How Science Fiction Turned the Key to This Yr’s Most Buzzed About Live performance

2001: A House Odyssey. Star Wars. Star Trek. Tron. Blade Runner. Akira. The Fifth Element. Interstellar. Superman. Flash Gordon. The Matrix. That feels 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 concerning 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 reveals that generated a ton of buzz and curiosity. Because of this, two extra months of reveals had been just lately added, and io9 spoke to Baz Halpin, CEO and founding father of Silent Home, about it. Silent Home was considered one of a number of corporations 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 referred to 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 concerning the opening of Star Wars in ’77 was a live performance. You need to see it to consider it.” Properly, we have seen it and he’s proper. Even should you don’t just like the timeless pop music of the Backstreet Boys, the present takes you on an epic journey by way of 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 current 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 reveals for Taylor Swift, Pink, Britney Spears, Usher, Harry Types, and extra. Lately, he labored on the Eagles’ residency on the Sphere and was first contacted concerning the Backstreet Boys in November 2024. Quickly after, he and his staff had provide you with a proposed set checklist and general idea, which they offered to the band.

“It was ‘Into the Millennium,’ 20 years of the album [and] it’s seminal for therefore many individuals,” Halpin instructed io9 over video chat. “We bear in mind what that was like. We will bear in mind the music movies. We will bear in mind how they appeared. We will bear in mind the model of it, should you like. So I knew I wished it to be form 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 steadiness, Halpin determined to do one thing Sphere live shows hadn’t carried out earlier than: inform one, full, cohesive story. “I believed, ‘Okay, nice, we’ll do an area opera,” he mentioned. “We’ll do all of it in house 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 could possibly be our gadget 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 way of 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 feel that’s what makes for the perfect expertise in Sphere, when you possibly can have your cake and eat it too.”

And in order that’s what it’s. Because the present begins, an enormous spaceship with the phrase “Millennium” on the again of it flies into the venue after which blasts off into house. 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 a bit of later than the viewers. “I’m a complete Star Wars nerd,” Halpin mentioned. “However, consider it or not, it solely dawned on me that Millennium and Millennium Falcon [were related] once 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 monumental. Like virtually to scale…but in addition felt agile, and the Millennium Falcon, for me, was all the time that factor. It appeared prefer it shouldn’t be agile, however when it moved, it actually was, and so I feel subconsciously that completely performed in.”

That blend of direct and oblique inspiration continued from track to track. “Get One other Boyfriend,” for instance, the present’s eighth track, 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 had been a part of the conception, to a degree. “So the Tron reference was really one thing that we’re making an attempt to get away from,” Halpin mentioned. “Initially, they had been really bikes with wheels. And I mentioned, ‘I don’t need that. If something, they need to be extra like speeder bikes.’ So I went on this entire idea artwork dive on several types of speeder bikes. And I didn’t need any path. I didn’t need any lightcycle path or something like that. However, you already know, on this world, they’re gonna have a neon define. They’re gonna have a form of light-up factor. It’s exhausting as a result of Tron… was so aesthetically singular, it’s exhausting to have an LED define on something, and somebody not say, ‘It’s Tron.’”

In “The Name,” the present’s penultimate track, inexperienced strains of code run up and down the complete Sphere. It screams The Matrix, particularly since each share the essential factor of a cellphone name. Nevertheless, 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 track got here down vertically like a chandelier, after which they’d rotate them,” Halpin mentioned. “It’s simply an incredible impact, so I knew that lengthy skinny strips of textual content of some type labored very well.” Utilizing actual cellphone numbers associated in numerous methods to the Backstreet Boys, the numbers transfer round like The Matrix, however then construct and create shapes to tug off what Halpin refers to as “Sphere tips.”

“Making a field, making a tunnel, making a cone, making a curve,” Halpin mentioned. “We wished blocks that will enable us to do the Sphere tips and painting the cellphone numbers, [but] it’s exhausting to get away from that Matrix connotation. ”

“Give up Taking part in Video games,” one of many Backstreet Boys’ earliest hits, sees the group in an never-ending cascade of block preparations, which construct to type a bigger construction. Mainly, it seems to be like an enormous sport of Tetris, a thought Halpin was very conscious of. “I used to be very aware of Tetris and aware of looking for all of the ways in which it’s not Tetris,” he mentioned. “Primarily, we’re constructing a home. The strains 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 track,” Halpin mentioned. “I knew I wished that track to be our surrealist, colourful, loopy factor. If something, it will be extra like a Fifth Factor Luc Besson vibe. However the purpose that we ended up with the blocks is that I wished a Sphere trick the place one thing fell on prime of us… And so the constructing of a wall, the place it’s gradual, it’s steady, it occurs the entire manner up. We get the Sphere trick that they’re capable of seem from infinity, after which have it capable of fall down on prime of us. That’s the way it ended up being blocks that had been completely different in shapes somewhat than flat horizontal strains, simply to offer us some attention-grabbing.”

Concepts didn’t all the time 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 anticipate a sure degree of high quality. So, if their results couldn’t a minimum of 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 pretty much as good as Interstellar,” he mentioned. “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 staff at Silent Home Studios, which supplied the idea, artistic path, design, and manufacturing, as nicely Blink Inc., which was the lead content material design studio; Sphere Studios, which was accountable for ensuring all that concept and tech got here collectively within the venue; and, in fact, Again Road Productions. It was a whole lot 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 completely different instances and had completely 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 mentioned. “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 reveals, what’s coming subsequent for the Backstreet Boys’ “Into the Millennium tour” on the Sphere is extra reveals. Tickets just lately went on sale for 14 further performances from December 2025 by way of February 2026. And, who is aware of? That will not be the top. In spite of everything, everybody is aware of Backstreet all the time comes again (alright).

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

Info 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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