Aaron CarterReview by Max Jensen
This kid's only 14 years old and moves with enough pumped-up sugar to make an old Vegas chorus girl take notice. Aaron Carter had a mission tonight - to woe the pre teens into such a state that they will continue to buy his records and merchandise at a furious rate. Products always sell as long as the advertising is good.
Photos by Niva Bringas
Aaron Carter made a stop at the Allstate Arena for a love-in extravaganza with his perpetually screeching devotees. The little brother of Backstreet Boy, Nick, Aaron fluttered the girls collective hearts with his jacked-up, pimp-in-munchkinland white fur coat and colored spiky hair.
The pop cocktail kicked in with the curious addition of Cheap Trick's Rick Nielson on the chewed-up bubble gum anthem "I Want Candy." A curious choice, but nonetheless Nielson infused a rock n' roll sensibility that was lacking throughout the rest of the show. Carter moved about the stage like an Olympian gymnast doing somersaults, cartwheels and making the childlike arctic inspired set snowball into his own personal jungle gym. With staccato beats shaking the stage, Aaron blasted into pop relishes "Bounce' and "Get Wild" with the innocence of a young Ricky Martin from his Menudo days. The bouncy "That's How I Beat Shaq" found his five back-up dancers, band and three back-up vocalists really believe that there is a future in the teen pop business. Just ask his older brother.
Carter even tried a hand at John Lennon's "Imagine." Bad choice. Don't take one of the most important songs of the last 30 years and pry out it's soul and deliver it like a Twinkie without it's filling.
Can he break the mold of being a branded teen sensation? I doubt it. He has to bank his future on the fickle whims of preteen girls whose loyalties will always lie in the next pretty face.
 Opening act: Lindsay Pagano |
 Aaron Carter |
 Lindsay Pagano |
