Backstreet Boys return with a bang
By John J. Moser
August 20, 2005
The Morning Call

A second shot at the top always seems sweeter, and is more appreciated. That clearly is the case for '90s boy band The Backstreet Boys, who are back atop the charts with their first album in five years and gave a triumphant show last Saturday at Tweeter Center in Camden, N.J.

The five members are no longer boys — they're 25 to 33 — but age seems to have matured both their voices and their regard for fans. Not only did they sing even better — no lip-syncing for this group — but they worked hard in near-100-degree heat, playing 21 songs in a 108-minute show, most of it dripping in sincerity.

Forget what you've heard about this tour being less of a spectacle than when the Boys were all the rage. They arrived and left it to thunderous explosions, and played to showers of sparks, smoke and lasers, and lighted stairs from which they rose and disappeared.

Large-screen videos of the group in earlier days helped pace the show, used up time for two costume changes (a good thing — they literally sweated through their clothing) and re-played a couple of the songs they didn't sing.

And in the show's centerpiece, an exceptional new song, ''Siberia,'' it even ''snowed'' onstage.

The choreography was back — from the opening ''Gotta Go'' to ''All I Have To Give.'' The robotic routines sometimes seemed awkward for guys their ages, but some debonair dances worked well.

Speaking of ages, the audience — still overwhelmingly female — seemed to be largely late teens to early 20s, meaning they likely were fans from the boys' first wave. Despite being older, they screamed their hearts out, especially for ''I Want It That Way,'' and danced and sang during hits (the show was heavy on older material) such as ''The Shape of My Heart,'' ''I'll Be The One,'' ''Larger Than Life,'' ''All I Have To Give,'' ''I'll Never Break Your Heart'' and ''Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).''

The new songs — current hit ''Incomplete'' and upcoming single ''Just Want You to Know,'' a pretty good rocker — also went over well.

The Boys, too, look older. A.J. McLean has significant balding and Nick Carter's put on a few pounds (both still got the most screams). But they acknowledged their age by ''maturing'' some of their songs: lounging up ''As Long As You Love Me,'' and playing ''Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely'' and other songs seated on stools or around a piano.

With a formula that has lasted this long, they wisely sang most of the songs as they recorded them. But they funked up the appropriate closer, ''Backstreet's Back.''