Pentatonix Photo Post
Katie As promised, here are some of the photos I took at the Pentatonix show last weekend!
Back To The Island Cancun: Hanson Solo Sets & Activities
Last year there was a new addition to the Back to the Island experience which was a solo set from each of the members of the band. They did the same for this trip.
Day 2 – Zac was up first at 3pm. His set was only 8 songs and as much as it pains me to say this – was my least favorite of the 3 sets. It went by very quickly, he hardly spoke with the crowd (except to say it was going fast and probably because he wasn’t talking a lot) but he did perform a song they had never performed live before – Wait Here For You – so add another one to my list. He also did the first repeat song of the trip when he did Juliet. Which was fine with me as it’s one of my favorites.
Call Out My Name
Get So Low
Wait Here For You
Juliet
On and On
Bittersweet
Fire on the Mountain
Musical Ride
After Zac’s solo set it was time for Isaac’s. I’m not sure I can sum up his set properly… you kind of had to be there… but I’ll give it a try. He came out and said that the first song had an “oh yeah” in it that he wanted us to sing along with. I figured he must be starting with Minute Without You – but then he went into River instead, which has a “never know!” for us to sing – which we all of course picked up on. He mentioned he had his songs mixed up and then went in to Minute Without You. Little did we know just how much he had his songs mixed up… He did 2 songs that I’d never heard live before (I don’t think either had been played before) Two Tears and Ordinary Words.
Somewhere during the set he ended up getting a request for “Sometimes”, he said he would think about it – started playing “Someone” and said he’d try to wrap his head around playing Sometimes next. He said he was trying to remember – and now that I’m listening back he was totally wrong from the get go and asked “is that right?” and then said Sometimes is the song he always messed up night after night in 1998 – the second verse always messed him up and he couldn’t remember the lyric – but he’d do it anyway because it was requested. He said he hadn’t played the song in 15 years. (Which I didn’t think was true – but I looked it up and they haven’t done it since The Albertane Tour!) Except then he started playing Smile. And slowly everyone in the crowd started realizing “hey, this isn’t what he was supposed to be playing…” and then… Isaac finally realized it himself. I’ll let you watch the realization unfold.
He ended up finishing his set with “Best of Times” which he had to start 3 times because he kept getting tripped up with lyrics. Sounds like someone may need a teleprompter for tour 😉
River
Minute Without You
Two Tears
Being Me
Ordinary Words
Deeper
More Than Anything
Someone
Smile
Best of Times
Taylor was the last Hanson show of the trip due to the flip flop in the schedule and his performance ended up at the theater inside instead of out on the beach due to weather concerns. I never did see any rain – so either we were inside and missed it or it didn’t end up being quite as bad as they thought – though it WAS windy because when we went to eat dinner they weren’t sitting anyone outside and the doors to outside kept blowing open from the wind.
Taylor did 4 songs on his own and then called out one of his brothers to help him with the next song. After Isaac getting picked on by Taylor and Zac the whole week over the Sometimes/Smile flub, Taylor and Isaac did Sometimes for everyone. Isaac also stayed on stage to perform Sunny Day with Taylor. Taylor’s set ended up being 11 songs long – the longest of the 3.
My Own
Believe
Never Let Go
Get Out Of My Heart
Sometimes
Sunny Day
Runaway Run
All I Ever Needed
I’ve Been Down
Voice in the Chorus
Make It Out Alive
And since I did a poor job of scheduling posts – here’s a recap of the Hanson activities as well –
Pottery Painting with Zac
I painted a whale. It was fun. Zac went around from table to table to see how we were doing and chat. My friend Kim asked him if Isaac had told them about the Sometimes / Smile flub and Zac said that he did. Then said Isaac is more of a Jerry Lee Lewis than Bing Crosby and that he likes to make sure we are entertained. The reference went a bit over my head but I guess Jerry Lee Lewis is more does whatever he wants and Bing is more by the book? My History of Rock professor would be so disappointed in me!
Mixology with Isaac
The red passes were telling us that this was boring and we were shocked. But it kind of was. I think part of the problem was there was a waterfall next to the area he was at – that was on (for some of the event anyway) and then the speakers must not have been facing us, or all the audio was just going up to the very high ceiling so it was a bit hard to follow along with what was going on. He made 3 drinks with a fan assistant. He broke 1 glass and gave minor injuries to himself and his fan assistant and I heard he also cut his finger with a knife. I preferred his trivia event last year – even if it was difficult even for me.
Afterparty with Taylor
We got let in to this early and went up by Taylor’s DJ set. He warned me I might not want to stand here. I told him I probably would end up sitting down. He said “not that I dont WANT you up here, but you know how it is” yes, I know all too well! We did end up sitting and he came back out a while later after the stampede of girls to get to the front row… for a DJ set! He did a great mix of music this time and there was quite a surprise with the crew and Isaac all got dressed up in ridiculous costumes and ended up dancing on stage. I think Taylor was just as surprised as everyone else!
Back To The Island Cancun: Hanson Concert #3
Due to weather what was supposed to be the Hanson concert on the last night got bumped to the second to last night and the guest concert ended up being last. Since the event is called “Back to the Island” and Cancun isn’t an Island – they decided to take us to an actual island for the last show – Isla Mujeres. This setlist was the one that was voted on by the fans and was very heavy on songs from The Walk. Also due to the voting not going exactly as I would have liked – there were no songs I hadn’t heard live included on it – despite there being 7 I had never heard on the voting list. (But a couple were played at other shows, at least!)
This show was one of the most terrifying experiences I was ever involved in at a Hanson show or any show for that matter. We had to take several buses about 20 minutes away to a ferry. Then we walked the dock (which thankfully had a railing) and got on one boat, then had to go across to another boat that was attached by a plank. Luckily the resort staff member, Carlos, grabbed me and then I was able to get a seat. He told us we would be the first ones off the boat.
The ride was fun – there were drinks (that tasted like koolaid), pirate ships in the water, fireworks… until land was spotted. Then a mad rush of girls showed up and they wouldn’t move to let the wheelchairs/handicapped off first. They were able to push the wheelchairs through and someone grabbed them to push them to the stage – I was pulled out of the crowd but Kim couldn’t get out. The girls were saying since the wheelchairs were off they weren’t letting anyone else off (even the friends who were supposed to be helping out – 3 of them at least were stuck). So I’m on the dock – and this one has NO railings and the separation between wood in some spots is so big my cane could probably fall through it. I walk a little bit on my own and then realize this is NOT happening. I’m going slow, I have no help, and in a matter of minutes I’m going to be stampeded by girls who want front row. I stopped and looked back and Carlos came to my rescue and walked me to the dock. About halfway there I hear him say “Oh no” and we can see everyone heading towards us – and the wheelchairs hadn’t made it off the dock yet!
Things were very scary and I’m honestly shocked no one got pushed off the dock and into the water with the way people were acting. Carlos got me in to the handicapped area with a chair and then ran off to try and do some crowd control. The 3 girls who were separated met back up with us – fortunately we survived and we were all ok – just very shaken up. It’s unfortunate the lack of respect some people have for others. Whether it be those who are disabled or even the members of the band themselves.
Anyway… we made a deal to not focus on it anymore so that we could enjoy the last Hanson show of the trip. Zac seemed to be in rare form and someone yelled “DYING TO BE ALIVE!” before they started playing it and Zac snapped back “I’m dying for you to shut up!” He also made up a new version of Madeline about a guy with a beard… and was mocking Adam Levine’s tattoos after singing a couple lines of Sunday Morning.
Tearing It Down
Great Divide
Thinking of You
Musical Ride
Georgia
Get Up And Go
Got a Hold On Me
Blue Sky
Watch Over Me
On The Road
Wish That I Was There
Madeline
Dying To Be Alive
Yearbook
In A Way
On The Rocks
Been There Before
Leave the Light On
Already Home
Roller Coaster Love
White Collar Crime
If Only
Back to the Island
Rock N Roll Razorblade
Mohegan Sun 80s Extravaganza
Friday night Mohegan Sun kicked off their 80s Weekend with the “80s Extravaganza” concert. My mom got free tickets through the casino and I really wanted to see Tiffany and Debbie Gibson – the other acts I wasn’t really that familiar with. (Although it turned out that almost all of them did have a song that I recognized.)
We weren’t sure what order things were going to go in – I thought it would start with Shannon and end with the Pointer Sisters based on the image they kept showing – but that wasn’t quite accurate. We also thought the show would be ending by 10pm because Tiffany and Debbie were doing a signing at 10 – but when we got the tickets we were told it was a 3 and a half hour show starting at 8pm!! We had considered leaving after Debbie – but then decided we did want to see The Pointer Sisters so we stuck it out for the whole show.
Club Nouveau was up first they did about 3 songs including “Rumors” and “Lean on Me”.
Next up was Shannon – who did 3 or 4 songs including “Let the Music Play” and was even doing push ups at one point.
Tiffany did a 4 song set including “I Saw Him Standing There” and “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Andy Bell did his set next – which I think was also 4 songs ending with a song from Erasure. His outfit was quite interesting, to say the least.
Lisa Lisa was the next act – she really impressed me with her singing! Her set included several songs including “All Cried Out”, “Let The Beat Hit ‘Em”
Debbie’s set included “Only In My Dreams”, “Out of the Blue”, “Shake Your Love”, “Electric Youth” and a medley of 80s songs she enjoyed including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Tina Turner and more.
Terri Nunn and Berlin were up next – their set included a new track “Animal” as well as “No More Words” and “Take My Breath Away” and the set ended with Terri walking through the floor aisle and standing on chair in the crowd to sing.
The last performance of the night was The Pointer Sisters – and I was able to snap a photo of their setlist that was sitting on the sound board so I know that their set was “Happiness”, “Slow Hand”, “Automatic”, “I’m So Excited”, “Neutron Dance” and “Jump”
Back To The Island Cancun: Special Guests
The special guests for this year’s Back to the Island were Nick Santino and David Ryan Harris. I had seen both open for Hanson on previous tours (Nick with his band A Rocket To The Moon) and I had seen them both without Hanson as well. Nick was actually in town a couple weeks before BTTI and I teased I’d go become friends with him before the trip, but didn’t end up going. Now I kind of regret that decision because he was really funny and entertaining and I very much enjoyed his set. I liked how he’d chat with the audience – sometimes even in the middle of a song – he’d just stop and say something that was on his mind.
David Ryan Harris is the only concert I’ve ever fallen asleep during – so I wasn’t sure how well he would go over at this event and I was a little disappointed he wasn’t going on first since I knew that Nick would be a bit more up beat. I did like how David said that he may look like he was standing against a wall – but in his heart he was dancing. He also called out some of the rude fans by saying we were being a “chatty bunch” – which was probably the most polite way to put it (girls were sitting around on the floor near the stage talking very, very loudly – while there was a core group in the middle there for the actual show) but no one seemed to get the hint. (I also don’t think they realized the room was going to be cleared out after the guest set before Taylor’s afterparty could start)
I really enjoyed both sets – I just wish everyone else had felt the same way and tried to enjoy it instead of chatting.
Nick Santino
Can’t Say I Miss You
It’s Alright
Rio
Goddaamn
Madeline
Gone Like Yesterday
Bad Taste
That Old Corolla
Mood Ring Eyes
Have a Little Faith In Me
Long Way Home
David Ryan Harris
Cover
Get Used To This
Fascinating
Junkie
For You
Shelter
So Is Mine
Do What You Want
I Believe In Us
Pretty Girl
Good Thing
Back To The Island Cancun: Hanson Show #2
The 2nd night of Hanson shows was the “Christmas Plus” show – originally it was Christmas On The Island but then they were hinting that it might end up being something more than that. I was able to get front row for this show and I had made a cool Hanson BTTI Christmas Sweater shirt for the show. The set started with 8 Christmas songs, many of which had never been performed live before (I ended up with 6 of the 8 I had never heard before) and then went into their favorite songs that they didn’t write (ie. Covers) and from that portion of the show I got another song that I had never heard live before. Which since I’ve heard all 6 of their albums in their entirety – is a new record… at least until the new album comes out! Then they finished out the set with 4 Hanson songs (since up to that point there was only 1 or 2 original Hanson songs included in the set)
At the end of the show, Zac went to give someone his drumsticks and I guess whoever he intended them for was NOT the one who grabbed them. He braced himself with the stage and ripped them out of the hands of whoever had grabbed them and handed them off to who he wanted to have them!
Merry Christmas Baby
What Christmas Means To Me
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Run Rudolph Run
Everybody Knows The Claus
Finally It’s Christmas
At Christmas
White Christmas (acapella)
Too Much Heaven (acapella)
Cecelia
Ain’t No Sunshine
In A Little While
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
Never Been To Spain
Oh Darling
Hold On I’m Coming
Gimme Some Lovin
Every Word I Say
Scream and Be Free
Crazy Beautiful
In The City
Long Way To The Top
Back To The Island Cancun: Hanson Show #1
Night 1 was the “Welcome to the Island” show where Hanson picked the setlist. I kind of went in to this show with no expectations or maybe just being prepared for the typical tour setlist that they’ve been doing since Anthem was released. However, they completely mixed things up for this show and I thought it was a good mix of songs from all their albums (maybe light on The Walk – but since a lot of those songs were included in the setlist voting, it made sense to skip over that one for now – even though they’ve been skipping over it a lot in past tours as well) The setlist was very upbeat with the exception of the acoustic part of the show.
And I even got a new song – that they wrote on the spot – “Sand in my Crevice” It was super windy so by the end of the night your hair felt like straw and you were pretty much covered in sand. (Even worse if you had put on sunscreen – it stuck all the more to you)
It was a great way to kick off the trip!
Can’t Stop
I’ve Got Soul
And I Waited
Waiting For This
Where’s The Love
Fired Up
Minute Without You
Go
With You In Your Dreams
Love Song
Weird
Sandy / Sand in my Crevice
Strong Enough to Break
Juliet
You Can’t Stop Us
This Time Around
Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin
Give a Little
Penny and Me
Get The Girl Back
Lost Without Each Other
MMMBop
Man From Milwaukee
Hand in Hand
Something Going Round
Disney Trip: Memory Maker
Memory Maker is offered at Disney World as a way to get professional photos throughout the park. No matter how long your trip is, it costs $150. I wasn’t able to justify the cost of that for just 3 days – so I looked into a Memory Maker Share which is when you go in with several other groups/families and share the cost of the $150. It was a $30 buy-in and we all had to link our accounts together to the account which had the Memory Maker paid on it.
If you don’t get Memory Maker you can still get your photos taken, but they cost about $15 to buy – so basically as long as we had at least 2 we wanted to buy (and let’s be real, as a scrapbooker I bought them all) we would come out ahead.
We basically made it our mission to seek out every photographer we could (easier said than done since we had so much rain on our trip!) and ended up with about 150 pictures.
Once you get back, you can log in to the account and add borders and stickers to the photos, which can double or triple the number of photos that you have depending on how you edit them)
The only downside to the share is that you need to wait for everyone to come home from their trip and edit before you can download all your photos as a group. Then once you do download there are several zip files (our group had 55) and you have to sort through them to find your photos. This actually went pretty quickly once all the files had downloaded, but the wait was the hardest part!
Photographers are around the park and also with most of the characters at their meets. They will take a photo with your camera if you ask, but their cameras are professional and they’ll take several shots with it. Here are a few of the shots that we got – including some MAGIC shots! (The big reason why I wanted to get Memory Maker!) Oh and you get ride photos too! (And in the case of 7 Dwarfs Mine Train – a video! And we got video of holding Lumiere as well!)
O-Town is Back!
Saturday night O-Town was set to play Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den. The Wolf’s Den is a first come, first served venue, so I was left with a lot of questions. O-Town hasn’t been around in 10 years – how popular would they be? How early would a line form? My Dad had mentioned he heard of people lining up for other shows at noon – so I decided I’d try to get there by 1. I ended up showing up closer to 12:30 and was 8th in line. My friends Liz and Christine met me later. I had brought a small stool, which at one time was not a problem for waiting in line, but at around 3pm we were told we could not be sitting on the floor, could not have a stool (so we had to rent a wheelchair!), could not have any of our bags on the floor, etc. because it was a fire hazard. (But really, they wanted people spending their money in the casino to be easily able to cut through the middle of the line to get from one side of the casino to the other – I’ve read enough strategy articles on sites like paybyphonecasino.uk about the atmosphere and settings casinos pose to get more money out of their customers – such as comped drinks, dimmer lighting, etc to know that by now.)
I’ve always found issues with this line – and wish they would do wristbands (they can be numbered by when you get there and coordinate with numbered seats inside) so that you could eat, drink, shop and play if you wanted rather than spending that time in line – but I guess the loss in revenue isn’t enough to cover paying someone to hand out wristbands (maybe they can put in a machine to do it?) But if standing there for 7+ hours was what I needed to do to make sure I got inside, that was what I was going to do!
Around 4:45, we spotted Jacob on stage doing soundcheck with his guitar. Shortly after all 4 of them were on stage checking All or Nothing. It was in this moment that I realized just how much I had missed them. Before I was excited they were back but hearing them perform live for the first time in something like 12 years… I needed that.
We were let in about 6:45 and found a spot down on the floor. (Everyone is given a seat but then has the option to go up front in the pit area. I am not sure if this was just for the O-Town show or if this is how the Wolf’s Den is working from now on) At 8pm O-Town took the stage, kicked off with Liquid Dreams and we were off and running! The show was very high energy with a pretty good mix of songs from now and then. Dan still has one of the greatest voices of all the boybands. They did as 12 song regular set and came back out for a 3 song encore which included their first new single, Skydive, THE single All or Nothing and their newest single Chasing After You. They also threw in Wobble with We Fit Together and did a cover medley including Kanye, Macklemore, Aloe Black and Sam Smith.
After the show, if you had bought anything at the merch table (Which was pre-signed) you’d get the chance to get a photo with the guys. It would have to be pretty quick – but we were the first ones through the line so we got hugs from everyone and a great photo. I’m not sure if they had to make things quicker later in the line or not (it was pretty long!). There were also the most people I’d ever seen outside the Wolf’s Den – it is situated that you can see inside even if you are not outside and it looked to be 3-5 people deep in some areas!
Liquid Dreams
Girl
I Won’t Lose
Love Should Be a Crime
We Fit Together / Wobble
Right Kind of Wrong
I Showed Her
These Are The Days
Rewind
Otis / Ceiling Can’t Hold Us / I Need a Dollar / Money On My Mind
Lines and Circles
Playing with Fire
Skydive
All or Nothing
Chasing After You
Disney Trip: EPCOT Day 2 Part 2
After hiding out in China to miss out on the rain, we made it to a covered area near the America Pavilion to wait things out again. We decided not to wait in line and once again for the first show see what would happen. Well, the sky kept getting darker and darker and then an announcement came that the first show was going to be canceled because there was lightning in the area.
The second and third shows were scheduled to go on – and they did.
For the second show it started raining – but fortunately the handicapped area and rows in front of it are under an overhang, so we were OK. By the end of the show – the middle of the overhang was majorly leaking though!
Show 1, err 2, errr I don’t know… had a setlist of
Where’s the Love
Waiting for This
This Time Around
Watch Over Me
Juliet
Get The Girl Back
MMMBop
If Only
We had the Chase wristbands for the last show of the night and figured we’d end up with the prime handicapped spot right up front. Unfortunately, when I scooted my way up there, I was told that they can only accommodate wheelchairs up there and not ECVs! (Except I was in the same spot on the other side the night before and no one said anything to me?) So I backed up and still ended up in one of the 4 prime spots – but it would have been nice to actually be able to use the wristband to be a little bit closer!
The setlist for the final show – in the pouring rain – was
You Can’t Stop Us
Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin
Been There Before
Minute Without You
MMMBop
Get The Girl Back
Already Home
Long Way To The Top
We had to pick up our bottle of MMMHops at the front of the park (you can’t carry alcohol around in the park with you so it has to be shipped to the front of the park for pick up when you leave) and so did 98 other Hanson fans and EVERY other park goer who had bought alcohol…. Meanwhile everyone leaving EPCOT decided to just cut through the line instead of go around which caused all sorts of drama (Tired, wet, cranky people are not a good mix)
So once again we skipped out on Illuminations and headed back to the hotel as we had a pretty early time to pick up the bus to take us back to the airport 🙁
Overall we had a great time but it would have been nice if there was no RAIN. (We figured there would be a quick shower every day – as “that’s Florida” but this constant rain all night was not what we were expecting and even my friends who live in FL say that it was very abnormal to be happening!)