My night with the New Kids on the Block

Last night was the KISS 108 radio show at Tweeter Center. New Kids on the Block were going to be performing a brief set and I decided that even though I'm going to see them in September I needed to go last night as well. With my luck one of them would break a leg between now and September, the tour would be cancelled, and I would have to wait another 20 years to see them in concert. I got the set times from the venue and decided to head down with Tracy to see Maroon 5 (who was on right before New Kids) and of course, the New Kids. As much as I enjoy Maroon 5, it was very hard to watch them knowing that I had to sit through their performance before I could see New Kids on the Block. They did a good job and I enjoyed their set, sat through the brief intermission with lots of anticipation, and then was CRUSHED when Natasha Bedingfield went on instead of New Kids on the Block. It turns out that Danny and Donnie had attended the Boston Celtics game and were delayed. So, I sat through Natasha (who I actually really like), ANOTHER intermission, and then finally....there they were....NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. Oh my God! As giddy and excited as I've been to see them I didn't actually realize what a screaming, shaking freak I would be when they took the stage. I truly felt like I was 10 years old again. My pre-teen self was in absolute heaven.

The show was pretty much the exact same show that they had performed on the Today show last Friday, which was to be expected. They don't head out on tour until September so they're still getting songs and dance routines together. If I was this excited for a 3-song set, can you imagine how insane I will be in September when they perform an entire show?

After the show I was lucky enough to get to go backstage where they were hanging out. One thing I have learned when it comes to meeting celebrities is that the actual event NEVER lives up to the hype. As did every other pre-teen girl in the late 1980's, I firmly believed that if I ever met Joey McIntyre our eyes would meet, harps would play, and angels would start to sing. Well, I did get to meet Joey a few years back at a "Boston Public" meet-n-greet and I was greatly disappointed that there were no angels and no beam of light pouring down from the heavens. A few years later I was at a Justin Timberlake show and after the show he was standing 10 feet away from me at an afterparty and I refused to go up and say "hi" because I didn't want a repeat of the Joey incident. I'm glad I didn't meet him because now I can still ooh and aah over him in my magazines without having to accept that he is just a regular guy.

Anyway, back to the New Kids. So last night I got to go back stage where they were hanging out. As I walked into the area I walked right past Jonathan who was standing and talking to some friends. Donnie, Joey, Jordan, and Danny were all in a small courtyard area doing some radio press. I just stood to the side and took it all in. All of them walked past me at some point or another - close enough to touch - and Donnie actually stopped to talk to the guy standing next to me. It was an absolutely perfect situation. I got to stand within a hair's-breadth of each of them without actually having to ruin my pre-teen fantasy of running away with practically any member of New Kids. Of course, on the flipside, Joey was the only one that I even considered speaking to last night since I already ruined the illusion with him. Of course, seeing him in a concert setting as a New Kid (and not as an actor on Boston Public) really did help to restore the aura of pre-teen crush status.