Performing as much of a production show as a concert, the Backstreet Boys took the stage Wednesday night at Grand Sierra Resort as part of their “This Is Us” tour with perfectly choreographed moves and high-tech features.

Band members Nick Carter, 30; A.J. McLean, 32; Brian Littrell, 35 and Howie Dorough, 36, made their initial on-stage appearance busting through a hanging video projection screen that was showing their pictures.

Fans, predominately teens and women who seemed younger than the band members, greeted them and made their best efforts to interact with the performers.

The group opened with “Backstreet’s Back” and “We’ve Got It Going On.” The band then engaged the crowd in “PDA,” which made security guards on alert to control excited fans.

Backstreet Boys, who changed clothes several times, also had four female dancers. One of the most interesting routines was during “Larger than Life,” when performers dressed as robots and effects included computerized features on the projection screen.

Other songs during the 100-minute show included “Shape of My Heart,” “Quit Playing Games,” “As Long as You Love Me” and “I’ll Never Break Your Heart.”

The encore was “Straight Through My Heart.”

Even though they’ve grown up since the band’s formation in 1993, members still have strong voices and are able to rev up a crowd. The unison performing and technology make them even better.

In other words, I enjoyed this concert much more than I thought I would, even though band members mispronounced Nevada.

The Backstreet Boys positive performance made up for the 20-minute odd opener by Christian Berishaj, formerly of Love Arcade.

Berishaj, who ironically calls himself “Christian TV,” had a thick Mohawk hairstyle and wore blue jeans, a low-cut pink undershirt and a leopard-print sweater. He sang songs, such as “When She Turns 18.” Other lyrics had to do with not wanting to be alone at 2 a.m., trying to get someone naked and calling 9-1-1.

Maybe he was intending to strike fear into the hearts of parents in the crowd. But regardless, Berishaj had a decent voice and was somehow able to attract plenty of noise. People even gathered around him for pictures following the concert.

By Carla Roccapriore
July 1, 2010
RGJ

Pop is not a musical style that thrives on longevity, as groups come and go every decade or so. Some pop groups persist, though, and even continue success at some level. That’s the juncture that the Backstreet Boys finds itself in as the vocal group continues to tour for its latest album, “This Is Us.”

“As artists, we constantly try to evolve, and I feel like the way to do that is to constantly let the music grow — and let it truly be about making good music,” said Backstreet Boys singer Howie Dorough from a mid-June tour stop in Detroit. “That’s something that we are able to pride ourselves on — all of our records have been better than the ones we made before.”

Dorough acknowledged that even today’s top-selling acts are selling a fraction of what his band and others in that style sold in the late ’90s.
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If you ask the Backstreet Boys’ A.J. McLean, he and his all-grown-up boy band aren’t that different from current pop prince Justin Bieber and those heartthrob Jonas Brothers.

“Pop music to me, and to all of us, goes in cycles,” says McLean, 32, whose group stops at Save Mart Center on July 1.

“It goes in one giant circle. If you go back 15 years, when things really kinda hit for us, it was really the big grunge and hip-hop scene.”
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When the Backstreet Boys recorded “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” in 1997, it’s a safe bet they never dreamed they’d be opening a concert with it in 2010. But that’s exactly what they did on Saturday evening at the Gibson Amphitheatre in front of a packed audience.

Granted, the boys–men–aren’t performing to sold-out stadiums full of hysterical preteens any more, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a solid fan base of loyal fans, many who have been fans of the group since the beginning. Which explains why members AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Howie Dorough make sure to include a lot of their older hits into their performances. In between plugging songs from their latest album–This is Us, released in October 2009–the group worked in “Quit Playin’ Games with My Heart,” “As Long As You Love Me,” “More Than That,” “Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely,” “The One,” “Larger Than Life,” and “The Call.” There were even callbacks to old videos, with futuristic costumes donned for “Larger than Life” and the video for “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” playing on the back screen while the Boys sang to the audience and threw roses.

This tour marked somewhat of a return to the high-energy shows of the Boys’ past–almost every song featured choreography, some even had female backup dancers wearing tiny outfits. The group pounded the stage for over an hour and a half, with only a few short breaks for costume changes. The energy stayed high throughout the entire show, keeping fans on their feet screaming and dancing the entire time.

Though they’ve been performing a lot of the same songs for over a decade, the Boys still appear to enjoy thrilling their fans time and again, peppering the audience with waves, winks, and coy smiles–even venturing into the audience for some face-time with fans (which resulted in Nick losing his scarf and nearly his shirt). And the female fans still enjoy indulging in a heavy dose of nostalgia and remembering the days when an attractive pop star could make them swoon.
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Amidst deafening screams, the wildly popular Backstreet Boys blazed onto the stage at Pechanga Resort & Casino’s Showroom Theater, gripped the audience with a heart-pounding version of their 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and didn’t let go until their 90-minute set left guests breathless and wanting more.

The sold-out crowd greeted the performers with a standing ovation at the start of the performance and didn’t sit down – not once — the rest of the night. Instead, there was dancing, arm-waving and singing, lots of singing.

The show is part of the Backstreet Boys’ 2010 This Is Us concert tour that has taken the group all over the world, reviving favorite songs from the 90s and introducing audiences to new sounds, like “Straight Through My Heart.”
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