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New Kids on the Block sound better at Coliseum

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

September 24, 2008

Go ahead. Call it a comeback.

When the New Kids on the Block called it quits in 1994, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood seemed to be running on fumes, still coasting on their frenzied success in the late '80s. That's what makes the group's current resurgence -- the No. 2 album "The Block" out earlier this month and the current sold-out tour that stopped at Nassau Coliseum last night -- all the more surprising.

Not only do the New Kids sound better than they ever did, they also look like they're having even more fun than they did 20 years ago.

"You don't know how good it feels to be in this building tonight," said Wahlberg. " Long Island has always been a special place for us."

They managed to fold in six new songs from "The Block," including the dramatic opener "Single" and "Click Click Click," which set the reunion in motion, as well as solo turns for Jordan Knight, McIntyre and Wahlberg. But even some of the classics got a new twist. They threw nods to the Jackson 5 and The Time into "The Right Stuff" and they played up the freestyle dance vibe in "My Favorite Girl."

And some things never change, like the way McIntyre brings down the house on "Please Don't Go Girl" or Wahlberg's hip-hop plea for positivity in "No More Games" or the frenzy that comes with the Beatlesque "Tonight."

Openers Natasha Bedingfield and Colby O'Donis, who both have big radio hits to their names, showed how pop-friendliness doesn't necessarily translate into stellar performances. Not even Bedingfield's chart-topping anthem "Unwritten," recast as some electric guitar epic, could rouse much of the crowd.

But the New Kids had no problem commanding screams for whatever they did, showing how well their songs have stood the test of time.