April 30, 2008
The rumors were true and New Kids on the Block are indeed touring again. The “boys” (I am not calling them a band… I believe that involves instruments) just announced their first live dates in well over a decade. The seven dates are all East Coast and one “third-coast” show, sorry West Coast NKOTB fans! If you hope to enjoy the thrilling reunion of Joey, Jonathan, Donnie, Danny, and Jordan - get ready to spend a pretty penny. The starting cost of tickets? $250 a piece! No you did not just hallucinate that. NKOTB is charging $250 a ticket, and with all the “convenience charges,” the cost will likely round up to close to $300 a pop. They better play and dance to “Hanging Tough” like their lives depended on it!
January 27, 2008
Are late eighties teenage heartthrobs New Kids on the Block set to stage a reunion tour? People magazine thinks so. They broke up in 1994 after dismal sales of that year’s record, but in the following years a couple have individually reached some success, most notably Joey McIntire on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Apparently a reunion concert almost happened in 1999 at the MTV Music Video Awards but was thwarted with Jordan Knight decided not to participate.
I must embarrassingly admit that I was an NKOTB fan in the late eighties, because, well everyone was. This was pre-grunge, I was not yet in high school, and MTV was just gaining a foothold around the nation. This band was a marketing machine who branded every conceivable item and were saturated in the small media landscape. I had a shirt and maybe even a lunchbox. I don’t really want to go into it, but I liked them. I never made it out to a concert though as I think I grew out of it pretty quick and realized I wasn’t a young teenage girl.
Who would be the target demographic for this tour anyway? Surely not the teenage girls of this decade, the Hannah Montana set so-to-speak. Their not exactly the American version of Menudo anymore. Maybe twenty something girls who don’t regret their younger tastes? I doubt you’ll find many of those when it comes to NKOTB though. Backstreet Boys, maybe. NKOTB, I don’t think so. The New Kids are just too damn embarrassing.
Maybe it’s just me that finds them so embarrassing. They were one of my first true introductions to pop music that I really liked for a time and memorized words of songs and such things. “Please Don’t Go Girl,” the quintessential Joey song, was a favorite of the ladies and the hopeless romantic in me, and “Hangin’ Tough” satisfied my macho side. I now look back at that song and realize how ridiculous it all seems. I’ve now buried that stuff deep. If I could make myself forget, I would.
Sometimes I do wonder though, how well I could sing along if I were to hear the songs again and the memories were sparked. Then I come to my senses and swear that I won’t be seeking out an NKOTB concert to find out. This is one skeleton in this music blogger’s closet that he would rather remain hidden from the light of day, far in the back, in perpetuity. Forever.
Update: It seems Danny has spoken, and said this is all news to him. (It’s in the comments). My world is now back in equilibrium.
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