This summer, arenas all around North America will be filled with nostalgic revellers as NKOTB are joined by TLC and Nelly on The Main Event tour. On their recent stop in Vancouver, near the start of the tour, fans were treated to nearly 4 hours of entertainment, in the round, at Rogers Arena.
With the tour billed as Hit – After Hit – After Hit, the three acts on the bill certainly lived up to it with nearly 200 million combined albums sold worldwide.
Starting the night, Nelly and his MC and dancers got the, mainly female, audience on their feet with a 50 minute set of his turn of the millennium hits like; “E.I.”, “Country Grammar”, “Dilemma”, “Just A Dream”, “Ride Wit Me” and “Hot In Herre” – which resulted in huge applause and much singing along. Even more cheers erupted when Nelly tore off his shirt off to close out the show.
The second act was perhaps one of the most eagerly awaited, when T-Boz & Chilli of TLC appeared onstage to “What About Your Friends”, bringing the whole arena to its feet. As the reunited pair played through an hour’s set of their greatest hits; “Baby, Baby, Baby”, “Ain’t To Proud To Beg”, “Creep”, “Unpretty”, “No Scrubs”. A tribute to their lost sister, Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes brought a touching moment to the close of the show. With the audience lighting up the arena with mobile phones a collection of video clips from the top-selling girl groups history played while they performed their latest single “Meant To Be” and their colossal hit “Waterfalls” with nearly everyone singing along and echoing their memorable dance moves.
Finally, The Main Event tour headliners NKOTB were announced onstage by Michael Buffer, with his classic “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!” and the crowd audience erupted with excitement. The row of ladies seated on barstools alongside the stage were most excited of all as the band sang and danced within arms reach. As the quintet made their way through the 2 hours worth of their 27 years of hits, there was barely a moment when the crowd wasn’t singing and screaming along. From early tracks “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind”, “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” and “Hanging Tough” to “Step by Step” and “Tonight” up to more recent singles “Summertime” and “Remix(I like the)” the setlist was filled with hit after hit. As always NKOTB knows exactly how to please their, mostly female, audience with their very self-aware cheesy shirtless, pelvic thrusting and gyrating dance moves to coming out to the audience and dancing with the fans. Part of the fun of going to a New Kids show is watching the fans reverting to their teenage selves as they reminisced to their favourite songs.
The Main Event tour continues around the continent until the beginning of July, check it out if you get the opportunity, all three acts are sure to please.