Big Time Rush Is Feeling The Rush Again
Now touring with Dixie D’Amelio, the group is happy with their place in pop.
Big Time Rush forgot about the screams that coincide with boy band mega-fame. “It was deafening. It was so loud,” Carlos PenaVega tells Elite Daily of the group’s first show back in eight years. “I didn't think it was going to [be like that].”
On June 23, Carlos, Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, and Logan Henderson took the stage together for their first headlining show in nearly a decade at the MGM National Harbor outside of Washington, D.C.. It was their first of 41 shows part of the ongoing Forever Tour, which is an ironic title considering there was a moment where Big Time Rush was done.
The band formed and first rose to fame while starring on the Nickelodeon teen TV series Big Time Rush, which ran from 2009 to 2013. They released three albums in three years before taking an extended hiatus in 2014 to focus on their solo careers.
In 2021, they reunited to release “Call It Like I See It.” The group has since released four more songs, including “Honey” in June. The music video for the sticky-sweet new song dropped on July 18, and it’s an ode to the first half of their summer back on tour.
Nostalgia for the 2010s is high with fellow boy banders The Jonas Brothers and 5 Seconds of Summer regularly performing together again, while franchises like Twilight and The Hunger Games are trending once more. So it couldn’t be more fitting for Big Time Rush to return; however, their comeback is not your traditional boy band reunion tour.
Much like their tour name suggests, the band says they’re in it for the long haul and likely won’t stop performing after their tour wraps on Aug. 20 in Concord, California. Their goal is to eventually take the Forever Tour abroad. “We literally just plan on touring forever. We're not going to age, [and] we're not going to go away,” Carlos says, often speaking for the group. “We're [not] going to just do something and be done. It's very much a comeback tour.”
They’ve taken inspiration from New Kids On The Block, another band that spent decades releasing and performing new music. “Their performances, their setups, how they basically went back, took their brand and did it their way, that's been inspirational to us because we're doing a very similar thing,” Carlos says.
Despite the years-long break, the band says they quickly fell back into a groove on stage. Still, Logan says he felt jittery the first night of their tour. “The first three or four songs, I think it was like, ‘Oh crap, we have an audience,’” he says.
Some of those audience members likely attended a Big Time Rush show before. “We had some grown men with vintage, Big Time Rush T-shirts just jamming along, holding a beer,” Carlos says.
What was somewhat surprising to the band is they’ve garnered a new generation of fans, including Carlos’ three children, who were in attendance on opening night. “[It was] super special because they've never seen me do anything like that,” he says. “I have videos from somebody filming behind them, and they're just dancing along.” Though some of the younger fans might have also been there to see Big Time Rush’s supporting act: pop star and TikTok legend Dixie D’Amelio.
After running into Dixie several times on iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball tour last year, the band asked her if she’d be interested in opening for them on tour. To their surprise, she said yes. “She's doing something that's really different. I totally respect the fact that she's able to get out of her comfort zone and try something new and succeed doing it,” Carlos says, noting they’re “grateful” to have her on tour.
While some bands struggle with finding their footing after years away, Big Time Rush is embracing the hustle once again. “It's how are we better than what we were before? How do we keep on improving?” James says of their mentality this time around. “Ultimately, we're only in competition with ourselves.”
Part of their collective ethos is having priorities outside of the band. “It's not like this is our one and only focus and we're going to just always be together,” Carlos says. “We all go do stuff, we have families, and then we come together to make music.”
Based on those deafening screams from hype crowds, it seems Big Time Rush’s philosophy – and music — might just be working. “The fans all know the lyrics,” Carlos says. “Some of them even better than we do.” What more could the band want?
