By Baby A. Gil

Donnie Wahlberg held my hand. (Scream.) Well, not really. He passed near my seat. I reached out to him, just like all the girls around me were doing. And too bad for the others, he reached out and got mine. (Double scream.)

I know I am passed the age of screaming over hand-holding with pop idols unless the guy singing happens to be Paul McCartney. (Sigh.) But it was just impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of those present.

I wonder how many people were there at the Mall of Asia Arena — 10, 12 or 15 thousand? They all came because the NKOTBSB was performing and the mood last Sunday evening, June 3, was boy band electric. (More screams.)

That is what the audience is supposed to do at boy band concerts. Swoon and scream. And the NKOTBSB is the ultimate boy band of all. The group combines two of the greatest boy bands of all time, the New Kids On The Block from the ’80s and the Backstreet Boys of the ’90s. Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre and Danny Wood are the NKOTB. The BSB are Howie Dorough, AJ MacLean, Nick Carter and Brian Littrell.

The Kids and the Boys have all had their days. Then two years ago, somebody came up with a clever idea. Combine forces, record some songs and go on tour. And the result of the union will now go down in pop music history as phenomenal. As Brian himself mentioned during the concert, they have now done a hundred shows together and Manila was their last stop.

Read full review on PhilStar.com.

Schoolgirlish giggles and sweet anticipation filled the area around Mata Elang International Stadium in Ancol, North Jakarta, on Friday.

The occasion? A concert by NKOTBSB — two of the most successful boy bands in history, the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, who have teamed up and left traces of hysterical nostalgia in each city they have performed in during their tour.

Jakarta, it seemed, would be no exception.

Visi Firman, the 33-year-old head of corporate communications for an Indonesian company, was among the many people who had already arrived at the venue in the afternoon, even though the show was not to start until 8 p.m.

“The New Kids were my idols when I was in the fifth grade,” she said. “I had posters of the band all over my room, and I still know all the lyrics of the songs by heart.”

Rebecca Ticoalu, a Hong Kong-based flight attendant, came back to Jakarta especially for the concert.

“NKOTB was the first boy band that I ever fell in love with, and Jordan [Knight] was my favorite,” she explained. “When they split up, it was the Backstreet Boys who filled the void — so I’m here tonight for both of them.”

The concertgoers — you might expect them to consist of women only, but there were quite a few men who passionately sang along to many of the songs during the show — didn’t go home disappointed.

From the second the boy band supergroup appeared on stage, the women were on a quest to test the strength of their vocal cords, screaming like crazy and stopping only occasionally to breathe over the next two hours.

The members of NKOTBSB are clearly not boys anymore, and the fans who came out to the stadium have aged with them, but other than that, not much has changed: At least for this one night, both groups were the undisputed kings of the music world.

Read full article on TheJakartaGlobe.com.

MANILA, Philippines — The Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block, two of the most popular boy bands in recent history, returned to Manila for a one-night concert on Sunday.

SM Mall of Asia’s The Arena was packed with between 7,000 to 10,000 fans, who grew up idolizing the New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys in the 1990s. Tickets ranged from P13,000 to P1,000, but several websites offered tickets at 50% off just a few days before the concert.

Fans, who had general admission tickets, lined up as early as 4 p.m. outside The Arena. Gates only opened at around 6:30 p.m., but staffers prevented fans from entering the General Admission section for at least an hour. This created crowds on the fourth-level lobby, with some fans nearly falling off the escalator.

When the doors to the General Admission were finally opened, a mad rush ensued, with some children nearly getting crushed by the crowd.

Aizel, a 34-year-old office worker, complained that the Arena staffers did not do anything to control the crowd.

The crowd grew antsy waiting for the concert to start, even with two front acts doing their best to entertain the crowd.

The lights finally dimmed past 9 p.m., and fans started shouting for Backstreet Boys and NKOTB.

Wearing all-black outfits, members of the two groups came out and performed Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”, combined with BSB’s “The One” and NKOTB’s “Single.”

While the colorful laser effects were impressive, the sound system seemed off. The audience in the upper sections couldn’t make out the words to the songs.

New Kids on the Block, which debuted in 1986, managed to keep up with the much younger Backstreet Boys who made their debut in 1995. But both groups showed they may be older but they still know how to turn up the charm.

Read full article on ABS-CBNNews.com.

Whether they can still be referred to as “boys” or “kids” might be disputable, but members of the phenomenal boybands New Kids On The Block and the Backstreet Boys are set to wow fans tonight in their Jakarta show.

The two groups, popularly known by the acronyms NKOTB and BSB are slated to put on their show under the name NKOTBSB in the Mata Elang International Stadium in Ancol, North Jakarta.

Formed in the U.S in the mid 1980s when the members were barely out of their teens, the five-piece NKOTB are known for hits such as “Step by Step”, “Please Don’t Go Girl” and “I’ll Be Loving You Forever”. The group is often dubbed as the forerunner of similar acts, including the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync.

NKOTB’s last visit to Indonesia for a show was in 1992, to the thrill of their mostly female fans who often collected various memorabilia of the group ranging from t-shirts to stationary items. Despite the passing years, many NKOTB fans, popularly known as “blockheads”, have remained loyal to the group.

Read full article on TheJakartaPost.com.