Reading like a wall of posters you might see in a shopping-mall record store circa 1988, New Kids on the Block will head up the Mixtape Tour at Xcel Energy Center on June 11 with fellow MTV-era hitmakers Salt-N-Pepa, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and Naughty by Nature. There's going to be a lot of dads flying solo with the kids at home that night.
Tickets for the Tuesday night flashback show go on sale Friday (Oct. 12) at 10 a.m. at prices almost 10 times what these acts charged three decades ago, $77-$177, via Ticketmaster and the arena box office. Pre-sale options begin on Tuesday via Ticketmaster.
Like '90s boy band the Backstreet Boys, the New Kids have enjoyed a successful run of reunion tour and casino dates over the past decade catering to original fans now in their more affluent 40s. NKOTB headed up another flashback tour last summer that hit Xcel Center with Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul (the latter of whom cancelled in St. Paul). The quintet, anchored by Donnie "Mark's brother" Wahlberg and Joey McIntyre, issued a new single alongside the tour announcement, appropriately titled "80s Baby."
Hip-hop hitmakers Salt-N-Pepa and Naughty by Nature have also been steadily touring in recent years, but not Tiffany or Gibson. The "I Think We're Alone Now" singer has been starring in assorted celebrity TV competitions of late, while the "Lost in Your Eyes" balladeer recently starred in a Hallmark Channel movie.
