After the scaled back Hanson Day activities, the “doom and gloom” newsletter and no Back to the Island for 2026, I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to get heading to Tulsa this year. I have to say that being there I feel a bit better about things, but it does sound like next year will be a bit quiet on the Hanson front.
Travel – Wednesday
I had a pretty early flight to Chicago and at 4am found my walker setting off every TSA alarm and then my hands setting off and then all my belongings needing to be inspected and then needing to get a pat down and being handed a cane that had no stopper on the bottom. “Just what you need at 4am, right?” the woman in the pre-check line behind me said. Fortunately, after everything I was cleared and everything was fine, but I have no idea what happened that set things off.
Arrival – Wednesday
After arriving I made a stop at Ida Red to get some stickers, magnets and shirts and then went around Hanson’s studios to get some photos of the windows and doors that they had done up to match this years rainbow theme for the year and check out a new mural as well. Then for the evening we went to see the Drillers play the Cardinals. We didn’t end up lasting the whole game because in the 6th the Drillers were down 11-3 and they ended up losing it 13-3.
Thursday
Thursday night we first went to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for the Pop2000 tour. Before the show I did a VIP M&G with Chris Kirkpatrick where there was talk of Savannah Bananas (guess who got him talking about that?), Hanson, NSYNC, and a bunch of other topics before we did a “shot” together and then did photos. Then it was time for the show – Ryan Cabrera had opened up and we had hoped that Taylor may join him since he sings a verse on his anniversary release of On the Way Down, but while he played the track, Taylor did not join him. Then it was time for O-Town who seemed to go on stage a bit earlier than usual which was much appreciated as after their set (that ended 30 minutes earlier than anticipated) we headed back downtown to see Isaac’s side project Mother Road Sons. I didn’t keep track of O-Town’s setlist, but they did add in Space Cowboy to the *NSYNC set! We ended up making it to MRS and walking in on their 3rd song which could not have been better timing since I was thinking we would miss a bit more than that! Isaac really shines as a front man, but he really needs more rocky leads! He ended up doing the “original” version of Minute Without You which the setlist had as “Till the Sun Falls” which, of course, was more like a ballad than what we are used to hearing now.
Friday
Friday afternoon we went to a Food on the Move Lunch and Learn with Taylor. The lunch event had grown too large for their facility it was held at last year, so lunch was held in the gym at the nearby YMCA and then we walked over to the facility to take a tour. Taylor told me that the gravel was gone and they now had “beautiful concrete”. It was neat to see how far everything has come in the last year and eat some of the lettuce that had been grown there with our lunch! Then it was time to work in the gallery from 3-5, Taylor ended up showing up for a bit which caused the line to get the longest it had been, but otherwise it was pretty slow going. After our shift ended it as time for the show – which went from about 7-8:30, we had a late dinner and then it was time for an early bed time, even though we thought we all had big plans for the evening! The show seemed to have some subliminal messages in a lot of the songs that we hadn’t noticed before. It was a mixture of members only songs and some rarer album tracks. For Your Love was its debut at Hanson Day. They also went into a impromptu version of Billy Joel’s “Why Should I Worry” from Oliver and Company before finishing out the set!
Saturday
Saturday afternoon was our street team leaders lunch where we had some time to chat with Taylor and Isaac which helped ease some of my worries about the future of the band. We did find out there would be no Hday 2026. Then it was time for Concert #2! This show was more of the singles and songs that might as well be singles show. They did throw in a few member’s songs and then had their brother Mac join them for the encore of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” and “Lost Without Each Other”. They also said that MMMBop almost wasn’t on the setlist (it a lot of times isn’t for members only events) but they had to apologize for us having to explain it for so many years.
After was the dance party – I went as a 60s GoGo dancer.
Travel – Monday
Somehow I ended up being one of the only ones without travel issues, the worst that happened is I was delayed 5 minutes on my 2nd flight home. That wasn’t enough to have it even not be considered “on time” according to most of the flight tracking apps, so I’ll take it! It was nice to get back to valet to see my brand new car that I had for about a day and a half before leaving it at the airport Wednesday morning – and then needing to figure out how to pop the trunk.
I did come back with a bit of a cold which is why this and hansonstage updates have been rolling out rather slowly… I am feeling a bit better now and hopefully some extra sleep over the weekend will allow me to catch up on everything! I’m looking forward on more 2025 Hanson dates to be announced and we’ll see what happens in 2026… at least I have bananaball to keep me busy and a few more items left on the hansonstage suggestions list to work through.