NKOTB can still draw fans

By JASON MACNEIL, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 22nd June 2009, 5:46am

About halfway through their show at the two-thirds full Molson Amphitheatre Sunday night, New Kids On The Block member Donnie Wahlberg quizzically picked up a roll of toilet paper tossed on stage.

"I spent a lot of time in Canada but I don't know what toilet paper means," he said.

For those who despise the '80s boy band and their reunion trek, currently called the Full Service tour, the connotations are endless. Perhaps it was a reference to Australian concert promoter Michael Chugg, who when told the band nixed an August Australian tour due to the global recession, said: "New Kids On The Block was very big years ago...no one really gives a s--- about them now."

Whatever the case, the almost entirely female audience clung to every word said and song the band played over the nearly two-hour set beginning with Full Service featuring some Nickelback-lite pyrotechnics and all five members dressed in grey suits.

Although it was a year ago to the night when the band - Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre - made their highly-anticipated performance at the MuchMusic Video Awards, early on it looked like they were showing the wear and tear of a reunion tour which began in Toronto last September. Summertime and My Favorite Girl were average at best but the quintet slowly fed off the energy and continuous estrogen-charged screams.

Supported by four female dancers and a tight band (two of whom are Canadian), New Kids On The Block mixed a good dose of songs from The Block alongside older, sappy ballads such as Didn't I (Blow Your Mind) and Please Don't Go Girl. McIntyre steered the latter tune, performing the closing lines on his knees which the audience ate up and then quickly instructing a girl in the front to "get down, get down" as she tried to scale a barrier.

Wahlberg, McIntyre and Jordan Knight took most of the lead vocals for most of the night, with Wood content to do a bit of break dancing during the hokey hip-hop effort Games. Meanwhile Jonathan "Mr. Sauve" Knight cracked McIntyre up during One Song, leaving his spot at the microphone to playfully toss a beach ball off a fan's head twice.

After Single which saw the five on individual platforms in the middle of the audience, the show fell off the rails for a while as three each took a solo number. Cover Girl had Wahlberg wearing a Leafs jersey and suggestively changing one lyric while McIntyre encouraged fans to sing with conviction "Joey Joe you're my popsicle" during, er, Popsicle.

The homestretch began thankfully with Tonight, a nice little Beatles-saturated number which righted the musical ship. The group even altered the rather rigid set list to perform 2 In The Morning as they sat side by side on one of the two stage walkways. But Big Girl Now wasn't done despite Lady GaGa being in town for the MMVAs.

Closing the show with Step By Step and Hangin' Tough, New Kids On The Block showed they can still draw fans. Hopefully they'll hang it up before Hangin' Tough sounds more like Saggin' Limply.

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Sun Rating: 3 out of 5

New Kids On The Block

Molson Amphitheatre

Sunday Night

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2009/06/22/9885111-sun.html

*nkotbgirl.from.peru*