Twenty-five-year-old Aaron Carter stopped in Ottawa on his comeback tour and took the stage in front of a packed crowd of screaming girls Sept. 17 at Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Carter began his music career at seven years old. He established himself as a musical artist and heart-throb among pre-teen and teenage audiences by the time he was 10. He is also famous for being the younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.
It has been over a decade since Carter released his fourth and last record entitled “Another Earthquake.” While many of his fans thought his music career was over, Carter decided it was time to make a comeback and embarked on a North American tour called “The After Party Tour.”
Carter performed a one-hour set that included his most popular hits such as “Aaron’s Party,” “Not Too Young Not Too Old,” and “Candy.” Carter also performed a few covers of songs by Bruno Mars, Daft Punk, and Robin Thicke, all while gyrating his body from one side of the stage to the other, making the crowd of young women scream and dance along with him.
After saying goodbye to the crowd of screaming girls, Carter returned on stage and performed two more songs. His encore included a cover of Wizard of Oz’s “Over the Rainbow” which he dedicated to his late sister Leslie Carter who passed away last year. Carter then ended his show with his newest single entitled “Where Do We Begin.”
“Seeing Aaron Carter perform made my inner 12-year-old self extremely excited. Hearing him sing ‘Candy’ was probably the best thing of the entire show,” said 22-year-old Chloe Benner, who attended the concert. “However I don’t really understand how you can justify going on tour again after 10 years and not really releasing anything new.”
While on stage, Carter thanked his fans for coming to his concert and said, “It hasn’t been easy for me to come back on stage and perform, but you guys have helped make it a lot easier.”
It suddenly all made sense. Although Carter often gets labelled as a white trash artist with addiction problems performing in dingy bars across North America, he’s still one of the greatest pop acts out there today.
“I thought the show was amazing! I think I speak for a lot of girls when I say I’ve waited so long to hear my childhood crush perform his old songs! It brought back a lot of awesome memories and he proved that no matter how much time passes by, the ones who grew up listening to him will still always love him and his music, ” said 18-year-old Karine Gravelle, who also attended the concert.
After his performance, Carter stayed in his tour bus to meet his fans who could afford a $50 meet-and-greet ticket on top of the $20 concert ticket.
Most of Carter’s fans who bought meet-and-greet passes all seemed to be leaving Carter’s tour bus with smiles on their faces. Many commented on Carter’s flirtatiousness towards his fans during the meet and greet which didn’t seem to bother any of his fans one bit. His fans left the tour bus with a smile, an autograph, and some pictures with Carter.
“That was well worth the $50. I can’t believe I actually went to ‘Aaron’s party!’” said a young woman after coming off of Carter’s tour bus.
