I've been to two Hanson concerts now, the first being Uncle Sam Jam. I know that two isn't really enough to start habit, but I believe that I need to have some habits. For example, the day of Uncle Sam Jam was the first day of soccer conditioning, while this concert was the last day of soccer. How did I celebrate my first (actually, 2nd) day of freedom? I went to the YMCA and ran three miles. I'm insane, I know. Anyway, that's pretty much how my day started, with a trip to the Y. It was a Saturday, so I got to sleep in and do as I pleased pretty much the whole day. Anyway, funny thing happened at the Y. I was running on the treadmill, rounding the halfway point of my third mile, when I was grabbed from behind by two girls on my soccer team, one of whom was the one attending the concert with me that night. Of course, being the pretty much closet fans that we are, the third girl didn't know about it. Anyway, I went home, showered, started some homework, and listened to the Hanson interview in 99.5 ZPL while my hair dried. I got ready and drove over to Deanna's house to pick her up. We ate some dinner at Max and Erma's and then got onto the freeway to head to the Murat. I drive a lot, but I haven't really driven downtown much before. I had directions (given to me by a reliable source, I swear), but they were from my house, not from the restaurant. I figured we had enough time to go to my house and start from there. So we got off the freeway by my house and got right back on. Funny thing though, we were on the right freeway in the first place, and my getting off and then on again, we had to take a detour because of all the construction. So I had to get off the freeway again. I didn't really know where to go, turned down a dead end street, and then remembered a sign talking about the detour. I followed the sign and got on the freeway. I was patting myself of the back for being smart enough to follow the signs when I realized that I was right in front of my house again, right where the freeway stopped and the detour started. CURSES! So I got off the freeway and decided to take back roads. This wasn't a dumb decision, because my directions home were on back roads, so I just followed them, but backwards. I am oh-so smart.
Anyway, we finally got to the concert venue and parked like, two feet away, which was quite nice because it was cold outside. There were two marroon tour busses with a whole heap of girls crowded around in the Murat parking lot. I am pretty short, so I couldn't see anything, and I really had to pee, so we tried to go inside the venue and find some facilities. Unfortunately, this was 'imposterous' and we had to go back outside. There was a scream from the crowd, so Deanna and I walked back over just in time to see (drumroll please) a frightened little Hanson sister sprint from the bus to the VIP entrance. Gee, I can die a happy woman now. What a sad world when 8 year olds fear their lives because of people that "love" their brothers (shakes head in disgust). Anyway, I wasn't able to see anything except the back of girls' heads, so I started chatting with the huge security man. Our conversation went somewhat like this...
Me: Hi, how are you tonight?
Guard: GIRLS! STEP BACK PLEASE!!!
Me: Yup, I hear ya. It's pretty crowded out here, huh?
Guard: Excuse me ma'am, can you get off the railing. (pushes some girl)
Me: Well, take care.
Guard: Can we get some back-up please?
Ah...what a nice nice man. Everytime Deanna and I decided to leave because NOTHING was happening, there would be a ripple of screaming through the crowd and we'd invaribly end back in our little spots. Finally, I turned to Deanna and said, "Deanna, I have to urinate like a horse." So we turned and left. A scream ran through the crowd. I was beginning to think that they were cheering because we left again, but then I heard people yelling out Hanson names, so we turned back around to see like, .5 of a second of Taylor's elbow (through a muddy, small, window) turn a corner inside, 50 feet away. Wow, I felt weak to my knees. We went inside the venue (which was packed because they hadn't opened the real doors yet) and talked to a few people. Fast forward 10 minutes and we're in our seats (balcony baby!!), deciding to go buy some merchandise. I don't want anything, but Deanna convinces me to buy a program at least, for memory's sake. We stand in line (more like mob) and nearly get punctured from every direction by stiletto heals. Some rowdy group of girls in the back start singing "Who Let the Dogs Out" really loudly, which just made me shake my head. Who let the dogs out? At a Hanson concert? Probably the security guards so half the people would leave and the rest could enjoy the show, that's who! Really though, it wasn't that bad. We bought our TERRIBLY overpriced programs ($15!!!) and went back to our seats. I looked it over, and the only good part about it was a picture of Isaac sitting on the floor, barefoot, with crap all over the bottoms of his feet. And he's laughing really hard to. Nice picture, I thought (seriously).
The lights dimmed a few minutes later and everyone screamed wildly. M2M walked out (half the people were like, "Omigosh! Taylor's wearing a SKIRT!!!" before they realized it was the opening act) and launched into their show. I don't really know any of their stuff, but they did a pretty good job. Nice harmonies, good voices, pretty catchy songs (if not that brilliant lyrically, they were fun to hum along to), and some nice moments. Good job girls, you didn't quite make a die-hard fan out of me, but if someone messes with you, I'll help beat them up. The lights dimmed again but came back on. One of the best moments of the night (actually, this is a lie) happened when they put on the Counting Crows' first CD. I love the Counting Crows. I was singing along really loudly. Then the lights dimmed for a third time, and Hanson walked out (AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!came from all around me) and played "You Never Know". I really like this song, especially when it's live. The covers of the night included "Crosstown Traffic", "Piece of my Heart", "Gimmee Some Lovin'", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and "Money (That's What I Want). All of those songs were great, but my favorites were "Piece of my Heart" and "You Can't Always Get What you Want". After about 20 minutes, they did their little acoustic set where they performed "Lucy" (very nice), "Money" (also nice), and "A Song to Sing" (my personal favorite Hanson song). I was kinda worried that it would be unbearably loud during A Song to Sing, just because it's such a quiet song, but two really smart girls were handing out little pamphlets before the show that asked fans to shut up during ASTS and Love Song (didn't get played) to show respect to the guys. It went really well, and was pretty quiet. Of course, the occasional girl would yell just to yell, and that really annoyed me, but that was a great part of the show. They came back out and played some more songs, including "Bridges of Stone". They said that they'd never performed it live before, so it was a pretty big treat. Everyone shut up during this song, because (unless you're evil and use Napster) no one knew the song, but everyone has heard about it (oh, jk about the Napster thing). They played "In the City" last, and that had to be the coolest moment of the night. Zac took his hair out of his pony tail and headbanged during the WHOLE SONG. It was hilarious to look at. Taylor ran around the whole stage, sharing a mic with Isaac for a lot of the time, and during Isaac's solo, he jumped up on to Zac's drum podium and jumped off and stuff. Then they left, came back a few minutes later and played "Mmmbop" and ended with "Man From Milwaukee". They said thank-you, shook a few hands, and left. It was a great concert, all in all. I've got to say that the coolest part, for me at least, happened in the beginning. Zac was playing on his drums during "Crosstown Traffic" (it has a huge drum part, for those who haven't been able to get to a concert) and when he was done, he noticed that his snare drum was broken in half. Like, the cow-hide part. Or at least that's what it looked like. Isaac noticed it and motioned for someone backstage to help him. So a woman came running out after the song and put the spare snare (whoa) behind Zac's stool so he could fix it. But Taylor didn't know, and he just launched right into the next song. Poor Zac was playing all to the left because he couldn't play on the snare. During that song, Isaac walked over to the side and was talking to someone, and the same lady ran out again, crept up behind Zac, and reached inbetween his legs to unscrew the broken snare drum. She pulled it out and picked up the spare and screwed it in (all while Zac is playing). As soon as she got it in, she ran off and Zac was playing on the new spare like it'd been there for hours. He was laughing really hard, or smiling really big, I couldn't tell, but it was funny to see that happen. A moment of spontenaity, if you will.
The concert was over, so Deanna and I hopped up and went out to our car, talking the whole time about how good they were and how glad we were that we came, even if we didn't want anyone to know we were there. Hanson's motto works pretty good, because they sure didn't suck, they rocked. Well done boys. You made a lot of people really happy.