"Larger Than Life" is the latest Backstreet Boys song to take up residence on MTV and radio, and the five members of the most popular music act on the planet are living that large life for all it is worth.

Backstreet Boys, who performed in Salt Lake City once before, when they were far less famous, have sold more than 28 million albums worldwide. Their fall 1999 tour is selling out across the country at every stop, including two nights at the Delta Center.

On Thursday, the Backstreet Boys brought their sci-fi laced "Into the Millennium" tour to town, showing all the best on-stage bells and whistles money can buy. The Boys' choreography is still the focus of their live performances, but a planetarium-style light show, fog machines and ornate costumes all added to the circus-like atmosphere.

Of course, the rabid Backstreet Boys fans also lend to that atmosphere, shrieking, oohing and aahing as each boy pulled one dance move or another. And the "no cameras" warning on the ticket was obeyed about as much as drug possession laws at a Grateful Dead concert. Fans willing to pay $20 for a program, $40 for a T-shirt or $10 for band photos available for free all over the Internet are not going to be deterred by any simple written warning on a ticket stub.

The Boys entered the arena to the "Star Wars" theme song, floating over the audience on glowing snowboard-like contraptions, suspended by wires attached to their futuristic vests. Flanked by 10 backup dancers and a six-piece band, they launched into "Larger Than Life" immediately, re-creating the song's colorful video on stage.

The string of hits, though, are what really got the Delta Center crowd going. The Boys' five-part harmonies transfer remarkably well to a large arena, and the hits came fast and furious. The ballad "As Long As You Love Me" gave the Boys a chance to show off their pipes. "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" provided the perfect sing-along vehicle as the Boys again went airborne. And "Don't Want You Back" was the basis for a funky, "West Side Story"-style tough guy dance.

The performance of "The Perfect Fan" midway through the concert offered the ultimate Backstreet Boys concert moment. One of the few Backstreet Boys songs actually written by one of the boys, Brian Littrell, the song is an ode to the Boys' mothers. At Thursday's concert, each boy pulled a mother-daughter duo from the audience and brought them onstage for the song.

They even helped the moms snap photos with some of those forbidden cameras, a move sure to keep these Backstreet Boys fans into the new millennium.