By JESSICA NEU
It’s April 7, 2000. You have a pager, a fresh new outfit from either Pac Sun, Delia’s, or Charlotte Russe, and you are ready to watch MTV’s Total Request Live. 98 Degrees, O-Town, Britney Spears, and Backstreet Boys all make the top 10, but on this particular day, NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” still holds the number one spot on the countdown. Almost exactly six months later, NSYNC would appear on the popular show and draw a crowd so large that Times Square had to be shut down.
Fast forward 25 years, and these fans flocked to watch TRL after school and ventured to Media Play or Camelot Music to get the latest CDs. They are now middle-aged and trying to navigate the streaming era. However, some things never change. As evidenced by the revelry and community created at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s A Boy Band Symphony, those same fans are still screaming, still singing, and still remember all of the iconic choreography of the late 90s and early 2000s teen pop craze.
NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick, 98 Degrees’ Jeff Timmons, and O-Town’s Erik-Michael Estrada combined forces with the PSO (led by maestro Jacob Joyce) to provide a space for fans to create new memories while triggering core memories from 25 years ago.
A native of Clarion, PA, Kirkpatrick attributed part of the greatness of both the orchestra and the crowd to being from Pittsburgh because “everything from Pittsburgh is the best.” He also encouraged the audience to break symphony protocol and stand up, dance, and sing along. The audience eagerly obliged and remained on their feet for the entire show, showcasing the singers’ harmonies and the beauty of the PSO.
Opening with Backstreet Boys’ “Larger Than Life,” the trio dove into 98 Degrees’ “The Invisible Man,” backed by angelic PSO orchestration. Their harmonies blended beautifully with the arrangements as each singer attempted to tackle as much of the four or five-part harmonies that the songs demanded. Noting that they are the three “high singers,” or Sopranos of their respective groups, the symphony matched their octaves and key changes, generating the same invigorating energy as any show at Star-Lake Amphitheater (or whatever it was called in 2000). Anthems such as NSYNC’s “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” “Pop,” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” O-Town’s “Liquid Dreams,” and 98 Degrees “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)” had audiences signing and the PSO bringing additional percussion to each song that made the rhythms soar. Kirkpatrick and Timmons admitted that their dancing days may be behind them, but Estrada executed some of the famous dance moves much to the audiences’ delight.
Estrada showed off his vocal talents, especially as he was often responsible for some of the more prominent notes and belts during bridges or post-choruses. Fellow O-Town members Ashley Parker Angel and Dan Miller sang the majority of the solo parts on O-Town’s recordings, so hearing Estrada’s talents and seeing his charisma as the lone O-Town representative was both refreshing. Most notably, he commanded JC Chasez’s F# on NSYNC’s “This I Promise You.”Songs like “This I Promise You,” O-Town’s “The Are the Days,” and 98 Degrees’ “I Do,” felt as though they were composed with symphonic arrangements in mind. Each instrument section blends perfectly with the songs’ melodies and highlights a higher art and cultural appreciation that the audience has gained since those days at the high school dances.
The trio also noted their admiration for 90s R&B quartet Boyz II Men and sang a magical rendition of the group’s 1994 hit “I’ll Make Love to You.” Kirkpatrick, who donned a Pirate hat after intermission, noted that everyone has either belted this song out during karaoke or while in the shower before the trio launched into Backstreet Boy’s magnum opus, “I Want it That Way” and then O-Town’s “All or Nothing.” The symphony served as the 4th and 5th members of the group, not just filling the space of a 5-part harmony sung in 3-parts, but creating new renditions of each song that will be remembered for the next 25 years.
Returning to April 7, 2000, the trio ended with NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye.” Kirkpatrick, Timmons, Estrada, and the audience all may be a bit older. We have traded pagers for iPhones and are no longer shutting down Times Square. Still, A Boy Band Symphony proves that for some fans, boy bands are “all we ever wanted, and all we ever needed…and we want them back.”
Next up in this series, Clouds in my Coffee: Music of Joni Mitchell, Carole King & Carly Simon at Heinz Hall on May 9 to May 11, 2025
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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