Backstreet Boys Melbourne review: Backstreet's back, all right

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This was published 8 years ago

Backstreet Boys Melbourne review: Backstreet's back, all right

By Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Updated

Rod Laver Arena, Friday May 8
★★★★

"Act crazy, act like you're 15 years old again". So began the hole in the space-time continuum that is a Backstreet Boys, now Backstreet Men concert.

The Backstreet men, ahem, Boys, delivered in spades in Melbourne

The Backstreet men, ahem, Boys, delivered in spades in Melbourne

Kicking off the Australian leg of A World Like This tour, Nick, AJ, Howie, Kevin and Brian showed a packed Rod Laver Arena that they are back, all right, and celebrating 22 years of existence.

Opening with The Call and Don't Want You Back, it was always going to be hard for the recently reunited five to be much more than a throwback act, but over a generous two-hour set, the boys shone as instrumentalists, vocalists and entertainers.

Newer songs littered the setlist but were never a chore as each was spoon fed, laced with introduction stories and vibrant visuals. The curiously titled Permanent Stain rung out like a Mumford and Sons anthem, while Breathe was a hypnotic new addition.

All five, even the recently departed and rejoined Kevin, seemed to care about their audience, and about each other, with on-stage banter often reminiscent of a rowdy family meal.

Into the third year of the tour, it's no surprise the older tracks are smoother and shinier than bad boy Nick's well-gelled coiffe. From The Shape of My Heart to Incomplete to All I Have To Give, they were gratefully received by an unironic audience, 90 per cent of whom were females between the ages of 25 and 40.

The middle of the set featured a charming but overly long acoustic set in which each member took off with a guitar or a cajon. By this point, the boys, inappropriate as that term is, had swapped swish royal blue suits for amusingly '90s appropriate street wear.

If the job of a boy band is to make women scream and dance with gusto, Nick, AJ, Howie, Kevin and Brian delivered in spades. A crew who know how to hit every nostalgia nail on the head and introduce new songs to a resistant audience, the Backstreet Boys deserve twenty more good years. At least until they become Backstreet Grandpas.

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