Melanie Chui

For all you crazy women out there who were once a huge fan of the original boy band of the 80s, New Kids on the Block, you sure missed one hell of a show on March 28 in Niagara Falls, NY. The sold out concert at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, NY brought back the screaming teenagers in the 80s together again in a small venue where we all lost ourselves along with other hormonal women.

Imagine this, a packed room (more like a hotel conference room) with 3 sections of seating on one level. Our seats were literally cloth padded metal seats with numbers on them, just like any chair in a hotel conference/banquet. As my team of girls walked into the venue, we were completely caught off guard that our beloved New Kids would be performing in such a small venue. But before long, after the opening act of the Jabbawockeez, the New Kids came out and performed the heck out of the conference room. Women (now in their 30s to 40s) were screaming like there was no tomorrow. And Jordan, Joe, Jon, Donnie and Danny performed and sang as if no time had ever passed. They thrived off of the screams and yells and they flirted with the audience by telling us that this was the best crowd on the tour. They also took the time to acknowledge the fact that there was probably an equal number of fans from both Buffalo and Toronto, and that it was here that the NKOTB took flight to a new level of success 20 years ago.

The vocal performance and the dancing were incredible. You would hardly believe that these guys were in their late 30s and early 40s. Danny even came out and did an incredible break dance sequence (the guy is 40!) I was thoroughly impressed. Jordan had some hesitation in his trademark song “I’ll be loving you”, but he still managed to hit the notes and Joe completely stole the show during his solo performance of  “Where do I go from here”.  He incorporated his vocally trained voice along with some of his Dancing with the Stars dance moves. I think the crowd was pretty blown away.

Donnie was probably the biggest flirt of the 5 now “Grown Man,” from their new album. He came out and started telling us that we were a beautiful crowd, and that if there were any single ladies interested, he was staying in room 1803. The crowd screamed insanely louder after he mentioned that. In fact a woman five rows ahead of me spent the whole night waving this piece of paper with her room number 1827 written in red (looked like lipstick). She seemed extremely persistent that she was going to get some results. LOL

The New Kids performed some of their new songs off their recent album “Summertime”, “Single”, “Grown Man”, “Dirty Dancin”, and they sang most of their hits in the 80s and 90s, including “Please don’t go girl”, “Tonight”, “I’ll be lovin’ you (forever)”, “Didn’t I blow your mind”, “Favorite Girl”, “Games”, “Step by Step” and their mega hit “Hangin’ Tough”.

Me and my gang of ladies were not disappointed and were immediately brought back to the days in our youth when we use to scream in our living rooms while dressed in NKOTB gear and lip-syncing to our favourite New Kids tunes. And might I add, the 5 guys still look really good. As a Jordan fan in the late 80s, my heart skipped a beat when he came out, cause I swear, he looks even better now than he did in the 90s.

To find out when NKOTB is coming to a venue near you, check out their concert schedule.