In 2019, I was dispatched by a local newspaper to cover New Kids on the Block at Bridgestone Arena. The group embarked that summer on the Mixtape Tour, bringing along a slew of hitmakers who struck a soft spot with Gen X and elder-millennial audiences. I walked into the show with remarkably low expectations (some nights you work for a paycheck, right?), and of course the show was a blast. The audiences ate up every second of the take-me-back-in-time performance, this curmudgeonly writer included. It’s safe to expect similar nostalgia-isn’t-a-fad energy from the audience in attendance for TLC and Salt-N-Pepa (who played the Mixtape Tour in 2019, and headlined that year’s Nashville Pride festival) Saturday night in Williamson County. The songs in TLC’s discography — “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” “Unpretty” — provided the soundtrack to a generation. For those who catch the show, it’ll be a chance to travel back in time for a few hours, forgetting how many years have passed — in your life and, sigh, the world — since these groups ruled the airwaves.
7:30 p.m. at FirstBank Amphitheater
4525 Graystone Quarry Lane, Franklin
