Aaron Carter played two performances for some passionate fans in The Maintenance Shop on Friday, Oct 4.

Carter performed as part of his After Party Tour, a return to the music industry after an  eight year hiatus. Tickets for the two shows went on sale April 2 and were sold out by June 3.

“It’s not that I didn’t want a tour,” Carter said. “It just took me a while to show the whole world that I was back on track. I got my stuff together.”

Aaron rose to fame by the time he was 12 years old with his album “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It),” which went three times platinum. Carter captivated young girls across the country at the peak of his career. That generation is now enrolled at Iowa State and eagerly showed up to reunite with their childhood idol on Friday night. 

“I’ve been a fan since Aaron’s Party came out,” said Emily Herkenhoff, an attendee waiting for the 8 p.m. show to start. “It will be interesting. Back then he was a child. Now he’s older and his voice is more manly, so it will be different.”

Madeline Mueller was another enthusiastic devotee who had a ticket to the 10 p.m. show.

“I’ve listened to him since elementary school. I’m so excited. It’s going to be lots of fun,” Mueller said.

The predominantly female crowd went wild when Aaron rushed on stage. He opened with one of his most popular singles, “I Want Candy.”

The event was evidently designed to incite excitement from the girls. Heartfelt expressions accompanied ardent vocals, all complemented by an occasional shirt-change.

Though the show was primarily for the female fans, there were some males that came out and had a good time as well. Alex Doser is one male attendee who enjoyed the show. So much in fact that he was the focus of Aaron’s attention at a few points, dancing along with him.

“I’m not a big fan, but [the show] was awesome,” Doser said. “[Aaron Carter] was the cool kid back in our day. He was sort of the Justin Bieber of our time.”

During the course of the performance, Carter energized the crowd with some of his hit songs including “How I beat Shaq” and “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)”.

Other than his older tracks, Carter covered two of this summer’s most popular songs: “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, and “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk.

Carter closed both performances with his newest single “Where Do We Begin?” which was recorded to promote the tour.

“It’s really about where I’m going with my career,” Carter said as the song began to play. “This is down to my roots. It’s who I really am.”

Appearances in smaller venues such as M-Shop have been planned to provide Carter a smooth transition back into the music industry.

“It was an overall successful night,” said Sam Thompson, co director of the M-Shop. “We weren’t really sure how the show would go at the beginning of the night, but everyone had a good time and Aaron seemed to really win the crowd over.”

“It’s important that I reconnect with everybody,” Carter said. “I want to play in smaller venues, and sell those out, and graduate to bigger ones on my next tour.”

For more of Carter’s tour dates and locations, go to aaroncarterontour.com, and shop iTunes for his music.