When the Spice Girls performed Monday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, the cross-section of concertgoers was as baffling as it was mesmerizing. Missing were the flocks of drag queens stumbling in makeshift platform shoes, but in their stead came teams of overexcited sorority sisters with Sporty Spice-like tattoos across their abdomens or with their hair tied into Baby Spice's signature pigtails. Tweens, too—nothing but embryos back when America first caught Spice fever in '97—channeled the energy, serving as liaisons for their gay daddies and haggy mummies—all of whom never truly lost their own Girl Power pride.
And nowhere was the excitement as tangible as at the merch tables. When one fan, eyeballing Spice T-shirts, proudly proclaimed that she'd take Posh Spice's style guide, That Extra Half An Inch, over the King James Bible any day of the week, the crowd jostling around her nodded in agreement, as though it wasn't even a question to begin with. And maybe it's not, ladies! Maybe it's not.
Catch a sampling of Spice-happy lunatics at their pre-show best in a Radar gallery!