Backstreet Boys karaoke schtick a porcine makeover
On Thursday night, The Backstreet Boys proved that you can put makeup on a pig and that such a porcine makeover can work wonders.
The lads (Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson) who cornered the boy band industry with their take on spit-shined gawkery and nabbed the teen market by storm during the ‘90s are in their mid-40s now. But they showed few signs of stage-light and paparazzi-flash erosion over the years. And while their choreography was on par with what a Canadian Armed Forces drill team might learn after a couple weeks in boot camp, they pulled off the feat with a great deal of preening, pointing, posing and prancing throughout a set that clocked in at nearly two hours with a staggering set list of roughly 30 syrupy songs.
That tally is a bit misleading, however. While they did warble their biggies like I Wanna Be With You, I Want It That Way and their slam-dunk ditty Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) in their entirety, newer numbers from the January release DNA were performed in snippets, presumably to lure audiences into buying the album. Throughout the night, various members asked for a head count of patrons who bought DNA, apparently not satisfied that the album was already a top-seller during its first week of release back in February.
Their banter also came across as disingenuous, such as when the band kicked off the proceedings with Littrell (whose teenage son
Baylee opened the show with his prefab country selections) bellowed “Edmonton, are you ready to party tonight?” Or when Carter gaped in what can only be perceived as amazement, “Are you kidding me? Look at that! This place is sold out! So does that mean you still love The Backstreet Boys after all these years? We love you too, Edmonton!” Naturally, that led to the umpteenth pitch for folks to buy even more copies of DNA.
And if those blandishments didn’t do the trick, the stage infrastructure should have helped, complete with three jumbotrons of videos all promoting the album at strategic times. Admittedly, the set was impressive with a multi-level stage, a hexagonal apron, neon arches, and enough lighting artillery to propel every historic Apollo mission into lunar orbit. The décor was convincing enough to excite an audience largely populated by their original fan base that’s since morphed into Gen-X mommies who eagerly brought their double-X chromosome brood with whom to share the otherworldly experience.
But to anyone remotely comprising a cynical minority in the bleachers, the dealbreaker was the lack of a live band to actually make the event a genuine performance. Despite the luminescent dog and pony show, the Edmonton whistle stop on the troupe’s world tour was little more than a glorified five-part-harmony karaoke session. While kudos can be given to the outfit for their a capella version of Breathe, the only positive take away from the affair, the rest of the night was pure press play.
Not that it mattered, as the multitudes shrieked and clapped their approval from start to finish. Meanwhile, any marketing geniuses witnessing the spectacle aped the same gestures, capped by an extra rubbing of palms with opportunistic glee.
