Why yes, yes people, it is true.  The Backstreet Boys (the real ones) opened for us at San Francisco Pride this past weekend (6/27/2010).  We hit the stage RIGHT after they got off.  I am not sure if they were actually aware that they were our opening act, but we sure were!  I mean, an opening act means that they play their show before we play ours, even if they take off in a stretch limo immediately after they get off stage.

Anyway, when I found out that the Backstreet Boys would be opening for us, I was more then amused:  ecstatic in fact.  I thought, “Wow, the only thing that could POSSIBLY be better is if New Kids On the Block opened for us.”  I used to be obsessed with New Kids: literally!  When I was in middle school, you could not see any white wall in my bedroom, only cut out pics of New Kids that even covered almost my entire ceiling (except my ceiling fan cuz they would have ripped).  I even made a scrapbook of pics of me and my friends next to New Kids On The Block cut outs.  Anyway, I wasn’t lucky enough for that, but The Backstreet Boys were a close second.  I was a little bit too old to fall victim to Backstreet Mania, however I got to witness it first hand.  I knew people loved them, but had NO IDEA how much.  Usually gay prides (at least during our sets) are filled with lots of ladies of all ages, but usually 20 years old and up.  Oh no no no no, not at this pride!  The front fence, which stretched so far it probably the length of a football field, was filled with 14-18 year old girls and gay boys.  The girls were screaming so loud in high pitched noises that it sounded like we might be at six flags., And the gay boys were screaming “I love you Nick Carter. Will you be my baby daddy Nick Carter?”  It was quite a site if I do say so myself.  I watched the first couple songs from the VIP section in the front of the stage but then got called back to go wait on stage behind the curtains so we could hit the stage as soon as they finished.  SHE and I walked up that ramp and that’s when it hit me.  I saw the Backstreet Boys (BB’s for short) and looked out in the crowd to realize that there were at least a hundred thousand people out there.  And so many of them knew the BB’s songs.  At that moment, I nearly puked and felt like I couldn’t breath.  I then started to think that I was going to forget all of my words and totally fuck up on stage.  SHE kept patting me on the back and saying, “We deserve this son, we have worked so long for this.  Just enjoy this moment homie.  You aren’t going to forget your words.”  I agreed in my head, we had worked for over 10 years and we have played to large crowds before.  But that didn’t take away from the fact that I kept gagging cuz I was having a mild panic attack.  I think I was extra physked out because a couple weeks before in Portland, I forgot the whole first verse to our song “Stand Up.”  And we perform that damn song nearly every week.  I free-styled and got back on track for the second verse but for the rest of the show I was worried I was going to forget something else.  It rarely happens that I forget words, but when it does, I feel like I can’t recall anything.  I feel like my career is over and I will never be able to remember our songs ever again.  I know it is a bit dramatic, but those are the crazy frantic thoughts that run through my brain.  So that was definitely weighing heavy on my mind when I looked out in the crowd.

Anyway, when the BB’s finally said BYE BYE BYE to the crowd, my heart started pounding like I had just run a 5 mile sprint.  These really cute gay hosts were talking up a storm and we kept motioning to them to “Shut the hell up” and put us on that damn stage before I puke all over the place.  All of sudden SHE pushes me from behind to prompt me to hit the stage.  We both go walking out and grab our mics.  From the moment we starting our first song people stopped dead in their tracks.  We grabbed that crowd.  I mean we REALLY grabbed that crowd.  They started singing along with us and really loved the show.  At one moment I looked up and saw myself on those supertron mega-screens like they use at the Super Bowl (next year we will actually be at The Super Bowl performing ).  Anyway, at the moment, I really just took in what was going on and felt so thankful to be there.  SHE was right, we have worked so hard for so many years and it is time that we get the opportunities and reckognition we deserve.  The longer we played, the more and more people started to gather and truly love our performance.  (We even got some emails from folks saying we were so much better then the Back Street Boys LOL).  We finished up the set with our crowd favorite “Lick It” and got a roar of applauses.  After we finished, our line for merch was on a whole other level of insanity and we sold a lot of cd’s and t-shrits and signed a ton of butts; in jeans that is.  So thank you Backstreet Boys for being our opening act at San Francisco Pride.  It will certainly be a show that I will NEVER forget.

Written by: God-Des