NKOTB IS BACK!!!!!

When I heard earlier this year that the New Kids on the Block were going on tour, it brought back a whole whirlwind of memories. Like most women my age, I grew up with this group that shaped the boy band era. I had their tapes (yes, I said tapes!!), their posters, their t-shirts, and as a truly die-hard fan, even had buttons, pajamas, suspenders, and entire scrapbooks of magazine articles devoted to NKOTB. As a pre-teen and early teen, I had seen this band in concert twice, but that was.....I shudder to think..... 20 YEARS AGO!! I really don't know what happened to those years in between, but I do know one thing: they weren't filled with enough New Kids!! For old times sake and to support their effort at a reunion tour, I had to go to the concert.

When Neal told his co-workers about the concert, one

of the guys made this sign for me. The ironic part is,

Jordan really was my favorite back in the day!!

(My eyes kept closing with the flash, so I opened them

real wide in this pic!!)

This is the HUSBAND OF THE YEAR photo.

While I had wanted to go to the concert with a fellow

New Kids fan, they all either lived too far away or

recently moved away. So, being the loving husband

that he is, Neal agreed to go as my date. He was one of

about 10 guys in a packed arena full of women!

He definitely gets the husband of the year award. :-)

Natasha Bedingfield was the opening act,

and she was very good! Here she is singing

one of our favorite songs, "Pocketful of

Sunshine."

This is when the New Kids first came out on stage.

It was so neat to see the arena so packed, and to

hear all of the fans cheering for them after so long.

For many of us, they weren't just a band but a part

of our life story. I guess we were cheering for that

as much as for the music itself.

At 12 years old, there wasn't a cuter man on the face of

the planet than Jordan Knight. I swore I would marry him

someday. Now, 20 years later, I'm married to someone

who looks nothing like Jordan (I found someone even

better looking! :) and strangely, as I watched the 5 of

them perform, realized that as an adult, Jordan would

probably be my last pick. It's funny how our taste changes.

"My Favorite Girl"

Remember this one???!!!

The boys at the back of the floor dancing around a

revolving piano

While Jordan wouldn't be my first pick, he still

looked pretty darn good. :-)

There were parts of this concert that actually

made me tear up, not because the songs themselves

were particularly moving, but because they either

brought back a memory and made me nostalgic for

my childhood, or because the audience participation

was moving. They band sung songs from almost all of

their albums, and when they had the audience sing

solo at times, we all still remembered the words

and sung our hearts out. On "Step by Step" the ENTIRE

audience remembered every step!! It was awesome. The

end of the concert was another one of these moments

for me. They ended with "Hangin' Tough" and seeing

thousands of people wave their hands in the air

(like we used to do from copying the MTV video) was

really cool. Even Neal admitted that while the music

wasn't his favorite, the energy of the crowd was one

of the best he'd seen. It was an evening of fun and

of childhood memories, and I'm so glad that NKOTB

went on tour again. :-)