July 20, 2001
Fans love 'em, but we'd rather the boys in the band went solo

TORONTO -- Somebody break these guys up.

Seriously. Put 'em in separate rooms, ply them with pep talks, give them solo deals, do whatever you have to do.

But get them away from each other.

That conclusion after O-Town's mid-set "these-are-our-influences" solo routine at the Molson Amphitheatre last night, where 10,000 giddy young fans gathered to witness the TV boy-band in all their living, breathing, ignominious colour.

Now, the "influences" bit is old hat on the boy-band circuit. The Backstreet Boys -- who, like O-Town, were created by Orlando, Fla., teen-pop tycoon Lou Pearlman -- did it on their first visit here over four years ago. NSYNC, another Pearlman creation, put their own spin on it a couple of years ago.

Basically, the way it goes is each member of the group -- in this case, O-Town's Ashley Parker Angel, Jacob Underwood, Erik-Michael Estrada, Dan Miller and Trevor Penick -- turns out a portion of some song from the past that has in some way shaped his musical vision.

For the most part, it worked okay: Miller took a crack at a couple of Stevie Wonder favourites. Underwood shrieked his way through The Beatles' Come Together, sounding in the process like a cross between Macy Gray and Lemmy from Motorhead. Angel strummed a heartfelt version of the Goo Goo Dolls' Name. And Estrada -- not to be confused with the guy who played Ponch on C.H.I.P.S., which most of O-Town's audience would be too young to recall -- brought things to a suitable climax with a soundalike run-through of Prince's Purple Rain.

Only Penick faltered, with something that involved a cowboy hat and a verse of Outkast's Ms. Jackson. If there was any justice in the world, the Atlanta hip-hop crew would be able to sue him for using it.

The point is, on their own and with the right songs, O-Town weren't terrible.

Thrown up on stage together, however, they looked like a virtual parody of their forebears.

The ill-matched "street" wear, the barely-there tunes and dance moves, the painfully pretentious "put yo' hands in the air" hip-hop jargon -- perhaps their creators have been so busy trying to make a compelling TV show they forgot these guys would eventually have to take this act on the road.

What they did have working in their favour was that, thanks to the fact that their professional and personal trials have been documented and edited for TV, their audience seemed to have an intimate knowledge of them.

Tinkling, cookie-cutter numbers such as Girl, Baby I Would, All For Love and the hit single Liquid Dreams were interspersed with hilarious hand-jive moves and the usual patter about how Toronto is just so special -- because it was their "first" successful market -- and how, for this next song, they're going to play some guitar or piano, just to show off that musical side.

Of course, as a guy in his late twenties, I'm hardly in their demographic, so take all of this with a grain of salt, please.

But, as one of those critics who first poked fun at BSB and NSYNC only to develop a grudging appreciation for their undeniable song 'n' dance spectacles and surprising longevity, I've also figured out a sliding scale for these things.

And O-Town barely registered.

Now, if that Ashley would just go solo ...

JAM! Rating: 2 out of 5

(More on: O-Town).