By: Lizzi McLean
The crowd began to scream. "What's happening? Are they here? Where are they?" I shouted out in excitement above the noise and chaos. I scrutinized the entire area for my No. 1 favorite pop group in the world, the Backstreet Boys. After the audience was finished with its constant chants of "Over here!" and "I love you Brian!", my friend, Caroline, replied, "It's only a camera." I slumped back into my chair, disappointed. We had been waiting in our seats inside the arena, Row 14, Section 214, for half an hour. "Well instead of making us wait here, they could at least bring EYC back out." I complained. EYC was the singing group that opened up for the concert. I sighed and looked around the stage again, remembering the feeling of excitement running throughout my body when I first saw the breathtaking view. I can still picture it now. It'll be with me forever. The stage was set up in the center of the arena, with the seats all around. It was shaped like a pentagon with the band set up around a center platform that lowered below the stage and rose up high above it. There were four gigantic screens set up in a circle up above, around the stage with rockets attatched to their sides. The crowd started chanting and screaming again, this time with a wave ripping around the upper level (my first wave! I went to a baseball game and I missed my chance there because I got up to get ice cream). As I stood up to join, a smile spread across my face. I began to wonder about the show to come. I had no idea what to expect. I shivered out of excitement. Looking over toward my mom and sister, I found them admiring posters we had purchased. All of a sudden, the lights went out. The Darth Vadar theme song from "Star Wars" began playing. Exhilaration spread through the audience like a brush fire. I leaped off my seat and began screaming along with everyone else (I couldn't believe I did afterwards. I'm sooooo not teenybopper). The noise was deafening! Spotlights fell upon some dancers climbing up on stage. I frantically searched for a clue as to where the boys would "fly in", as I had heard. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something light up. I whipped my head over toward the left. Behind the floor seats green smoke began billowing out of a box-like structure, and through it I could see five figures rising up! Nick, Kevin, AJ, Howie, and Brian were riding on what seemed to be floating surfboards, right above the heads of the floor crowd! Screams and shouts were louder than ever. Now I knew how my mom felt at the Beatles Concert she went to... Once the boys landed on stage, they joined the dancers in a formation. They marched around the whole stage once, stopping on each side to inspect the crowd. Kevin would nod his head and they would move on. After that, the drums began beating. The groups brand-new hit song, "Larger Than Life" began, the bass throbed in my chest, making it hard to feel my heartbeat. I began to sing along, "All you people, can't you see, can't you see. How your loves afectin' our reality. Every time we're down, you can make it right. And that makes you larger than life!" This was going to be a night to remember!