THIS IS US TOUR: Fans Of Backstreet Boys Don't Mind The Rain

RALEIGH -- Minutes before the Backstreet Boys' performance Sunday night, a little boy with a mop of messy blond hair ran across the stage.

It was Baylee, the 7-year-old son of Brian Littrell, 35, a member of the four-piece pop supergroup.

Baylee introduced "daddy's group" before thousands of fans christened the new downtown Raleigh Amphitheater with shrieks that lasted long into the ambitious 24-song set.


Meeting one of the youngest members of the Backstreet Boys family -- a family that has grown over the past 17 years as members have gotten married and had children -- felt comforting. Somewhere along the way -- between trips to rehab, broken management contracts and under-selling albums -- these "Boys" had become men.

The fans have grown up, too.

You might expect a performance by former teen idols to be populated by twenty- and thirty-something women. You would be right. But boyfriends, husbands and children were in attendance at the rainy, sold-out show alongside these ladies, reflective of a fan base nostalgic for the past, but also mostly over it.

It puts the Backstreet Boys in a precarious position. They are the most successful "boy band" of all time, selling more than 130 million records worldwide. Songs like "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and "I Want It That Way," the group's biggest hit, entered the pop music canon more than a decade ago.

But the group hasn't been cool in the United States for years. The three albums released since 2000's Black and Blue, including last fall's commendable pop release "This is Us," have all failed to place the group back into mainstream pop culture.

Interestingly, this isn't true abroad. The group still consistently sells out 20,000-seat stadiums across Europe and Asia where fans greet them at the airport.

When news of the group's show at the amphitheater was first announced, Triangle audiophiles scoffed at the booking, the first for the venue.

But it was clear from the mass of people present Sunday that there is still a market for four good-looking crooners who aren't terrible dancers, either.

The challenge for the Boys on the current tour, which ostensibly promotes their seventh album "This Is Us," is pleasing two audiences: a large group of nostalgic listeners who only want to hear songs from the group's heyday and a smaller core of fans committed to supporting -- in particular, financially -- the group's present and future sounds.

At the show, the group cleverly served its two masters, sandwiching a new song between several classics and almost entirely ignoring 2005's "Never Gone" and 2007's "Unbreakable." Both fine albums are largely unremarkable when compared to the rest of the group's catalog.)

For the die-hard fans, they updated renditions of familiar tracks, including short medleys of "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)" and "The Call." Another gem: "We've Got It Goin' On," the group's very first single, which hasn't appeared on a set list in 11 years.

And despite the wear and tear that comes with being aging pop stars, the guys looked and sounded great. Member and new father Howie Dorough, 36, has aged better than anyone else in the group. (This reporter still holds a strong bias for perennial heartthrob Nick Carter, 30.)

At a time when top 40 airwaves are dominated by Auto-Tune, it is refreshing to hear a group of singers that can actually hold onto their notes and perform an entire show live without going off-key.

Carter, whose once-pubescent voice wavered in the past, shines on the new album and performed admirably while he battled an audible sickness. Newly engaged AJ Mclean, 32, is lucky years of smoking haven't damaged his signature, soulful rasp. Littrell, the group's biggest ham, has always had a consistent vocal range.

Three-quarters of the way into the 1 hour, 45 minute-long show, it began to rain. Crew members dutifully mopped the stage between songs.

The Boys avoided any major slips, admired the Raleigh Convention Center's colorful shimmer wall and looked out at the soaked-but-undeterred fans.

At the end of "Bigger," the group's current single, Carter said: "We want to thank you. 'Cause you're still sticking around. We love you. You guys are the best."

If the droves of fans singing along McDowell Street (or for that matter, the stream of Tweets) after the show were to be believed, this reporter suspects many of the attendees -- regardless of how big of fans they are or were -- would've said, "Ditto."

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/07/519225/fans-sit-in-rain-for-backstreet.html