BTTI 16: Hanson Show #3

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Then it was time for the final night and final show 🙁 Again we weren’t sure what to expect but ended up getting another mix of rarer tracks and fan club songs with a few singles thrown in for good measure. Although none of the full band songs got me anything that I hadn’t heard live before I did think that they were some pretty solid setlists.  I think that this was the best year yet, but I can’t exactly tell you why.  Maybe just the overall feeling, the new resort, etc.  And you can’t accuse me of saying that every year because last year I came home not sure if I ever wanted to go again.  This year I am all ready to book whenever it is announced! (Not that there ever was a doubt I’d have ended up there this year…)

Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin
And I Waited
Man From Milwaukee
Runaway Run
Already Home
Watch Over Me
Call Out My Name (acoustic)
Never Let Go (acoustic)
A Song To Sing (acoustic)
Yearbook
Musical Ride
Great Divide
Minute Without You
Scream And Be Free
Cut Right Through Me
Penny and Me
Get The Girl Back
MMMBop
Fired Up / In The City
Roller Coaster Love / Whole Lotta Love

Encore:
Back To The Island
Happy Birthday Andrew

BTTI 16: Hanson Solo Sets

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One of the exclusive events at Back to the Island is that each band member does a solo show performance.  Isaac has had the best set (in my opinion) the last 2 years running so I was interested to see if he would win again this year.  At first, I thought he did, but now that I have had some time to sit back and take it all in, I am giving the title to Zac this year.

Zac was up first and seemed to have grown a lot over the past few years with his solo sets. The first year was a bit awkward but he seems to be able to hold it on his own now.  He did need to google some lyrics – which made everyone laugh because he was on Isaac’s case so much last year about messing up!  He also came on stage with his hair down but half way through his set decided it was too humid and he had to pull it back.  I was impressed he lasted even a few songs, I wouldn’t have!   A highlight was Zac playing Lucy – something he had never played before. He has sung it, but never actually *played* it.

Give Me Your Best Shot
Juliet
I Am
Broken Angel
Lucy
Bittersweet
On and On
No Sleep For Banditos
Get So Low
Up All Night

Taylor had the 2nd solo set and was probably my 2nd favorite. (Maybe even close to a tie with Zac?) While his set was not funny, or goofy or full of mess ups, he had a solid setlist. I liked that he played Take Our Chances – a song he said was 10 years old but still relevant.  Having him do Look At You solo was really fun to hear as well. And Weird is one of my favorites so I loved that he included that in his set as well!  He did start Voice In  The Chorus and then decided to not play it and the setlist also had One More on the list and he opted to not play that either.

Every Word I Say
Kiss Me When You Come Home
Crazy Beautiful
Take Our Chances
Look At You
Dying To Be Alive
Weird
Ive Been Down
Sunny Day

Isaac was the last of the solo shows and he came with no setlist and was instead taking requests from the audience. I loved this approach, even though he did not play what I had yelled out. Maybe next year?  Some say that this made him come off as unrehearsed – but I am not sure how he could have rehearsed every song, ever and still took requests so he would come off as polished.  He also decided to play a song that he wrote when he was 14 that had never been recorded or played live before. (That was my ONE for the week!) I am pretty sure this is the song that the instrumental is played during TTMON. It was called “A Life Without You” and he said he wrote it about 2 weeks after More Than Anything for the same girl.  Another highlight of his set was playing Smile and Sometimes again – since that was the mess up from the year before.  He explained that we say one song and his brain thinks we said another and that it happened again when someone requested a song (Lonely Again) and his brain decided we wanted Leave the Light On.   The worst part about Isaac’s set was that he was very, very late to start (I think by an hour) I thought this may have been due to the photos running over – but I hear they were done by 4pm and his set wasn’t scheduled to start until 5:30pm.  Guess we can blame Ike for Hanson time.

Best of Times
Two Tears
A Life Without You
So Lovely
Leave the Light On
Next Train
Being Me
Grace Unknown
More Than Anything
Smile
Sometimes
River

BTTI 16: Hanson Show #2

 

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Hanson Show #2  was originally billed as an acoustic show but rumors started swirling it would instead be a covers show.  I had figured that some of the covers from the Roots & Rock N Roll Tour would make their way into the sets but didn’t realize it would be an entire set.  I was worried that 2 of the 3 shows would turn into a Roots & Rock N Roll Tour – Jamaica – so I thought this was a happy medium so those of us that did go to the tour didn’t feel like it was the same thing over again, but those that missed the tour still got a taste of it.  They did throw in a couple songs they didn’t do on the tour – like starting the set with Gimme Some Lovin which was awesome.

During I Believe In A Thing Called Love, Zac climbed up the stage rafters right over the handicapped section which was awesome! Of course, it happened so fast and unexpected that I didn’t manage to get any photos of it. (And I had started recording video and then  stopped, which I am of course now kicking myself over!)

(This set also got bumped a day because there was a pretty bad rain / thunderstorm going on.  At first we thought we’d just enjoy the show in our bathing suits, but once I saw lightning I had a feeling that was going to put a stop to things.  Zac ended up coming to the stage to talk to those of us who were already waiting and let us know that it was canceled and they were working on a schedule for the next day.)

Gimme Some Lovin
Twist and Shout / Shake a Tail Feather
I Want To Take You Higher
Hold On Im Coming
You May Be Right
Movin Out
Remember the Time
I Want You Back
Oh Darling
Teach Your Children (acapella)
Change In My Life (acapella)
In A Little While (acoustic)
Thinking Out Loud
God Only Knows
Stand By Me
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Cecelia
Chain of Fools
Signed Sealed Delivered Im Yours
Dancing In The Streets
Desire
I Believe In A Thing Called Love

Encore:
Kate
Its a Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll)

BTTI 16: Special Guests

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This year the special guests were Paul McDonald and Parachute.  I was very excited for Paul to be a guest again and while I hadn’t seen Parachute live before I had heard great things so I was looking forward to their performance as well!

Due to the thunderstorm the night before, Paul’s set got bumped to 8pm instead of 10pm.  He did most of the tracks off his new EP, Slow Rising as well as a couple of newer tracks.  One of the new ones, Something I Don’t Already Know, had me near tears… he got so into it as well… and to top it off, someone in the crowd yelled “FUCK THAT BITCH” perfectly timed as the song ended. I hope that ends up on YouTube and I think Paul does too…

For his last song he did some Bob Marley Three Little Birds with some MMMBop mixed in for good measure.

Paul’s set had me so emotional, I don’t really remember much of Parachute’s set.  The lead singer, Will, is a Hanson Fan Boy and was talking about how much he loved Lost Without Each Other and hoped they would play it.  When he was informed that they did it last night, he was bummed that they did and there would be no repeats – but happy for us that there would be no repeats.  I think he may have also flown in only for their set because we didn’t see him around before or after (and so he missed out singing on stage with Hanson the last night!)   They did a cover of Jason DeRulo’s Want To Want Me and also did Forever & Always which he said he wrote while they were on tour with Kelly Clarkson and he sent the song to his sister and she got mad because it made her cry. They also did Ghost. And maybe eventually I will come across the set from someone else 😉

New Lovers
Slow Rising
Never Get Over You
Once You Were Mine
Over & Over
Something I Don’t Already Know
Modern Hearts
Come On
Bright Lights
Renegades
Three Little Birds / MMMBop

BTTI 16: Hanson Show #1

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The first night of the event was the Welcome show.  I managed to get front row for this show and had no idea what to expect.  In the past we had been given themes for the shows or we were asked to vote on songs we would like to hear, but this year we didn’t have any of that so it would be a surprise.  The set was a mix of Members Only songs and some of the lesser played Hanson songs as well.  The set had almost no covers which was a bit of a surprise – but the reasoning behind that became obvious a couple days later 😉

The guys are a lot more loose during these events that are for Hanson.net Members, they goof off and make up silly songs and this show was no exception. Hand In Hand went from “I’m not going to sit around just waiting for you to get over this all” to “I’m not going to sit around just waiting for you to see star wars” and Isaac may have mentioned a few spoilers before they sang it. I haven’t seen it yet but I probably won’t realize what he spoiled until I do get around to seeing it.

Since last year we had “Sand In My Crevice” this year they mentioned it was nice to not have that problem but somehow I think the made up song turned into something about Zac’s butt crack? I’m not really sure. It was hard to hear some of the vocals due to where I was sitting at times.

Overall I thought that this show was a nice mix, a little bummed it had nothing I had never heard in it, but thought it was a great welcome to the island show.
Back To The Island
Dance Like You Don’t Care
Waiting For This
Heartbreaker
I’ve Got Soul
Been There Before
Underneath (acoustic)
Love Song (acoustic)
Go (acoustic)
Strong Enough To Break (acoustic)
Tonight
Juliet
Got a Hold On Me
Hand in Hand
You Never Know
You Cant Stop Us
Tearing It Down
If Only
Lost Without Each Other
Sound of Light

Encore:
White Collar Crime

BTTI16: Day 1

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On the first day of the event, we woke up to get our event passes.  Everyone is split into either Red or Green groups.  My friends and I decided we wanted to be green, but of course red was being given out first.  We hung around a bit to see what the merch package was – the usual bag (orange this year!), towel and shirt (white for tie dying).  Those returning for their 2nd year got a pineapple pin, 3rd year got sunglasses (of course a bit different than the ones I got last year) and 4th years got what we were calling the “$8000 visor.”  It was red with an embroidered Hanson symbol pineapple on it.  I kind of wish it was a hat instead, because I didn’t bring one and was worried the top of my head might get sunburned – something a visor would not help with!

After breakfast  I went to the beach to find Holly and Rachel who were going to go snorkeling and wanted me to come along.  I changed into my water shoes so my sneakers wouldn’t get ruined and when I was trying to figure out how to get on the boat the captain told me he would carry me on!  Holly teased that I already had something for my 2016 Anti-Bucket List now.  The girls went out snorkeling and I watched from on the boat.  After snorkeling we went in the pool near my (new) room and I was excited that it was only the 1st day and I’d already done 2 things I hadn’t done at any of the past events – ride a boat and get in the pool. (The first year I made it on the pool steps but never got into the poll)

There were rumors that Hanson would be doing soundcheck at 3pm so I headed to the beach for a bit. Of course, soundcheck didn’t start until more like 6.  It was interesting to see and hear the soundcheck – at first it did not sound good at all and Taylor even mentioned that so they played Georgia without the mics on to try and fix the levels which was pretty weird to watch.

After soundcheck we grabbed dinner, I watched Rachel and David play some pool and the headed down to the stage.  The way the stage was set up, I was able to squeeze a chair into the front row in front of the handicapped section which was a great spot!

More on the first night’s show coming up in my next post!

BTTI 16: Travel Day

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For this year’s Back to the Island I decided to go a day early on Monday, rather than going just for the length of the Hanson activities as I usually did.  I left the house at 2:30am – because even though I was going in a day early, I felt the need to get in to Jamaica as early as possible!

For my first flight, I opted to sit in seat 1D so I could stretch out a bit. I was lucky and both ways I didn’t have anyone in the middle seat.  The only downside is that usually I can sleep on the plane no problem, but this trip it was a problem. Maybe because I was reading a book I was having trouble putting down…

When I got to Baltimore, I met up with a few friends who were kind enough to go grab me some breakfast. The flight to Jamaica was uneventful.  When we landed, I had a guy pushing my wheelchair that got us to the front of the customs line.  Immigration was a bit slower going.

There was some confusion when we got outside, needing to fill out forms for our return transport.  By the time I had figured out what I thought I needed to do, I was pulled away to get on the shuttle.

Our shuttle driver gave us a play by play as we drove, pointing out the resorts and shops on either side of the road and even pointed out Usain Bolt’s High School (it is purple) and that he lived 2 miles away and ran to school every day.

When we arrived at the resort, just over an hour later, we were greeted with drinks and cold towels.  They couldn’t find my reservation, as I was staying the additional night with a different roommate in a different room.  They gave me a room but I wasn’t convinced it was the right room so I walked around the resort a bit but then stayed in the lobby waiting for my roommate to show up to make sure everything was right.

The Street Team Leaders from around the US and the World met up for dinner – we had New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Canada and 5 US States represented, if I am counting correctly.  It was nice to meet some of the leaders and catch up with the others.  Afterwards we hung out in the lobby a bit.

I had turned in relatively early the first night because I knew sleep would be harder to come by as the Hanson activities began!

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

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

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