[Montreal]: I loved, loved, loved this band – they’ve got a retro sound that manages to be modern and special – ethereal poppy female vocalizing over shimmering guitars – some combo of 80s soft rock, synth pop, and disco – synth yacht rock? Bluesy French pop with psychy soft rock instrumentation? – in same school as MGMT maybe but more pop than psychedelia –a more sincere Cansei de Ser Sexy – kind of Blondie – fairy disco: all high notes and ethereality but still rocking – they were loungey and groovy, simple and complex – I admired their ability to restrain themselves and pick the perfect notes – the kid with a fluff of hair on the front of his head played drums – the kid in the old man sweater played the flute – the kid with the sculpted afro in slouchy baggy-skinny-pants played bass – the girl in a black crop top and black mom jeans played keyboards and provided the vocals, her incessant hair flipping (she looked like F. Bueller’s girlfriend) annoyed me but she managed to seduce the audience very effectively – my favorite though was the bleach blonde kid playing electric guitar in black skinny jeans and an awful color-block jacket (amusingly, I think the yuppie older couple in the front were his parents)

08.07.1998 Backstreet Boys MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV

Openers: Jimmy Ray
Soap
Aaron Carter
Laugh if you must. The tickets to this show were purchased in conjunction with my friend Laura’s visit for the weekend, which also included coming back the next night for the Pretenders. She and I went with Mike Malloy, who really didn’t enjoy himself because he couldn’t be seen enjoying himself.

What I will say about this show was that for an adult, it was high camp. Imagine an arena filled to the brim with screaming pre-teen girls and decibel levels that put hockey games to shame. (In case you’re wondering, they have a decibel measure that was supposed to fire people up during Thunder games, encouraging the crowd to reach a certain decibel. Apparently it was never turned off, at least until the Thunder went under.) The energy from the audience crackled like a forest fire, not so much from the stage. The Backstreet Boys had that “proving we are legit” attitude that required the band to hand off instruments to the Boys for a whole song (N’Sync did the same thing.) They also each took turns solo, which wasn’t really the highlight. But as they finished up with their strongest radio stuff, it was a bonus for me because I actually recognized the songs.

The novelty was worth the money. The show probably was not.

While I’m know I sat through it, pre-pubescent Aaron Carter (riding the coattails of his brother’s “fame”) made zero impression. When Jimmy Ray outshines you, time to beef up your act.