Uh, Toto, they definitely aren't KIDS anymore!

So let's just start off by saying that I am old. Not in the old-old sense, but I am old as in "fuddy-duddy" or boring-- that kind of old! Saying this up front will make it easier to understand my comments.

Mary Ellen and I had a FABULOUS time together! We ate dinner at Applebee's. I had a steak, shrimp, and a baked potato. Yum! She had soup and salad, but I tried not to let that spoil my hearty, calorie-laden meal.

And then we went to the E-Center to watch our "boys" perform. The pre-opening act stank. She was hideous! I don't know where they found her, but if she sang more than one song over the 25 minutes we were forced to watch her on stage, we couldn't actually tell. It was bad. Very bad.

The opening act was Great! Natasha Beddingfield. I love her song "Unwritten" which she sang as her closing number. From my perspective (way, way back) it looked like she was wearing fish-net stockings. Huh.

Oh, and by the way, when we got there they switched our tickets from the upper bowl, nosebleed seats to the main section so we were actually closer. That was a nice perk! All the people looked only 2 inches tall instead of like one inch!

So, Natasha was great and then we waited and waited and waited. The concert started at 8 pm and the boys-- who are not boys and tried very hard to show that to us-- didn't even come on until almost 9:30 (which happens to be my preprogrammed pajama time; yes, this is why I am old!). We went to the bathroom, went to the souvenir stand-- Mary Ellen bought me a keychain!--, and then went back to sit down.

Finally! It was NKOTB! The back of the stage blew open, the lights flashed on, the music blared and there the 5 of them were singing. And the crowd went wild. I'll admit it, even I screamed. I screamed for that 12 year old girl I once was that never got to see them in concert. I screamed because it was cool to see 2 inch tall NKOTB boys-not-boys live! LIVE! Wow! I screamed and clapped with the best of them.

I didn't not cry, however. That would be ridiculous for me.

The group was very determined to show that they are not the New KIDS on the block. There was a lot of um, how shall I say this: grabbing, wiggling, thrusting. Oh my! It was, uh, well, shocking! They must have watched too many Michael Jackson videos.....or something. Or do all major singers now grab themselves while singing? I don't know because, as I stated earlier, I am old.

They sang their new songs (two of which I won't ever let my daughter listen to OR watch the video!!!! even I had to look away! Yikes) and their old stuff. And, are you sitting down for this, Jordan can still sing the high notes?? Remember that "Please don't go girl" song? And we thought the high notes were just from pre-pubescent teenage boys?? Wrong! He can still sing like that.

Speaking of Jordan, he looked good, but he has fallen victim to the practice of "Manscaping." You know, manscaping. At one point he sang a solo and the wind machine was on him and he did this little flip of his shirt and suddenly it was flying open and exposing his sculpted chest and even from a considerable distance (and thanks to the large screen TVs) you could tell that *I* have more chest hair than he does! Yikes! Not a single hair on that waxed, polished chest. Plus he had the attitude the whole time of being one who is too worthy and glorious and incredible for human consumption. It got a little overbearing, I mean, come on-- he shaves his legs just like the rest of us! Duh! He's not a god or anything!

Joey, that fine specimen, looked good and was fabulous with the crowd. He's so great. Love that boy. Danny can STILL breakdance. And he's helping raise money and awareness for breast cancer research since he lost his mom 9 years ago. Kudos to him. Donny was great. He could milk the crowd, but still seemed totally down to earth. I mean, he said he ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel! That makes him human (plus he still had hair though he did like to wiggle his bum a lot....). Jonathan looked great, but never got much air time.

The best part was when they ran out of the doors just to my left. So those boys-not-boys were like 15 feet away from me! And then they sang and danced on this spinning round thing that got lifted up off the dance floor and then they were only 5 inches tall. Boy did that make them more life-like! Except, some of them were wearing more makeup then me. Isn't that discouraging??

It was loud and bright and crowded and smoky (thanks to the indoor fireworks and fog machine) and I felt old as I plugged my ears a lot. Nuts, I should have bought those ear plugs for $2 at the souvenir stand.

But I am glad I went. It was super fun with Mary Ellen and we'll never forget it. And we have such good memories. And we totally rocked out with all the other middle aged, mini-van moms who were there-- especially when they sang "Step by Step" and "Hanging Tough." And I screamed a lot and jumped up and down and accidentally knocked the guy in front of me. And I had a great time.


And I will never go to a concert like that again (it's the old thing again, remember???) ;o)