Katie – Concert Katie

Summer in the Park – Aly & AJ

Katie July 14, 2025 No Comments

Saturday night, I had already planning on staying over in Stamford to make a drive to Long Island Sunday morning a little bit shorter. Then Summer in the Park ended up announcing that Aly & AJ would be performing that evening so I figured I would check them out. My hotel was “across the street” from the park but there was a little river that I needed to go around so it took a bit longer to get there than anticipated. When we arrived, Aly & AJ had just taken the stage. There were not many people there at all – which I kind of figured when I got an email that I could bring a friend for free since I had purchased a full price ticket. The whole thing was really chill and a good time. They played until about 9:30 and we found a bit of a shorter route to get back to the hotel afterwards – which ended up being in a not so great area of town but fortunately for us the druggies were really nice and polite.

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Banana Ball

Party Animals – Lehigh Valley, PA

Katie July 14, 2025 No Comments

After a detour to minor league baseball for July 4th and my friend’s nephews birthday… (which was a very, very boring 5-1 loss)

I was back at it in bananaball-land. With 3-4 kiddos attending each game with me, it was a lot of fun to see the game through their eyes. And answer all their 39075903472 questions about the rules (the thing that seemed to throw them off the most was how it was scored and why the score didn’t go up if they hit a home run) This was my first time seeing the Texas Tailgaters in person, but from watching the games online I knew they were going to be a tough team.

Saturday’s game we got there early so the kids could meet some of the players. We ended up meeting 3 Party Animals and 2 Tailgaters before heading to the KClub area where the kids made posters and bracelets. Unfortunately our seats weren’t in the shade like I hoped they would be and it was a HOT day! The Party Animals won 3-2, with Nate Tellier getting the start (after we met him before the game!) and Armando Becerra hitting a home run which made the Coke bottle shoot out a firework which was VERY exciting.

Sunday’s game was an afternoon game so we opted to not get there for the pregame plaza party but instead stay afterwards. The Party Animals once again won 3-2 (I swear to you these games are not scripted) and it was quite an exciting game with the last play of the game being challenged. Indy Stanley had a home run for the Tailgaters with Reece Hampton and Jake Skole having HRs for the Party Animals.

After the game I met Tanner, Telly, Jason Swan, Vava, Andy Cosgrove and had to track down Bronny to see what the heck happened to him after I left him after Louisville. He fell victim to being a ball magnet during catching drills but said he was fine. By the time I found Bronny they were breaking down the stage and the plaza party was over. When I was pulling away, Bronny, Fisher and maybe a couple other players still had a line and were still outside meeting everyone!

It’ll be a few weekends before I’m partying again, which will be my last set of Party Animals games for the season unless I can see them in the playoffs in Savannah *fingers crossed*

Banana Ball

The Party Animals – Louisville, KY

Katie July 8, 2025 No Comments

My new state this year was Kentucky – but it wasn’t a concert this time, instead 3 Party Animal games against The Visitors. The Visitors are essentially a banana ball try out team and hopefully we will see some of the players on the teams in the future. With 2 more teams coming next season, I am hopeful that a lot of the players will be making it to teams!

I woke up at 2:30am and made my way to the airport and had a 3 hour layover in Baltimore and managed to get myself a sit down breakfast at Miss Shirley’s, as finally, my gate was close by! (And I landed 2 gates from where I’d be taking off!) I got to Louisville, took an uber to my hotel, they were able to get me into a room early and I relaxed a bit before heading down to the Louisville Slugger Field for game #1. I checked in for VIB which was out in the outfield, rode the elevator down with VAVA and got to go by a bunch of their props in the tunnels. They had posters for both the Party Animals and the Visitors and I tried to get as many signatures from both teams as I could. I had the same seat for all 3 games and it was a seat in a row all by itself right behind home plate, so they let me go right to it after VIB was over.

Some highlights from Game1: Ashby Vining hit a HR for the Visitors. Baber became the all time trick play leader. Baber hit a HR. The Party Animals won, 4-1.

Friday morning I went on a tour of the Louisville Slugger museum and factory, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I also learned a lot about bats and hitting that I never really knew despite all the games I have watched. I got to hold a few MLB players bats, see how they were made from tree to the final finishing touches, get my own mini bat and then hit up the gift shop for 4 more banana ball mini bats. (If I’d need to check a bag home for 1, might as well have 5, right?)

With threats of rain, VIB was moved to closer to home plate for game #2. This time I opted to do just selfies with the players and ended up with around 20! The heat and threats of rain seemed to be happening constantly, the tarp wasn’t on the field as long as it was the night before so there weren’t any delays. Wild weather. I just made sure to keep at least 1 poncho on me at all times and at least 2 fans! My neck fan was worn for all 3 games and I think I would have been pretty miserable without it.

Some highlights from Game2: Peyton Chatagnier led off the game with a HR for the Visitors, Jordan Brewer hit a HR for the Visitors, Ashby Vining hit *another* HR for the Visitors, The visitors scored in each of t he first 6 innings, and scored 5 in the 8th. The Visitors won the game 3-2.

Saturday I woke up and was pretty wiped out, I opted out of going to the Ali museum and instead got a ticket for the 1pm Trolley tour. This was a 90 minute tour around town with a quick stop at Churchill Downs. There is a street/area of beautiful Victorian houses that I’d love to spend more time exploring – and they have extra large sidewalks as well! Perfect for me, if I could afford it! I learned a lot on the tour – and even got to show off some of my new knowledge during Jeopardy when I got back. When we got back from the tour, we were right across from the slugger museum and I was going to go back and get the green party animals bat that they had. I took about 10 steps and got caught in a complete downpour and ran back to the museum that the tour started at and went into their lobby to ride out the brunt of the storm. Heavy rain, thunder, lightning. Eventually the rain let up, but I took a ride to the ball park instead to get settled in for the last game.

For the 3rd game, VIB was on the concourse since it was actively raining throughout – and SO humid. The plus side to this meant that I was able to snag myself an ice cream helmet before heading down to my seat once the rain let up. Fortunately it passed and lightning stopped as well so the game was able to be played. Pharty kept coming out in just his underwear, not sure what was going on there… This time I ended up checking out the after party plaza for a bit as well. It was not quite as chaotic as I thought. Party Down was a lot of fun!

Some highlights from Game3: Jordan Brewer hit another HR for the Visitors, Baber hit another HR! The Party Animals won, 4-1.

Sunday it was time to get up a little early, head to the airport and head back home… knowing I’d be going to 2 more games the next weekend!

Concert O-Town

Pop 2000 Tour Greenwich RI

Katie June 23, 2025 No Comments

Sunday night I took my new car on its first road trip to Greenwich RI for the Pop2000 tour. I had thought that doors were opening at 6, show at 7 so I positioned myself to arrive by 5pm. When I parked, just after 5, there seemed to be an awful lot of people in line and I checked my email to see that about 15 minutes after I had left, they emailed to say DOORS were at 5! And the SHOW was at 6! Luckily it all worked out and ended up being an early night so I could get the almost 2 hours home at a reasonable hour!

First up was Ryan Cabrera, he did a similar set to what he had done in Tulsa – House on Fire, 40 Kind of Sadness, True, One the Way Down (without the track featuring Taylor Hanson, boo!) and ended with a medley of Slide / Semi-Charmed Life / Sexual Healing / Fresh Prince / What Makes You Beautiful. There may have been one other in there he said he hadn’t done in a bit, but I don’t really remember as that is when security decided I could no longer have my walker with me, kept putting in front of the girl next to me and then asked HER if it could be moved. A) I don’t even know who she was B) I had already said yes she could and just asked for 1 second to take my personal items out of it to keep with me.

BBMak was up next and did a much shorter set than their headlining set a couple nights ago – but it was just as great! They seemed really impressed with the loudness of the crowd (Ryan as well) and said that we were 500 people but sounded more like 2000. They weren’t quite as unhinged with their banter as they were in Fairfield – maybe they’ve gotten a bit of sleep? It’s always so great to see them and I got a wave of nostalgia passing the “mall” my mom and I had to drive to nearly an hour away to get tickets to see them the first time back in 2000 (with Hanson of course).

Then it was time for the main event. O-Town! Once again, I didn’t keep track of the setlist and apparently no one else has all tour either (*shrugs*) . Things were pretty much the same as in Tulsa. LFO came out after 2 songs and did his set, with the addition of Baby Be Mine. My view was a bit obstructed for that part so I couldn’t really see Brad, but I could see the antics of the O-Town guys on the sides during all the songs which I’ve previously only watched out of the corner of my eye, and it was quite amusing. Then it was back to some more O-Town and of course, all hell broke loose during These Are The Days and despite the venue saying no one could be up against the stage, security made little to no effort to get anyone to go back to their seats. By the time Chris joined them, my front row ADA seat was about 4 people back and I couldn’t get to my walker to help me stand and get a better view even if I wanted to. (Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone’s legs got taken away when they sat down at a concert?) The *NSYNC songs went HARD and a couple times Chris stuck his tongue out, took a breath and was like “phew” because there were a lot of dance moves! Different from Tulsa – Brad from LFO came out to do a modified version of Left Eye’s rap during Space Cowboy.

Of course, the final song of the night was All or Nothing, everyone joined in at the end, and then the show was over. 🙁 Until next time… whenever that may be.

Edit this setlist | More BBMak setlists

intro/LD

Holla

chasin’

allforlove

LFO

Heartbreaker

tatd

skydive

off

chains

fire

nsync

aon

Concert

BBMak at StageOne

Katie June 22, 2025 No Comments

Back in 2002, Dream Street was coming to CT with Aaron Carter. My Mom wouldn’t let me go, saying that they’d be back and I didn’t need to go to every concert ever. Dream Street never came back, I did end up seeing Aaron again a few times after that. Finally, Wednesday night I got to see at least 2/5 of Dream Street, Greg and Matt. Before the show I did their VIP which was an acoustic version of the deep cut “You’re Taking Me Over” which they said they were doing just for the VIPs, even though Greg said it ended up being his favorite of what they had rehearsed and then they did a Q&A and then photo ops so I got to tell them I was *finally* getting to see them after waiting 20+ years. I didn’t keep track of the setlist – but somehow all of the songs came right back to me despite the fact that I don’t think I have listened to them since probably 2002. (The fact that I can recall all these songs from high school and not a damn thing I learned in high school is mind bogggling) They ended up playing, in no order and perhaps missing songs, Feel the Rain, Sugar Rush, You’re Taking Me Over (so much for being VIP only), I Say Yeah and It Happens Every Time. One of the songs was also a mashup with Use Somebody.

Then it was time for BBMak! This was my second time seeing them fully headlining and I enjoy getting a longer set from them than just the singles that we get with their Pop2000 tour sets. Their stage banter was absolutely unhinged, I don’t know what was going on there – but it made for an amusing night. They did a mix of songs from Sooner of Later, Into Your Head and Powerstation. The latter is the one I am least familiar with – probably because it came out when I was out of high school! Their show was a lot of fun and went by way too fast. After the show I got to say a quick hello and get a selfie with the guys. Always great seeing them and looking forward to seeing them on the Pop2000s tour this weekend!

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Guest Post

Mary Bridget Davies: Women Who Rock You

Katie June 21, 2025 No Comments

Will you be in NYC Monday June 30th and are looking for something to do? Look no further than this special, one-night-only show at Joe’s Pub – Women Who Rock You: Songs from Janis to Alanis and More — featuring Tony Award nominee Mary Bridget Davies.

On Monday, June 30, 2025 at 9:30 pm, Mary — renowned for her powerhouse vocals and soulful delivery — will celebrate the women who didn’t just write songs, but survival guides. This passionate blend of classic rock, raw storytelling, and a few originals from her album Don’t Compromise Yourself. You can check out her discussing Janis Joplin on the BBC here, highlights and performance video of her role as Janis here, and stream her album here.

Mary’s setlist crosses generations, honoring Janis Joplin, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, and more, alongside her own powerful compositions. Among them is the previously unrecorded title track by Jerry Ragovoy — a song meant for Janis that’s now been brought to life by someone who truly carries that fire forward.

EVENT DETAILS
– Women Who Rock You: Songs from Janis to Alanis and More
– Monday, June 30, 2025
– 9:30 PM
– Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St, NYC
– $30 advance / $36 door. Ticket link

Concert

Skylar Astin – One Night Only

Katie June 9, 2025 No Comments

Friday Night The Shubert Theater had their gala for their 110th year and the performer for the night was Skylar Astin. I tried to get tickets as close as I could without them being the really expensive gala tickets and ended up with 3rd row aisle – but with no one in front of or next to me, it might as well have been front row! Before the event started we were instructed to turn our phones off and that photos and videos were prohibited so not only do I have no photos (well, I attempted to take some at the very end but failed miserably) I also wasn’t able to keep track of the setlist either. I’ve been trying to piece it together from memory. His set was a mix of songs that he has had the honor of performing as well as songs that he loves and wishes he could perform, many of them coming with stories about them. He was accompanied by Doug Peck on piano.

The show was absolutely phenomenal, and while I mainly know Skylar from his television shows (So Help Me Todd, My Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) the next time he is on Broadway I am absolutely going to have to make an effort to see him! His rendition of New York State of Mind nearly brought me to tears and there were multiple times that he finished a song and I just said “wooow” before giving him a round of applause.

After the show I decided I’d give waiting at the stage door a go. There was a mother/daughter also waiting and then a group of 4 or 5 others joined us, but when someone from the theater came out and told us he was doing photos with VIPs and might stay for the dessert reception and it might be a while and he just wanted to warn us, the other group left, but the 3 of us left decided we’d stick it out and see what happened. We started getting antsy and excited as more and more fancy people were leaving the theater and the caterer was bringing out more and more things. After waiting nearly 2 hours, the door opened and there Skylar was. He was surprised that we waited so long! Skylar was incredibly sweet and despite being with his family stopped with us all for a moment for a brief chat signing our programs and taking photos with us.

Here’s my attempt at the setlist. Definitely some missing and not in order but I’m surprised I remembered so many!

Luck be a lady
Pitch perfect medley – 500 miles /
New York state of mind (on piano)
Grow For Me
Somewhere That’s Green
I hate everything But You
I’d rather be sailing
And They’re Off
Touch Me (On Piano)
Bring Him Home
The God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues
Finishing the hat
Easy (original for wife on piano)

Make You Feel My Love (on piano)

Other Event

New York Music Month

Katie June 5, 2025 No Comments

The Annual NY Music Month Conference | NYU BOX OFFICE

Tuesday I got the opportunity to attend the NYMM conference and the morning’s panels and speed talks. Doors opened at 9am, I checked in and got my credentials and then went downstairs for light breakfast and refreshments. I then entered the theater for Welcome and Introductions to find out more about New York Music Month from Pay Swinney Kaufman, Shira Gans, Jack Knott and Judy Tint.

The first panel was a 20 minute chat about the Sony Audio Institute at NYU aka “Jordy and Larry’s Excellent Adventure” with Jordy Freed the head of Brand Development at Sony and Larry Milly an NYU Music Professor and Executive Director of the new Sony Audio Institute of Music. It sounds like they are going to be attempting to do some new and groundbreaking things with sound and I am looking forward to hearing more about that in the future as things start to progress.

Next up Lee Bynum gave us a speed talk about “Why you should care about gender equity in musical theater” where they went into how unbalanced the male to female and non-binary ratio is in musical orchestras and what is being done to try and shift that. Gender equity is always a topic I am interested in hearing about, being a woman in a male dominated field.

Then it seemed like the agenda got switched up a bit and we got another speed talk this time from Danny Ross about Creating the Largest Songwriting Camp in the World – through Anti Social Camp. This seemed like a really cool event and I’m bummed that it seems like the playlist they make of the top songs written at the camp are exclusively on Tidal. But it sounds like a really fun time and includes a lot of fun events.

We then found out why the last minute switch – Taylor Hanson was racing to get to the theater on time and there were worries he would be stuck in DC and not make it to NY. He was joined by Rich Pagano, Syreeta Thompson and NYU Professor Judy Tint to talk about Where the Action Is: Music for Social Change where they talked about different ways music could be used for change – Syreeta helps students who don’t have access to instruments, Rich’s son died of an accidental overdose when he was trying to become a social worker to help others with addiction and now he hosts concerts to help raise money for a foundation started in his son’s honor and all those who have gone through the program have gotten clean, Taylor spoke of his work in Africa with Tom’s Shoes as well as Food on the Move. The panel was a lot more moving than I thought it would be.

The final speed talk before the lunch break was How Artists Data can Make an Impact where Emily White talked about how you can use data to figure out where artists have the most underserved fans or the most fans who aren’t registered to vote so you can gear certain events to certain areas. While this isn’t the sort of band data that’s my thing, it was definitely really interesting and something I intend to look more into.

Then it was time for the lunch break and my time to head home. I ended up bumping into Taylor, Judy and Rich on my way to the elevator and said a quick hello.

Concert

Simple Plan at College Street Music Hall

Katie June 5, 2025 No Comments

College Street Music Hall » Simple Plan – Tickets – College Street Music Hall – New Haven, CT – June 3rd, 2025

Tuesday, after a busy morning, I made my way to New Haven to see Simple Plan in a headlining show. This was my first time seeing them headlining so even though I would have much rathered have been home still napping, I had to make it there. I had been to College Street Music Hall once before and had opted to sit in the balcony, but since stairs aren’t really my thing these days, I decided I’d utilize their ADA section for this show. Unfortunately, even though the venue is tiered, the ADA section is the back tier so if anyone tall is in the front of the tier and you’re sitting, you really can’t see much. I sat for both openers – Losers Club and Winona Fighter – and depending on how the crowd swayed I was able to see Chuck for most of the show since he was higher up and I could see Pierre when he stepped up on the monitors every now and then and Seb and Jeff would pop into view every now and then as well. I don’t know that I’d do ADA for another show here, but I love Simple Plan enough that it was worth it. I did end up standing up for “Welcome to My Life” and taking some photos and could see pretty well so the tiering does work, but it’s the whole needing to sit that was causing the issue.

The crowd was… awful around me. It was a big group of friends who I think were trying to figure out who could be the most obnoxious one all night and one kept climbing on the rail in front of us and doing… I don’t know what… throughout the night. I kind of thought he was just going to do WWE and jump onto a friend or two. Then when Pierre mentioned Scooby Doo one of them got SO excited that they flung their (I hope) water cup behind them and it went all over me, my walker, the guy next to me, the girl behind me… I was so soaked I actually had to use my shirt to wipe my face off because it wasn’t even a “oh it’s just a couple drops” it was the entire contents of their cup.

Simple Plan however was great. They said they hadn’t played New Haven before (which I believe is true) and that they weren’t sure if they played Connecticut before (which is definitely not true) and kept saying they loved the crowd’s energy (maybe up front was a more fun obnoxious?) and that they’d have to come back. Hopefully that’s true. They played about a 90 minute set with more than enough throwback songs to satisfy me. I’m hoping I can see them, preferably headlining, again soon!

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Concert Hanson

Hanson Day 2025

Katie May 30, 2025 No Comments

After the scaled back Hanson Day activities, the “doom and gloom” newsletter and no Back to the Island for 2026, I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to get heading to Tulsa this year. I have to say that being there I feel a bit better about things, but it does sound like next year will be a bit quiet on the Hanson front.

Travel – Wednesday

I had a pretty early flight to Chicago and at 4am found my walker setting off every TSA alarm and then my hands setting off and then all my belongings needing to be inspected and then needing to get a pat down and being handed a cane that had no stopper on the bottom. “Just what you need at 4am, right?” the woman in the pre-check line behind me said. Fortunately, after everything I was cleared and everything was fine, but I have no idea what happened that set things off.

Arrival – Wednesday

After arriving I made a stop at Ida Red to get some stickers, magnets and shirts and then went around Hanson’s studios to get some photos of the windows and doors that they had done up to match this years rainbow theme for the year and check out a new mural as well. Then for the evening we went to see the Drillers play the Cardinals. We didn’t end up lasting the whole game because in the 6th the Drillers were down 11-3 and they ended up losing it 13-3.

Thursday

Thursday night we first went to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for the Pop2000 tour. Before the show I did a VIP M&G with Chris Kirkpatrick where there was talk of Savannah Bananas (guess who got him talking about that?), Hanson, NSYNC, and a bunch of other topics before we did a “shot” together and then did photos. Then it was time for the show – Ryan Cabrera had opened up and we had hoped that Taylor may join him since he sings a verse on his anniversary release of On the Way Down, but while he played the track, Taylor did not join him. Then it was time for O-Town who seemed to go on stage a bit earlier than usual which was much appreciated as after their set (that ended 30 minutes earlier than anticipated) we headed back downtown to see Isaac’s side project Mother Road Sons. I didn’t keep track of O-Town’s setlist, but they did add in Space Cowboy to the *NSYNC set! We ended up making it to MRS and walking in on their 3rd song which could not have been better timing since I was thinking we would miss a bit more than that! Isaac really shines as a front man, but he really needs more rocky leads! He ended up doing the “original” version of Minute Without You which the setlist had as “Till the Sun Falls” which, of course, was more like a ballad than what we are used to hearing now.

Friday

Friday afternoon we went to a Food on the Move Lunch and Learn with Taylor. The lunch event had grown too large for their facility it was held at last year, so lunch was held in the gym at the nearby YMCA and then we walked over to the facility to take a tour. Taylor told me that the gravel was gone and they now had “beautiful concrete”. It was neat to see how far everything has come in the last year and eat some of the lettuce that had been grown there with our lunch! Then it was time to work in the gallery from 3-5, Taylor ended up showing up for a bit which caused the line to get the longest it had been, but otherwise it was pretty slow going. After our shift ended it as time for the show – which went from about 7-8:30, we had a late dinner and then it was time for an early bed time, even though we thought we all had big plans for the evening! The show seemed to have some subliminal messages in a lot of the songs that we hadn’t noticed before. It was a mixture of members only songs and some rarer album tracks. For Your Love was its debut at Hanson Day. They also went into a impromptu version of Billy Joel’s “Why Should I Worry” from Oliver and Company before finishing out the set!
<br /> <a href="https://www.hansonstage.com/setlist.php?show_id=1745">View Setlist</a>

Saturday

Saturday afternoon was our street team leaders lunch where we had some time to chat with Taylor and Isaac which helped ease some of my worries about the future of the band. We did find out there would be no Hday 2026. Then it was time for Concert #2! This show was more of the singles and songs that might as well be singles show. They did throw in a few member’s songs and then had their brother Mac join them for the encore of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” and “Lost Without Each Other”. They also said that MMMBop almost wasn’t on the setlist (it a lot of times isn’t for members only events) but they had to apologize for us having to explain it for so many years.

<br /> <a href="https://www.hansonstage.com/setlist.php?show_id=1746">View Setlist</a>

After was the dance party – I went as a 60s GoGo dancer.

Travel – Monday

Somehow I ended up being one of the only ones without travel issues, the worst that happened is I was delayed 5 minutes on my 2nd flight home. That wasn’t enough to have it even not be considered “on time” according to most of the flight tracking apps, so I’ll take it! It was nice to get back to valet to see my brand new car that I had for about a day and a half before leaving it at the airport Wednesday morning – and then needing to figure out how to pop the trunk.

I did come back with a bit of a cold which is why this and hansonstage updates have been rolling out rather slowly… I am feeling a bit better now and hopefully some extra sleep over the weekend will allow me to catch up on everything! I’m looking forward on more 2025 Hanson dates to be announced and we’ll see what happens in 2026… at least I have bananaball to keep me busy and a few more items left on the hansonstage suggestions list to work through.