Backstreet Concert Going Comes Full Sphere

I know, I know. Everyone wants to know - how were the Backstreet Boys at the Sphere?

I am still trying to process the fact that I was there. 

It was amazing. It was nerve wracking. It made me cry in the first 10 seconds of it starting. It was sensory overload. It was beautiful. I had to fight to see at times. There were lovely people in GA. There were awful people in GA. 

It was a LOT. 

In short, it’s mind blowing and needs to be seen more than once.

In trying to put my feelings into words, I’ve realized how different my experience is from what people want to hear. Everyone expects a hand on the heart and an “Oh my god, it changed my life. Best concert ever, hands down. I felt like a teenager again.”

My feelings are so vastly more complicated than that. 

But there’s a very good reason. My BSB experience in general is so different, longer, and more complicated than most people’s. 

The majority of Into the Millennium 2.0 at the Sphere concert goers are people who saw the Boys once or twice in their heyday, most likely when they were in middle and/or high school. And then, like normal humans, they moved on with their lives. When the radio stopped playing the Boys, they faded into the recesses of these peoples’ minds, packed into the nostalgia files. Someone recently described BSB by saying “Some music brings you back to who you were,” and for most people attending the Sphere concert, that’s true. 

But it isn’t for me. 

Backstreet Boys ARE my past, my present, and my future. 

As I’ve stated before, for most events in my life, there is a Backstreet Boys song or memory I associate with it. From middle school to my wedding to the birth of my daughter. 

So this wasn’t just a reminiscent skip down memory lane. This was another link in a long Backstreet chain. 

And as I’ve thought about this over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that my Backstreet concert going can be split into four distinctive eras. 

I shall now debrief in a simultaneously imperative and unnecessary deep dive. 

Phase 1: Just to be close… It’s the only thing that I wanna do…

March 1998: Called my friend to invite her to my family’s Passover Seder. Friend was in the shower, but since we’d recently become extremely close, her mom said to me, “Do you like the Backstreet Boys?”

I mean, they were fine. I had heard of them for years due to their pictures being in Bop Magazine when I was buying it for JTT, years before they released music in America. So I recognized the name when they finally made it in their home country, but that “Quit Playing Games” song was very mediocre. “As Long As You Love Me” was somewhat better though. (I was really trying to like them for my friend, who was obsessed, particularly with Brian.)

But when her mom went on to invite me to go to a BSB concert with them, some kind of weird switch flipped in my brain. It wasn’t even a prepubescent love kind of thing - the fateful picture that made me fall in love with Nick Carter was about two months away from my grasp. 

So I guess it comes down to the music. 

Prior to BSB, Boyz II Men was my favorite group, so I was primed to love the vocal harmonies and R&B leanings of the Boys. I’m a singer myself; I’ve sung in choirs and plays since elementary school and participate in choir to this day. Certain music just speaks to me. 

So I started to seek out the BSB songs that really did it for me. It came down to songs like “All I Have to Give” (not a single at the time), “Missing You,” “Just to Be Close” and “Everytime I Close My Eyes.”

Combine these moving pieces with both the inside front cover of Bop that I saw on May 15, 1998 (Nick Carter’s blue eyes staring into my soul), and I did one of the things I do best when I love something - I went absolutely cuckoo bananas for it. I became so obscenely obsessed with the Backstreet Boys that I didn’t go a single day without listening to at least one of their songs. I carried a folder of my favorite pictures with me and wallpapered my room with posters of the group as well as solo pix. I kissed my Nick poster good night before heading to bed. 

So on August 29, 1998, when my mom finally took two of my closest friends and me to see the Boys, we went all out. We wore our shirts, wrote the names of our favorite boy (Nick, Brian, and Howie) across our foreheads with black lipstick, and carried a gigantic poster I’d made with me. It said “Nick - I Just Wanna Be Close To You.” 

Of course, there was no way he would see it. Our seats were two rows from the top of the 20,000 person stadium style venue. But I didn’t care. I was literally ecstatic at the thought of being in the same room as the Boys. I kept saying to my friends, “We’re going to be breathing the same air as them!” Throughout the night, I regularly thought about that. I screamed myself so hoarse that talking was difficult the next day. I was so grateful to just be in the presence of my absolute favorite group ever. And when the night was over, my friends and I cried to think the day we had waited so long for was over. 

“I promise you,” my mom said, “you will see them again.”

I honestly wasn’t sure I would. I could already see how capricious the pop music industry could be, and I knew there was no guarantee the Boys would stay together or stay big enough to keep up their careers. 

But then it was 1999, and I was listening to Z100 on Easter morning when I heard the first new single off the upcoming new BSB album entitled “I Want It That Way,” a song with some truly baffling lyrics whose catchiness remains to this day. I can sing to 7th graders in 2026, “Tell me why,” and they can respond with “Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache.” 

So yeah. The Boys turned out to have staying power. 

I saw their Into the Millennium tour at the same venue where I saw the Backstreet’s Back Tour the previous year, and I had a slight visual upgrade. This time I was FOUR rows from the top instead of two, and the stage was in the round instead of at one end, so really, I was a lot closer. I was again so elated to even be present at this concert, especially since I couldn’t make the first date that was announced in my area and almost thought I would miss out on a tour that started with the Boys flying into the arena on surfboards. After the concert quickly sold out, a second date at the arena was announced, and I was beyond grateful to be available and be able to get tickets. 

By the release of “Black and Blue,” the Boys’ popularity was starting to wane, though the album still sold over a million units nationwide in its first week of release. This time, I had to drive two hours to make a concert fit into my schedule, and we were still close to the top of the arena, but it was a smaller arena (16,000 capacity vs. 20,000), so I felt much closer. The concert we saw was in February, and in the summer, a second leg was announced. My concert going friends were able to buy lawn seats at a venue whose lawn begins after the 7,000 seat, and we were near the barricade. MUCH closer suddenly. And the seats were buy one, get one free, so even Dads could attend! I also accidentally bought a pair of tickets on eBay for the tour, back at my original venue, but now in the 100s section instead of the 200s. 

So this era started almost as far away as possible, but I crept ever closer. 

Phase 2: Up Close and Personal

In February 2003, Nick Carter was well into his solo Now or Never tour. My parents took a friend and me to see him at the Theater of the Living Arts in Philly. As soon as I walked into the venue, my jaw hit the floor. I knew this was a standing room only venue, but when you’re used to arenas that seat 20,000 and you walk into a room that can hold about 800 people, the difference is stark. We stood maybe 10 rows back from the stage. When one of the opening acts was on, I said to my friend, “I bet he’ll be able to see us if we wave to him!” I put my hand up and waved as I talked, and unintentionally got a wave from an opener, thus proving my point. 

Before Nick came on, there was some kerfuffle off to the side aisle. We crowded a doorway that was blocked off by a curtain. Someone reached up and pulled it back - and there he stood, the man himself, Nick Carter, about 10 feet away from me. My knees went weak. 

The concert was beyond any of my experiences so far. Being so close to someone I idolized so much, dancing in a crowd of people singing his lyrics, being swept up in this vibe… it was all intoxicating in a new, more vibrant way.

And then the Boys took a hiatus. I couldn’t talk about it at the time. If anyone brought it up to me and said they were breaking up, I would lash out. 

So when they released “Incomplete” and announced Never Gone, it was a triumph for me. 

In between the release of the single and the release of the album, the Boys did a teeny, tiny tour. They played 17 shows, all at intimate venues more akin to Nick’s show in Philly. Besides myself and the friends I went with, most people I meet have never even heard of this tour. 

This concert changed so much for me. It was the first I attended without my mom as I was now in college. It marked the fact that my favorite band of all time, one whose music got me through so much, one who people revelled in telling me was broken up, was definitely still together AND making new music. And one that finally allowed me to see the faces of these music makers as they crooned and danced. It made so many of my dreams come true. 

For the next several tours, I sat much closer than ever before. Before “Never Gone” was released, there was a giveaway of passes to see the Boys tape the CBS Early Show, and I was chosen to go. It was a unique experience where the guys performed a short set, left the stage (except

for Howie and Nick, who stayed in front of us to play covers, including Lennie Kravitz’s “Fly,” and boy do I wish this was in the era of smart phones so I could have video evidence of this!), and came back out to redo some songs. Afterwards, they came into the audience (except for Nick, who said he had to pee but I think was just running from fans, which he seems to do often), and I got to meet Brian and AJ for the first time, and had Kevin sign a CD. (See more details here)

I saw the Never Gone tour at the same outdoor venue as Black and Blue, but I sat within the first 20 rows rather than on the lawn. (I would later see In a World Like This at this same venue from the 10 row. During “Love Somebody,” I threw my hands in the air and swayed, and as a DARE kid who never used drugs, I thought, “This must be what getting high feels like.” A major revelation in what a Backstreet Boys concert does to me.)

When “Unbrekable” was released in 2007, a friend and I camped out at the Virgin Megastore in NYC overnight in order to meet the Boys, scoring me my first moment with Nick Carter (and Howie Dorough) to date - I told him I loved him and he kissed my hand. I saw the Unbreakable tour in the summer of 2008 at House of Blues in Atlantic City - venue capacity 2300, stood in about the 5th row. Even more special, I saw it again at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, the town in which I went to college, a venue of about 2,500, and stood in the second row. This show was on Halloween, and for the encore of "Everybody," the Boys came out in Halloween costumes. Trust that I’ve seen this song performed six ways from Sunday, but no matter the effects, nothing will top the Geico Gecco, Nacho Libre, the Burger King, and Count Chocula’s rendition.

The This is Us tour had a weird dichotomy of days for me - I saw it two days in a row. The first was at Atlantic City’s Showboat, a venue of 2,500 again, but this time there were seats, and mine was about 25 rows back. BOO! I was much too far away again! I had gotten so used to the energy and the high of being up close! I had completely forgotten what it was like to be in the back of the arena. 25 rows back wasn’t good enough anymore, so I mostly forgot this show. 

Meanwhile, the next night it was back to General Admission, and I stood the closest I’ve ever been at a Backstreet Boys concert. I was in what I call the 1 1/2th- row - not right up against the barricade, but not fully in the second row of people. The intoxication was back. 

Well the only way to go from there was - out to sea! Later that year, BSB hosted their first fan cruise, and I was lucky enough to have one friend crazy enough to agree to go with me. (We also attended an acoustic set the night before the cruise, on my 25 birthday, and did my first full meet and greet - so yeah, I got a hug from Nick Carter ON my 25 birthday.) This redefined up close and personal as we bumped into the Boys all over the ship. Almost as soon as we got on board, we got hugs from Nick and hugs and pictures with Brian. There’s an epic story about Lauren Kitt meeting me in the bathroom and remembering me the next day here. There were game shows and deck parties and a concert. There was very little sleep. 

2013 brought Kevin Richardson back to the group with “In a World Like This.” This was another tour I saw twice, both times at outdoor venues, neither time with lawn seats. I still loved the music and the vibe, but I resented not being as close as smaller standing room venues. 

Guess I was able to stomach it because that fall, I did ANOTHER BSB cruise. This one wasn’t as easy to snag solo moments with the guys, but I still managed pictures with Kevin, Brian, and AJ, hung out with Brian’s wife Leanne for a bit, and had Howie pour a shot of vodka straight out of a bottle down my throat. I got close enough to Nick to touch him, but he’s very skimpy on the solo pix. I got even less sleep than the previous cruise, really trying to maximize my BSB time. 

There were a few more legs of the In a World Like This tour, but due to being away visiting family in the summers, I missed them all, which was tough for my Backstreet Pride. My concert going friends started to find other concert going friends. I had an emotionally tough Nick night with someone who had become my closest concert pal. We went to see him in NYC with some other cruise girls, but they all bought VIP packages and didn’t invite me. They got in first, got pictures, and stood closer than I could. I bonded with some other girls in line, and when Nick tossed his guitar pick into the audience, one of my new friends caught it and gave it to me. 

In 2016, I had another momentous concert when Nick Carter performed a standing room show at iPlay America. I took myself and got myself a VIP ticket. This entitled me to be at Nick’s sound check and take cheek to cheek pictures with him before the show. I stood front row and got the attention of his guitarist when I rocked out and sang along. After the show, if you bought $100 worth of merch, you got a selfie with Nick. That was easy - I was trying to convince myself not to buy a hoodie, so I just added a baseball T to that order and scored the crowning jewel in my BSB picture collection. He granted me a kiss on the cheek!

Phase 3: Time/Look where we are and what we’ve been through…

It was awhile before the Boys released their next album, which was DNA in 2019. Emotionally I strongly connected with this effort. Singles started to release while my husband and I were struggling to conceive, and the album came out when I was very newly pregnant. I used to sing the beautiful R&B ballad “Nobody Else” to my expanding baby bump and day dreamed about our family to “No Place.” 

But interestingly, this album did better than any release since “Black and Blue” in 2002. I guess 17 years is how long it takes for nostalgia to kick in. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, and the Boys returned to full sized indoor arenas for the tour. 

The thing is, I’m a teacher. And, despite the concert and cruise going, I’m more sensible with my money than a lot of people I know (partly because I just am and partly because I have to be). So while returning fans who proclaimed "Backstreet's Back” even though they hadn’t gone anywhere at all and tried and true fans with more money and less sense than me were shelling out for floor seats and insanely priced VIP packages because, hey, we’re real adults now and have a lot of play money, I wasn’t willing to remortgage my house. Because of this, I was once again relegated to the middle levels of the arenas. My friend made me a cute “Backstreet Baby on Board” shirt for our DNA concert, which I attended two days before my due date with the blessing of my doctor. I watched women direct their husbands and small children and parents to the floor because of whatever their higher paying jobs were, and I couldn’t help but be a little bitter. I’ve been a loyal fan for so long, and this was my thanks. 

And then, to add insult to injury, the DNA tour pandered to the fans who hadn’t seen a Backstreet show in 17 years. Here I was, adoring their new album, placing “Nobody Else” and “Chateau” and “Is It Just Me?” among my favorite BSB songs of all time, and those first two got very, very brief treatment in the tour (a quick chorus sung by a single Boy while the rest changed), and the third wasn’t sung at all. 

Sigh. 

So DNA wasn’t my favorite tour. I still loved seeing the Boys, but it was hard for me NOT to focus on the negatives of sitting far away and not hearing my new favorite songs. I was coming off that era of the intimacy of seeing the expressions on their faces while they sang their beautiful new harmonies. I felt like they were pandering to the nostalgia of people who were one time casual fans. 

And I get why they do that, I really do. And I know that most people who come to see them these days don’t care about their new music. But I do - I always have, and I always will. 

This was driven further home the last two times I saw Nick Carter on his “Who I Am” tour. I saw him in November of 2023 in a smaller venue, though this one did not have general admission, and I was relegated to about the 25 row. I went with friends who weren’t as familiar with his two newest singles - and “80s Movie” AND “Made For Us” are two perfect songs in my opinion. I wanted to dance down front, and I tried getting into a vibe, but I was surrounded by women who brought their husbands, and all of them were squeezing in and out of rows all around me to get more drinks, bumping into me and disrupting my view. 

Nick returned to NJ for the same tour in November of 2024, and at least I got seats in the third row this time. Unfortunately, the set list was a lot shorter for some reason. I was disappointed by the songs he left out, including “80s Movie.” I did enjoy his newest single at the time, “Superman.” Again, I threw my hands up and sang along - and I didn’t see anyone else anywhere near us doing the same. Nick notoriously doesn’t interact with fans during concerts, but I SWEAR he smiled and nodded to me during this song. Someone I was with agreed, saying it was because I was probably the only person in the venue singing along with him. 

And that made me kind of sad for him. I mean, yeah, he’s still a pop star who has more money than I can imagine and gets to perform regularly, which is a dream job. And he lives in Vegas, so when performing at the Sphere, he gets plenty of time with his family. 

But here he is making new music, writing all kinds of new songs, and most people who show up still just want to hear 20 year old boy band songs. They’re there for the nostalgia and how hot he still is (cuz he is), not for the music. 

Side note: Nick has faced tons of tragedy in his life anyway. Dysfunctional childhood, 3 out of his 4 siblings are already deceased, drug and alcohol abuse. So I’m not saying his life is perfect OR that this is his only sadness. Just one facet of the gem that is Nick Carter.

And that was the last time I saw a Backstreet Boy prior to the Sphere. 

Phase 4: (Literally) Larger Than Life

I didn’t think I needed to see BSB at the Sphere. Obviously I’ve seen them a few times, and I’ve never had any burning desire to go to Las Vegas. I skipped their first residency for this reason. Why spend excess money to see them perform songs I’ve seen so many times? I’d just wait for the next tour. 

But then Jon and I watched them perform “Larger Than Life” at the venue, and my mind was blown. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. I knew this was going to change the face of concert going. 

I already had a friend who had asked me about going to their first two sets of dates, and I had turned her down, but now, when the third set was announced, we decided to go for it. My mom also wanted to come. 

I waffled about where to buy seats. General admission was pretty reasonable, easy to get, and gave me an opportunity to be closest to the Boys. But sitting further back would allow us to see the whole picture, visual effects and more, easily, and it would be a lot easier on my mom. But due in large part to cost, and in almost equally large part to my want to be near the stage, I opted for GA. 

I then spent months checking a Backstreet Boys Greatest Fans group on Facebook for GA tips. People recommended lining up anywhere between 1 PM and 7 PM to get up to the barricade closest to the stage. Seven seemed late enough - could we go pretty late and still be in the first row? My mom wouldn’t want to stand for hours in the most comfortable of weather, but to ask her to stand in Vegas’s 115 degree dangerous heat seemed… well, dangerous. If it had been just me, I would have seriously considered lining up around 2, but then probably pushing that back to 4 or 5 due to heat. 

But how awesome would standing in the first row at the Sphere be?

My mom’s concern about the heat grew. My worries about where we could stand continued to nag me internally. 

Also, I made these ridiculously obnoxious blingy jackets for myself and my mom. 

On the day of the show, I didn’t worry about getting to the venue early. I was outnumbered by my mom’s concern and this bit of sane logic that I promise I still retain. We got there around 6:30, just as doors were being opened, and we didn’t have to wait long outside at all. 

We ended up standing in about the fourth row. I made friends with some girls nearby, but a lot of people were very cliquey. Some sat on the floor and glared at you if they nearly tripped you. The Facebook group had been urging people to be kind and understanding, but I quickly realized how few people attending that night’s show must have been in the group. There was an every-man-for-himself vibe that I was hoping we’d outgrown. 

I was so preoccupied with how close to the stage I could get that I neglected to cater to my own short girl needs. I’m 5’1” at a stretch, and I managed to stand almost directly behind one of the tallest guys at the show. Easily over six feet. The two girls I befriended and I bemoaned the new presence of husbands at the shows. Tall Guy, as we dubbed him, showed no mercy AT ALL to the height of those around him. 

My new friends had been at the show the previous night, as well as in January, and they said the Boys were very interactive, signing items passed to them by fans and security. I had also seen a lot of evidence of this on social media. New friends swore they thought I could get my blingy jacket signed and that they would help. 

So that became a focus for me during the show. Yes, when the 10 second countdown was on, my excitement mounted. When the show begins, it simulates a spaceship launch. I had seen this on YouTube, but to feel the actual rumble in your chest - I cried. Before there was even a Backstreet Boy in sight. 

But then I became so focused on wanting the Boys to come close to us so I could get their attention. Oh, and on seeing. Because I had to bob back and forth and go up and down on my tip toes to make sure I could see. And sometimes I had to remember to look around to take in the whole thing. And sometimes I had to look down or at Tall Guy’s back because no one warns you about how much your neck is going to hurt at that concert. 

With about half an hour left, I took my jacket off and started to hold it up whenever a Boy came towards us. My new friends pointed to it. It was overlooked every time. My mom tapped Tall Guy on the shoulder and asked if he would hold it up for us. He looked down at her and snootily replied, “I’m trying to get my wife’s hat signed.” He went on to make no attempts to get the hat noticed. 

There was a tall girl next to me who had seemed annoyed at me earlier in the night, either because I bumped into her or because I’m socially unsure of myself and made it up in my head. Overhearing our exchange with Tall Guy, she reached down and grabbed the jacket, which she waved over her head at the appropriate times. 

It still never got signed.

Before the concert, I had told myself I would live in the moment. That I’d concentrate on just being there with my mom and my friends and the band I love more than any other in the world in a groundbreaking venue. I did pay close attention to the still-amazing vocal harmonies on some of my favorites, like “Siberia,” which I proclaimed is a religion, and “More Than That.” I marveled at the moves of men in their mid 40s-mid 50s. I basked in the glow of being surrounded by people loving the music I’m so passionate about. 

There’s a brief point in the show where part of the stage rises up with the Boys on it, and they perform a couple of numbers elevated, so the groundlings can’t see them. When they broke into “Get Down,” I threw my arms up and danced my heart out and had a blast. 

And then I wondered why I hadn’t been doing that the whole time. I had let stupid things get in the way of the moment for too many moments. Not that I didn’t have fun, but I’m not sure I had as much fun as I could have. 

But then, I’m always a bit heartbroken when a BSB concert ends. 

The other piece of my complicated relationship with this concert is that I can’t help but love the smaller, more intimate venues where it really is all about the relationship of the fans to the music. I love hearing new songs I haven’t heard live before. I don’t really need the throwback to my difficult middle school days. I need the promise of the new music, what’s coming now and what still lies ahead. The flashing optics are cool, but nothing beats the beautiful harmonies flowing mellifluously from their mouths. 

So was the Sphere my favorite Backstreet Boys concert ever? Probably not, despite its unique greatness. That said, I’d like to see it three more times - once from an actual seat to take in the full effect of the visuals, once from right up against the GA barricades, and once from the back of GA, where, due to people smooshing forward, there’s more room on the floor to just dance and party it out. 

Although it is pretty cool to have been as close as I was at a venue that houses 20,000. That was a first. 

And yes, when someone asks me how the concert was, literally all these thoughts run through my head in the span of about five seconds. So if I look a bit torn before I say, “It was really great,” you’ll know why.