Sunday I took a drive down to PA to my friend Maribeth’s house. From there, we went to Maryland and hopped on the metro to Washington, DC to attend the Hanson.net Member’s Only Event at The Madison Inn. (And I got a bologna sandwich for the ride from Sheetz which made me a bit too happy lol)
We got in about 5pm and grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby Subway and then started the walk to the hotel. On the way there, we spotted The White House so we decided to take a detour to go check it out and get pics near it.
We got in line at the hotel at 6pm (we were allowed to start lining up at 5:30) and it appeared that we were closer to the front than the back of the line, but once we were finally let in (7:30ish?) we got seats in the second to last row. It kind of stunk, because the “stage” was not high enough up for us to be able to see over everyone’s heads. People getting let in after us were able to sit on the floor up front, but I wasn’t sure I could handle an hour or more sitting indian style with no back support, so we stayed where we were.
When they finally took the stage, they joked about how they were on Hanson Time because it didn’t start on time. (But really, shame on us for thinking it would. We’ve been dealing with this for 12 years now)
They did 8 songs, 2 of which I had never heard live before – Leave The Light On and Devils Nachos. Devil’s Nachos was the first time (and possibly last) it had ever been performed live. Zac said that the song was never supposed to be heard by the public.
After the set they did a Q&A; which was interesting because the questions were not pre-screened. They were asked “Since the most awesome holiday is coming up in a couple of weeks.. what are you going to wear?” (meaning Halloween) but Zac said “I don’t usually dress up for my birthday” (his birthday is October 22) and someone said they should dress as Blue Man Group, which Taylor misheard as Man Group and asked how that would look. Isaac said like Backstreet Boys or NSYNC and then sang “Oh baby baby..” which is… Britney Spears… not a mangroup lol uhhh ok.
One of the questions was pretty deep, asking them where they were on September 11th and they said they were in L.A recording “Underneath” and that one of the women they knew from the record label, one of the few who had moved from Mercury to IDJ was married for 9 months and her husband was in one of the towers and lost his life.
Another question was asking if they were lobbying to congressmen about aid in Africa and they said that 30,000 people writing letters (roughly the # of people who have taken the walk with them) would be a lot more effective than 3 guys from Oklahoma, but that they had met with congressmen.
They are always a lot more fun at the members only event and I wish they’d let that out a bit more at their shows!
Then it was time for pictures. Maribeth and I ran over to merch first to buy our stuff before it got to crowded. We had to pre-order the Members Only Event merch sight unseen and hopefully we picked the right sizes for the shirts! I also pre-ordered the Hanskey Monskey dolls which they said will be ready for Christmas, so I expect to have them by my birthday in July. And I got the new sticker and pin sets as well.
We waited around a bit for pictures but then realized everyone else was doing the same thing, so we jumped in the line and went through it really quickly. It was done on stairs, so I told Taylor I couldnt really go up them and he said that was fine and kept me near him for the picture. He shook my hand and few times and thanked me for coming. I went over to talk to Isaac but he was oblivious to my presence so I went over to Zac. I had been debating either telling him about Honor Society or asking him for a hug, but didn’t think I would have time for both. I went with asking for a hug, which he said “sure!” and gave me a hug. Somehow in 12 years I had never managed to get a hug before that so I was incredibly excited. Then I got yelled at for waiting for Maribeth to come through the crowd lol
We bypassed the merch and made our way outside (with a brief pause so I could type out omgomgomgomgomgomg for my twitter hahaha) and walked back to the metro station. We ended up getting back to Maribeth’s mom’s in PA at 1am, exhausted.