Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
New Kids in on the joke, and loving it
New Kids on the Block perform at the MTS Centre tonight. (DAN HARPER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Near the end of New Kids on the Block's much-anticipated reunion concert at the MTS Centre last night, singer Jordan Knight stood atop the two-level stage, ripped his white shirt open, and clutched his naked chest while crooning Baby I Believe In You.
His shirt fluttered in the winds of a hidden generator.
If a single image could define the Boston-based quintet's show, that would be it: sorta cornball, sorta cheesecake, but always with a wink and a nudge.
The lights went down for the headliners at 8:30 p.m., and a video screen flashed on. "Fifteen years ago... they walked away. One year ago... THEY SHOCKED THE WORLD," the screen blared, as thousands of fans screamed in anticipation.
In fairness, the NKOTB reunion and its hastily assembled 2008 album, The Block, was at least surprising. Twenty-three years after their manufactured debut, the original boy banders are now circling 40. Most thought the reunion window was long closed.
Their fans are likewise all grown up. Outside the arena, instead of the line of bored parents in minivans we saw back in 1991, there were bemused husbands waiting for slightly inebriated wives. But therein lay the charm.
Don't get me wrong: as a musical performance, the reunion concert was a mess. It was like show designers threw every concert cliche against a wall, and decided it all stuck.
There was a momentum-killing "dance cam" bit, where the show stopped so Danny Wood could scan the crowd to find grooving fans. There were also four badly-used female dancers and a memorial video featuring Tupac and Heath Ledger. (It ended with images of the Kids' own departed family; it should have started there too.)
The singing was... uh, not great. Original "cute one" Joey McIntyre's voice is strong, and Jordan Knight can still manage that piercing falsetto. But even with a fortress of backing tracks propping him up on Cover Girl, Wahlberg's voice struggled, cracked, and fell flat. (I'm sorry, Donnie. I still love you. Call me?)
But few in the audience were there for great musicality. They were there for a nostalgia party... and they got it. Two hours, 23 songs, and a handful of costume changes of that, in fact.
If you consider that the New Kids are in on their own kitschy joke... and their gleeful on-stage hamming suggests they are... then the show was nothing short of genius comedic entertainment.
Though the Kids' dancing was slightly stiff, the choreography was tight and deliciously familiar, especially on show-closing hits Step By Step and Hangin' Tough. (They performed the latter in Team Canada jerseys.)
They flew into the air for a "pose off" snapshot at the end of Click Click Click. McIntyre won; his prize was a Canadian flag cape, which he frolicked in while declaring it was "okay as long as it doesn't touch the ground."
They even stayed true to the archetypes they created. Jonathan Knight, "the quiet one," tried very hard not to be seen or heard; bad-boy Wahlberg (along with McIntyre, the clear crowd favourite), grabbed his crotch and drew "I want to have ?" on a dry erase board supplied by a fan. And playboy Jordan Knight... well, see first paragraph.
It was silly. It was tongue-in-cheek. It wasn't art, but it was what those of us from the original NKOTB generation wanted: a frivolous night of fun, savored with the men who first taught us that boys were cute sometimes.
That's all it needed to be.
Concert Review
New Kids on the Block
April 9
MTS Centre
3 stars out of five
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