New Kids on the Block brought their boxing themed tour, The Main Event, to the Air Canada Centre on Sunday night for the first of two shows at the ACC, along with openers Nelly and TLC, and boy was it a party!
The almost two-hour NKOTB set took place on a large 360 degrees stage with catwalks extending from each side, red velvet ropes, ringside seats, and girls carrying cards that said “Round 1, 2, and 3”. Their performance was stacked with choreography, costume changes, a four-piece band, pyro, and lots of confetti.
For a band that consists of five guys in their mid-40s, they’ve still got the moves and physiques to keep fans screaming for more!
The show started with New Kids first appearing in black boxing robes while an announcer introduced each of them separately before they kicked off the evening with “Block Party”, “Crash”, “My Favourite Girl” and Magic Mike-worthy thrusts for “You Got It (The Right Stuff).”
The party kept going with their high-energy performance of “The Whisper” and “Shout” before slowing things down to do a medley of their ballads including “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind”, “If You Go Away”, and the crowd favourite “Please Don’t Go Girl”.
NKOTB quickly kicked things back up into high gear with their 2013 hit, “Remix (I Like The)”, followed by “Summertime” and “Dirty Dancing”. The audience sang along loudly during “Just a Friend” and went crazy when the guys pulled out Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations.” During this they brought fans up on stage to dance with them and gave the microphone to a girl in the front row who nailed the rap and the chorus.
For “Tonight” all of NKOTB except Jonathan Knight, went into the audience to get more up close and personal with their fans, by taking pictures and giving hugs and handshakes. Following that, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, and Donnie Wahlberg each performed solo spots with Jordan and Joey performing shirtless. This sent the mostly female audience into a frenzy, including our BestFan team!
The show came to an end with crowd favourites “Games”, “Step By Step” and the ballad “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)”, before the finale of “Hangin’ Tough” blended with Queen’s “We Will Rock You”.
The openers Nelly and TLC had enjoyable sets, each performing for 45 minutes. Nelly performed his hits including “E.I.”, “Dilemma”, “Just A Dream”, and the crowd favourite “Hot In Herre” “with four talented dancers and a backup rapper. TLC had everyone singing along to their hits “Unpretty”, “No Scrubs”, and “Waterfalls”. They honoured member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes (who passed away in 2002) during the songs “Meant to Be” and “Waterfalls”, the latter which featured her mid-song rap and the arena all lit up with cellphone lights from audience members.
Photos by Amanda Carson