Black & Blue Concert Review: Charlotte, NC on January 26th, 2001

Written by: Jessica

My Backstreet experience on January 26, 2001 began upon my arrival with my
brothers and parents at the Charlotte Coliseum. We got there right at 7:30
and ran in as not to miss anything. Our tickets were in the lower
level...my family in section 113, and I was all alone in 125. As soon as I
walked( or should I say ran) into the arena, I was blown away. It looked
like everyone in the arena had those little blue glow sticks and it made
the whole place look cool in the dark. Krystal was playing as I sat down. I
didn't really like her (although her dancing on a piano with a microphone
stand was rather interesting) and as soon as she was gone, the place got so
loud with chants of "Backstreet Boys" and a never ending wave going around
the Coliseum. Finally... after the crew fixed the giant screen on the stage
(different parts of it weren't working right), it got pitch dark and the
screen turned on, revealing the planet Earth and asteroids coming rapidly
towards it. As each asteroid hit on the screen, giant red flares shot
across the stage and burst with smoke as it hit the ground. Two large
flashes hit on both sides, throwing down the now visible 20 dancers for the
show. More and more flashes and smoke and finally, the giant backdrop on
the sides of the stage fell, revealing a huge wall of twinkling stars on
both sides of the screen. Finally, smoke poured up from the floor and five
pillars rose, each carrying none other that the Backstreet Boys. The
saluted the audience, and got down to quickly begin performing a medley of
"Everyone" and "Larger Than Life." They quickly retreated and returned in
white suits to sing a variety of slower songs from the new album. Once
again, a hasty retreat to change, this time into a flame looking outfit
which they came out and performed "Not For Me" which ended rather
shockingly by them jumping straight down into these tiny holes on
stage...it looked like they vanished! They returned in black leather, but
after a few songs began debating over whether or not their clothes looked
OK. Finally, after A.J. tried to strip to a screaming audience, a blue
wardrobe box was pushed to center stage in which each boy, starting with
Brian, climbed in and "magically" disappeared. Nick got in after Brian,
followed by Howie. A.J. and Kevin stayed for a minute as A.J. happily
announced "Well, I guess now its just the Kevin and A.J. Show! Whazzup?!?!"
A.J. eventually hopped in the box, and just as Kevin was about to, he
closes the lid, turns to the audience with a devilish grin on his face and
asks "So...who wants to hear some of my solo stuff I've been working on?"
(He was kidding...duh!) After he gets in, we all watched on the screens as
the five boys changed into their next outfits...complete with a silly
string/ water gun fight, all five boys fighting to use the mirror, and
Kevin hurling teddy bears everywhere. As this clip was going on (obviously
prerecorded) the boys managed to get to the other side of the Coliseum, run
down the lower section( which I later found out they ran right past my
brother, who was at the end of the row in the section they ran down) and
pop up from a small stage on the other side of the arena to do "I'll Never
Break Your Heart" (complete with A.J. getting pelted with teddy bears, and
Nick getting an Argentinean flag thrown at him!) A large bridge was lowered
which connected the small stage to the large one, and they ran across it,
over the audience performing "Time."  Once back on stage, the bridge was
raised again and they changed into silver outfits, at which point they
introduced the band and dancers. When A.J. finished announcing them, he
said to everyone that this next song would be, sadly the last song...but he
kept being interrupted. There was a phone ringing...A.J's phone! He answers
it and ,wouldn't ya know it, it's time to sing "The Call" A.J. runs through
the speech with the girl, as heard in the song only this time, he said "I'm
sorry baby, it's the last song of the show, I'm coming home soon... Miss
you...NOT!" at which point he throws aside the phone and the song begins,
complete with the video being shown on the screens and all. At the end of
the song, they all said thank you and walked off stage. Half the people in
the coliseum began to actually leave! It was still dark, and everyone knows
there has to be an encore! The boys came back out, performed "Shape of My
Heart" and all lined up to take bows. After each boy retreated, A.J. ran
back out to run from one end of the stage to the other, then finally
retreated. The concert was over! I followed the crowd out to the lobby, got
my $40 dollar tour T-shirt (Can you believe that! Such a ripoff!) and we
left. My mom and dad totally thought the Millennium tour was better, and,
in some respects, it was, but this was such a modern, cool looking concert
that even the biggest anti-BSB person in the world could go and have a good
time! My personal highlights from the show would have to include someone
throwing Howie a pair of underwear just about as big as he was, to which he
tried to give them to Kevin. Throughout the whole show, Nick insisted on
having everyone in the audience focus on his crotch! No one seemed to have
a problem with it, and it was pretty funny to watch. A.J. was just good ol'
A.J., as usual, except his hair is longer and braided back. Kevin still has
lots of (unnecessary) hair, and Howie... well, the one thing I heard ALL
night was that Howie....sweet lil' Howie looks like none other than Jesus
with his straight hair (interesting, don't you think?!) All in all, it was
an AWESOME show. I had a blast, as I always do with the Backstreet Boys,
and look forward to seeing them again. The only drawback to the concert: I
had the SAT's the next day....needless to say, I got NO sleep on the long
ride home...not good, but it was all in the name of Backstreet!!!

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