I was 11 years old the first time I heard of the New Kids on the Block. I was right in the target age range when they made it enormous in the late 80s and early 90s. I Keep Remembering When the Hangin’ Tough video and the Step by Step video were on MTV every stupid day… and I couldn’t WAIT to see the Step by Step video. Much to my mother’s dismay, I papered my walls with posters and magazine pages featuring my boys – especially pictures of Joe McIntyre. Oh GOD, I had it SO BAD for that boy. I listened to Treat me Right and Please Don’t Go Girl over and over. I had a collection of videos and (the most important) a LIVE CONCERT taped on VHS from pay-per-view that I somehow managed to convince my parents to pay for. I watched that concert so many times that I knew all the stage banter by heart.
For Christmas one year I got tickets to the No More Games Tour in my stocking. I was 13 or 14 – now close your eyes and image my high-pitched teenage squeals upon discovery of those tickets. THEN imagine that I just found out one of my BFFs also got tickets – we were going together IN A LIMO!!!!!!!!!!1 I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Shortly after that, the New Kids lost their cool at my school, and in the world. I kept all of my paraphernalia in a box, although I think I tossed most of the posters and magazine pages. Oh, I could KICK myself for that now. I would secretly listen to my tapes when no one was around. I went to high school and started listening to more punk and rock… never admitting my secret desire to listen to Please Don’t Girl over and over at top volume while reading Teen Beat. I even bought the Face the Music CD in my sophomore year in high school. And I realized Hell itself would have to freeze over before I could admit my love for NKOTB in public again. I was in high school now, so I had to be, like, cool or whatever.
Well. Hell froze the fuck over and I’m coming out of the New Kids on the Block closet: Hi. I’m Livia, and I’m a New Kids fan. Like a lot. NKOTB is back. Somebody said somebody wouldn’t last too long, somebody’s still going strong.
As soon as I heard they were putting out a new CD and TOURING, I emailed W, the girl I went with to see the No More Games tour and told her that we HAD to go. HAD TO GO.
I swear to Holy Heaven, it was AWESOME. It was better than awesome. IT WAS SO FUCKING RAD! So first of all, they’re all still hot and now that they’re Grown Men and we’re all Big Girls they can really show it off. The new CD is really fucking good, if you like dance-y, sexy pop. and I mean SEXY. I totally blushed when I heard Full Service and Twisted because they’re, well, they’re the New Kids on the Block!! I have no problem with Trent Reznor telling me he wants to fuck me like an animal – but I wasn’t really comfortable with little Joey-Joe singing about BDSM while touching himself live on stage in front of me. Check it (and that video doesn’t even really show the touching parts like I saw)
So, it turns out my boys are actually talented and they put on a fucking good show. I’d never really thought about it – I mean, what does an 11-14 year old girl know about talent? But they can actually sing, they’ve got the boy band choreography thing down pat, and combine that with the flash of a tour stage (lights, video screens and pyrotechnics) and you’ve got an awesome, totally fun stage show.
Reflecting on the music of my teenie-bopper days I have learned a few thing: My boys made some pretty good pop songs. They also made a few really, really bad ones. But I will defend my previous statement by noting that the good ones are really good. Cover Girl, Whatcha Gonna Do About It, and Step by Step are really pretty good songs – assuming you like boy band pop (N.B. I also like NIN, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Garbage, The Pixies, TMBG, Enya and a whole range of things, so even though I’m a “boy-band girl” I’m not only a boy band girl). I can’t find the real video for Twisted so you’ll have to be content with the concert video and I can’t find a video for Full Service, but I’m sure you can find some concert footage ifyou look enough (those are my two favorites on the new CD). BUT here’s some more New Videos! Summertime and Single
They did a mix of stuff from Hangin’ Tough, Step by Step, The Block (the new one) and they even did one from their self-titled debut album from 1984. So we got it all – except I don’t think they did anything from the Face the Music CD, but whatever. It was totally surreal – I kept turning to W and asking, “Is this for real? Are we really seeing this right now?”
Highlight songs: Didn’t I Blow Your Mind this Time, Please Don’t Go Girl, Cover Girl, Twisted, Dirty Dancing, Tonight, Single, Summertime, The Right Stuff and Step by Step.
Highlight moves: all the old songs kept the old choreography!!!! so good. Also: Jordan taking his shirt off while singing Baby I believe in You, Danny break dancing also, Danny fully checking his package (full on crotch grab) during one of the new songs, Jonathan wearing an Obama tshirt while singing Tonight & Dirty Dancing, Donnie busting out with Games, and Joey touching himself while singing Twisted.
They closed the show with Hangin’ Tough, wearing Celtics jerseys. Isn’t that precious?
So, 16 years later, I can freely and publicly admit that I love the New Kids on the Block and know that I was surrounded by 15,000 other women my age who felt the same way when they boys appeared on that stage, surrounded by 15,000 women my age who all waved our hands in the air and sang along to all the songs.
Posted by liviaaugusta 
