Do you recognise this song?” Kevin Richardson asks at one point during the concert. It is an appropriate question, for, inevitably, different pockets of the 12,000-member audience that they`re performing before have grown up consuming different works of the Backstreet Boys. Thirty years since they were first christened a band, the band of five (then four, and then five again), have left three generations of music aficionados captivated with their music. The lasting impression that their legacy has left is seamlessly discernible at this concert, where 40-something parents with their 10-year old children, or 20-something kids, with their 50-year old parents have gathered to celebrate a band familiar to each of them. Moments after millennials matched the band, word-for-word, as they rendered As long as you love me (1997), Gen-Z grooved to The way it was (2019), and millennials took over again with Shape of my heart (2000). If teens celebrated the future of music, 90s kids were given a peek into their past — a memory of who they once were.
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Of course, Shape of my heart, the track that Richardson is referring to, is one that everyone would know. Or at least, I do hope (Gen-Z, I`m looking at you.) It`s one of the band`s many classics that they intersperse their two-hour set with, peppering the rest of it with music from their latest album, DNA, with which they head on this tour. If you haven`t already, DNA is in every way worth listening to. Its passionate renditions are testimony of not only the quintet`s growth as artistes, but also their grasp over an art they`ve spent their lives practicing. There`s a different joy in consuming art that comes from a place of experience, as is evident during this act at Mumbai`s Jio Garden. There`s an enviable command with which Nick Carter and Brian Littrell flirt with music, putting their powerful vocals on display to present decades-old numbers with a hint of novelty. Showing absolute disregard for the notion that live choreography needs to be, well, larger than life, the five equate 50 on stage with synchronicity that could put background dancers to shame. Of course, the boys — spanning 43 to 52 years of age — have contagious moves, but it is in the mere flicks of their mics, the tilt of their shoulders, and the snaps of their fingers that they make the power of small movements, pronounced.
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It has always been this ability — to sing every single song, live, and compliment it with attractive choreography — that they say has distinguished them from the newer boy-bands that are “vocal based”. Success often paves the way for complacency, as music reporters across the globe, would know. We`ve seen it plague the finest artistes, especially when it comes to braving the exhaustive physical demands of a world tour. This complacency, however, becomes exaggerated when artistes, like this boy-band, leave no stone unturned to entertain. From the moment they set foot on stage rendering I wanna be with you, the boys made evident that they`d punch above their weight to make every penny spent on watching them, worth it. Neither a failing note across the 33 tracks, nor a lethargic act, or even a lackadaisical interaction with the audience– they took to the stage with gratitude for their success, as they humbly shared anecdotes from their journey from being young boys, to fathers with “backstreet babies”. If their conversations with the audience entertained, their playful interactions with one another did not go unnoticed either.
Also read: From Coldplay to Dua Lipa, international pop stars who have performed in Mumbai
It`s perhaps the desire to execute the smallest things with accuracy that made this performance linger on our minds, long after it was over. So powerful was their act that one could only be left in awe of the legacy that they`ve created, and the life they`ve lived. There`s a lot more, they promise, as they hope to keep playing for another 30 years. `We`ll say, `Backstreet`s back… aahhh!` they joke, hinting at the physical pain they`d perhaps endure as 80-something artistes. What the future entails is to be seen, but, for now, they`re far better than just `alright`!
The band has been brought to India by BookMyShow, for a two-city act as part of their DNA world tour.
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