about to go to where he was when Howie came up the stairs. We followed him back to his table and I asked him if I could have a hug (which I got) and if we could have our picture taken with him. We did and he was very sweet about the whole thing! About 5 minutes after this, a guard kicked us out because we were NOT supposed to be up there, it was only for blue pass holders. So, we went and sat outside of the club for a while. As we were sitting there talking, another door opened in back of us, and who came out? Howie! We just watched him walk around to a back door in the club in shock! There were about 20 people outside of the club, and by this time it was around 1 am....but we decided to stay! We stood in front of the window and watched Howie get on stage and perform Livin La Vida Loca....LOL that was pretty funny! All of a sudden, the guard stuck his head out of the door and told us to put our yellow VIP passes away, walk by him one by one, and NOT tell anyone he let us up there. So, there we went back up to Howie's party! When we got up there, he wasn't there. We spotted our other friends on the first floor of the club and decided to go down and meet them. As my friend and I were walking down the stairs, I wasn't really paying attention. Then I looked up and Howie was walking up the steps right in front of me! He smiled at me and shrugged and I moved out of his way and said I was sorry. The rest of the night was uneventful. We stayed at the bar for another hour and watched Howie drink a little, then we left. And that concludes my review of the concert I didn't see! Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: johnansaz http://imrdsoacha.gov.co/silvitra-120mg-qrms Submitted by: awesome seo mXKK9K You made some clear points there. I did a search on the topic and found most guys will consent with your website. Submitted by: oem software mMRiYX Gripping! I would like to listen to the experts` views on the subject!!... Submitted by: pasparty Submitted by: temnotak Submitted by: Greg Guepy Submitted by: Kevin Submitted by: Mary Submitted by: Louise Submitted by: Monika Click here to see more comments. Comment on this item. Next Item: Concert Reviews: Party in the Park, London July 9th Prev Item: Elton and The Backstreet Boys delight 100,000 rain-soaked fans!