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erilynWe headed into the city and grabbed some late lunch, before ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
indybrat, canadiankracka, not_nele and I headed over to Rod Laver Arena for soundcheck. We got there around 3:30 or so, and there were already a few fans waiting (with some stealth fans identified lurking off in the distance). We were surprised by a) how many we didn't already know from previous soundcheck waits and stalking (about half) and b) the almost complete lack of impractical shoes. I needed to find the girl buying our spare ticket, so I just hollered "Anyone here called Annette?" There was a stunned silence for several moments before she identified herself. Like I'm gonna waste a phonecall when I was pretty sure she was in earshot?
But there was lots of chatting away to various people we'd met before, including Sasha, the English girls (Vicky, Sinead and Lisa) and some of the NZ'ers. Cause we had lots of time to chat. And then some more time. And then a bit more. Cause soundcheck is supposed to start 4:30. It didn't start anywhere near on time in Brisbane or Sydney, but Melbourne took it to a new level with the Boys not even getting there until after 5pm. Talk about operating on Backstreet Time.
Soundcheck finally started around 5:45? I know we didn't get out til well after 6:15pm. Marcus pulled the usual stunt of only letting in about half of those without passes (after first going and getting some really skankily dressed girls out of the group - I'm not sure, were they the other English girls? Anyway, you should have heard the laughter). But we were too used to this by now, with someone, I thinknot_nele, saying quite loudly and sarcastically "Oh, how sad" when he said no more, right when we were near to going in. This time he didn't draw it out though, and let everyone else in about 30 seconds later, with a big grin (I think because no one started complaining, we all just stood there and looked at him disbelievingly). And we went into the arena at the same time as the passholders, which was good. It was strange though, we went in through a service entrance, past storerooms and non-public parts of the arena. Bonus tour!
+ Soundcheck pictures zip (33 pictures) - 32 meg (again, only the really crappy have been excluded)
They were making everyone sit down, rather than just bunching up at the front, so we sat in the middle a couple of rows back. Nick was wearing a bad hat. They performed Weird World, Incomplete and Just Want You To Know, but there were some bonus performances this time.
+ Nick's alternate JWYTK lyrics - 2 meg
+ AJ's interesting JWYTK dancing - 1meg
And Brian should always bug Nick like this during songs.
Howie commented fairly early on that he'd heard they were the first performance at the arena "since the tennis thing".
Brian: (long sufferingly) It's called the Australian Open, Howie.
Howie: Brian's the tennis fan, not me.
...really?
Oh my god, we were getting so frustrated with the questions. Maybe a bit unfairly, since obviously not everyone was at previous ones, but there are only so many times you can hear them get asked "Why did it take you so long to tour in Australia?" (when it was a stupid question the first time!). I swear we saw Kevin roll his eyes at that. I think Brian saw me pretend to strangle and shoot myself in frustration.
They were asked to do Australian accents. We groaned, as listening to non-Australians attempt this is painful. And they nearly always end up sounding vaguely Cockney or South African instead. I appreciated Nick's boycott of this.
+ Aussie accents - 28 meg
Another kind of blah question was what is their favourite song on the album. Kevn claimed Lose It All, since he "gets to sing on it" and did a little sighing thing about them almost including it in the concert setlist, and Siberia. Nick "is like Kevin", and Howie likes Siberia and "a song called I Stil". Thanks for clariying what I Still is, Howard. Weird Boy.
Someone asked about the next cd. At least it was a new question. Kevin started rambling a little (contain your surprise) about them having a meeting soon about this blah blah blah. Brian started singing Everybody with altered lyrics "oh my god/we'll be back again" and something about you'll be the first to know.
Brian's solo Christian album is coming out May 2nd. So that will be sometime in June/July?
They were asked about the Boyz II Men collaboration on "Jealous". Brian talked about how he was annoyed that the Boys got interested in the song, cause he wanted to record it. Kevin talked about how it ended up being over-produced, just too much vocal layering (especially with 8 singers) and the record label said it sounded old-fashioned. They hope to rework it and release it eventually. AJ mentioned there was a lot of adlibbing going on at the end of the song. A lot. I almost expected him to make airquotes.
+ Collaboration with Boyz II Men - 9 meg
What sort of music do the Boys like to listen to? Well, Brian is a huge Barbara Streisand fan, as he declared in his campiest voice (and that boy can do campy). Apparently it's a genetic trait, since Kevin started going on about Bette Midler as campily as possible too. AJ tried to straighten thins out by talking about how much he liked Rascall Flatts (to his surprise) and Nick, while mentioning he likes all sorts of music, still has eternal allegiance to Journey. Howie talked about how he likes calming music, because it "can get intense, these guys can get very tenseful", with things like Coldplay easing his pain (at not knowing how to talk)! Brian helpfully pointed out that Howie had left Ricky Martin off his list of music. Oh Brian, if you weren't married I'd be begging you to run away with me.
+ Nick talks about music he likes (includes swearing and Brian's Crazy Frog impersonation *g*) - 17 meg
I can't remember whether they mentioned the "no song requests" rule here, but we got two extra singing bits anyway. A guy told the Boys that they were the reason he got over his shyness and started singing in public, and ended up starting a band. He then asked if he could sing with them. They agreed, and asked what he wanted to sing. He was so prepared: he wanted to sing Nick's part from the bridge in SOMH. They laughed, and then the debacle of trying to organise this started. Nick wanted them to start before the bridge so he still got to sing some of it, then the band started playing and Kevin had to yell at everyone about the meaning of a capella, but they finally managed it. And while I was expecting the worst, he was actually pretty good *g*. Nick pretended to storm off the stage in a huff when everyone cheered at the end, and then asked the guy's name. "Everyone, this is Paul, he's the new Backstreet Boy, I'm having the night off".
Also, one girl starts off with "I'm getting married in October" (cue us groaning, this sounds like a fork fan moment - we all half expected her to propose to one of the Boys) and her wedding song is Rush Over Me, could they sing it etc etc? Seems the answer to that was almost no, since fans had to tell the Boys who sings which part *g*.
+ Boys try to perform Rush Over Me - 20 meg
A nice long soundcheck, but with the very late starting time, we were so late to meetsinden, alasen and eponymous for dinner, and we dragged Lisa, Vicky and Sinead along as well. Then we had to turn around and race back to the arena (I ended up in a taxi with the English girls at one point, forgetting I had Lex's ticket. Ooops. We found each other though *g*).
I'm still curious as to why they cut the 'Boys posing for group pictures on stage' part of the soundchecks that they had elsewhere.
Hey,canadiankracka and not_nele, I think I was filming at the time - when did you two crack Brian up with your dirty moves? ;)
indybrat, canadiankracka, not_nele and I headed over to Rod Laver Arena for soundcheck. We got there around 3:30 or so, and there were already a few fans waiting (with some stealth fans identified lurking off in the distance). We were surprised by a) how many we didn't already know from previous soundcheck waits and stalking (about half) and b) the almost complete lack of impractical shoes. I needed to find the girl buying our spare ticket, so I just hollered "Anyone here called Annette?" There was a stunned silence for several moments before she identified herself. Like I'm gonna waste a phonecall when I was pretty sure she was in earshot? But there was lots of chatting away to various people we'd met before, including Sasha, the English girls (Vicky, Sinead and Lisa) and some of the NZ'ers. Cause we had lots of time to chat. And then some more time. And then a bit more. Cause soundcheck is supposed to start 4:30. It didn't start anywhere near on time in Brisbane or Sydney, but Melbourne took it to a new level with the Boys not even getting there until after 5pm. Talk about operating on Backstreet Time.
Soundcheck finally started around 5:45? I know we didn't get out til well after 6:15pm. Marcus pulled the usual stunt of only letting in about half of those without passes (after first going and getting some really skankily dressed girls out of the group - I'm not sure, were they the other English girls? Anyway, you should have heard the laughter). But we were too used to this by now, with someone, I think
not_nele, saying quite loudly and sarcastically "Oh, how sad" when he said no more, right when we were near to going in. This time he didn't draw it out though, and let everyone else in about 30 seconds later, with a big grin (I think because no one started complaining, we all just stood there and looked at him disbelievingly). And we went into the arena at the same time as the passholders, which was good. It was strange though, we went in through a service entrance, past storerooms and non-public parts of the arena. Bonus tour!+ Soundcheck pictures zip (33 pictures) - 32 meg (again, only the really crappy have been excluded)
They were making everyone sit down, rather than just bunching up at the front, so we sat in the middle a couple of rows back. Nick was wearing a bad hat. They performed Weird World, Incomplete and Just Want You To Know, but there were some bonus performances this time.
+ Nick's alternate JWYTK lyrics - 2 meg
+ AJ's interesting JWYTK dancing - 1meg
And Brian should always bug Nick like this during songs.
Howie commented fairly early on that he'd heard they were the first performance at the arena "since the tennis thing".
Brian: (long sufferingly) It's called the Australian Open, Howie.
Howie: Brian's the tennis fan, not me.
...really?
Oh my god, we were getting so frustrated with the questions. Maybe a bit unfairly, since obviously not everyone was at previous ones, but there are only so many times you can hear them get asked "Why did it take you so long to tour in Australia?" (when it was a stupid question the first time!). I swear we saw Kevin roll his eyes at that. I think Brian saw me pretend to strangle and shoot myself in frustration.
They were asked to do Australian accents. We groaned, as listening to non-Australians attempt this is painful. And they nearly always end up sounding vaguely Cockney or South African instead. I appreciated Nick's boycott of this.
+ Aussie accents - 28 meg
Another kind of blah question was what is their favourite song on the album. Kevn claimed Lose It All, since he "gets to sing on it" and did a little sighing thing about them almost including it in the concert setlist, and Siberia. Nick "is like Kevin", and Howie likes Siberia and "a song called I Stil". Thanks for clariying what I Still is, Howard. Weird Boy.
Someone asked about the next cd. At least it was a new question. Kevin started rambling a little (contain your surprise) about them having a meeting soon about this blah blah blah. Brian started singing Everybody with altered lyrics "oh my god/we'll be back again" and something about you'll be the first to know.
Brian's solo Christian album is coming out May 2nd. So that will be sometime in June/July?
They were asked about the Boyz II Men collaboration on "Jealous". Brian talked about how he was annoyed that the Boys got interested in the song, cause he wanted to record it. Kevin talked about how it ended up being over-produced, just too much vocal layering (especially with 8 singers) and the record label said it sounded old-fashioned. They hope to rework it and release it eventually. AJ mentioned there was a lot of adlibbing going on at the end of the song. A lot. I almost expected him to make airquotes.
+ Collaboration with Boyz II Men - 9 meg
What sort of music do the Boys like to listen to? Well, Brian is a huge Barbara Streisand fan, as he declared in his campiest voice (and that boy can do campy). Apparently it's a genetic trait, since Kevin started going on about Bette Midler as campily as possible too. AJ tried to straighten thins out by talking about how much he liked Rascall Flatts (to his surprise) and Nick, while mentioning he likes all sorts of music, still has eternal allegiance to Journey. Howie talked about how he likes calming music, because it "can get intense, these guys can get very tenseful", with things like Coldplay easing his pain (at not knowing how to talk)! Brian helpfully pointed out that Howie had left Ricky Martin off his list of music. Oh Brian, if you weren't married I'd be begging you to run away with me.
+ Nick talks about music he likes (includes swearing and Brian's Crazy Frog impersonation *g*) - 17 meg
I can't remember whether they mentioned the "no song requests" rule here, but we got two extra singing bits anyway. A guy told the Boys that they were the reason he got over his shyness and started singing in public, and ended up starting a band. He then asked if he could sing with them. They agreed, and asked what he wanted to sing. He was so prepared: he wanted to sing Nick's part from the bridge in SOMH. They laughed, and then the debacle of trying to organise this started. Nick wanted them to start before the bridge so he still got to sing some of it, then the band started playing and Kevin had to yell at everyone about the meaning of a capella, but they finally managed it. And while I was expecting the worst, he was actually pretty good *g*. Nick pretended to storm off the stage in a huff when everyone cheered at the end, and then asked the guy's name. "Everyone, this is Paul, he's the new Backstreet Boy, I'm having the night off".
Also, one girl starts off with "I'm getting married in October" (cue us groaning, this sounds like a fork fan moment - we all half expected her to propose to one of the Boys) and her wedding song is Rush Over Me, could they sing it etc etc? Seems the answer to that was almost no, since fans had to tell the Boys who sings which part *g*.
+ Boys try to perform Rush Over Me - 20 meg
A nice long soundcheck, but with the very late starting time, we were so late to meet
sinden, alasen and eponymous for dinner, and we dragged Lisa, Vicky and Sinead along as well. Then we had to turn around and race back to the arena (I ended up in a taxi with the English girls at one point, forgetting I had Lex's ticket. Ooops. We found each other though *g*).I'm still curious as to why they cut the 'Boys posing for group pictures on stage' part of the soundchecks that they had elsewhere.
Hey,
canadiankracka and not_nele, I think I was filming at the time - when did you two crack Brian up with your dirty moves? ;)
