Atlanta

Backstreet Boys

Atlanta

January 27, 2001

First off, a little background before the actual concert pics. Sharon and I both have been fans of the boys for over a year and a half now and have read COUNTLESS encounters on the web where fans were lucky enough to find the boys hotel and get a hug, an autograph, or just a moment with them. We'd met Bri back in the summer and coming home from that trip we decided that we were *DEFINITELY* going to find them the next time we got the opportunity.

So, when the Atlanta show came up we were determined. And, I luckily had a gut feeling as to where they were. Saturday morning came and we hopped out of bed and hit the road. Arriving in Atlanta around noon, we went straight to the hotel where I hoped they would be and sure enough there were the buses. We grabbed cameras, pens, and the Black and Blue CD to maybe get it signed and headed up there. We ran into several people we knew from the Internet (who are really nice folks - not the maniacs that everyone thinks when you say "internet friends") and found out that the boys were there indeed. (Sometimes the buses are just parked at different places for decoys.) After a 3 hour wait, we got the first boy - Kevin! He just came quietly thru the lobby before most of us were even aware. He went out to his bus but said he'd be back. Okay. We waited outside near the front of the hotel for him to come back. After 30 min, we got the second boy - Nick! He went straight to his bus but came back out after just a few minutes to sign for us. We sang Happy Birthday to him since he was turning 21 the next day. Sharon got his autograph but I just stood behind her and watched then went and jumped up on this half wall to get a better view and took some pics. After Nick left, we found out Kev was just standing in the door of the bus, his bodyguard Carlos right in front and signing autographs so we headed down there. Sharon got autograph #2 for the day and we snapped lots of pics of Kevy. Hers was the last one he signed too so she was lucky. Whew. The day was complete at that point but AJ and Howie still had to come out. I'd used up all my pics so there'd be no more photographs from me. But we did get to see both of those guys very briefly. They were both running late and didn't do very much signing - pretty much headed straight for the bus. I'm hoping to run into the boys in Vegas to get autographs there. :-)

http://www.annrich.com/ann/photos/atlkev.htm - Kevin's pics from the Hotel

http://www.annrich.com/ann/photos/atlnick.htm - Nick's pics from the Hotel

As for the concert, well, I have so-so pics this time. Will probably be using a different camera for the next show since the SureShot has decided it doesn't care to focus where it should. BUT, when it did focus this time, WOW. We had 12th row just to the left of center. Awesome seats - especially since we had some folks standing up but there weren't any incredible tall folks or anyone with signs in front of us. And, we had 4 empty seats next to us so if we couldn't see where a boy was, we just moved a little. Security was tight as well for anyone on the floor. We had wristbands this time, they checked for cameras and they were pulling film from folks who got cameras in. I was lucky that my film didn't get pulled. Maybe they knew I had a sureshot and figured the pics wouldn't turn out anyway. HAHA. But I did get several good shots that I'm proud of. Most of them were of Nick but every once in awhile I had some with the other boys in them. We also met up with Tammie from last year so she hung out with us during the show. Her seat was a few rows back but she sat with us, intending to go back to her seat if someone showed up. No one did so she stayed with us. (Film note: used a mix of 1000 and 1600 ASA. Don't see any particular set of pics so either did fine this time.)

Tammie and Sharon before the show started (if security hadn't taken my disposable camera on the way in there would have been a good shot of me before the concert but noooo....)