Source: Chicago Tribune

By Joshua Klein
Special to the Tribune
Published March 3, 2003

Watching 'N Sync pay bland tribute to the Bee Gees at the Grammys, one couldn't help thinking that even if teen pop could make a comeback, maybe it shouldn't. After all, it has been a lot more fun to ponder Christina Aguilera's skanky makeover and relish the success of Justin Timberlake's urban renewal plan. Suddenly, anything seems tantalizingly possible in the world of teen pop as these one-time sensations scramble for respect and relevance, some fostering schadenfreude while others orchestrate comebacks.

Compared with Christina and JT, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's solo bow, "Now or Never," sounds especially, if endearingly, square. "Now or Never" might have made a more successful escape from boy band oblivion had Carter (the blond one) and his crew of skilled hitmakers stuck with one style. Instead the disc wobbles between giddy glam-metal, pop piffle and cheesy power ballads, as if Carter were hedging his bets.

Indeed, Carter relied on Swedish genius Max Martin to contribute the disc's rousing highlights, yet his preternaturally perfect production calls attention to Carter's weak, all too human voice.

OK, so he can't sing. That hasn't stopped most pop stars, and it didn't hurt Carter Friday at the House of Blues, where he showed off his newfound affection for live, loud instruments over canned beats.

The cozy club confines helped magnify his multiplatinum-enhanced star power, though the small venue offered unique challenges. Unlike the stadiums where the Backstreet Boys played, the House of Blues kept his adoring fans intimately close. Carter spent much of his 90-minute set dodging undergarments, love notes and plush-toy projectiles. Yet Carter seemed to enjoy the interaction with the generation-spanning crowd as much as he enjoyed reinventing himself as a rabble-rousing rocker.

Free to explore his inner Bon Jovi, Carter indulged in a different kind of choreography. He jumped onto the drum riser, kicked over his microphone stand and even picked up a guitar to strum a few chords. With songs such as the very Def Leppard-inspired "Girls in the USA" and the monolithic "Blow Your Mind," he offered larynx-shredding instead of sweet crooning. He later covered the Cars' "Just What I Needed" and showed off his tattoo.

Carter did deign to play an unplugged set of Backstreet Boys favorites, which sent waves of hysteria through the crowd (who received not one but two safety speeches before the show began). But Carter sang "The Shape of Your Heart" and "I Want it That Way" with the resignation of someone who has performed those songs so many times that he probably wakes up in the middle of the night humming them.

No, what Carter wanted was to rock, and with his young, eager band backing him, he got his wish. In fact, so earnest were Carter's renditions of "I Just Wanna Take You Home" and the closing anthem "I Got You" that the 23-year-old's transformation into Bryan Adams seemed complete. But only time will tell whether the apparently honest change in direction proves more than just a strategic holding pattern until his five-man meal ticket reforms.

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