Ladies' Night

As you may recall, last month when Craig and I had our night out with his family to the fundraiser gala, I won two tickets to the Mixtape Tour concert in Buffalo.  The headliner was NKOTB, but I was more excited about the other acts--Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Salt-N-Pepa, and Naughty by Nature.  It's the perfect lineup for someone my age, as all of those acts peaked anywhere from the late 80s to the early 90s, right in the middle of my impressionable pre-teen years.  I figured out pretty quickly that Craig probably wouldn't have much interest in going, and after much consideration about who to take (I have many friends who were big NKOTB fans back in the day--how to pick?), I was thrilled when my sister-in-law Andrea was able to work it out to go.  We don't get to spend much time alone together, but we do have fun so I thought it would be a good excuse for a moms' night out!

After spending the afternoon with Jacob, I headed out to Buffalo, battled a ton of traffic, and finally met up with Andrea.  We headed downtown together.  Luckily it was a beautiful night so the walk from the parking lot in was perfect.  I even ran into two high school friends, which was nice!  We got inside, grabbed some food and a beverage, and eventually settled into our seats, which were awesome!  The first thing that struck me as we walked through the arena was that 95% of the crowd looked to be middle age women.  That wasn't surprising, but actually seeing it in person was striking.  The second thing that struck me is that the male significant others that tagged along were very brave indeed.

The concert began with a DJ tandem that remixed a bunch of 80s tunes and had the whole crowd singing along.  It was a little weird that the DJ had a bear costume on, but whatever...

Despite being the headliner, NKOTB came out first.  Like I said, I wasn't a huge NKOTB fan.  I had friends who were, so of course I knew their music, but I was never a fanatic.  The opening video showed a bedroom that I have a feeling many of the concert attendees could relate to--pink walls and NKOTB bedding--which I know at least one of my friends had!  I listened to them on the radio and no doubt watched some videos on MTV, and I definitely thought Joey McIntyre was the cutest, but that's about where it ended.  Still, I was looking forward to seeing them perform, almost as if it was a bucket list item I never knew I had!  I guess I'll just chalk it up to always being eager for a new experience!

I know I shouldn't have been surprised, but seeing them up there doing all of the same coordinated moves was...weird?  I get that boy bands are supposed to appeal to teenage girls with their good looks, smooth moves, and sweet voices, but what happens when those teenage girls grow up?  Apparently not much.  Women still screamed like teenagers.  NKOTB did an uncomfortable number of pelvic thrusts and gyrations.  They still made love to the camera.  They still made anyone they interacted with swoon.  But it was odd.  I mean, most (all?) of them are married, and one is gay, for Pete's sake.  I found myself laughing and shaking my head most of the time because some of it felt really ridiculous, but I'll admit that for pushing 50, they still had it.  Mostly, anyway.  Joey and Jordan could still sing like crazy, and the dance moves were good.  They were certainly entertaining, at the very least!

Joey

Donnie

My favorite part of the set was how the stage looked like a cassette tape, and usually they'd show the name of the current song on the bottom of the cassette, or sometimes just the performer's name.  Here's what it looked like for "Favorite Girl"...

They kept things interesting out in the crowd with confetti drops, streamer cannons, and a cell phone app that used phone flash lights to coordinate with the music or the mood.

Confetti!

Like I said, our seats were awesome!  I used the zoom but this is basically the view we had.

Does Jon Knight find it weird to sing about girls now?

The coolest part of the concert was that it was constant action.  Because there were two stages, it was easy for them to shift between acts seamlessly.  There was also a lot of crowd interaction because the performers could go out into the crowd to move between stages.  At one point the New Kids ended up on the small stage and up popped Tiffany on the main stage!  Seeing her sing the iconic "I Think We're Alone Now" was pretty cool.  She looked a little different and her voice might have deepened a bit, but she still had it!

Next up was Debbie Gibson, who was probably who I was most excited about!  I loved Debbie when I was a kid!  Heck, we even shared a birthday!  My Uncle Mark was actually a huge fan of hers, and I spent a good chunk of my early teenage years borrowing her CDs from him, including a long time after most people stopped listening to her!  Considering she's pushing 50, she looked pretty darn great!

Still has the hat...and such a fun dress!

The little stage was cool--it raised up, almost like a UFO, complete with exhaust!

Seeing Debbie was a thrill.  I never would have dreamed I'd have the chance to see her (or any of these folks, actually), but 30 years later, here we were!

Next up was Salt-N-Pepa!  I almost forgot how many good songs they had--Shoop, Whatta Man, Let's Talk About Sex, and of course, the one I have on my iPod, Push It!  They definitely still had it, as well.  They looked, moved, and sounded great!

NKOTB came out again, and this time did a bunch of crowd interaction--first from the small stage...

Then walking through the actual crowd.  They all ended up in a different section.  Donnie was particularly memorable as he kept taking people's beer and drinking it!  Between that and the gratuitous F-bombs, it was clear this wasn't a teeny bopper show any longer!

At one point they sand the song "Boys in the Band", which was a new release a couple years back with an absolutely hilarious video full of cameos.  Since it had a high school theme, I guess it made sense to have cheerleaders, which happened to be the Buffalo Bandettes, the Bandits' cheerleaders.  Good for them, eh?

Oh, and Donnie also liked to show off his muscles.  He ripped off his tank for this one.

Good for him?

I really only knew a couple Naughty by Nature songs, but "O.P.P." and "Hip Hop Hooray" were serious staples of my youth, so it was fun to see.  They had a ton of energy!

Incidentally, earlier in the day when Jacob asked me about the concert, I told him a little bit about it and he asked if there was any hip hop (his current preference).  I shared that, yes, there was some!  I played "Push It" for him from my phone, to which he sort of winced.  Then I pulled up "O.P.P.", and he nodded his head a bit, as if that was "real" enough hip hop for him.  The whole conversation cracked me up.

I was excited when Debbie came back out, particularly since she was with her piano.  "Foolish Beat" was cool enough...

...but the whole crowd went nuts when "Lost in Your Eyes" started.  And when Joey McIntyre came out to do it as a duet, it was pretty freaking cool!

My other highlight was seeing "Push It" live.  It was so awesome.  It's one of my running songs sometimes, so it's still near and dear to me, and seeing it like this was amazing!

At the end of the concert, NKOTB came out in bedazzled Bruins jerseys (daring in Buffalo!) and then were joined by everyone else.  It was quite a finale!

It was really a super fun show!  You know how life seemed simpler back then?  That was sort of the feeling I had during this concert.  The music was a throwback to a simpler time and made me miss that era even more.  Were the performances the best ever?  Not even close.  For being 30 years past their prime, everyone did great.  But certain performers were certainly not the same, and sometimes (like with those pelvic thrusts or the overly dramatic pauses during a couple NKOTB songs) it felt a little staged or forced.  But you know, none of that really mattered because it was just so fun!  Most of the crowd was there openly admitting to having been a crazy, teeny bopper fan 30 years ago, and I guess that just made it a safe place to let loose and unapologetically sing and dance like a bunch of kids.  It just made me smile!  I couldn't help but wonder, though, if there were moments during the show that the artists think to themselves, "I'm too stinking old for this!"  Or, with all of those dance moves, if they all get together after the show and distribute the Aleve to ease their aching bodies!  I guess we've all officially grown up!  

I'm so happy that I took a chance and bid on the tickets.  It was a fun night out with good company, and now I can always say I've seen all of these artists live!  If you would have told me 30 years ago that I'd be seeing any of them in concert as a full-blown grown-up, I'd have thought you were nuts.  But what a crazy, fun night it was!