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Thousands of people woke Sunday morning as calm, collected adults. And yet a funny thing happened on the way to the TD Banknorth Garden that night. By 9 p.m., many of those unsuspecting people (mostly women in their late twenties and early thirties) had undergone a mass regression the like of which Bostonist has never before experienced. Mature members of society were reduced to shrieking, swooning schoolgirls.
The New Kids on the Block's second Garden appearance in three nights served as a clown car DeLorean. Fourteen years after Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and Joe McIntyre last took a group curtain call, the men's highly-hyped hometown reunion shows returned a generation of adults to its earlier Blockhead form.
What's more, the response, involuntary as it was (Bostonist underwent the transformation ourselves, screams and all), was actually warranted. What could have been a simple feel-good throwback event was instead a polished show infused with moments of giddiness - a lovefest between four guys from Dorchester, one JP product and a screaming hometown crowd.
Shrieks within the Garden reached ear-piercing levels as the lights dimmed shortly after 9 p.m. and a video vamp with a style straight out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was projected onto screens. "15 years ago...they walked away...Tonight...they're back...Are you ready?...It's time."
Rising to the stage in front of a glowing NKOTB emblem, the band dove into their newest radio release, the aptly titled "Single," with the dapper McIntyre modifying lyrics to tell thousands of willing ladies that "for the next couple of hours, baby, I'm gonna be your boyfriend."
The play on words was appreciated, but the band didn't hit their stride until they wrapped up the obligatory single, kicked off the suave gentlemen moves and plunged, sneakers-first, into the time warp. If "Single" opened the NKOTB show, it was old favorites "My Favorite Girl" and "The Right Stuff" that allowed the band to shake off the years and really kick off a New Kids on the Block event. Throughout over the course of the night, the group would do their new material (catchy, even if seemingly intended for slightly younger artists) service, but seemed to relish the screams of recognition each older tune or dance move (including, yes, the Right Stuff Shuffle) prompted.
The Kids still have it, even if the hard work is more apparent than it was in 1990. There were more slides than kicks on Sunday night, but the Knights, Wahlberg, Wood and McIntyre wisely acknowledged the age factor. Rather than recreating the experience from when CDs were new and the Internet had yet to be invented, the group was sly, even cheeky in its references: a careful selection of vintage dance moves and, in a particularly bright move, the reemergence of McIntyre's famous smiley jacket during a mini-set at a small second stage.
Multimedia use especially favored the Boston crowd. Regularly displaying Boston-centric sights and symbols, screens around and behind the stage projected video especially familiar to the Garden before encore closer "Hangin' Tough" - the Celtics' pre-game video footage, KG scream and all (diehard fan Wahlberg clearly had his hands in the show production).
Jumping up and down in their customized Celtics jerseys at what was the end of both the song and the night, the men didn't look like the husbands and fathers the New Kids on the Block have become. Instead they were the cute, goofy boys that Boston girls fell for in the bubblegum days of old.
Clearly, some things never change.
Photo by Victoria Welch. For video footage of Sunday's New Kids on the Block concert, visit VH1.com
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Not sure how I feel about the New kids on The Block back in action. Somethings should just not be revisited. They don't sound that kid and they look winded on stage. Trust me, when I was in the 5th grade i had posters, pins stickers..yes I was one of those kids.