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Mind if we ask you a personal question, dear reader? What were you up to in the fall of 1989? Ah, we see—not even born yet. Well, in that case, feel free to stop reading.… For everyone else, though, seriously: We want to know. The answer you give may have serious repercussions in the summer of 2015, when both boy-band survivors New Kids on the Block and hair-metal vets Mötley Crüe hit town for big shows. NKOTB plays Nassau Coliseum June 20, and MSG June 21 and 22, with major-value-adding openers Nelly (!) and TL-freakin'-C (!!), while the Crüe hits Barclays Center August 12 as part of its farewell tour—yes, for real. Tix for the former are on sale Saturday, January 31, at 10am EST, and for the latter, this Friday, January 23, at noon EST.
But back to our opening query. In the fall of 1989, were you staring dreamily at the pages of Tiger Beat, deciding whether Joey, Donnie, Danny, Jordan or Jonathan was your one true love and/or fashion idol? If so, congratulations, you were likely among the rabid New Kids fans who helped send "Hangin' Tough" to No. 1 in September of that year. Or, alternately, were you practicing your best Vince Neil impersonation in front of the mirror, fantasizing about the days when you too might smoke in the boys' room and assisting the Crüe's "Dr. Feelgood" in its ascent to No. 6 a mere six weeks later? If you're anything like us, you've grown plenty in the intervening years, but not so much that your NKOTB vs. Crüe allegiance has shifted. Some things never change.