MixTape Festival Brings Back Blasts From The Past
The
5th annual MixTape Festival at Hershey Park Stadium
brought in waves of nostalgia for the crowd of over 16,000 that
braved the summer heat this past Saturday.
Starting
at 4 in the afternoon and lasting til 11, Hershey, PA was transported back to the
late 90's and early 2000's much to the delight of music fans of all
ages.
For many, this was the music they grew up on-whether it was
listened to in the car or bus on the way to and from school, the
soundtrack to their school dances, hanging out with friends. It
brought back memories for many as did the mention of MTV's TRL which
a few of artists paid tribute to. Everyday you'd catch your favorite
artists and find out what was popular. Many of those at the
festival-Dream, 98 Degrees and O-Town were included in that era and
are touring as part of a MY2K Tour that also featured opener, Ryan
Cabrera.
Ryan
Cabrera kicked things off with a simple, but engaging half hour that
featured him on guitar playing a mix of his hits from the mid 2000's
including “House on Fire” and “True”. Kicking off a trend
that would follow with most of the acts, he did a medley of covers
that included The Goo-Goo Doll's “Slide,” Third Eye Blind's
“Semi-Charmed Life,” Will Smith's “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”
and bringing things up to date with Justin Bieber's “Sorry.”
Cabrera performed his new single, “Whatever, Whenever,” due out
this month from “Beyond The Sky” and closed his set with his
biggest hit “On The Way Down.”
O-Town wasted no time getting the crowd up performing their big 2000 hit, “Liquid Dreams” as their opening number. They continued with “Girl” from their debut along with a handful of their early hits. The group broke up in 2003 and reunited in 2013 and have been together since minus Ashley Parker Angel and released their new album, “Lines and Cirlces” a few years ago. After the title track, they launched into a mash-up of covers which included Nico and Vinz “Am I Wrong,” Maroon 5's “Maps,” The Weekend's “I Can't Feel My Face” and Kanye West's “Stronger.” Throughout it all, the giant video screen flashed lyrics to many of their songs which led to giant sing-a-longs to get the crowd going. The guys closed their set with their biggest hit, “All or Nothing At All.”
After a short break, 98 Degrees took the stage with the appropriate “Heat It Up.” While they weren't quite on the same level as their boy band peers Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, Nick, Drew, Jeff and Justin had their following and proved they could stand on their own. They reunited 4 years go at the first MixTape and have been back together since. Their cover of Montell Jordan's “This is How We Do It” got the audience into a frenzy. They slowed things down with their first hit, “Invisible Man” and fan favorite, “The Hardest Part.” After talking about 1999, they started into a medley of hits from their fellow pop artists-”Summer Girls” by LFO, Sugar Ray's “Fly,” “I Want It That Way” from Backstreet Boys, Spice Girl's “Wannabe,” Blink 182's “All The Small Things,” Britney's debut, “...Baby One More Time” and N*Sync's “Bye Bye Bye.” In a bit of a cheesy moment, the guys invited an audience member out and performed “I Do (Cherished You)” after asking her to marry them before closing out the show with their 1998 hit, “Because of You.”
Growing up in the early 90's, Philly group BoyzIIMen were radio staples with smash after smash. They kicked off their set with a cover of Sly and the Family Stone's “Different Strokes For Different Folks” before getting things going with their '91 mega smash, “MotownPhilly.” “On Bended Knee” became an audience sing-a-long and showed off the group's tight harmonies. An odd groove session that featured a mix of totally unrelated songs seemed misplaced. Bob Marley's “Jamming”, Ed Sheeran's “Thinkin' Out Loud” mashed up with Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On”, Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Sweet Home Alabama” and Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Guess Who's “American Woman” and The Beatle's “Come Together” proved to be an odd mix and threw the pacing of their show off. Their cover of “Open Arms” from Journey was better suited, but it was their hits that got the show back on track as they followed up with smooth groove classics “I'll Make Love To You” and “End of the Road” before closing out with an encore of “MotownPhilly.”
It had been 20 years since pop icon Paula Abdul graced the concert stage and MixTape was her big return to performing. While she has never been out of the spotlight-become a beloved judge on “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance”-her music career has been sparse in the past decade. A few singles, “Dance Like There's No Tomorrow” and “I'm Just Here For The Music,” didn't make much of an impact and her last release was “Dream Medley,” a re-recording of a handful of hits was released in 2012 to iTunes with little fanfare.
Armed
with confetti cannons, pyrotechnics and gyrating hips, the festival's
headliners, New Kids On The Block hit the stage. The group has
performed at all 5 of the festival's shows and is main draw for many
in the audience. Since getting back together in 2008 after their
breakup in 1994, New Kids have been drawing in crowds wanting to
remember their favorite childhood crushes. Hitting the stage with
“The Whisper” they launched into “Block Party” and
“Summertime” running out into the crowd hugging, kissing and
hanging out with their fans. Men, women, kids-everyone was going
crazy over them. Part of their appeal and how they keep their music
fresh and current is they've updated many of their songs so they
sound like what's on the radio today. For over half an hour they hit
hard and brought a crazy amount of energy to the fans who were in the
sun all day. They started cooling down a bit with “Please Don't Go
Girl” followed by solos from Joey, Jordan and Donnie. They got
things up and going again with “Tonight” and closing with
signature hits “Step by Step” and “Hang Tough.” If you
weren't a fan of New Kids on The Block before Saturday night, you
were by the end. You gotta admire their showmanship and their
dedication to their loyal fans.
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