Stars in their eyes and hearts pounding, thousands of exuberant fans of the Backstreet Boys reconnected with their childhood and/or teenage loves on Friday evening in a Videotron Center overheated by their shrill cries.
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The use of the feminine in this account is obviously not coquetry. To the eye, and without exaggerating, the girls accounted for at least 90% of the public for this reunion, five years following the triumph of the boys band on the Plains of Abraham.
A traffic officer made us realize this as soon as we arrived near the amphitheater. “Are you going to the show? Yes? So you are the number 19 male spectator that I count, ”he told us.
His margin for error must have been very slim.
Farther on, shouts of joy escaped from a car arriving in the parking lot.
welcome to Backstreet Boys City!
After being tested by two pandemic postponements of the concert (from September 2020 to September 2021, then to Friday) and having suffered three times on giant screens the cheesy of the Christmas album that the group will launch in the fall, popular fanatics boys band were finally able to shout with all their might when the lights went out and Nick, Brian, Howie, AJ and Kevin appeared, preceded by a dazzling light and sound presentation.
Generous
Since then, we have witnessed a generous sequence of the greatest hits from their four albums released between 1996 and 2000, interspersed with several tracks from their recent DNA. A total of 32 titles, in whole or in part.
Obviously, it was nostalgia that won hands down the whole evening. Inserted at the end of the first of four blocks of songs, Get Down (You’re The One For Me) made the spectators scream. Same for the Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely, Shape Of My Heart et Quit Playing Games (With My Heart). It was inevitably delirium.
Proximity
“You’re the loudest crowd on the tour,” the guys even went so far as to say, a compliment we take with a grain of salt given BSB’s worldwide appeal. world.
Side staging, the quintet has put the package. Removable giant screens and a pentagonal walkway extending to the floor allowed them to create a feeling of closeness with the fans. The light effects were superb and the choreography executed to perfection.
Vocally, it was sometimes a hassle, especially for Brian, but no one was going to take offense, especially since the fans were there to support them by singing along to songs they know by heart.
On several occasions, the five idols thanked the public and recalled the importance that the love of Quebec women had in propelling their careers to the heights in the 1990s.
Down the stretch, the frenzy reached another level when the group, dressed all in white, unpinned Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), We’ve Got It Going On et I Want It That Way. As a reminder, the fate of our tinnitus was definitively sealed by the final explosive to the tune of Larger Than Life.
Larger than life? That mightn’t sum up how the fans perceived them Friday night on stage.
►The tour DNA will be at the Bell Center in Montreal on Saturday evening.