They Still Have the Right Stuff

By Tiffany Y. Hsia

After a 15-year hiatus, New Kids on the Block are back and yes, they still have the “Right Stuff.” Though many of the “kids” are now in their mid to late 30s, they still have the ability of turning scores of grown women into hysterical, screaming fanatics, as witnessed at the NKOTB Reunion tour on September 27 in Atlantic City.

Over 2,000 women and yes, even some men, filled the Borgata Event Center on the evening of the concert. This time around, things were a little bit different. Instead of thousands of screaming pre-pubescent teenagers in NKOTB T-shirts milling around, the concert mainly consisted of women between the ages of 20 and 40, downing cocktails in provocative club wear, euphorically re-living their childhoods by scream-singing lyrics to some of NKOTB’s biggest hits.

This is the first tour for NKOTB after 15 years and it has been selling out so quickly that the boys from Boston - that’s Donnie, Danny, Joe, Jordan and Jonathan for the uninitiated - have had to schedule three go-arounds just across North America alone. This concert at the Borgata was the eighth stop on the first leg of their North American tour and the show featured their greatest hits and songs from their new album called “The Block,” which has already been certified Gold and debuted at # 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart.

The feeling in the room was electric as the concert opened with a montage of the ‘kids’ earlier music videos on the bi-leveled stage’s jumbo screen. The screams became deafening once the strains of their current single, aptly titled “Single,” started thumping through the speakers. The vocal chords on these grown women were definitely in working order as NKOTB appeared from beneath the stage on a moving platform to the top of the stage while singing “For the next couple hours…Imma gonna be your boyfriend,” which provoked roars of a hormone-surging frenzy.

It’s always been known that NKOTB weren’t superb vocal performers, but these men put on a supremely entertaining show. It was obvious that they were having as good a time as the audience as they laughed, smiled and danced around the stage. After going through a medley of some of their greatest hits, Donnie Wahlberg, the traditional NKOTB emcee, stated “You’re already louder than the crowd at the Izod Center and you are three or four times smaller,” which produced even louder screams, to his amusement.

After the concert, the fun continued as two members of the group, Donnie and Joe, partied with concert goers at the Borgata night club, The Mixx. The duo arrived around 1 a.m. and performed two additional songs, “Full Service” and “Put It On My Tab,” karaoke-style, from the VIP area.


Set List:

“Single”
“My Favorite Girl”
“(You Got It) The Right Stuff”
“Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)”
“Valentine Girl”
“Please Don’t Go Girl”
“Grown Man” (With Nicole Scherzinger)
“Games”
“If You Go Away”
“2 In the Morning”
“Dirty Dancing”
“Tonight”
“Twisted”
“Baby I Believe in You”
“Give It To You” (Jordan solo)
“Stay the Same” (Joey solo)
“Cover Girl”
“I’ll Be Lovin’ You (Forever)”
“Click, Click, Click”
“Summertime”

Encore:

“Step By Step”
“Hangin’ Tough”