Title: Aaron Carter should come with a rating of KG -- kids' guidance for their parents.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Source: Submitted By: HiC
Source: http://www3.backstreet.net/www.cgi?x=show&d=news&i=020226-0000-01&c=6&b=1
Location: ANAHEIM
Author: Darryl Morden
Topic: Winter 2002 Concert Review
Date: Feb, 2002
The 14-year-old younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter is a pop star on his own and gives his young-teen and preteen fans a candy-coated, bubble-gum distillation of pop, rock and hip-hop sounds, dressed up in costume changes every few numbers and plenty of energetic, acrobatic dancing.
With a third of the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim blocked off by blackout curtains for "theater seating" Saturday, the stage was decorated with "iced over" scaffolding, faux rock formations and a slide as Carter and his troupe of dancers, plus band and backing singers, delivered a show surprisingly devoid of special-effects flash, depending instead on the music and dance routines to carry squeaky-clean songs about crushes and partying it up, kid-style. If he didn't exist, Disney would have to invent him.
Carter's material often lifts from old hits, dressing them up in today's pop gloss to match his many outfits, which included a silver spacesuit of sorts and denim jacket and pants covered in patches. With chording right out of "La Bamba" and "Twist and Shout," "Baby It's You" is catchy enough to make Mom and Dad, or even Grandma and Grandpa, nod in approval. He updated the bopping "I Want Candy" (the Strangeloves in the 1960s, Bow Wow Wow in the '80s), and "Stride (Jump on the Fizzy)" is based on Matthew Wilder's '80s ditty "Break My Stride."
The gooey ballads, though, like "I'm All About You" (with a coda of Journey-man Steve Perry's '80s solo hit "Oh Sherrie"), found Carter's voice -- perhaps in puberty flux -- going to some weird, whiny places. Seated at a white grand piano to play and sing for "the children of the world," a version of John Lennon's "Imagine" was way beyond his emotional reach at this point.
The upbeat numbers certainly were the most fun for the audience, including Day-Glo Western outfits of fringe -- orange for Carter, yellow for his dancers -- during "Cowgirl (Lil' Mama)," a sort of happy hip-hop country tune.
There also was cutesy interplay with his two female dancers and palling about with the three male dancers, who all did flips and tumbles right out of a homecoming game. Video montages during the costume changes included the "early" Aaron and footage of rehearsals for the tour, clowning around with his dancers.
It added up to perhaps 30 minutes at most of mild entertainment and tolerance for most adults, but the kids loved Carter's entire 75 minutes onstage, holding up handmade signs. The older girls (like 13, maybe) screamed and screamed, while the little ones -- girls and boys too, 5 or 6 years old -- often sat with eyes open in wonder.
Many good-sport dads looked a bit in pain, staring away from the stage with glazed looks, while moms were more typically open to playtime, those on the floor dancing with daughters under a happy rain of glitter for an encore that included a reprise of "Baby It's You." My 5-year-old co-critic didn't dance but gave it a thumbs up. He didn't even mind the screaming girls.
The only somewhat-disturbing moment came when an anxious fan at the front of the stage handed Carter a teddy bear, which he seemed to toss carelessly behind him instead of putting it down gently.
Also on the bill was the early-teen guy group Dream Street. So calculated to the point of no spontaneity whatsoever, they make outfits like the now far older Backstreet Boys seem like purveyors of great depth and thought.
Opening the night was teen popster Lindsay Pagano.
