6/25/01,
Backstreet Boys
Black & Blue World Tour, 2001
Pittsburgh, PA
SONGS THE BOYS SANG (this list is almost completely out of order, and many of the songs weren�t sung in their entireties):
Everyone
Larger Than Life
Not For Me
What Makes You Different Makes You Beautiful
Yes I Will
More Than That
Get Another Boyfriend
As Long As You Love Me
Quit Playin� Games (With My Heart)
If You Stay
Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely
How Did I Fall In Love With You
Shining Star
Time
I�ll Never Break Your Heart
Don�t Want You Back
All I Have To Give
I Want It That Way
Everybody (Backstreet�s Back)
I Promise You (With Everything I Am)
The Answer To Our Life
The Call
Shape of My Heart (encore)
I got a brainstorm idea for a sign to enter in B-94�s contest for backstage passes at the very last minute the night before the concert, and I didn�t start it til 11:00 on the morning of the concert. Needless to say, all the paint, glue and liquid markers I used to make the sign weren�t dry in time for us to leave -- I wasn�t even done with the thing -- so I had to leave it home. I was like a whirlwind getting my stuff together when we finally left around 3:00. Connie fell asleep in the car, and when I took a picture of her, she rolled over and fell off the back seat onto her butt. Shannon and I liked that, so I took another picture.
We reached the venue (Star Lake Amphitheater) between 4 and 4:30 and got to park in the VIP parking lot because my amazing mother got the very last available VIP parking pass. We were parked next to a beat-up old car, the owner of which happened to be part of the staff from KISS (the OTHER Pittsburgh radio station). He gave us stickers and said we could move up to front row if he saw us with KISS stuff on later. Anyway, we were going to wait for the Boys� buses, but after Connie relieved herself (girlie had to pee like Austin Powers), we decided it would be better to get our butts to the Kellogg�s
booth. There, I tried to befriend the Kellogg�s chics, but they didn�t seem too impressed with anything but our awesome homemade shirts (from the February concerts). To mark that I�d turned in my Kellogg�s box tops, the ladies branded me with a BSB temporary tattoo. At my request, Connie and Shannon also got a cute little tattoo. We all put them on our hands. It seemed like I was in the bag to go backstage, cuz the lady said she�d remember my shirt (who could forget a shirt that says �Nick�s Nymph�?), but, to make a long story VERY short, it never happened.
As we walked into the waiting area, we passed a very eager (and hot) black dude who wanted Connie to buy a special edition Post-Gazette. Connie shrugged her shoulders at him in an �I�m-blowing-you-off� kind of way, and the guy put his hands over his heart and said, �Ouch, that hurts!� It was funny.
While we were waiting, Connie ventured over to the B-94 van and asked Adam (the hottest DJ ever) if B-94 was having another poster concert for the concert on the 26, but he said he didn�t know. He did say, however, that he liked Connie�s shirt (�Brian�s Bitch�). She replied, �My friends have two just like it, we made them ourselves!� She pointed to us, but he didn�t seem to care. He was staring at her chest, I think, using the cool shirt as an excuse. Lucky Connie.
When we finally got inside, we RAN down the hill, which serves as Star Lake�s lawn, and got right up front. After our seats were secured, I spent an hour and a half waiting for the Kellogg�s ladies. At one point, the KISS guy we parked next to passed me, and asked where my KISS sticker was. That really sucks. I was mad at myself for a while, cuz I probably would have gotten front row pavilion seats had I kept it on. Anyway, I just watched the Kellogg�s booth from inside, and I got so excited when they finally started dissembling the tent. When the ladies came in, I followed them in hopes
that they would turn around and say, �Hey, it�s Nymph! Let�s get this girl backstage!� Like I said before, though, it never happened. Their destination was the Kellogg�s booth inside the venue -- I was WAY disturbed, cuz I'd wasted all my time waiting for them to tear the one outside down, unaware that there was another inside. I�d wasted an hour and a half of my life, PRAYING I�d get to go backstage if one of these women just saw me when I could have been chilling on the lawn with my girls. It�s just as well that I didn�t get to go -- Nick would think I�m really a Nymph, and my girls wouldn�t have been with me. Then I�d just feel altogether dirty. Things happen for a reason, I guess. :)
Krystal�s performance rocked. She sang her four songs -- �My Religion�, �My Angel�, �Supergirl�, and a cover of �I�ll Be There� by the Jackson 5. During one of the pauses between her songs, the audience was dead quiet, so Shannon, Connie, and I screamed �WE LOVE YOU, KRYSTAL!!!� at the top of our lungs, and she HEARD us all the way on the stage from the ghetto lawn! She laughed into the microphone, smiled, and said, very sweetly, �Thank you!� I love her! When �I�ll Be There� started, Shannon suggested the three of us get our BSB-loving butts over to Krystal�s autograph signing booth so we didn�t get cut off from meeting her. We were so excited because we were sure she would remember us by our shirts since she met us last time she was in Pittsburgh. There was a whole big issue with the line situation, but long story short -- we got autographs and have no idea what they say. No pics. Argh. We wanted to ask her if she remembered us and if she heard us scream (just to hear her say it), but the line was so long that we weren�t even allowed to talk to her. Security bites.
We suffered through an excrutiating hour of Shaggy. He sucks.
BSB -- honestly, I don�t even know what to say. Those first three notes of �Everyone� started playing, and it hit me that they were actually standing right in front of me. There�s something so amazing about these Boys that does something to me I can�t even understand. Enough about that -- on with the show, right? Let me just say that BSB is always incredible live, but this time, they outdid themselves. I couldn�t (and still can�t) get over how perfect they were! Their harmonies were rock solid, their dance moves were
exact and VERY sexy, and the way they were singing was seriously making Connie a little scary to be standing next to. We girls sang the entire time (with frequent interruptions of screams and exclamations of �DID YOU SEE THAT?!?�), along with the entire audience. My favorite moment from this concert was when AJ asked the audience if we liked what they were wearing, and some girl (as the three of us did) screamed, �TAKE IT OFF!� I guess she didn�t really think anyone would hear her over the other screams, but Brian did, and THAT was insanely hilarious. He looked at her, brought AJ over, and said, �AJ, this
girl is yelling, �take it off!�� Then AJ laughed, and Brian looked and pointed at the girl, saying, �Well, we can�t do that. This is a family show.� It was so pee-your-pants hysterical. Then AJ just smiled and teased, �Yes, listen to Uncle Brian.� I couldn�t stop laughing for the longest time. When the Boys each came on to do their individual schpiels, Brian announced that he wanted to say hi to his parents who were with him. That�ll come into play later. :)
OMG. OK, the Boys added so much to this show (which makes up totally for the fact that they had to take out the catwalk from �Time� and the tiny stage that the catwalk connects to the big stage, due to Pittsburgh�s crappy venue). Instead of one dress change break, there were two -- one of which was almost the same as the one from February, but was redone, and the other was a joking thing of the Boys set in the year 2050. In the first dress scene, I loved when Howie and Nick said they bought AJ a girlfriend named Sally, and it was a blow up doll. Kevin SCREAMED, �It�s a BLOW-UP DOLL!�, which nearly killed Shannon, Connie, and me. Secondly, the Boys were trying to decide what to do next in the show, and Brian suggested �Just To Be Close To You�. Howie couldn�t get the words right, and when the Boys finally got on his case to be serious, he sang the first phrase right, but sang �I can smell Nick�s stinky feet� (or something like that, but the words �Nick�s stinky feet� were in there) in the next phrase. Nick hit the roof -- �Sometimes you can be so insensitive, Howie. It really hurts my feelings.� They crack me up. They should make a movie.
Needless to say, the Boys were mocking themselves and playing around with what they thought they�d look like 49 years from now. That was funny in itself: Howie�s hair was long, gray and stringy; Nick had a spare tire and a hearing problem; AJ had gray hair (they all did) and a terrible cough because of the cigar hanging out of his mouth; Kevin was just ALL messed up; Brian was sitting in the wheelchair with a basketball, and the only thing he ever said was �whatever�. Now with that in mind, picture Nick being asked a question about whether he�d been hiding a girl since there was no mention of his getting
married, and Nick replying, �Well, I�ve been hiding my Twinkies for the past 25 years,� as he patted his spare tire. Then, there was a close-up of all the Boys (minus Brian) rubbing Nick�s belly. At the very end, Nick randomly got up and started doing a butt dance. I don�t know what�s gotten into that kid (*cough* free from willawhore *cough*), but I LIKE it! Then there was �old Howie�, who the interview started off with. The Boys said Howie had a hip replacement because he was so old, and while it was going on, the Boys
thought Howie�s moves would never be the same, so they had auditions for the next Backstreet Boy. Nick said, �you wouldn�t believe it, Joey Fatone (from n�stink) showed up!� Then Howie, defending his moves, stood up and tried to do a thrust dance, but that wasn�t happening. Nick had a coughing fit from laughing too hard at Howie�s feeble attempt. That whole scene was classic.
Question: does being on stage make BSB horny, baby?!? Brian humped his cane in �Yes I Will�, Kevin was doing a booty dance while he and AJ were doing the �Kevin and AJ show�, AJ humped everything and constantly strip-teased (except at the end, where he actually WAS shirtless), Howard was doing pelvic thrusts, and Nick was shaking his beautiful butt all over the place -- but that�s NOTHING. Let�s just say that Nick was doing a terrible job of hiding his Twinkie. It was visible from after the second dress change scene until the end of the show.
Nick was adorable with Howie in �Time� -- arm around him almost the entire song, and when the part in his verse came up about what Mom used to say, he looked slyly at Howie and said, �What did she used to say, Howie?� He then continued to sing. SO adorable. The Boys were adorable with each other the whole time. I just don�t know what else to say about it except they�re so talented and awesome, they give me chills. That never happens to me unless it's them singing. They really move move me.
The lady in front of us was drunk, and people were smoking weed. The three of us were sick from that smell. Who smokes weed at a BSB concert? UGH. Thank God we have pavilion seats tomorrow.
We left the venue and found my and Connie�s mom waiting for us in the parking lot. There was a huge bus in front of us that Connie insisted was Brian�s bus, but our moms insisted just as much that all the Boys had already left. A few minutes later, we were still waiting to get out of the crowded parking lot, and Connie looked in the bus window and cried, �I see Leighann!� No one really believed her, but she was positive she recognized Leighann�s �big nose�. Suddenly, some ridiculously short girl ran around the front of the mystery bus and declared loudly, �I JUST SAW BRIAN!� Of course, the rest
of us had to sit through an �I-told-you-so� session with Connie, but it was all good. My mom said we couldn�t follow the bus cuz she wanted to get home to my brothers, but the bus was in front of us all the way to the city. We didn�t pass it til we were in the Fort Pitt tunnel, and when we did, my mom rolled down the window and honked. The bus honked back! Mom said that made her day, and as she was rolling the window back up, I turned and looked out the rear window -- and there was Brian! That WAS his bus! We concluded that his bus left so late because he waited for his parents. The bus got off at the
city exit, which leads us all to believe that the Boys are staying where they stayed last time -- �The W� (we have no idea what its real name is). Hopefully, we can get down there tomorrow, cuz Shannon�s mom is driving -- but we don�t know for sure. I can�t wait til tomorrow!!!
If Nick has another Twinkie, I might die.
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