UNBREAKABLE TOUR: Backstreet Boys Show Their Strength

Say what you will about their style or substance, but there is no denying that the Backstreet Boys are the biggest-selling music act of any kind to ever perform in Prince George, and it showed.

In their 15-year history, BSB's record sales are pegged at somewhere around the 200 million mark worldwide, ranking them about 30th all-time behind only the most prestigious names like Madonna, The Beatles and Elvis. Two of their albums (Millennium and Backstreet Boys) are ranked in the Top 40 most popular discs ever made.

Nobody reaches those heights without some validity. It is easy to moan and grind against the bubble gum veneer of music videos and super simple lyrics and melodies when the distance of TV and radio are in play, but when they stand before you and throw it down on your stage in your house, it changes things. You get to see the sweat involved, you get to take in the theatrics, you get to appreciate the very intricate choreography. And you get to hear the unprecedented power of fans who screamed and roared and sang their appreciation like no other show I've ever seen in P.G. It's amazing how deep 2,000 female voices can pierce, on top of the 1,000-or-so guys who were also at CN Centre Sunday night.

For me this appearance was also a chance to put to rest all the concerns I had that these were still more lip-synch fraud artists, who used complicated dance moves to disguise their lack of singing and playing talent. Gone. Those opinions were blown out of my head in the first 10 minutes or so. What I witnessed was a group that could not function without hours and hours of both physical rehearsal and musical training, holding their notes like cupped hands around a butterfly while bouncing and gyrating everywhere around the stage. It was clear the vocals were live and they were backed up by real musicians.

Each one of the remaining members (Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and A. J. McLean - original fifth member Kevin Richardson left the group two years ago to begin a family, but stays close with his BSB mates) took a turn at soloing, just to show each and every one of them had vocal skill. Then when they burrowed into their group vocals it was sometimes overlooked how slick and tricked their harmony layers were. No one is going to accuse them of being The Beach Boys, but a lot of thought went into each singer's parts from song to song.

Their hits are unmistakably massive and infuriatingly catchy. That is their power and their biggest flaw. Over the years they have struggled to mature their sound, but it is coming around, it seems. Their most recent album Unbreakable and their respective solo projects have taken a few step up the ladder from the low-denominator pop that made them ridiculously rich and famous, and a solid sampling of that stuff was dished out on Sunday, but it still doesn't have the steak to give them the critical acclaim they probably, deep down, actually deserve and it doesn't give them the timelessness that will catch their material up with their aging bodies. They are far from over any hills, but the tummies are getting a little soft for the teen heartthrob labels stuck to their foreheads. The only cure for that is a hit or two on their next album or two that have some maturity. Having seen them live, with all the commitment they give their shows and their fans, and all the genuine talent lurking under the glazed surface, I actually believe BSB has what it takes to find that next gear. I wouldn't have said this before the show, but now I admit I am actually rooting for them.

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I was already sold on Divine Brown. Loved her on the radio, now I really dig her all-Canadian soul attitude. I just wish the Toronto diva stayed longer on the stage. Her dues are still being paid, she had to sing her set to backing music tracks, but her two backup singers and trio of dancers were very real and her voice was (feel this, BSB fans) larger than life.

Brown has a few domestic hits to carry her and the most recent two are particularly popular. The R'n'B-ish tune "Lay It On the Line" with its silky "sha-lada" background vocal line struck a unique and catchy pose, and there is no forgetting her current bullet up the charts "Meet Me At the Roxy" which is getting plenty of radio play this month.

Super hot girl group Girlicious was rumoured to be the opening act (they held the slot on the BSB tour in the States). Perhaps their stage act, which is more related to a Victoria's Secret lingerie campaign than anything musical, would have finished selling the building out had they been there, but Canadian snows probably posed too much of a hazard to the scantily clad quartet.

Instead BSB did the Canadian thing: substituted hard-earned quality for flash-in-the-pan celebrity. Brown has so many vocal chops the Prince George trees were extra nervous, and it's not like she and her background gang weren't ample eye candy in their own right if that's what you need in a concert. I'd like to see her back in P.G. again soon but in a more intimate setting where the subtleties of her powerhouse voice can be better appreciated. Maybe Girlicious can open for her.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20081117161837/local/news/backstreet-boys-show-their-strength.html