Having to been lucky enough to see Nick Carter’s first solo show at Guavaween, a festival in Tampa (or Ybor City if you want to get technical), I knew I needed to see him solo again.
Over the years I’ve seen some very big tours – from Garth Brooks’ out of retirement tour, New Kids on the Block, Rascal Flatts, you name it, I probably saw it. But Nick’s “Now or Never” tour will always hold a special place in my heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE_vqYzAKFE
Different
You have to think back and think about all of the tours Nick had done up until that point – all with the Backstreet Boys. Sure he did one-off shows with his brother or maybe singing at a bar back home, but it wasn’t a full show on his on. Maybe that’s why the tour stood out so much. I was so used to seeing dancing Nick Carter with the other boys by his side. For the “Now or Never” tour, he was the center of attention. I didn’t have to worry about looking at four other guys, it was just Nick who was getting all of my attention.
Fun
Okay not that a Backstreet Boys’ show isn’t fun, because we all know that it is, but Nick’s “Now or Never” tour had such a fun aspect to it. Maybe it’s because he was just being himself. He could crack a joke or throw water on someone, it didn’t matter. He did what he wanted to do and if you know Nick, you know he likes to have fun.
Sexy
Well obviously this was going to be a topic of discussion. While Nick has always been a little sexy in concert with the Backstreet Boys, he was able to cut loose on his first solo tour. Maybe he wasn’t sexy to everybody, but for a girl like me, seeing a guy sing a power ballad like “Heart Without A Home” or swing the guitar around on his back while singing “I Just Want To Take You Home,” well, there’s nothing sexier than that.
Entertaining
With all the Now or Never tour shows I saw, there was never not once that I wasn’t fully entertained. Whether Nick was jumping off the stage and running down the front row of the audience without a bodyguard around, or he was climbing up on the drumset. That was probably the best part of the show, never knowing what Nick was going to do next. No one show was just like the other and that was really the best part.
Going to see Nick so many times on that tour and meeting him literally changed my life. Maybe that’s why I’m such a big fan of this album because of the memories that it and the tour have for me. It was a really strange time in my life and I needed something to take my mind off of everything.
Sometimes we all need that and for me, that was the “Now or Never” era.
<3
