It seems like so long ago. So long ago that I was decked out from head to toe in my "New Kids on the Block" shirt and pins. So long ago that I was jumping around, screaming at the top of my lungs to "Step by Step." So long ago that when Joey McIntyre sang, "Please Don't Go Girl," I felt like he was singing to me.
A month can fly by fast.
What? Did you think I was really referring back to when I saw "New Kids" 15 years ago? Oh no my friends. I'm referring to the most amazing night of my life, which occured Oct. 3.
Yes, I went to the New Kids on the Block concert with my friends Rachel, Krista and Erin. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I went. And we had a blast.
The show was fantastic. They mixed in old songs with new songs. Old moves with new moves. As fans, we screamed, yelled, cheered, almost cried and were back to our former selves - circa 15 years ago when our biggest problem was our math homework and one of the New Kids on the Block were the loves of our lives.
I could go on and on about the show because it was simply ahh-mazing. But I'm not going to go there. I want to share other things of that night. The things that made me utter the phrase "this column is writing itself" at least 10 times.
The first thing that brought a smile to my face was the attire worn by the fans. We decided to make t-shirts with sayings on them such as, "Hangin' Tough 20 years later," "Joey still has the Right Stuff," and the ripped off of MasterCard slogan, "Married at 28 = $50,000, Baby at 30 = $15,000, Seeing New Kids at 31 = Priceless." Mine said "This girl didn't go anywhere" from my all-time favorite New Kids song, "Please Don't Go Girl." Apparently, I wasn't the only one who didn't leave.
Women were dressed from head-to-toe in their old merchandise that was probably purchased back in 1987. T-shirts and buttons were everywhere you turned, and I even saw a girl who turned an old pillow case into a purse. Very creative.
When the concert began, I suddenly reverted back to being 8-years old. As soon as the first note sounded, and they slowly emerged on stage, I remembered back to when I saw those same five guys, only a lot younger, back at the Richmond Coliseum, or even earlier than that at the Struthers Fieldhouse.
Some things didn't change from that first concert. I, like many others, screamed so loud I didn't have a voice the next day. Some still made signs pledging their love to any of the five guys. Jordan can still hit the high note that sends girls into chaos. I know this because when he did, Rachel turned to me and uttered the phrase, "I love my husband, but Jordan Knight will always be my first love." Oh, and they still did "The Right Stuff" dance. It was just as good as it was 15 years ago.
Here are the things that did change. Instead of holding up lighters during ballads, now it's cell phones. I went old and new school and held up my phone and a lighter at the same time. Also, now that we're all adults, alcohol intake is now permitted, that is if you can afford venue prices. And lastly, we don't need our parents to go with us or drive us there. We are big girls now and can go all by ourselves. But that doesn't mean there weren't some parents in attendance.
What warmed my heart the most during the night was the women who brought their daughters to the concert. We sat in front of two women, couldn't be older than 30, who had daughters probably around seven or eight with them. And those two little girls knew every song, new and old, from start to finish. They were sharing that experience with their mothers, and that my friends is bridging generations.
After the concert, all four of us decided that we wanted to quit our jobs, leave our boyfriends and husbands, and just become groupies and follow the New Kids from city to city. But we knew we couldn't do that. We're responsible adults now, not crazy preteenage girls lusting after our favorite New Kid. Heck. What am I saying? Now we're crazy adults lusting after our favorite New Kid.
Like New Kids on the Block, not much changes in 15 years.