The Right Stuff

How many references to New Kids on the Block is too much for one blog?

Four? Five? Okay, I'm good then.

Several years ago my three sisters went to the New Kids concert at the Marriott center. I was overlooked and deemed "too young" to go and cheaply compensated with a book of paper dolls from Days Market. It was devastating. Yes, I was young, but I was a true fan. I had a Joey doll. I listened to the tape over and over. I had a NKOTB outfit that I wore proudly. And, all my friends got to go to the concert- we were the same age! It was tragic. Well, when we heard the boys were back together and were stopping in SLC, I knew it was redemption time. It was my time. So Krista, Jana and I went. Here's what I have to say about it:

Waiting in line to go in. When I left the house Brian was shocked that I was wearing that jacket. "It's going to get dirty," he said. "Brian," I said, "I'm going to a New Kids on the Block concert. I doubt it will get dirty." "Yeah, but it might get stolen." Me again, "Brian. I'm going to a New Kids on the Block Concert . . . with a bunch of women. It won't get stolen." I had no idea he was so protective of my white coat.

When we first got to our seats, there was no one sitting around us. Not a soul. We started to feel really bad for the New Kids for not selling more tickets. And we wondered how we would feel dancing and singing all by ourselves.

We were getting butterflies with all the waiting we had to do. The excitement was mounting. I felt like a little girl.

And then there he was. In no time I was listening to the sweet sound of Joey serenading me with the old classic "Please Don't Go Girl". It was a big moment.

And look. The stands filled up. . .mostly. And lets just talk for a second about Joey. Joey, is not a good dresser. Out of all the Kids he had the ugliest clothes. It was hard for me. I tried really hard to overlook it. But then I noticed that his dance moves were that of a Broadway dancer, and I looked over at Donnie, the one I hated back in the day. Donnie danced really cool. Donnie was cool. And Donnie didn't have his mullet/rat tail hairdo or his shredded jeans anymore. Then I looked back over at Joey in his v-neck sweater with a matching scarf around his neck and I kind of switched.

Okay, no. I didn't switch. I just added Donnie. Who would have thought? Not me.

At one point the boys took the stage all dressed in white, and we hoped for a second that they were going to get baptised. But then when Donnie got thrown a shirt from someone in the crowd that said, "I Love Mormon Girls" and he replied into the microphone for all us Mormon girls to hear, "Yeah. I do love Mormon girls! And I love American girls. And Canadian girls. . ." and so on, we realized that Donnie thought that being Mormon was a nationality. And we were really embarrassed for him. And we knew he was not getting baptised.

There were some scary moments like this one. When Jordan sang his solo. A wind machine was involved. It was not pretty. This was one of the times that we sat down and took a rest. No one needs to see that Jordan. It reminded me of Michael Bolton.

We rested quite a lot actually. This is Jana actually plugging her ears. The E-Center was filled with mostly a bunch of girls. Like us. But man, could those girls ever scream. It was as if the place was filled with a bunch of twelve year olds. It was loud in there. And the sound quality was awful. So we plugged every once in awhile. And sat. Mostly during all their new songs. We totally grooved to the oldies. And screamed. And all the words just magically came back to us and we sang along. But, overall, we felt kind of old.

I loved my first New Kids concert. There is nothing like seeing those boys do their little side kicking dance step all in a line to "The Right Stuff", you know the one? Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh. Oh, oh, oh-oh. I had to see that at least once.

So glad we went. So fun to spend a girls night with my sisters. So much better than paper dolls.