Last night, my big sister & I headed to Madison Square Garden for the New Kids on The Block concert. Not sure what exactly to expect, we arrived to an arena laden with ‘mature women’ (as I was calling them) clad in early ’90s inspired neon t-shirts designating their New Kid of choice and NOT the typical pre-pubescent scene I am used to encountering at a “Boy Band” concert (and as many know, I’ve been to my fair share).

Lady Gaga got things started and then Natasha Beddingfield starred as the opening act – which I must say, was worth it in and of itself, girl can sing and I am digging her new one-sided mullet, surprisingly.

But when the lights dimmed, and the familiar beats started to kick in – I was gitty like a little school girl on Christmas morning, in a really fun way! Then, from under the stage emerged Jordan, Danny, Jon, Joey and Donnie – and the nostalgia of my first childhood celebrity crush rushed back to me. Well, my first two, I should say, I was always undecided between Joey & Jordan, and their boyish good looks. My sister was a “Donnie” girl through and through, as she was already into her teenage years full swing and able to appreciate that “bad boy appeal” that she told me I would understand one day.

Last night – I did. I heart Donnie Wahlberg. When I first heard about the reunion album & tour, I was actually surprised he was up for the challenge. He was the one fella among the crew who actually managed to attain a fairly respectable follow-up career in acting and I didn’t think he’d be up for the ridicule. But as it turned out, he was eating this up to his fullest potential, and I liked it.

There were 2 defining moments in the show for me:

1) when Jordan took the stage for his solo bit, and emerged on stage in black pants and an unbuttoned & opened white dress shirt (and nothing under it) with industrial fans conveniently positioned to blow it off of him, a la Step By Step video, a memorable image from back in the day that was so cheesy, and so amazing! (Click here to experience what I am talking about). All that was missing was his stellar rat tail!

and 2) when Donnie, who had been wearing a blinged-out Boston Red Sox baseball hat throughout the entire show came out and said, “Because I love you guys, I’m going to do something that could get me killed,” and he threw off the Boston had and replaced it with a blinged-out Yankees hat–the crowd went wild. I noticed though, that by the next set, he was back to his Boston hat — guess he couldnt handle the disloyalty to beantown for real.

In other news, Joe was looking good and like he was also really enjoying this and Danny made a sweet gesture to the crowd, noting that they had designed a t-shirt for his mom who passed 9 years ago due to breast cancer, and proceeds would go to the Cancer Foundation. Not surprisingly, Jon was fairly mute throughout the show and we both noticed he was always placed next to his brother, in any of the choreography. (Jon has suffered from panic attacks since the break-up of the band and talked publicly about his fear of being in public, especially when surrounded by large audiences, on Oprah in 1994. It’s ok Jon – you did great!).

We left the stadium 3.5 hours later, fully fulfilled, partially def, and with a reinvigorated love for the New Kids. They played all of their old songs and impressed us with some of the new. I would seriously go again tonight if I could. They are so dreamy. Sigh…

PS – I forgot how much I love the song “No Games”. That’s a classic.

(Alyson Campbell for It’s All Very PR)

Tags: Alyson Campbell, amp3, AMP3 pr, AMP3 Public Relations, It's All Very PR, NKOTB

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 3:56 pm and is filed under blasts from the past, celeb-tastic, person(aly)ty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.