HANGIN’ TOUGH
With another Fenway Park show, NKOTB prove they are here to stay
For 10 years, the New Kids on the Block toured arenas filled with thousands of screaming fans. I'm not talking about their '80s and '90s run. I'm talking about the past 10 years. Tomorrow, Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, Danny and Donnie return to headline Fenway Park for a second time since reuniting in 2008. (They've also played the Garden seven times in a decade.)
“We've sold more tickets on this tour than any other since we reunited,” Jordan Knight said ahead of the band's Fenway return. “When the Red Sox first started doing shows there, I thought the place was reserved for people like U2 and Elton John and Aerosmith, artists of that stature. To put us on that pedestal, and to have it happen in our hometown, it's pretty amazing.”
Not surprisingly, Fenway shows don't get old.
“It's the center of the Boston universe, it's hallowed ground, a place we all grew up with,” he said. “Plus, we get to hang out in the Sox locker room and dugout.”
New Kids are the rare boy band with staying power. It is something Knight prides himself on. He says the key to the group's success (beyond Top 40 hits and a spectacle of a live show) is they like what they do and they like doing it together.
“Often reunions are just opportunities for bands to relearn why they broke up,” he said. “Often it's not the fans that force breakups. Bands crumble from within and not from without. ... Many people think a so-called boy band has five-year period to be successful. We have shown that doesn't have to be the case.”
Knight says fans are intuitive. They can tell when a group is only in it for the money.
“If the crowd knows we are having fun onstage, they are going to feel that chemistry and it will create special moments,” he said.
Maybe you could fake being buddies who love each other for a Fenway show or massive paycheck (see Aerosmith). But you can't fake a cruise.
From Oct. 19-23, the New Kids and their most devoted admirers will set sail from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico, and back again. Featuring concerts, costume balls, trivia contests and skinny dipping with Joey Mac (Maybe. We're not promising anything here.), this will be the ninth New Kids cruise in nine years. (The cruise has even spawned a TV series, “Rock This Boat,” on the Pop network.)
“Every year, you have to want to do it,” Knight said. “The cruise is not an easy thing to do. We have to plan everything. We are on the boat for five days and it's five guys and 30,000 fans, with events packed from morning to night. If you're not getting along, you are not going to do it. But every year, we have fun.”
By now, the New Kids have been reunited for as long as they were together the first time around. And there's no end in sight. Does that mean they'll be playing Fenway in 2027? Maybe not, but they'll probably still be selling out an ocean liner.
New Kids on the Block, with Paula Abdul and Boyz II Men, at Fenway Park, tomorrow. Tickets: $34.50-$135; nkotb.com