Elizabeth and I dressed in our awesome outfits and headed to the Greensboro Coliseum. Little did we realize, we were not as committed to the NKOTBSB experience as others. Quite a few people dressed in head-to-toe 80s attire. One girl sewed her old NKOTB sleeping bag together to make a skirt.
The opening act was Midnight Red. Yeah, so let's move on to the second opening act! Matthew Morrison from Glee performed a few songs. He did a great job. Mr. Shue can dance! He did a performance of Kanye West's Gold Digger that brought down the house. He also did a dance montage to an original song, "Don't Stop Dancing" that incorporate dance moves from Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson and Patrick Swayze. You can check that one out on YouTube if you're interested.
Before the main act, three stalls had to be shut down in the bathroom because of puking. I don't know if people were that drunk or just that excited! Either way, that's a definite party foul.
A random girl came over to tell Elizabeth and me that the Backstreet Boys always come in
to the audience into section 112 to sing and that we should be ready, as we were sitting in 112, for a special appearance.
Finally, it was time for NKOTBSB to take to the stage. After one of the longest introductory videos ever and some fireworks, both groups came out together to the melody from Cold Play's Viva la Vida. Together, both groups sang a compilation of a few of their songs.
Then it was time for New Kids on the Block! They sang some of their more recent songs, like Summertime. Then the Backstreet Boys returned to sing some of their newer stuff.
And then the boys from Boston were back! They started out with The Right Stuff, so we knew that it was finally time for our old school favorites!
Throughout the evening, the two bands swapped the stage to take turns singing their favorites. While all the guys (like all of us) are definitely looking older, some things never change. Donnie is still ripped and can rip off a wife-beater in about 2.5 seconds. Jordan still hits those high notes and Joey is still adorable.
All of the guys seemed to determined to grab their crotches or thrust their pelvises as much as possible in each song. At one point, Joey was basically pole dancing on the mike stand. Elizabeth said it got old, but I enjoyed every second of that!
The guys really played to the audience. The New Kids went out into the audience and sang "Please Don't Go Girl" to audience members that were a bit higher up. The Backstreet Boys pulled four girls on stage to serenade them individually. They all signed autographs throughout the show and threw their sweaty discarded clothes to the crowd.
At some point during all the excitement, another girl puked directly behind us. The effort to clean that up and block traffic coming through seemed like a covert military operation.
And then, the moment we had been prepared for arrived. About five feet from where we were sitting, AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys was escorted out and worked his way through the crowd to sing. I managed to get a couple of not-so-great videos. You can barely see him, but here they are. FYI: That is not us screaming. We're more NKOTB than BSB girls. This, of course, caused absolute mayhem and chaos. A little girl was even pushed, making (understandably) her mother ready to fight.
The boys returned to the stage and finished the show. It was great. Both bands did a great job. Some of the best numbers incorporated both groups. Their finale encore performance was Backstreet's Back and Hanging Tough. Elizabeth and I danced and danced and had a great time. This show was worth the wait!