REVIEW: Nick Carter brings boy band nostalgia to Troy
11/06/2024 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
“Carter has mastered the essential facial expressions, like the ever-present smolder stare. And then there’s the dance moves, probably muscle memory after years on tour performing ‘Backstreet’s Back.’”
Boy band royalty—well, sort of—took the stage at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Wednesday night for a smattering of 80s and 90s sing-along favorites. Nick Carter, one of the Backstreet Boys, brought his Who I Am solo tour to Troy.
Immediately, I felt that this was a strange venue for a man like Nick Carter—a strange juxtaposition of a pop heartthrob under a giant pipe organ. Upon entering, audiences were met with a DJ trying to hype up a lukewarm, half empty auditorium by trying to get them to sing along to Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” or Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA.” Which, on the day of the election results….was it a party, though?
The actual opening act, Jordan Bolch, a man with the good looks and resemblance of a young Bradley Cooper, deserved a lot of credit. He kept up his energy throughout his set, even though he was met by a severely unenthusiastic audience. As his set went on, I could almost see his own enthusiasm seeping out from the widening cracks in that evening’s self esteem.
Even his last tune, a lively and faithful cover of Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It,” was met with that lackluster energy, something not even defibrillating bribes of free t-shirts could resuscitate with any real success.
That’s all to say that he deserved more energy, because he was fun and he sounded good.
Nick Carter opened his set with the Backstreet Boys’ classic “Larger Than Life,” before transitioning into a couple of popular 80s tracks. We had Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night,” and Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” to name a few. My first thought, and reigning thought throughout the night, was that this was a Backstreet Boy singing Backstreet Boys karaoke. But also someone hogging the mic at your local karaoke night singing the finest of the 80s.
Now, once Carter explained the overall concept of the Who I Am tour, the setlist made sense—it was him singing songs of influence to him during his formative years. So it really was a Backstreet Boy singing live band karaoke.
The set left me thinking that you can take the “boy” out of the Backstreet, but you can’t take the Backstreet out of the boy. Everything about the evening screamed boy band eidolon. You had the costume changes—the magenta suit and coiffed blond hair with the frosted tips, the sunglasses, the custom letterman jacket, and the Bon Jovi adjacent outfit he wore for his cover of “Wanted Dead or Alive.” There were the shrieking fans, mostly female, reaching out their hands in hopes of brushing fingertips with smoking hot stardom. (Did anyone remember to put down a Caution Wet Floor sign?)
Carter has mastered the essential facial expressions, like the ever-present smolder stare. And then there’s the dance moves, probably muscle memory after years on tour performing “Backstreet’s Back.” He even tipped an imaginary cowboy hat and holstered imaginary six shooters at the close of his Bon Jovi cover.
It all felt very—how do I put this?—Disney Channel original movie. It felt like I was watching a scripted performance of a fake band, like in The Cheetah Girls or High School Musical. All I needed to complete the vision was for him to strut across a golf course and splash dramatically in a water hazard.
It also made me acknowledge the power in the gestalt of a boy band, where they are not the strongest vocalists or performers on their own, but together they are a cohesive unit with incredibly captivating star power.
I recognize it all sounds harsh, and negative. But it really wasn’t a negative experience. All of that added to the jocose nostalgia of my evening. It was damn fun to watch, and I would do it again. Besides, I would never bring dishonor to the Backstreet Boys cutouts I’d sliced from Teen People, sloppily taped to my teenage bedroom walls alongside Jesse McCartney and Orlando Bloom as Legolas.
Nick Carter? Certified fresh.