Backstreet Boys are back -- slick as ever

August 16, 2005|Globe Correspondent

MANSFIELD -- Before an audience of screaming fans, the Backstreet Boys revealed Sunday that they could survive the five-year gap between ''Black & Blue," their last album of all-new material, and the new ''Never Gone." The quintet, once the kings of the boy-band scene, performed a two-hour set so meticulously arranged that it took a series of severe thunderstorm warnings -- culminating in an unscheduled 15-minute break -- to add some spontaneity to the Tweeter Center proceedings.

Otherwise, everything went by at a steady clip, with video montages, pyro and laser displays, and Nick Carter playing guitar to no discernible effect during ''Climbing the Walls" and ''Just Want You to Know." Kevin Richardson's piano-playing during ''Weird World" and ''Incomplete" was more integral, but the group mostly performed its busy if not especially accomplished choreography, played to the fans, and passed lead vocals around like a football. The Boys were at their best when they harmonized on ''The One," ''Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely," and ''Siberia," which featured an insistent ticking-clock riff as artificial snow came down.

If the Backstreet Boys were all about excess, the Click Five's earlier 35-minute set was sleeker and altogether more efficient. The Boston buzz band, whose debut, ''Greetings From Imrie House" comes out today, was as much about showmanship as musicianship, with matching suits (even the guitar straps matched), choreographed playing, and we-love-you exhortations such as, ''Boston, get on your feet, you look better when you're standing!"

That turned out to be a potent combination, as the audience screamed nearly as loudly as it did for the headliners. The crowd already knew ''Just the Girl" well enough from radio and MTV's ''TRL" to sing along. But practically every song could be a single, from the slick, ''Catch Your Wave" to the anthemic ''I'll Take My Chances." The band's cover of ''I Think We're Alone Now" was a perfect choice for countless reasons, and if the Click Five is as inconsequential as Tommy James and the Shondells, it might prove to be at least as catchy.

Opener Kaci Brown failed to create a distinct impression in a four-song set that touched on hip-pop, plaintive confessional, and bombastic power balladry.