Back To The Island Cancun: Hanson Show #1

Night 1 was the “Welcome to the Island” show where Hanson picked the setlist.  I kind of went in to this show with no expectations or maybe just being prepared for the typical tour setlist that they’ve been doing since Anthem was released.  However, they completely mixed things up for this show and I thought it was a good mix of songs from all their albums (maybe light on The Walk – but since a lot of those songs were included in the setlist voting, it made sense to skip over that one for now – even though they’ve been skipping over it a lot in past tours as well)  The setlist was very upbeat with the exception of the acoustic part of the show.

And I even got a new song – that they wrote on the spot – “Sand in my Crevice”  It was super windy so by the end of the night your hair felt like straw and you were pretty much covered in sand. (Even worse if you had put on sunscreen – it stuck all the more to you)

It was a great way to kick off the trip!

 

Can’t Stop
I’ve Got Soul
And I Waited
Waiting For This
Where’s The Love
Fired Up
Minute Without You

Go
With You In Your Dreams
Love Song
Weird
Sandy / Sand in my Crevice
Strong Enough to Break

Juliet
You Can’t Stop Us
This Time Around
Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin
Give a Little
Penny and Me
Get The Girl Back
Lost Without Each Other
MMMBop
Man From Milwaukee

Hand in Hand
Something Going Round

Back To The Island Cancun: Travel Day 1

btti

Over the next several Wednesdays I will be sharing all the details of my trip to Cancun for Hanson’s Back to the Island event. (Yes, we’re all aware that Cancun is not an Island.)  For those of you unfamiliar with the event – the past 2 years have been in Jamaica but this year they moved to a resort in Cancun.  The event was from January 7-11 with a concert every night (except the last day when everyone is leaving) which includes 3 Hanson shows as well as a set from special guests Nick Santino and David Ryan Harris. Also included are events with Isaac (mixology), Taylor (after party) and Zac (pottery painting) – but more on all that is still to come.

I’ll start this post with traveling, since I finally got my visa to Bhutan – I had to get up to leave the house at about 2:30 AM as my first flight was taking off at 5:45am.  I was greeted in the morning by my car covered in ice – and then I realized that some of it was even INSIDE when I thought I had cleared off the windshield and there were still spots. I had to rub them with my mittens so I could see through the window and off to the airport I went.  It was 17 degrees. It was quite dark in the car, perhaps because of window tinting (check out Dalo website if you plan auto glass tinting).

I got to the valet area, left my car, got to the airport and had to wait for the Southwest counter to open at 4am.  They had to verify my passport before I could even get on my first flight.  Once that was done security went with no problems and then it was time to wait. I was the only one at the gate for a long time.  I was excited because I didn’t wake up 24 hours early (it was more like 23) and still got A 37 as a boarding number.  Well, it turns out there were only 36 people on the flight! (A1 – 15 are reserved)  They said we could spread out but everyone decided to sit in the first 5 rows because they “wanted to get off the plane quick”  (I’m not sure the extra 4 steps from a couple rows further back would have made all that much difference)  Had I known they were going to do that, I’d have gone to the back myself after pre-boarding.

I ended up with a mother/daughter next to me.  The daughter seemed like she really wanted to sleep, but well, I think Mom was a little bit nervous to fly so for 3 hours (when I was hoping to catch up on some sleep) all I heard was “I love you! Thank you so much for flying with me! I love you!” and then she was trying to teach the kid to play sudoku.  “Can I sleep?” the girl asked – but Mom talked for almost the entire 3 hour flight.  She talked so much she was hoarse by the time the flight landed.

I missed snack service from trying to sleep… and then started having a dizzy spell (which I haven’t had one in a REALLY long time so I was not expecting it) and ended up getting my head as close to my knees as I could and it seemed to pass in a few minutes. Upon landing I grabbed a vitamin water and a snack at a kiosk to make sure that I’d be good to go for the next flight.

Somehow my flight at Atlanta landed at C2 and I only had to go to C5! Usually I am as far apart as humanly possible in these airports so I was excited. They ended up loading up another flight just before ours was supposed to take off because the flight was still in the hanger getting looked at.  Then we found out we had to get a new aircraft and had to go to C12 instead. The new aircraft came from stealing it from a flight heading to DC which ended up getting canceled.  We weren’t delayed all that much despite the new aircraft and the extra checks it needed for going to a different country.

We landed in Mexico and headed to immigration and then customs.  After going through customs they have you hit a red button. If you’re green, you’re good, if you’re red, you are getting randomly selected for a bag check.  I was with 2 other Hanson fans I met up with in Atlanta and 1 of us got a red light and the other 2 green.  Then I found out my roommate for the trip got a red one too.

We found our shuttle to the resort and off we went! It was nice to have a 20 minute ride instead of a 90 minute one.  While we were waiting to check in, my roommate showed up (she got in about the same time as us but was in a different terminal – we were hoping it all spit out to one general transportation area, but it didn’t!)

We checked in to the resort, checked in with Island Gigs for our Hanson credentials, checked out the room and headed to the seafood / pasta restaurant for dinner. I had 2 drinks but neither really were all that strong (and I’m a lightweight – I didn’t feel any of the drinks until the last night!) and then it was time to settle in for Hanson show #1 later that night.

But more on THAT next week 🙂

Around Here, Setlist Voting is Serious Business

BTTI_VotingBanner_1

For this year’s Back to the Island, Hanson put up a setlist voting on December 12 with the vote ending on December 18th.  They had 2 polls – 1 had each of the tracks off of their 6 studio albums. The other had just under 50 of their Fan Club Members Only EP songs.  Fans were allowed to pick 10 songs off of each list and the ones with the most votes will be played at Back to the Island’s final show.

Back to the Island this year is in Cancun and will have 3 Hanson shows, a solo show from each Hanson and sets from David Ryan Harris and Nick Santino.  My goal is to always come back hearing some new tracks I’ve never heard live before.  From the lists they’ve posted, there are *7* potential candidates. (And I’m hoping a few more that weren’t on the voting list will pop up as well!)

As I mentioned, I take the voting quite seriously.  For the Members Only songs I knew that the approach I was going to take for my 10 votes was going to be to start with the songs I’ve never heard before. Which put me at 7 songs right off the bat.  With my other 3 votes I went with 3 songs that I have heard 1 time – this past Members Only Event in Tulsa.  I thought that those 3 would be fun to hear again.  My votes were for the following:

Beautiful Eyes
I Can’t Wait
Wait Here For You
All I Have To Give
Take My Time
Bad Solution
Ordinary Words
White Collar Crimes
Panic in the Streets
Show Me The Way

For the album songs, I had to take a different approach.  With the 5 of 5 concerts and last year in Jamaica the guys singing Anthem in its entirety – I have heard every album song at least once (as it turns out, I’ve actually heard them all at least twice.)  There were 16 that I had heard 5 times or less, so I took the majority of my votes from those, picking 7 that I’d like to hear again.  Then once again, I picked 3 others that I thought might be fun. (2 of the 3 were from the top 5 songs I’ve heard live – at least from the albums)  The songs I ended up going with are:

Believe
Lost Without You
Yearbook
Weird
Dying To Be Alive
Tearing It Down
Musical Ride
And I Waited
Minute Without You
Where’s The Love

It can probably be argued that I “wasted” the last 2 votes on the album songs since those 2 are pretty much staples – but after 30 minutes of spreadsheets, databases and much deliberation, I decided it was best not to over think what I was voting for and just get it done with.

Back to the Island kicks off TODAY so we will see once I get back how many of my choices ended up in the set lists for the event.

 

Disney Trip: EPCOT Day 2 Part 2

After hiding out in China to miss out on the rain, we made it to a covered area near the America Pavilion to wait things out again. We decided not to wait in line and once again for the first show see what would happen.  Well, the sky kept getting darker and darker and then an announcement came that the first show was going to be canceled because there was lightning in the area.

The second and third shows were scheduled to go on – and they did.

For the second show it started raining – but fortunately the handicapped area and rows in front of it are under an overhang, so we were OK.  By the end of the show – the middle of the overhang was majorly leaking though!

Show 1, err 2, errr I don’t know… had a setlist of

Where’s the Love
Waiting for This
This Time Around
Watch Over Me
Juliet
Get The Girl Back
MMMBop
If Only

We had the Chase wristbands for the last show of the night and figured we’d end up with the prime handicapped spot right up front. Unfortunately, when I scooted my way up there, I was told that they can only accommodate wheelchairs up there and not ECVs! (Except I was in the same spot on the other side the night before and no one said anything to me?)  So I backed up and still ended up in one of the 4 prime spots – but it would have been nice to actually be able to use the wristband to be a little bit closer!

The setlist for the final show – in the pouring rain – was

You Can’t Stop Us
Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin
Been There Before
Minute Without You
MMMBop
Get The Girl Back
Already Home
Long Way To The Top

We had to pick up our bottle of MMMHops at the front of the park (you can’t carry alcohol around in the park with you so it has to be shipped to the front of the park for pick up when you leave) and so did 98 other Hanson fans and EVERY other park goer who had bought alcohol…. Meanwhile everyone leaving EPCOT decided to just cut through the line instead of go around which caused all sorts of drama (Tired, wet, cranky people are not a good mix)

So once again we skipped out on Illuminations and headed back to the hotel as we had a pretty early time to pick up the bus to take us back to the airport 🙁

 

Overall we had a great time but it would have been nice if there was no RAIN.  (We figured there would be a quick shower every day – as “that’s Florida” but this constant rain all night was not what we were expecting and even my friends who live in FL say that it was very abnormal to be happening!)

 

Disney Trip: EPCOT Day 1 Part 2

For the first Hanson show, we didn’t bother getting in line and hoped we would have a handicapped spot waiting for us.  We did.  There are what I like to call 4 “prime” handicapped viewing spots and we were 2 to the side from one of the four.  I knew I would have to stand to see because everyone in front of me stood – but the ECV was pretty cool and between the controls in front of me and the seat behind me I felt pretty secure!

The setlist for the first show was

Fired Up
Ive Got Soul
Where’s the Love
And I Waited
Minute Without You
MMMBop
Get The Girl Back
Waiting For This

There was a medical emergency during this show – I believe that a girl had a seizure and had to be taken away. (I hope everything turned out ok there!) and you could tell that the guys were concerned. Taylor mentioned her after a couple of songs and stopped after a song to talk to security to see what was going on as well. But the show must go on and they pushed through their set.

The second set we pretty much did the same approach and got the exact same spot haha  For this show t he setlist was

Scream and Be Free
Thinking Bout Somethin
Runaway Run
This Time Around
Tragic Symphony
Give a Little
Minute Without You
Lost Without Each Other

We left before the last song and got back in line – only to be cut by a couple more wheelchairs and scooters so we were 1 off from the “prime” spot – until I spotted a friend next to one of the 4 prime spots.  She called us over and I had a pretty much amazing unobstructed view for the 3rd show. (Thanks Jillian!)

The setlist for the 3rd show was

Fired Up
Ive Got Soul
Where’s The Love
You Can’t Stop Us
Thinking of You
Penny and Me
MMMBop
Get The Girl Back
It’s a Long Way To The Top

 

We didn’t hang around for Illumiations even though we had wristbands because we needed to be up early for the Hanson Beer Seminar the next morning. We thought maybe we would catch it the next night…

 

 

Hanson Show #100 – Toronto, Canada

When your next Hanson show is going to be #100 you start thinking that maybe it should be something really crazy.  For a while, I thought it was going to be a 7-8 song set in Disney and while that was pretty crazy, I kept thinking that I could probably come up with something even crazier.  It was announced a while back that Hanson would be playing at the CNE or “The Ex” in Toronto, Canada.  At first I figured there was no way that it was going to happen because it was on a Thursday and I had no days for vacation from work – but when the boss kept mentioning “take off a Thursday and a Friday and come in on the weekend to make up hours” I thought – hey – maybe I can make this work to my advantage.  Enter my partner in crime for this trip – Marisa – and we started planning out the 8 hour trip.

Wednesday night I ended up staying at Marisa’s house in NJ and we were hoping to leave at 6am. We ended up hitting the road at 7. We made it to Toronto by 3 after a couple of pit stops along the way/time spent crossing the border.  We stopped at Kitten and the Bear  which is a shop owned by one of Marisa’s friends.  They make their own jam and scones and boy are they good!  Like, really good.

Then we headed over to The Ex and tried to find a parking garage that I thought we should park in. We found a lot for $20, but drove around a while with no luck finding the street we needed since so many streets were blocked off. Finally we decided to go back to the lot we had originally passed – and instead of $20 it was $15! By getting lost and not knowing what we were doing we saved $5 so that was exciting.  We ended up being at the entrance right by where the concert would be – which worked out pretty nicely!

We walked all the way to the other end of the fair in order to check out the “Let your fandom flag fly” exhibit and some of the sand sculptures. We were also excited to see that the “Share a Coke” kiosks were there. Marisa was able to get her name on a coke which is not available otherwise. I debated getting my name (which IS available, but I haven’t been able to find it) or getting one that said Hanson.  Ultimately I decided to get one that said Hanson to commemorate my 100th show.  After we headed towards the food area and stopped to get poutine.  I bought a coke – and they said I could pick one out of the fridge.  What name was right out front? KATIE! So my decision to skip getting my name turned out to be a good one.  We stopped for some ice cream in the food building and continued to head over to the concert area.

The opening act was already on stage and the place was PACKED.  We were able to get into the handicapped area even though it said it was only for wheelchairs and motor scooters.  After the first part of Hanson’s set a lot of people in that area left so by the end of the show we were what you could consider “front row” (not against the barricade but no one was in front of us so it counts!).   The Seasons were the opening act, they are from Montreal. They had a bit of a 70s vibe to them – probably because of their outfits – but they were a pretty good opener I thought!

Then it was time for Hanson!  They played a full set show and had a few songs in the setlist that I was not expecting. (I actually rattled off a mock setlist on the car in the way there and missed I think 6 songs – some of the songs I even had in the right spot in the setlist too lol)  Runaway Run was a really nice surprise, Thinking of You I kind of threw in my list as a wild card but they played it.  They also pulled out Get Up and Go which was an interesting choice as well.  The set ended with back to back jumping of If Only and In The City. (Taylor made a comment that if you ate any deep fried food you might be regretting it during these songs) and for the encore they did It’s a Long Way To The Top by AC/DC and I forgot how great of a cover that is for them!

After the show we left right away, even though there would be fireworks later on.  We had a hotel in Rochester about 3 hours away and wanted to get there.  We did decide to make a detour though when we realized that we were right by Niagara Falls.  Unfortunately we arrived at 1am and the falls are only lit up until midnight. We obviously could see and hear the falls (and feel the mist!) but getting a photo of them was NOT happening.  So while we were there – we don’t have much photographic evidence of it! (Though I did take pics around Clifton Hill and the surrounding areas while we were driving of stuff that was lit up.)

We ended up getting to Rochester at about 2:30 AM – but didn’t fall right asleep of course – we had to check our phones and catch up on everything we had missed for the day on social media 😉

We left Rochester around 8am, made it back to NJ by around 2 and then Connecticut welcomed me with hours and hours of traffic so I made it home about 5:30.  It was kind of funny to be driving by where I get on the highway to come home from work at just about the same time I would have been coming home from work if it was a normal day!

 

 

Throwback Thursday: Hanson in Maine

The final stop on our tour was Portland, ME, but we had another off day thrown in.  We went to Montreal – were worried we would run out of gas in the middle of Quebec and and didn’t know how to speak French.  Fortunately we found a police station that was able to direct us to a gas station. (Everything on the side of the highway was CORN FIELDS!)  And the guys at customs when we were leaving Canada wanted to know what we bought- Teddy bears and t-shirts?   A glimpse of all the hard rock cafe bags in the back of Erin’s car are included.

We also made a pit stop in New Hampshire at my uncle’s house before heading to Maine the next day.

For this show we  had stools in the handicapped area that spun around.  We were beyond sick of the song “Penny and Me” so I remember us spinning around on them “in protest” during the song.  Tyler Hilton had opened and I had gotten a promo CD of his at one of the other concerts  I went to that year so I brought it to have him sign it and he seemed really impressed that I thought enough to bring it to the show with me. (Little did he know I was carrying it all around Canada too!)

We thought that Taylor may have been sick for this show because there seemed to be a bit more Ike/Zac leads than usual.

I am realizing that photos from concerts REALLY help jog my memory a lot – sorry for the lack of details for these shows. I’m sure if I pull up my old livejournal I’ll have more details – but it will probably also make me cringe – so I’ll just go based on what I remember 😉

Rock n roll Razorblade
Dancin’ in the Wind
Minute Without You
You Never Know
Deeper
Every Word I Say
Look At You
Need You Now – Zac solo
Being Me – Isaac solo
Underneath
Love Song
Hand In Hand
Where’s the Love
Long Way To The Top
Crazy Beautiful
Penny and Me
Mmmbop
Man From Milwaukee
Lost Without Each Other
In The City

Encore:
Hey

 

Throwback Thursday: Hanson in Ottawa

Third stop was Ottawa.  I slept for what I was told was “like 400 exits” on the ride from Toronto.  When we arrived at the venue – which was also a bit of a fair – we bought wristbands that would allow us to be on the floor. The venue was actually a hockey arena and the stage was in the middle so there was floor where the ice would be and then seats available behind it.  We weren’t sure if that would get us a better spot or not – but somehow ended up front row right on the barricade near Isaac.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Erin had gone off for her M&G and we tried to come up with a plan of where to meet her and once she had gotten back, Hanson was over by the buses doing an interview.  So we were able to snap some photos of them being interviewed and leaving. I don’t think the un-edited version of Hanson walking down the tunnel with Machine has ever been posted before – but we had edited Machine out and it was the header of Hanson Secrets (which Erin and I had started, well, Erin moreso than me) for quite some time.

So yes, we were front row for the show and I was keeping track of the setlist as usual and in the middle of the show, one of the roadies walked over and handed me a copy of the setlist. SCORE!  Since we knew what they were going to sing, we ended up leaving just before the encore and heading over to the buses to get a spot on the barricade. Success. We got photos with Zac without a problem.  Isaac argued with me for like 5 minutes about how he wasn’t taking photos that night – and didn’t he just take one with me a few days ago? (Well, yes, but that was a group photo and I wanted one of just me and him?) Then he went like 4 people down and started taking photos with girls! So he came back and said “I owe you a picture” and I got one with him.  It was around this time that I was convinced something I did/said while I was interviewing them made Isaac hate me.  We’re totally cool now though. Best buds, even. (in my head.)

We spent the night in jail – the ottawa jail hostel – which was creepy as anything. Erin ended up with a tour at midnight and came back freaked out. I don’t think I slept at all and we were up and ready to go at 8am!

Optimistic
Rock ‘N’ Roll Razorblade
Dancin’ In The Wind
Minute Without You
Strong Enough To Break
Look At You
Lost Without Each Other
Need You Now – Zac solo
Call Me – Isaac solo
Underneath
Where’s The Love
Gimme Some Lovin’
Cried
Penny & Me
MMMBop
If Only
Long Way To The Top

Encore:
In The City

 

Throwback Thursday: Hanson in Toronto

Second stop on our tour was to Toronto – but not without our “off day” being in Niagara Falls.  We stopped at the World’s Largest Kaleidoscope on the way up and spent the night in Niagara. When we showed up at the falls they ended up changing color like 2 minutes after we got there. What timing!  I remember going to shower and the hotel water being YELLOW so I had to let it run a while. You can also see the picture of our super old-school room key.  Also on this trip we visited every Hard Rock Cafe that was in the country of Canada!

The venue on Toronto was called “The Docks” and it was beautiful right on the water.  Of course – since no cameras were allowed for the show mine was left in the car and therefore I have no photos of the beautiful view! I think Erin had taken a couple on her disposable camera – but that got taken from her before the last show of our trip so yeah. No pretty picture 🙁

The highlight of the Toronto show was – Zac’s solo.  At the Oakdale show I had mentioned to them that for it being “The Underneath Tour” they sure weren’t singing all that many songs off the new album… before Zac played Broken Angel (probably my favorite song on the album) he mentioned that “someone” had told them that they weren’t playing enough songs off of the new album – so here you go – and played a song off the new album! Yes, I am pretty sure that someone was ME.

After the show we picked up another fan because Erin thought it would be a good idea to make some money by transporting a fan from Toronto to Ottawa with us and also splitting the hotel cost.  We “snuck” her into our room because we had only said 2 people were staying.

We had intended to stay out by the buses for Toronto and then roll up to Ottawa late, but Erin ended up getting a meet and greet so we couldn’t stay too late as we had to get an early start to go to Ottawa.

Funny fact about the first picture posted – we named our road trip “Are You Listening” – this was the original title for the album Underneath and a line in one of the songs on the album and so we wrote it out on the back of the car. (This was also mascot Zac’s FIRST ever trip w/ me as mascot)  When we stopped to get gas along the way – I think it was in Vermont – so later in the trip – we found like 2 or 3 people standing around the back of the car wondering why it wasn’t talking because they were indeed listening…

Optimistic
Rock ‘N’ Roll Razorblade
Dancin’ In The Wind
Minute Without You
Strong Enough To Break
Every Word I Say
Look At You
Broken Angel – Zac solo
Being Me – Isaac solo
Underneath
This Time Around
Get Up and Go
Where’s The Love
Gimme Some Lovin’
Cried
Crazy Beautiful
Penny And Me
MMMBop
If Only
In The City
Lost Without Each Other

Encore:
Long Way To The Top
Hey

Throwback Thursday: Hanson at Oakdale

For August I’m going to take a break from my regular throwback concert posts and do a throwback to the time I followed Hanson around on tour for a week – with shows in the US and Canada.  It was 10 years ago starting on August 17th, so I figured it would be appropriate to make myself feel super old and see how much of the trip I could remember. (Honestly, the amount of memories that came back looking at the photos was amazing!)

Show #1 started our tour in Connecticut.  It was by pure coincidence that it started in my home state – we had decided we’d do the Canada shows and “whatever came before it” but all the dates didn’t come out at once (I guess?) so we were pretty excited that it started in CT.  (Although the friend I went with, Erin, was living in VA at the time.)

For this show I was chosen as Hanson.net reporter – which means unfortunately I have no photos of the show I can share as they were all taken for Hanson’s website.  I do have my M&G picture with the band after I got the chance to interview them though!

This tour Hanson was VERY strict about cameras so I don’t have any actual concert shots to share from any of the shows – but I hope that some of the sightseeing, etc that I will post will be just as fun to look at 🙂

I spent before the show backstage, where I got to take the M&G photos for the Hanson.net winners and then Zac instructed me to follow him where I went into another room just me and the 3 guys for our interview.  I was told to prepare 3-7 questions, so I prepared 7 and wrote them in order from what I most wanted answered to least, just incase we couldn’t get to all 7.  I started off with a silly one to try and break the ice.  This was probably one of the coolest experiences of my life.  We made it through all 7 questions but my note taking was in horrible handwriting. (The notebook I used is still floating around – I wish I knew where it was exactly to scan a couple of pages! I’d never be able to read it now!) When I made it back in to the venue to meet up with my friends I immediately started writing everything over again while it was fresh in my mind!  Of course now they record the interviews and post them on their website.  Ah the advances of technology in the last 10 years 😉

For the first 3 songs I got to go up front with my photo pass and take photos. After that I was afraid to take more, even though my pass said “all night” because the security was being SUPER strict and I didn’t want to get kicked out even though it probably would have been ok once they saw my pass.

I really don’t remember much else from this show specifically as standing out. (For fun – this was Hanson show # 15 – I am now at #99!)

Optimistic
Long Way to the Top
Dancing In the Wind
A Minute without You
Strong Enough to Break
Every Word I Say
Look At You
The Walk – Zac Solo
Being Me – Isaac Solo
Underneath
This Time Around
Gimme Some Lovin’
Get Up & Go
Where’s the Love
Crazy Beautiful
Speechless
Penny & Me
MMMBop
If Only
In The City

Encore:
Hey
Lost Without Each Other

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