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Music

Hot Ticket: Let's hear it for the Boys

By SEAN DALY
Published July 21, 2005

Wow, times sure got tough for the Backstreet Boys after their late-'90s fluff-pop heyday. Not only did the Orlando-factured band's resident blond brooder, Nick Carter, get dumped by Paris Hilton, he was also busted for drunken driving. And not only did brunet brooder A.J. McLean lose most of his hair, but he also ended up in rehab. Another member - uh, the tall guy with the funky goatee, you know, that dude - went slumming on an all-has-beens episode of Fear Factor. And the latest sucker punch? The group's triumphant comeback album, June's Never Gone, was triumphantly razzed by critics.

But let's not weep too hard for the Boys. After all, when they pose and pout and pop it up at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, there will no doubt be a whole lot of happy-happy devotees in the crowd who know every single word to such stuck-in-your-melon hits as I Want It That Way, Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart) and As Long As You Love Me. Like it or not, the rest of us know most of the words, too. We can mock 'em all we want, but Nick, A.J. and That Goatee Guy are one of modern-day pop's indefensible guilty pleasures. Plus they can totally party 'N Sync under the table.

The Backstreet Boys perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ford Amphitheatre, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $18-$59. (813) 740-2446, (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

- SEAN DALY, Times pop music critic

A cross between Harry Connick Jr. and a smirky frat boy, Canadian crooner Michael Buble (say it with me: BOO-blay) borrows his phrasing from Frank - yes, that Frank - and his vaguely cheeseball vibe from American Idol. If you haven't heard of the budding heartthrob, you've no doubt seen him. He's the guy in those ubiquitous Starbucks commercials featuring a flustered young office worker who keeps seeing the singer supernaturally pop up all over town.

Yes, the ads are creepy, but they don't seem to bother fans who've made his show in Tampa on Friday a sellout. Buble, whose mentor is schmaltzy superproducer David Foster, has seen sales of new album It's Time heat up. The disc, which went No. 1 in Canada, Japan, Italy and Australia and has hovered high over here, is full of classic cuts (I've Got You Under My Skin, Try a Little Tenderness) and features such demographic-spanning special guests as popster Nelly Furtado and trumpeter Chris Botti. Even if he's not quite your cup of coffee, you have to admit the guy has one heck of a voice.

Buble performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The show is sold out.

- SEAN DALY, Times pop music critic

Tougher than Mary J. Blige but sweeter than Lil' Kim, the unsinkable Faith Evans has played pivotal roles in both the soft world of R&B and the hard universe of rap. The Florida-born, New Jersey-raised singer-songwriter has penned hits for and performed with everyone from Whitney Houston to Usher to Twista. On the darker side, she earned a key place in Hip-Hop 101 as the widow of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., mourning his death on the Puff Daddy-produced hit I'll Be Missing You - and fighting off rumors of an affair with Biggie archenemy Tupac Shakur.

Last year, Evans was arrested on drug possession charges. Vowing that she was starting anew, the 32-year-old Evans recently released The First Lady, her first new album in four years, and her first for the Capitol label after splitting from Puffy's Baby Boy Records. In typical Evans style, the disc doles out both the party cuts (Goin' Out features Neptunes playboy Pharrell) and the confessionals (Again addresses the drug brouhaha). Fellow R&B royalty Blige might have called out for no more drama, but Evans, it seems, would be lost without it.

Evans performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. $19.50 advance, $22 day of show. Call (813) 287-8844, (727) 898-2100 or (727) 896-2276.

- SEAN DALY, Times pop music critic

[Last modified July 20, 2005, 09:58:07]