THIS IS US TOUR: Backstreet’s Back, All Right!

Wearing my hair crimped and a cheetah print top, I screamed with joy at an unnaturally high pitch. I was at my very first concert (with my mom, of course), and as the boys in the band danced around the stage, I swore that they were looking right at me! They were my musical idols and the pinnacle of my early adolescence. They were the Backstreet Boys.

Back then, I would have given a limb to utter one drooling syllable in front of the Backstreet Boys. Needless to say, when I heard that the band would be returning to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, August 25, at the Trib Total Media Amphitheater to promote a new CD, This is Us, I elicited a similarly high (yet this time, internal) scream of joy.

“We’re really excited to release this new album and know that our fans are excited too,” says Nick Carter. (Sigh. Nick, your photo was on my wall). “We worked with a group of amazing artists and producers that we’ve never worked with before, exploring new sounds and territory and know the final product turned out incredible.”

Their new album proves the band of 17 years, now made up of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, and AJ McClean, has shed its boy band status to continue iadvancing and developing its pop influence. The band laid the groundwork for the pop genre in Europe and America, selling more than 130 million records worldwide and becoming one of the highest selling groups of all time.

Rising to fame in the mid ‘90s, with hits like “I Want it That Way” and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” on their platinum albums, Backstreet Boys and Millennium, the group’s seventh and most recent album, This is Us, continues the band’s masterful harmonies and powerful melodies that fans have come to know and love.

“We made a conscious effort to go back to being ourselves,” says Brian Littrell. “It’s important for the fans to remember what was, but it’s also important for them to know where we’re headed.”

Well this August, the band is headed to Pittsburgh, where I will relive my childhood boy band adulation and watch the Backstreet Boys in awe (minus the crimped hair, thank goodness).

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