Hanson Listener’s Choice Shows

The first weekend in October was my 7th trip to Tulsa in the past year and what I believe to be my final trip there for 2021.  The themes for this weekend were ATW + Listener’s Choice which meant that we voted on 20 songs via Twitter that would be included in the setlist.  Setlist voting is not my favorite thing because generally the songs I want to hear aren’t included and of those that are included, the ones I would prefer to hear don’t win.  But initially I didn’t think I’d be going 3 out of 4 months so I thought this would be a nice “overview” setlist of sorts.

I made it to Tulsa without incident, but unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for my friends.  The friends I was rooming with were supposed to be getting in late on Thursday, which ended up getting bumped to mid-day on Friday (the day of the first show)  I think I saw them maybe 3 hours the whole weekend.

Friday morning Hanson did a live chat before they released their single for the month, One, and mentioned that these shows would be the longest ones of the series and that they’d be very similar each night.  I was hoping that we would be getting 10 voted songs + 6 songs from Against the World with a handful of “Hanson’s Choice” each night – but they instead decided to do all 20 voted songs + 6 from Against the World BOTH nights.  Now don’t get me wrong, there’s no place I’d rather be than a Hanson concert, but I was pretty meh about it and kind of grumpy through the whole Friday night show.  One of the fans next to me was getting so excited and had pure joy as a reaction for several of the songs as they started and I was wondering if maybe I was the problem and I have gone to too many shows.  (There had been some discussion online about if you’re mad about the song choices you’ve gone to too many shows.)

For Saturday’s show I was hoping they would mix up the order and what was acoustic and what the encore songs were, and they did.  I don’t know what I did to adjust my attitude – but I strongly preferred show #2 to show #1 and it truly did feel like 2 different shows entirely, despite the fact that the songs were essentially the same.  They also did an acoustic version of If Only so there was no jumping and that was a big plus as well.  Unfortunately my excitement was short lived, as I got run over by a motorized wheelchair while we were trying to clear out the ADA area.  I’m ok, but I was a bit sore and stinging after the show and did have a bruise afterwards.

Getting home was also uneventful, which I was glad about.  I decided to order myself some BBQ from one of my favorite places here in CT that has a location near the airport.  It was torture smelling it the whole hour ride home, but definitely worth the wait.

I am looking forward to some Hanson tour dates being announced hopefully by the end of the year? Maybe? But if not, there’s always Back to the Island to hold me over until then.

Jonas Brothers @ Xfinity Theater

Wednesday night – my first mid-week show in I don’t even know how long – I headed back to XFinity Theater to see the Jonas Brothers.  For this show, unlike Alanis that I had seen there previously, vax cards or negative covid tests were required.  It was a quick flash of the vax card and I honestly felt a lot like it was just security theater for this show. The other times my ID needed to be checked against the card and for this show they didn’t seem to care at all.  Many also did not get the memo that only small clear bags were allowed but it did sound like they had a bag check available.

The merch line was absolutely insane upon arrival but I was able to find one much shorter inside after bumping into a friend I hadn’t seen in YEARS!  I then made my way to my seat early to get settled in and watch the drama unfold because of how the rows are numbered.  The center section is A1, B1, C1, A, B, C, etc.  As far as I know it’s always been this way but it seems like they don’t make the ushers aware of this (Mine at the top of the section said “Look for B!” Even though I was B1)  A few girls decided since they “paid a lot of money for their tickets” even though they were in row A and assumed they were front row, they should get to stand at the barricade.  No sweetie.  We ALL paid a lot for our tickets and you are in 4th row so that gives you NO right to the barricade.  Eventually, most of them got kicked out but one particularly ballsy one did end up coming back for Jonas and somehow ended up not getting kicked out again. Grrr.  Honestly, if they were going to put up such a fight with security I would have told them they could just go to their ASSIGNED seat or they could leave the show entirely – $1000 down the drain.  Entitled brats…

Jordan McGraw opened and he is a pile of trash and that’s it. That’s the review. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. (Well maybe I did already say it. But I’ll leave it at that)

Next up was Kelsea Ballerini.  I am not much of a country fan, but I did enjoy her set despite only knowing her closing song “This Feeling”.  She played a video during the set of her much younger talking about how much she loved the Jonas Brothers and then talked a bit about how amazing it has been to not only become a singer/songwriter herself and then get to OPEN for the Jonas Brothers.

Then it was time for Jonas!  I thought they did a great mix of their setlist since I don’t really know as much as the new stuff that well, but there was absolutely plenty for me to still sing along to and they even included some of Joe’s DNCE songs and some of Nick’s solo songs as well.  They all seemed to be having SO much fun on stage and I think that was the closest I had been for any of their shows I had seen previously. (Thanks for Citi Presale tickets that were actually probably Ticketmaster Platinum tickets in disguise.)  I also was able to sit for the whole show which was really awesome thanks in part to the girl next to me who jumped in the row in front of me and blocked anyone who dared stand in front of me for longer than about 30 seconds.  I really am loving all these fans looking out for me and making things a lot easier for me! I could have stood if I needed to, but am much more comfortable if able to sit.  (Now if they could not spill things and make the floor too slippery for my cane, but that’s a whole other story)  The Jonas show was not as out of control and theatrical as they usually are – they didn’t float up or come in from the ceiling.  There was some fireworks and fire but it seemed a bit scaled back from some of their previous big tours and allowed us more to focus on the music than the spectacle.  They also just ended the show on Sucker – no encore or coming back out at all.  After they left the stage everyone was going nuts for roadies throwing things off the stage, and I just wanted to get OUT of there.  Some girl came into the row, stood DIRECTLY in front of me, missed a pick being thrown and then complained about how it was crazy and like a war zone.  Ok but you wanted to be in it so badly you came and stood right in front or someone who was trying to collect her things and leave so you’re not much better than anyone else crowding down there…   Eventually I ended up weaving my way through some seats and making it out of there.  Phew!  The show went a lot later than I was expecting (especially for a week night! *insert grandma emoji here*) and I had a hotel near the airport about 20 minutes away that I didn’t get settled in to until nearly 1am!  It was a lot of fun though and I was glad I went especially after having a rough couple of days – it was a nice distraction to help keep my mind off of everything else that was going on.

Jonas Brothers Setlist XFINITY Theatre, Hartford, CT, USA 2021, Remember This

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