Backstreet Boys on the Sphere Sci-Fi Themes

2001: A Area Odyssey. Star Wars. Star Trek. Tron. Blade Runner. Akira. The Fifth Element. Interstellar. Superman. Flash Gordon. The Matrix. That seems like a listing of the best sci-fi movies of all time, however really, it’s a listing of the movies talked about throughout a dialogue in regards to the inspirations behind the Backstreet Boys’ popular new residency on the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This previous July, one of many greatest boy bands of all time celebrated 20 years of their iconic album, Millennium, at the technologically advanced venue, with two months of sold-out exhibits that generated a ton of buzz and curiosity. In consequence, two extra months of exhibits have been not too long ago added, and io9 spoke to Baz Halpin, CEO and founding father of Silent Home, about it. Silent Home was certainly one of a number of firms essential to the creation of the present, and Halpin defined how a love of science fiction was instrumental in creating what some, like director Joseph Kahn, have known as the “finest live performance I’ve ever seen.”

“It. Is. Thoughts-blowing,” Kahn, who directed two of the group’s most iconic videos—the monster-filled “Everyone (Backstreet’s Again)” and sci-fi heavy “Bigger Than Life”—said on X. “You suppose I’m joking. I’m not. Good mix of their efficiency, creativity, charisma, and visuals. Consider the way in which folks felt in regards to the opening of Star Wars in ’77 become a live performance. It’s a must to see it to imagine it.” Nicely, we have seen it and he’s proper. Even for those who don’t just like the timeless pop music of the Backstreet Boys, the present takes you on an epic journey by the galaxy, crammed with some intentional and a few unintentional winks to iconic sci-fi motion pictures of the previous and current.

Halpin is a prolific producer of reside occasions. He produced Usher’s 2024 Tremendous Bowl halftime present, Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, Netflix’s latest TUDUM, and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour film, simply to call just a few. By way of live performance excursions, he helped produce and conceive exhibits for Taylor Swift, Pink, Britney Spears, Usher, Harry Types, and extra. Just lately, he labored on the Eagles’ residency on the Sphere and was first contacted in regards to the Backstreet Boys in November 2024. Quickly after, he and his workforce had give you a proposed set record and total idea, which they introduced to the band.

“It was ‘Into the Millennium,’ 20 years of the album [and] it’s seminal for thus many individuals,” Halpin advised io9 over video chat. “We keep in mind what that was like. We will keep in mind the music movies. We will keep in mind how they regarded. We will keep in mind the model of it, for those who like. So I knew I needed it to be type of futuristic sci-fi, however I knew we [also] needed to have all of the ballads. We needed to have all of the romance.”

To create that stability, Halpin determined to do one thing Sphere concert events hadn’t executed earlier than: inform one, full, cohesive story. “I assumed, ‘Okay, nice, we’ll do an area opera,” he stated. “We’ll do all of it in area and… let’s attempt to tie the entire thing visually from starting to finish. However what might we use that’s related to Millennium? That may very well be our system to tie this factor collectively with out making it really feel like a film and nonetheless dwelling in an area to really feel like a pop live performance? And so I got here up with the concept of a spaceship. The spaceship is Millennium and that’s what takes us by the factor. So it was a giant swing to place all our eggs on this inflexible basket of a journey from begin to end, however I believe that’s what makes for the most effective expertise in Sphere, when you may have your cake and eat it too.”

And in order that’s what it’s. Because the present begins, a large spaceship with the phrase “Millennium” on the again of it flies into the venue after which blasts off into area. And whereas sci-fi followers will clearly see a giant spaceship with the phrase “Millennium” on it and consider the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, Halpin got here to that realization somewhat later than the viewers. “I’m a complete Star Wars nerd,” Halpin stated. “However, imagine it or not, it solely dawned on me that Millennium and Millennium Falcon [were related] after I was chiseling away making an attempt to design the ship with our visible counterparts [at Blink Inc.]. We would have liked one thing that felt huge. Like nearly to scale…but additionally felt agile, and the Millennium Falcon, for me, was at all times that factor. It regarded prefer it shouldn’t be agile, however when it moved, it actually was, and so I believe subconsciously that absolutely performed in.”

That blend of direct and oblique inspiration continued from tune to tune. “Get One other Boyfriend,” for instance, the present’s eighth tune, sees the Boys in a really neo-noir setting with floating transports above, towering buildings within the mist, and small autos driving on neon lights. It seems to be very very similar to Blade Runner or Akira, with a touch of Tron, all of which have been a part of the conception, to some extent. “So the Tron reference was really one thing that we’re making an attempt to get away from,” Halpin stated. “Initially, they have been really bikes with wheels. And I stated, ‘I don’t need that. If something, they need to be extra like speeder bikes.’ So I went on this complete idea artwork dive on various kinds of speeder bikes. And I didn’t need any path. I didn’t need any lightcycle path or something like that. However, you recognize, on this world, they’re gonna have a neon define. They’re gonna have a type of light-up factor. It’s laborious as a result of Tron… was so aesthetically singular, it’s laborious to have an LED define on something, and somebody not say, ‘It’s Tron.’”

In “The Name,” the present’s penultimate tune, inexperienced traces of code run up and down your complete Sphere. It screams The Matrix, particularly since each share the essential factor of a telephone name. Nonetheless, it was about evoking that feeling, not copying it. “Within the Eagles, for ‘Mendacity Eyes,’ we did this second the place the handwritten lyrics of the tune got here down vertically like a chandelier, after which they’d rotate them,” Halpin stated. “It’s simply a tremendous impact, so I knew that lengthy skinny strips of textual content of some kind labored very well.” Utilizing actual telephone numbers associated in numerous methods to the Backstreet Boys, the numbers transfer round like The Matrix, however then construct and create shapes to drag off what Halpin refers to as “Sphere methods.”

“Making a field, making a tunnel, making a cone, making a curve,” Halpin stated. “We needed blocks that will permit us to do the Sphere methods and painting the telephone numbers, [but] it’s laborious to get away from that Matrix connotation. ”

“Stop Enjoying Video games,” one of many Backstreet Boys’ earliest hits, sees the group in an endless cascade of block preparations, which construct to kind a bigger construction. Mainly, it seems to be like a large sport of Tetris, a thought Halpin was very conscious of. “I used to be very acutely aware of Tetris and acutely aware of looking for all of the ways in which it’s not Tetris,” he stated. “Primarily, we’re constructing a home. The traces aren’t disappearing. There are issues inside it. Not one of the shapes are the identical shapes.”

And but, the Tetris look solely got here after one other well-known sci-fi inspiration didn’t fairly match. “We struggled for a very long time with that tune,” Halpin stated. “I knew I needed that tune to be our surrealist, colourful, loopy factor. If something, it could be extra like a Fifth Factor Luc Besson vibe. However the cause that we ended up with the blocks is that I needed a Sphere trick the place one thing fell on prime of us… And so the constructing of a wall, the place it’s sluggish, it’s steady, it occurs the entire means up. We get the Sphere trick that they’re in a position to seem from infinity, after which have it in a position to fall down on prime of us. That’s the way it ended up being blocks that have been totally different in shapes somewhat than flat horizontal traces, simply to offer us some fascinating.”

Concepts didn’t at all times come to fruition, although. Halpin defined that as a result of results in motion pictures are so good nowadays, and audiences are so tapped into what’s actual and what’s not, they count on a sure stage of high quality. So, if their results couldn’t at the very least match what you’d see in a theater, they went in one other path. “We did attempt to do a black gap like Interstellar, and we couldn’t get it to look practically nearly as good as Interstellar,” he stated. “So we deserted it.”

“Into the Millennium” opened at Sphere on July 11, so all of this and extra was put collectively over the course of lower than a yr. That’s partially because of the work of Halpin and his workforce at Silent Home, which offered the idea, artistic path, design, and manufacturing, as nicely Blink Inc., which was the lead content material design studio; Sphere Studios, which was answerable for ensuring all that concept and tech got here collectively within the venue; and, in fact, Again Avenue Productions. It was loads of work, however for Halpin, the second he realized it had all come collectively was just a few weeks earlier than opening.

“Totally different members [of Backstreet Boys] got here in at totally different instances and had totally different ranges of involvement however Nick [Carter] got here to the Sphere show-and-tell along with his daughter and sat proper behind me,” he stated. “Simply listening to his response, seeing it for the primary time, was this validation that not solely does this match their vibe and so they’re into it, however they’re additionally blown away, regardless that they know what’s coming.”

After a wildly profitable and buzzed-about first run of exhibits, what’s coming subsequent for the Backstreet Boys’ “Into the Millennium tour” on the Sphere is extra exhibits. Tickets not too long ago went on sale for 14 further performances from December 2025 by February 2026. And, who is aware of? That will not be the tip. In spite of everything, everybody is aware of Backstreet at all times comes again (alright).

No matter occurs, although, Halpin is simply glad that his nerdy inspirations, which utilized this unbelievable venue, helped the Backstreet Boys rejoice 20 years of their iconic album. “I’m thrilled for them,” he stated, “I believe they deserve each second of it. I believe that folks most likely underestimated their energy once they have been introduced as a band, and I believe that now individuals are seeing that they’re the right band for the Sphere.”

Data and tickets on the December, January, and February “Into the Millennium” dates can be found here. I do know I’m going again for a second spin. Will I see you there?

Right here’s a video we put collectively of a few of these moments.

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