98 Degrees Goes Home To Cincinnati, Ohio

08/11/2000 6:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(8/11/00, 6 p.m. ET) - 98 Degrees was in Cincinnati, Ohio, last week to tape a live concert performance at the local Waterfront restaurant in Covington for an upcoming Disney Channel music special titled 98 Degrees & Hoku In Concert, which will air in October.

The concert, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday night (August 9), was moved to Thursday night (August 10) due to severe thunderstorms. The Thursday show was to start at 8:30 p.m. ET, but was delayed for several hours, reportedly because of technical difficulties. The foursome did finally perform at about 11:30 p.m. ET, much to the delight of almost 4,000 fans who showed up to watch the concert, and the show wrapped close to 1 a.m. ET.

Group members Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre tell LAUNCH that despite the hectic week brought on by foul weather, the group plans to continue its relationship with Disney in the future."Disney's really a great company and they've put us up really well and treated us really great, so big props to Disney," Lachey said.

Added Jeffre, quot;Yeah, we're looking forward to doing more things with them." 98 Degrees's homecoming-themed music special will feature songs from the group's upcoming Universal Records release, Revelation (due September 26), as well as songs from Hoku's self-titled Geffen Records debut.

Nick Lachey, his brother Drew, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons--of Massillon, Ohio, and the only member who was not born and raised in Cincinnati--did more than just perform during their recent visit. The group sang the National Anthem before the Cincinnati Reds home baseball game on Monday (August 7), and even took time to participate in batting practice with the home team. On Tuesday (August 8), the guys played football with the Cincinnati Bengals at the team's training camp.98 Degrees also stopped by the School For Creative And Performing Arts (SCPA) that day, since three of the band members attended high school there. The group members donated a check for $5,000 and gave some new musical instruments to the school, including a piano and a keyboard. On Wednesday afternoon (August 9), 98 Degrees received a key to the city from the Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken at City Hall.

The group will tour Europe and Asia in the fall and kick off a U.S. tour with Jive Records recording artist Don Philip opening, in January 2001. Philip and 98 Degrees share the same management team of Scot McCracken and David Sonenberg.

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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