Thursday and Friday I was in Minneapolis, MN to see Hanson kick off their Underneath:Experience tour. For this tour every city gets 2 shows – with night one being acoustic and night two being electric. Opening for the tour on acoustic night is Matthew Sweet, who co-wrote Underneath with Hanson and opening on electric night is Phantom Planet – their bass player Sam played bass on Underneath.
After a whirlwind trip to PA for the P!nk show, I headed up to the airport and was absolutely ready to nap on the plane. This plane had a closet on board for mobility devices, so my walker (toaster) got to ride on the plane with me for the first time! Plane napping didn’t go so well as I had a too tall guy in the seat next to me and couldn’t really get comfortable with us battling for space.
I arrived at the hotel, got dinner and was ready to fall asleep. I started to watch The Masked Singer episode but fell asleep about halfway through.
Thursday morning I had a lazy day until I decided to get in line for the show. Please note that the rest of this review is going to have show and setlist spoilers so if you’re looking to not know what is happening this tour, you probably should X out and come back later.
For the Thursday show I was triple booked – I “had” to watch the Savannah Bananas draft to see what cities they’d be going to in 2025 and then I “had” to keep an eye on the Mets game as it was a do or die game for the wild card. The bananas stream went into Matthew Sweet’s set, but it was so mellow I was glad to have a bit of a distraction. When I was looking at the Mets score, it was 0-0 for a long time, and then I saw the Brewers go up 2-0 and I figured it was over (even though it was the 7th) but then my app just kept showing the Mets scoring runs in the 9th and they ended up winning. (Seriously if you don’t want show spoilers – leave!)
After Hanson’s Church show over the weekend, I figured that about half of that set would make its way into the acoustic set – and it did. I absolutely love the slowed down acoustic Runaway Run so I am very glad that it made the setlist. They also brought back solos – Isaac did Hand in Hand, Zac did The Walk (which is one of my favorites but also timed itself poorly with the baseball game so I was distracted) and Taylor did Every Word I Say which a couple of my friends had asked him to play. I on the other hand asked him to NOT play a song – and am happy to report he did not. Will it stick for the rest of my shows? We’ll see. Highlights included Teach Your Children with the 3 of them with Isaac on guitar around the center mic, Cory Wong joining them for Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ and I Was Born being acoustic.
Once the show was over it was time for DJ Taylor and the after party. Doors were supposed to be at 10:30 and it would start at 11, but due to technical difficulties it didn’t start until closer to 11:30. I didn’t last very long – the room seemed crammed and after a few songs I made my way to chat with some people in the back and then headed outside as my friends said they were going to grab some pizza. I could hear all the songs from outside and couldn’t see Taylor even when I was inside so pretty much the same experience, but with friends!
I had found out that Hanson was going to be on the radio at 8:30am Friday morning. I set my alarm, it went off, and next thing I knew it was 9am and I had missed it. I guess I was tired?
I got in line for the show early-ish and was very much so looking forward to Phantom Planet’s set. I recognized more songs than I thought I would (ie more than just ‘California’) and they were a lot of fun and seemed really impressed with the crowd interaction and the singing that they had us do.
Then it was time for the electric set! I had a new spot for this show, so the setlist was not below me. I was glad that I didn’t see anything ahead of time because the setlist was full of surprises and when I am 🫨 multiple times during a setlist you KNOW it’s good. They opened with Optimistic, which I expected based on the church show. Minus points for Taylor being on the acoustic guitar during Dancing in the Wind and not electric to throw it back to 2004. There also seemed to be a bit of a “World” theme going on with the show – Where’s the Love – it makes the world go round and round – World Goes Around… later in the set we were treated to a cover of Everybody Wants to Rule the World (sort of a medley/mashup with Crazy Beautiful – which Isaac later told us was somewhat inspired by the Tears for Fears song) and World’s on Fire. I also liked how they did the “old” penny and me – sort of tweaked it with the emphasis on the “Singing along to Feelin’ Alright” like they do in the new version – and then went into a cover of Feelin’ Alright so we really WERE singing along.
The only part I would have maaybbbe changed was the “acoustic” set within the electric set – Never Let Go and I Will Come To You. We’ll see how they switch things around. Overall throughout the 2 nights they did all of the main songs from Underneath with the exception of Misery and Lullabelle. I would not be surprised to see Lullabelle pop up as a Zac solo when he starts doing them again (he skipped them in Chicago in Detroit). Of the bonus tracks, there’s still 3 more that need to find their way into the sets and I’m hoping they will at my future shows.
We once again did not get Pink Moon – Zac said Taylor wasn’t really liking how it was going but it WOULD be coming during the tour. I told him I’d be going to half of the shows and he promised I would hear it. He did end up doing in Chicago, so I am optimistic. (no pun intended)
After the show we waited by the bus for what seemed like forever (it didn’t help that I was in shorts and the temperature dropped a LOT from when we went into the show until we got out) but Zac and Isaac came out and we were able to get photos with them and chat for a bit. Taylor had left earlier in an uber with one of his daughters and just waved to everyone.
I am a lot more excited about this tour now than I was – I said I would only allow duplicates of Penny and Me (Moonlight one night, OG the other) and MMMBop and that was the only duplicates they were. A lot of covers, even though most were throw backs and a good mix of songs in the setlist. It’ll be fun to see how the setlist evolves (or not) over the course of the month at the rest of my shows. (I have not yet decided if I’ll be doing separate reviews or putting them all into one catch all at the end… we’ll see how I’m feeling and if I have a lot more to say or not!)
Katie 
