Concert Preview
The Package Tour: New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men are coming together to make 30-somethings scream like teenagers again at 7:30 p.m. on June 20 at Philips Arena. Tickets cost $29.50 t0 $93.50. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. www.philipsarena.com.
One Direction: The boys are coming to see about 21,000 screaming fans at 7:30 p.m. on June 21 at Philips Arena. Sorry late-comers: these tickets are sold out.
Kate Teegardin of Milton is going to marry One Direction member Niall Horan — he just doesn’t know it yet.
“I really like Niall,” the 14-year-old fan said. “But if he doesn’t like me, Harry’s the back-up, right?” She’s referring to Harry Styles, the mop-haired member of the British band.
Kate isn’t the first teen-aged girl to pledge her love to a boy-band heart throb. Youngsters made promises to marry Donnie Wahlberg from New Kids on the Block or Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men years before she was born.
Now all of these hotties — both the brand new and their Gen X counterparts — will be in Atlanta Thursday and next Friday when One Direction follows “The Package Tour,” a joint concert featuring NKOTB, 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men. Both concerts will be at Philips Arena.
Kate got her tickets for the June 21 One Direction show back in December. She’s been stewing in a sea of girlish anticipation since then.
“They’re not your usual pop stars. They’re funny and charming and, you know, they are good looking,” she said. “And I really like their music. I like One Direction because they don’t do those stupid little dance moves. They just kind of goof around. I like that they’re normal, you know? They’re not so manufactured. They’re different.”
One Direction’s sold-out concert will be the fifth of 24 stops on the group’s summer tour.
The prospect of being serenaded by 19-year-olds Niall and Harry may be too much for older boy band fans. Instead, they can indulge in nostalgia, going back to the days that they may have cried over NKOTB’s “Please Don’t Go Girl” or got goosebumps watching 98 Degrees perform “I Do (Cherish You).” The suggestively named joint tour has been causing an estrogen-fueled buzz on social media.
Fans may should expect to hear songs such as “The Hardest Thing” by 98 Degrees, “Dirty Dancing” by NKOTB or “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men.
Cindy Simmons, o has loved NKOTB since youth and even stalked the group outside their hotel as a teenager.
“I loved them when I was a kid and I love them now because they were 5 cute boys — and now they’re five cute men,” she said. “It was good, fun, poppy, cheesy music that didn’t seem cheesy at the time.”
