What happens during a Backstreet Boys show in 2022: Flirty eyes and autographed undies

The Backstreet Boys will play Auckland's Spark Arena on March 11, 2023.

It may as well have been 1999. As I stood in the crowd at Anaheim’s Honda Centre, five Backstreet Boys rose out of the stage, emerging into view like magic, although it was clearly the work of a hidden trap door beneath the stage.

Decked out in dreamy all-white ensembles, it was like they'd burst into life from the cover of their now 23-year-old Millennium album. As the stomping beats and slick choreography of Everybody (Backstreet's Back) kicked in, it only heightened this nostalgic time trip.

The moment ignited ear-piercing shrieks at the group's DNA World Tour, where concert-goers dressed in Friends T-shirts and vintage Backstreet Boys gear were further transported back to the 90s as the quintet soared into the arena while performing old favourites like Don't Wanna Lose You Now.

The move was reminiscent of the boy band flying into the crowd on hoverboards during their Into the Millennium tour back in their hysteria-inducing pop reign, which saw them releasing anthems like I Want It That Way.

After that song premiered on ZM, the track shot to number 1 in NZ in June 1999 with Millennium following a week later. By that point, Soundgarden and Nirvana had made way for Backstreet Boys on my bedroom walls and all I wanted in life was for Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Nick Carter and Brian Littrell to bring their dazzling tour Down Under.

Endless hours were spent working with a Yahoo Group named NZBackstreet_Fans, organising a nationwide petition for the group to tour New Zealand. The Yellow Pages-sized mass of 5000 hand-collected signatures was eventually posted to New York, but it was 10 years before I heard its fate.

"We've never played here, but fans did a petition to get us here once," Dorough commented when the boy band finally arrived for their first New Zealand concert in 2010. They returned again in 2015, but I like to think that it's their upcoming gig that is the true ode to our mighty fan petition.

Winding the clock back, the group opened with a string of party-starting heyday hits like The Call, before proceeding with their most Millennium-heavy setlist in 20 years.

Name a Backstreet Boys hit and it's in the 33-song show. Tracks from DNA weave their way in, like Grammy-nominated, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, the dreamy acapella Breathe and the Shawn Mendes-penned Chances. Things get heated when they perform Passionate as McLean and Richardson strip down and toss autographed underwear into the DNA Circle – a literal pit in the middle of their pentagon-shaped second stage where 100 superfans can witness the concert with 360-degree views.

Amid lasers, pyrotechnics, SFX and confetti, the hot ticket delivers all the up-close-and-personal interaction one could want, making it the place in the stadium I had to be. At one point Littrell serenaded my pal. But the highlight of the show was when Carter made me feel like that 17-year-old fangirl once again when he made flirty eyes at me.

Well, I'm convinced it was at me and not the 99 other fans beside me in the pit sharing the same moment.

THE LOWDOWN

Who: Backstreet Boys

What: Bringing their DNA World Tour to Spark Arena

When: March 11, next year