I thought I was going to Las Vegas to see the Backstreet Boys. That is technically what happened. But somewhere between putting on my silver aluminum-foil pants, walking through the Palazzo surrounded by women (and men, and kids) dressed in white, baby blue and silver, hearing those first few lyrics inside Sphere and staying up a bit past my normal bedtime, something else happened.
I think I time traveled. And if you are a millennial woman, especially a millennial mom who spends most of her days packing snacks, checking calendars, remembering school forms, planning everyone’s lives and generally being a responsible adult, I am here to tell you:
You need to go to this concert.
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And I say this as someone who wasn’t even a Backstreet Boys girl. I WAS HARD-CORE *NSYNC. No Strings Attached concert like four times, Justin forever, JC singing "This I Promise You" lines like my comfort blanket... Backstreet was a growl face at the TRL screen, hoping Bye Bye Bye was above I Want it That Way...
But.... Well, we know how *NSYNC's tour is going.. MIA.
So I’ll take what I can get. But here's the thing..
The Backstreet Boys at Sphere Is Not Really About the Backstreet Boys
OK. Obviously it is a little bit about the Backstreet Boys. Because they still have it. Nick singing his little whiny love songs? I’m sorry. I melted into my friend's shoulder and giggled.
I’ve been happily married for 20 years. I have a child. I am 45 years old. And suddenly I was like, ohhhhhhhhhh right. THIS. I remember this. This is fun. This is silly. This is lovely.
This concert doesn't make you feel 16 again. It makes you feel like you have lived a full life, come out the other side and still get giddy over the same things as your teenage self. And that feels oddly wonderful.
And the magic is not simply nostalgia. It's community. I wasn’t expecting how incredibly communal the whole experience would feel..
I’ve never been to Burning Man. I’ve never even been to Coachella. So forgive the comparison here. But I suddenly understood this idea of thousands of people showing up somewhere hoping for the exact same experience and, somehow, collectively creating it.
Because imagine if the Backstreet Boys performed this exact same concert for a random group of Vegas tourists who just wanted to see Sphere. It wouldn’t be the same. The magic is us. Reminiscent of Taylor's Eras magic, but this time it's really for the elder millennial of the group. Like truly. These are not adult boys. These are men. Fathers. Dads. Guys we know and still love and respect. That's pretty darn amazing.
The Time Warp Starts Before You Even Get to Sphere
So when does this magic start? I started feeling it when we left our hotel room. You’re wearing your little outfit. You’re excited. You’re probably slightly tired because you are no longer 22 and Vegas requires ENERGY. Yes, I had a shot of espresso from Starbucks at about 6pm.
Then the elevator doors open.
And there are ten strangers standing there who basically look exactly like you.
White outfits. Silver. Sparkles. Millennial energy everywhere. And everybody is smiling at everybody. Someone screams. Someone takes a group photo with a long outstretched arm. Everyone within earshot poses and smiles and shouts, "Wooooooo!"
Someone compliments your outfit. Someone starts singing a song lyric. And suddenly you’re all friends.
You realize. And this is the magic. YOU ALL KNOW EACH OTHER. Not by job title or hometown. But spirit. We all had the same one.
The time warp starts when you are surrounded by almost 20,000 people who grew up in the same little pop-culture universe you did.
We were the Carson Daly/TRL generation. *NSYNC vs. Backstreet Boys, Britney and Christina. Eminem, 90210 and Friends. MTV Spring Break. Abercrombie and Delia’s catalogs, AOL away messages, Napster, burned mix CDs, Blockbuster Friday nights, Seventeen magazine. And beepers as our only tracking device on Friday night at 11pm, driving around in our first car with friends.
Not every millennial loved pop music. But the ones who did? We had the same spirit. We watched the same TRL countdowns. We knew the same songs. We had the same posters and magazines and crushes and ridiculous late-’90s/early-2000s fashion.
And now somehow we’re all grown-ups.
And Then They Start Singing
This was the part that really got me. There is a moment when one of the Backstreet Boys starts singing a lyric live and your brain does this very strange thing. Because you know that voice. You’ve known that voice for decades.
And suddenly you’re thinking: That’s actually him. That’s actually the voice I listened to 20-something years ago. And he has grown up. And I have grown up. Gone through some unimaginable shit in our lives. And all of us have grown up. Together. Same collective cultural history. That was the weirdest and coolest part of this concert for me.
Sometimes you see a celebrity you remember from childhood and your first thought is, “Oh my gosh, they look so old.”
I didn’t have that feeling here. The Backstreet Boys bring so much energy to this show that instead I kept thinking: Oh. They’re not old. I’m not old. None of us have aged today. And THAT is the magic of this concert.
For a few hours, you haven’t aged. You’re just you.
Millennials, I Think We’re Actually Pretty Cool
For the longest time, I feel like nobody has really known what to do with millennials. We’re anxious. We’re obsessive planners. We love color. We’re earnest. We’re cringe. We overthink everything. We somehow remember life before the internet but also helped create the internet as we know it.
We’re constantly challenging ourselves and optimizing ourselves and making reservations and Googling things and probably carrying twelve reusable water bottles. Sometimes I’m like… are we kind of lame? And standing inside Sphere with thousands of other millennials screaming Backstreet Boys lyrics, I had this revelation:
Oh. We’re actually really cool. I LOVE us. I don’t care what Gen Z is doing.
We grew up during an amazing little slice of pop culture. We have all been on this completely bizarre journey together, and we’re still here. We’ve grown up. We’ve had careers. We’ve gotten married or not gotten married. We’ve had kids or not had kids. We’ve moved and changed and lost people and gained people and become completely different versions of ourselves.
And then for a couple of hours we all got to meet back up again. With the Backstreet Boys leading the way. That’s pretty freaking magical.
The Funniest Part: I Almost Needed a Nap
Here’s the reality of going to a Backstreet Boys concert at 45. A few hours before the concert, I had a massage at Canyon Ranch. This may have been a tactical error. Or maybe just a genius move to help me stand up in general admission for the next four hours..
To help, I went to Starbucks and got a shot of espresso in some oat milk brown sugar iced latte. I could have gone back to our room, climbed into bed and slept for approximately nine hours. Instead I had to put on silver aluminum-foil pants, a white tank top and my version of ’90s makeup.
Even after I was completely ready I remember thinking: How am I going to do this? I’m still tired. Am I even fun anymore? Is this going to just feel so sad and pathetic. Like I remember my teachers ranting about hippie 60's music back in school?
And then somehow… A switch flips. You rally. Millennials are not our parents. Sorry Gen X and older..
Our concert started around 8:45 p.m., and not only did I stay awake through the entire thing, afterwards we danced around the hotel hallways for another hour.
Then we ordered room service, climbed into bed, watched two episodes of Friends and went to sleep.
It was honestly perfect. THIS was Vegas at 45. We ordered vegan tomato soup, pita and hummus, mint tea, ginger ale and had some sour candy from the little shop downstairs.
Our 36-Hour Vegas Mom Trip
This was also my first time leaving my daughter for something like this, so I really didn’t want to turn the trip into four days away from home. We basically did Vegas in about 36 hours. And that was perfect for me.
We stayed at The Palazzo, which I loved for this particular trip. We could do the pool, eat, get ready, go to Canyon Ranch, see the show and basically have everything we needed right there.
I also flew JSX from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which was a splurge but honestly made this specific trip so much easier.
JSX was about twice the price of a normal flight when I booked it, but being able to arrive roughly 20–30 minutes before the flight instead of doing the whole giant-airport production made it worth it to me, especially on the way home.
For a mom trying to sneak away to Vegas, see the Backstreet Boys and get back to her kid approximately five minutes later?
10/10. No notes. Well, maybe less annoying cigarette smoke in the casinos, but I digress.
A Few Backstreet Boys Sphere Tips
If you’re considering doing this trip, my very unofficial advice:
Dress up.
Do not be the person who decides you’re “too old” to wear the white outfit or the silver pants or the sparkles.
The outfits are part of the experience.
Stay somewhere close to Sphere.
Being able to walk out of your room and immediately become part of the sea of Backstreet Boys people was honestly one of my favorite parts.
Don’t over-plan Vegas.
This is not the trip where you need seventeen restaurant reservations and a 9 a.m. itinerary. Pool. Lunch. Spa. Espresso. Backstreet Boys. Done.
Just take the cheesy videos.
I know everyone says “put your phone away and experience the moment.” I experienced the moment. And I also took the videos. And now I’ve watched them approximately 700 times. It's ok. Take a few, skip a few.
Go with someone who gets it.
You know what I mean by this. Don't go with a friend who will cringe at butterfly clips or body glitter. We love them, but still.
Would I Go Again?
Ummmm. Yes. I came home and immediately started showing my daughter videos and photos. She truly has no idea who the Backstreet Boys are in the way that we know who the Backstreet Boys are. But somehow now she knows all about them. She knows their songs. She likes taking Backstreet Boys quizzes. And I am absolutely considering taking her to see them this winter. We’ll see.
If we do it, it will probably be a last-minute thing. But their music makes me happy.
The whole experience made me happy. And maybe that’s the thing I wasn’t expecting from this trip. I thought I was going to Vegas to see a nostalgic concert. Instead, I got to hang out with a version of myself I hadn’t seen in a really long time. She wears silver pants. She stays awake past midnight. She knows every word.
And apparently she’s still in there.
Even if she was technically an *NSYNC fan.
I got a little place nearby, gotta gooooooooooooooooo.
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