Boston Herald
By Sarah Rodman
Brian Littrell's grin said it all.
While the rest of his brethren in the Backstreet Boys put on their best bubblegum badass faces during their opening number, ``The Call'' at the Tweeter Center last night, Littrell literally couldn't stop smiling and giggling.
When he later told the ecstatic, if sticky, crowd of about 12,000 revelers that ``I think we're more excited than you are,'' it was obvious he was truly speaking on behalf of himself, Nick Carter, A.J. McLean, Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough.
Whether just happy to see so many people in the audience after a five-year break and a sea change in music culture or glad to be rid of those matching storm trooper goalie outfits of tours past, a gleeful exuberance was in evidence both onstage and off during the Boys two-hour set.
The set list was easily divisible into two categories: Formulaic yet irresistible high-quality pop rock and formulaic substandard pop rock with cringe-worthy lyrics.
Luckily, about two-thirds of the night fell into the former category, including the lite funk bounce of ``Larger Than Life,'' the old-school vocal breakdown ``I'll Never Break Your Heart'' and the soaring harmonies of ``Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely.''
The songs that fell into the second subset � like the schmaltzy ``Drowning'' and the new power ballad ``Incomplete,'' which both sounded like Bryan Adams leftovers from the '80s � coasted on the good will of how hard the guys were working.
The Boys � still remarkably fleet of foot as men with their synchronous dance steps � even tried a few mash ups. They crossed the breezy, swinging ballad ``I Want It That Way'' with Human League's ``Human,'' interpolated the Spinners' ``I'll Be Around'' into ``As Long as You Love Me'' and even managed to give the peanut butter and chocolate treatment to Chaka Khan's ``Ain't Nobody'' and their own ``Everybody (Backstreet's Back),'' which was a credit to their five-man band led by New Bedford native Kevin Antunes on keyboards.