“Namaste Mumbai, dhanyavad!” yell the Backstreet Boys during their first-ever tour to Mumbai. “Yeaaah!” screams an audience of three generations, high on nostalgia on a muggy evening at Jio Gardens on May 4. Their next show is in New Delhi on May 5.
The (arguably) biggest boy band of all time, who have sold over 100 million records, are back again in the country after 13 years, for their DNA world tour. They are here to entertain. They are here to make at least some of their 12,000-odd fans at the stadium, who grew up glued to MTV and spent hours staring at Nick Carter’s face in teen magazines, feel a couple of decades younger. They are equally here to be reassured that they are far from forgotten in a world that has changed dramatically since they first occupied pop centre-stage.
The response of the crowd is encouraging: the band clearly still Got It Goin’.
The opening act is ‘I Wanna Be With You’ and just like that it is 1996 again. The boys (Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, and Kevin Richardson) are no longer boys, and they are aware of the jokes. “If we come back, it’ll be backstreet’s back.... aaaah!” they say, clutching their lower backs.
But they are still enviously fit, and look fine in their leather jackets and clean-cut waistcoats. It is an inexplicable look for a May evening in Mumbai, though. “Someone needed to warn us, and tell us how hot it is gonna be here,” says a sweaty Nick, but adds, “It is not the weather, it is because of every single one of you.” Brian next to him smiles genially, but his beetroot-red face suggests that a more serious warning might have been appreciated.
The Backstreet Boys’ concert in Mumbai was a mix of the old and new | Photo Credit: RVR16
The heat does not deter them, however: their energy is incredible; the singing, including a wonderfully soulful acapella number, hits the right notes; and their choreography, honed over years of practice and shows, is impeccable. There are many fun costume changes, ending with the signature white of the Millenium album cover.
The show is a mix of the old and new. The crowd is clearly more familiar and excited by the old; the energy in the stadium rises during ‘The Call’, ‘Everybody’, and ‘Quit Playing Games With My Heart’. People who have evidently not exercised their vocal cords since their school days, or last drunken night, sing ‘Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely’ with free abandon and adequate emotion. Phone torches are switched on, groups of strangers wave their arms in unison, and a girl perched on the shoulders of her partner sways dangerously from side to side. The energy dips during the newer songs.
In between the whopping 33 songs, there are many ‘aww’ moments. The men journey back to the past, recalling the days when they were just boys, and when Howie was the only one with chest hair. Today, they say proudly, they have “backstreet babies”. During a jocular act, they recall how crazed women threw their clothes at the boys during earlier concerts.
The band was back again in India after 13 years for their DNA world tour | Photo Credit: RVR16
The show ends with ‘Larger Than Life’. By now, most people have guzzled down a few glasses of beer and are either dancing or wandering around grinning. Fireworks explode in the night sky and a thousand cameras are whipped out to capture them.
This is a band that reminds everyone of a simpler time and place, when sugary pop ruled the roost. The cool boys now make dad jokes. But their appeal seems to cut across generations. The biggest testimony to their enduring popularity is that we woke up the next morning with hoarse voices.
We all wanted it that way.
COMMents
SHARE