I had fully intended to make these separate posts, but now that all the shows have come and gone and I couldn’t find the time to make separate posts I will just include them all here.  (Keeping up with work, grad school, a Hanson fan site and my own shows I am attending proved to be a bit difficult this time around.)

So the theme of this tour is that it would be a “Wintry Mix” – ie, new songs, old songs and Christmas songs.  The guys have a new album due in 2020 called “Against the World” and this tour would preview some of those songs for us.  I had wanted to hit up the first show of the tour to not have to deal with any sort of setlist spoilers (when you run a setlist fan site you can’t just not post them until you get to a show) but while it was over Thanksgiving break and would have required 0 vacation days – the cost of flying across the country to Seattle & Vancouver was a bit excessive when I’d be (hopefully) hearing the same songs later so my crew ended up deciding we would do Texas – they continued on to New Orleans but I was out of PTO 🙁  I also hit up some of the east coast shows as well.

Austin

We kicked up our trip to Austin with some BBQ from the Salk Lick that was really good!  Then we headed to the Capitol Building and toured around a bit.  We were going to explore a bit more but one of the group had an incident with laughing (I won’t name any names) so we headed back to the hotel room before going to Torchy’s Tacos for dinner.  The rest of the crew ended up camping out and I hung back at the hotel working on homework and watching Fuller House. (And jumping on the bed all I wanted.)  Sunday most of the day was spent in line.  I was let in first with ADA and stood in the front at the barricade for about 2 minutes before realizing there was NO WAY I could stand through 2 openers and all of Hanson’s set and not totally ruin myself for the rest of the month so I asked for a chair.  Everyone else was right up front though!! And even my seat wasn’t too far back, but with no raised area once Hanson came on I had to stand if I wanted to see much of anything, so I alternated depending on how much I liked the song.  I got 3 new songs – Don’t Ever Change, Annalie and One (Zac’s solo).  It’s always hard to judge how much you like a song when you’ve heard it for the first time in a live setting – but I really liked One (and can’t even tell you why – the piano? the lyrics? who knows!) and Annalie was SUPER catchy.  Don’t Ever Change came too early in the set for me and I had gotten a text the *moment* the guys took the stage that threw me a bit.  So I’d have to wait for Dallas to make further judgement on that song.  After the show we were able to get photos with Zac and a group photo with Isaac who had somewhere to be.  Taylor never came out.  We headed to In-N-Out (Why is most of this trip going to be scrapbook pages of food?) and off to Dallas.

Dallas

We rolled into Dallas about 4am with me driving the last leg as I had gotten the most sleep not on a sidewalk the night before.  Driving while the rest of the car is all asleep and you could easily be next was certainly a challenge, but I did it. (And when the construction made the road go over a rumble strip everyone woke up “KATIE! Are you OK!?” Yes, yes, the road just shifted and they didn’t patch the strip. Go back to sleep…) We dropped off half the crew at the venue and the rest of us went to the hotel.  For lunch we got some tex mex and then some booze infused popsicles. We also took the drive that JFK took when he was assassinated.  I have to say, the grassy knoll was not at ALL what I was expecting? When I came home and told my Mom she said she had gone by it as well on her trip there and thought the same thing. I’m not sure what I was expecting, exactly, but that wasn’t it.

For this show we had a balcony seat! Wooo. We got repeats of Don’t Ever Change and Annalie – I am all in on Annalie but still a little on the fence about Don’t Ever Change at this point.  Zac switched his solo from One to Better Man and I like it, but I prefer One.  So now I am up to 4 new songs!  Taylor once again did Crazy Beautiful as his solo and my favorite part of that song is when we get to clap, which he doesn’t do with the solo so it was definitely a wasted opportunity two nights in a row when I could have heard the new song that he had done earlier in the tour. (Never to be done again. *tear*)  After we waited by the bus again, Isaac and Zac came out but getting to the barricade was not going to be easy so we didn’t bother. We had hoped to catch Taylor, but instead just saw him driving away.. in a winnebago.  I managed to get maybe 3 hours of sleep before flying home and having to work for half of the day.  Whew. Exhausted didn’t even begin to cover it.

Uncasville

The Uncasville show was… weird.  This is the venue where I see 90% of my shows each year. At capacity, it holds 10k people. I am not sure they sold all of the tickets that could have been available, but they also gave out a lot to radio station listeners and high rollers (We at one point had 4 pairs to choose from.) While they were kind of sort of billing this as part of the tour, it was probably just so that the date would make it on the shirts and hoodies for sale than anything else.  I was antsy because I had a Yule Ball to get to after the show (and came in my dress!) and was hoping they would have been on before Andy Grammer and weren’t.  The crowd was mixed – Isaac called them out for not singing along during This Time Around which was pretty shocking.  They did seem to win everyone over from MMMBop til the end – and as I was leaving the concourse there were a lot of people obnoxiously singing the chorus to MMMBop.  Probably one of the more bizarre Hanson shows I had been to and kind of a bummer it was my home state show but I am hoping this will give them some backing to come back on the full tour as they haven’t done a tour show here since 2011…

Silver Spring

Silver Spring… I have spent 5 days in the air this year which means I have also spent a lot of time with TSA.  None of their searches have been as thorough as what we had to go through to get into this venue.  He opened everything I had in my purse – my ear plugs containers, my bag of feminine products… ID’ed my prescription drugs (and made my friend toss hers because they were not in the script bottles  – but assured us even though it was illegal he wasn’t going to have her arrested) and had to call over back up to make sure the tiny screwdriver I carry to fix the screw in my brace would be allowed in. (Thankfully it was) But note to self – if they go back there again bring a clear stadium bag with ONLY the necessities because 30 mins to get through security is effing ridiculous…

The ADA at this venue is hit or miss. Usually we are closer to the center but this time got bumped due to 2 wheelchairs so if I opted to not stand I couldn’t see past the girls on the side balcony who were standing. (Another note to self – get VIP balcony or do the balcony upgrade next time)  Nothing new with this setlist but Isaac did do a solo and the setlist said it would be new but it was… hand in hand. Meh.  I am fully hooked on Annalie and Zac did a repeated new solo with Better Man.  This is why he is my favorite. Rotating out the new songs for the solos!!   They also put Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the break during If Only and then sang Happy Birthday to Kevin. Whoever that is.

After the show we waited by the bus for 2 hours and nothing!  It was even snowing at one point.  I think this was the only show the whole tour none of the guys came out – after all of them had the night before. Boo Hiss. (A tweet would have been nice. just saying)

Boston

Ah Boston. I had bought 2 seats to this show and ended up selling one – and the one I sold was the wrong one, I think.  I couldn’t make it up in time to go to the Members Only Event (but I don’t think I missed much) and got there when Mac’s set had already started.  I drove into Boston all by myself and as I was texting a friend to let her know I made it, the girl behind me dumped like 3/4 of her beer ALL OVER ME.  Fantastic.  Something told me to put a tshirt on under my sweater that morning, but I didn’t and only had on a tank top underneath so I figured I’d freeze with just a tank on.  What is it about shows I over come anxiety to drive to alone and getting beer dumped on me? I don’t know

New songs – we got Against the World – which was my 300th unique Hanson song heard live. Woo! It was acoustic and I am still on the fence about it. I need a studio version. Or to hear it a few more times.  Taylor had 2 more shows to redeem himself and bring back Serious Woman, but he did A Song to Sing. It was really, really good and unexpected so I feel like a brat being annoyed about it. But I kind of am.  For the encore Paul and Joshua and the Holy Rollers came out and sang Run Rudolph Run with the guys which was a lot of fun!

After the show I opted to not wait by the bus and Zac was putting his luggage back underneath the bus as I drove by!  Like the 5 cars in front of me all pulled off to the side and everyone jumped out, but I don’t think he ended up coming back by to sign. (I believe Isaac did though)

Huntington

Last show of the tour! Nothing new for me this show either (so my total was 5 for the tour) but it was also my 50th time hearing I Was Born which is kind of ridiculous considering it is only 2 years old…  Once again they did Against the World and had the openers join them for Run Rudolph Run.  This was also the first show where all 3 did solos – and only Zac did something new, Taylor and Isaac both repeated with A Song to Sing and Hand in Hand.

After the show we opted to wait again for someone to come out and were successful in getting photos and brief chat with Zac, then the van picked him up and they all left.

On the way home, I pulled over at a rest stop to play HQ after dark and then decided since I didn’t really have dinner, I’d grab some McDonalds – only to have myself scarred for life as a woman’s ass was facing me in the drive through lane and she was peeing.  She must’ve been beyond drunk as it was *freezing* out and the rest stop WITH TOILETS was a mere 10 foot walk away… I am not sure if the image will ever be removed from my brain 🙁

This year Hanson have been doing a lot of “one-off” shows – as in a show here and there in a (seemingly) random location and not as a part of  a full tour.  They all seemed to be at casinos too, but that’s the norma for me with 2 of our major concert venues being in casinos here.  But this casino had one of the weirdest set ups and seating charts I think I’ve ever seen.  Turns out, one of my friends had gone to college in Anderson, IN and I had spent the night in IN once but wasn’t counting it as a state I had visited and had that Friday off work so we made a deal that if we could get tickets in one of three rows in the center section, we’d go.  Somehow after we probably should have given up with a nightmare of a presale I came through and gotten 4 seats in our 3rd choice row.  The venue is usually used for viewing horse races so the stage was only really close to a couple of sections but the room was VERY wide.

I left most of the planning to my friend as she was familiar with the area. I got picked up at the airport and we headed to The Lemon Drop a little hole in the wall burger joint for lunch. They had a train going around and a weird message on their sign outside that took us WAY too long to realize what they meant. We hung out at our hotel for a bit, drove around the campus of her college (that took about 5 minutes lol) and decided to head to the casino.  I played for maybe 30 mins and only lost $5 so not all bad.   Then it was finally show time…

Our seats were 7th row, but there was an aisle between us and the rows in front of us.  Now that Zac has taken over as front man for the time being, he has been walking through the crowd playing cowbell – I figured this would be the perfect spot for if that happened – and sure enough during Fired Up he walked right past! (And wasn’t too far away when he did a second lap as well)   I seemed to figure out the perfect set up for this show since I had no chair in front of me to hold on to – I stood for 30 mins, sat for 30 mins (where I could still see Taylor most of the time) and then rocked out for the last 30 minutes!  It was a really fun show!

After the show we were going to go to a 24 hour donut shop because before the show, post show donuts seemed like a GREAT idea.  After the show though… real food seemed like a better idea.  I guess Hanson had the same idea because as I marched into the restaurant excited to see they had a TouchTunes jukebox, I was stopped in my tracks when I spotted that Isaac, Taylor & Crew were *also* there.  We had some secondhand embarrassment when the jukebox started playing MMMBop (turns out it was the manager on duty who did it!) but we took over and played some *NSYNC, Aqua, and Jon McLaughlin (who is from Anderson!)  We were going to just leave them alone, but as they were leaving even the restaurant staff was asking for photos so we figured we might as well join in.

Saturday we finally hit up the donut place, went to Muncie for some Thai and then the campus coffee shop. Then it was time for me to head back to the airport for my whirlwind trip to come to an end.  But I added a new state AND discovered Airport Sherpa at BWI which is *amazing* I usually don’t eat because lugging my stuff through the airport to find a place to eat can be difficult. With Airport Sherpa, you pick one of the airport restaurant that is partnered with them, and for a delivery fee, someone picks up the meal and brings it to you.  GAME. CHANGER. (Z896987K is my referral code if you want to give it a go! I am not sure where it is at other than BWI at the moment but I do hope it expands!)

But it was a great trip, I hit my 3rd new state for the year (I had 2 each of the past 2 years) and I am now at 27/50 and I think 23 or 24 that I have seen Hanson in!

At the end of October, Hanson played a show in Atlantic City. This was my 209th Hanson show, but probably one of the most different shows I had seen!  A few weeks before the show, Zac was in a motorcycle accident and broke several bones, leaving him in a sling and unable to play the drums.  Rather than canceling the show, they had Dash Hutton come along to play the drums and put Zac center stage to sing, play tambourine and rock out on cowbell.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but Zac gave it his all and was having a blast! He even walked through the crowd playing cowbell during a song! (And dropped his mic during a song as well!)  The setlist was pretty similar to what they have been playing recently – but switched out Juliet (where Zac sings lead and played piano) for one of my favorites, Musical Ride, where Zac sing lead (and usually drums).  I am not sure if Zac will be up front or not for my next show next week, but the sling is gone and it seems like my December shows will have things back to normal  – but I’m not sure I am ready to give up on the fun that is Zac as the frontman so soon!

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