Hanson at the Dome at Oakdale 11/20

Katie November 22, 2010 0 Comments

Saturday night, Hanson took their Shout It Out tour to the Dome at the Oakdale Theater.  The Dome is the lobby of the theater and was general admission.  The stage was near the stairs to the balcony.  Capacity for the lobby is something like 2,000 and I’d say that it was about 50% full!

Once again, Jarrod Gorbel was the opener.  Although he did minimal talking to the crowd, I think the only time he talked was to say his name.  I don’t know if he got backlash from people for picking on people in the crowd or if since there was a curfew in place they told him to cut back on his talking.  Either way, he still did not go over very well with the crowd as I was getting messages asking me how many more songs he had to go. (I think he does about 9, which is about 8 too many)

Rather quickly after Jarrod left the stage set lists were taped down and Hanson took the stage shortly after.  As usual, they started off with the Waiting For This Medley, but they then went in to Where’s The Love.  At this point I thought they were cutting songs and we’d get a short set due to the curfew, but after a few more songs I realized that they were just really mixing things up for us!  They threw in Been There Before and Save Me, which are rare occurrences on this tour.  They also did Song To Sing during the acoustic set (which had Christine and I placing bets on whether it was Song to Sing or Me Myself and I.  I lost the bet lol)  Unfortunately though they did not do the extra verse that they used to throw in when they did it live.

When they went back to electric they started with Penny and Me, which they had done acoustically the night before.  It is nice how a good majority of their songs can sound great both electric and acoustic and they have a lot of options for their short acoustic set.  Crazy Beautiful also snuck its way into the set which I hadn’t heard in a while and they added Let’s Get It On during the break in If Only.  I think this is the first time they’ve done that at a show I was at this tour – it is nice that it is not something they do every night because it makes it that much more special when they do.

For the encore, we got 2 christmas songs – Merry Christmas Baby and Run Rudolph Run.  I was hoping for an Everybody Knows the Claus – which they had done live before but never at a show I was at. (Darn)

Taylor also had a camera with him on stage – he took some photos of the crowd when they first came out and then went all paparazzi on Zac when he was singing And I Waited!

We also thought we would be free from Taylor telling us to jump, but during In The City he came around to our side of the stage and of course, pointed and motioned for us to jump…

With the curfew and the show ending before 11, we were able to head over to Sonic for a late dinner.  The orange creamslush I got was really good – once it melted enough for me to be able to drink it through the straw!

I am now covered in bruises from the barricades and feel like I’ve been hit by a truck – but it was certainly all worth it!

Hanson Acoustic Cafe

Katie November 22, 2010 0 Comments

I had won my way into the 96.5TIC Acoustic Cafe with Hanson which was on Saturday morning.  It took doing trivia every day and the finally getting enough points to win the auction at 12:13am on November 17th!  It was incredibly stressful but I am so glad that I ended up winning!

We were told to get there at 10:30, but ended up getting there at 10am instead, just to be on the safe side.  While we were in line it was mentioned that it was my 56th show, and TWICE it was mentioned by people that they didn’t even know Hanson has performed that many shows. HELLO? They have toured almost non stop for the past 13 years. What ROCK have you been living under Mr Promotions Man at TIC!?  (Oh, I know, one where they let you cut people in Jonas Brothers M&G; lines…)  This got me curious to see just how many shows Hanson has done. Counting official tours only – not radio promotions or anything like that – they’ve done: ~457. (count is give or take a couple because I am not a perfect counter when it comes to scrolling down websites)

We weren’t let in until after 10:30 and were told not to go to the stage because they were still setting it up.  The mics were all set up and it looked like the guys would be standing, so I was pretty excited because the stage was only a few inches high and no way would I be able to stand in front of it, so I would be in the back.  I had figured I’d be able to see over everyone’s heads.

WRONG.  Once Hanson’s bus arrived, they brought in stools for everyone and all the mics were lowered.  Then there was a bit of a rush towards the stage.  My friend Christine got right up in front and I realized pretty quickly I wasn’t going to be able to see a damn thing.  Every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of one of the guys, though. But I could hear them loud and clear and they sounded great 🙂

They played 4 songs – Waiting For This, Thinking Bout Something, Give A Little and Penny and Me.  Then they said they’d be right back to take pictures with us.

At the other acoustic cafes I went to, we were always in the groups we came in (2) so we assumed the same thing would happen.  Except, TIC let in all the fans who showed up and hadn’t won (which was nice) but then allowed them to be in on the pictures too – so we had to have *6* people in our photos which I was not too pleased with – but I guess a group photo is better than no photo.

We ended up by Zac for the photo, which was a good thing because I might have thrown a fit if not 😉  We won’t get them for another couple of weeks though because they were taken by a professional photographer.  It took Hanson about all of 5 minutes to take photos with everyone (so it would have been what, 15 if everyone got pics in pairs? Cmon.)

We waited outside for them to leave and waved to them and then had to cross right by their bus to get to the doors to go back to where we had parked.  When we pulled out of the parking lot, there came their bus down the street so we got to follow it for a little bit which was incredibly exciting!

I had to opt out of heading to Oakdale for the walk because I was running on about 4 hours sleep and desperately needed to take a nap or there was NO way I’d be able to make it through the entire show that night!

Hanson at the Calvin Theater Northampton, MA 11/15/10

Katie November 16, 2010 0 Comments

Last night I went to the Calvin Theater to see Hanson perform. Unfortunately I bought tickets on “Taylor’s side” which meant for the 2nd show in a row I’d be unable to see Zac. Actually, at first I thought I would be able to if I stood to the side of my chair, but, well, I’ll explain why that didn’t work in a second.

While we were waiting for doors to open, Siobhan Magnus of American Idol walked by to get in line, I had wanted to get a picture with her but ended up not wanting to bother her and cause a “scene”, so I didn’t end up getting to meet her – but I did find it odd that the 2 concerts after I got my braces on, an American Idol contestant was at the show. (When I got my uppers on we met Chicken Little – Kevin Covais at the Honor Society show)

Our seats were front row and we sat there and waited for 8pm to roll around when Jarrod Gorbel would take the stage. The place was not filled at ALL so I was wondering if the other fans happened to know something I didn’t. I think they did. While Jarrod has a nice voice, his songs are not very up beat and do not really get you pumped for a Hanson show. He also took time to make fun of people in the crowd, which I didn’t think was cool. And his set seemed to go on forever. Whenever he would talk about going home, I thought that meant that his last song was up next, but then he’d play 2 or 3 more…I am really not looking forward to checking him out 2 more times on this tour and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this negatively about a Hanson opener in the past (with the exception of perhaps The Cringe who opened at Toads Place a few years back and lived up to their name)

Then it was time to wait for Hanson! It actually was a relatively short wait and they came out about 9:15. I was hoping I’d be able to sit for at least some of the show, but once the front row stood up, girls started filling in the aisles so I had to stand up to claim my spot in the front row on the side. I thought this was incredibly rude since it was a seated show and you should just deal with the seats that you have… and if these girls stayed where they were supposed to instead of knocking into me all night I’d have actually been able to see Zac.

Unfortunately there were no new songs for me to add to my “heard live” list, but I did hit over 1,000 songs heard performed live by Hanson a few songs into the set. (I think #1,000 was ‘And I Waited’, but I haven’t double checked that for sure) Oh Darling was a little bit different with Zac holding out an “Oh” for a ridiculously long amount of time. I also don’t recall having heard Madeline electric in a while (not counting 5 of 5, of course)

Taylor also was not too pleased I wasn’t dancing or jumping around – but unfortunately I can’t. Sometimes it is hard enough just to remain standing and any shifting of myself could end up with me falling over. In my head I was dancing and jumping though! At one point he walked all the way over to where we were and said “You need to move!” And then tripped on some wires on the way back to the piano. Don’t mess with me Taylor… 😉

One of the highlights was that they played Lost Without Each Other just before the encore which is one of my all time favorite songs. I tried to get into it a little bit more, but at that point I was tired and had forgotten how to even jump, so I’m not sure I could have if I tried.

The other highlight was when Taylor started talking about how they had some friends with them at the show and I looked over to the side of the stage and saw Stephen Kellogg and Goose! I was like “ITS STEPHEN KELLOGG” and was sooooo excited because I haven’t seen them in what seems like forever. SK and Goose joined Hanson on the encore of Long Way To The Top (Lyrics were printed out and put at the piano and on the ground near the extra mic – I was hoping it would be something new since they put the lyrics down but no such luck. Of course SK and Goose made up for that!)

A lowlight was when one of the girls who pushed her way up front (who started out next to me and being annoying and ended up in front or me and blocking Zac almost entirely from me for the acoustic set) ended up getting on stage to dance with Taylor.  It frustrates me when they reward misbehaving.

Setlist under the cut – photos coming soon!

1. Waiting For This Medley
2. Make It Out Alive
3. Where’s The Love
4. And I Waited
5. Speechless
6. Carry You There

7. Underneath
8. This Time Around
9. Penny and Me
10. Use Me Up (Zac solo)

11. Great Divide
12. Voice In The Chorus
13. Can’t Stop
14. Minute Without You
15. Madeline
16. Thinking Bout Somethin
17. Oh Darlin
18. MMMBop
19. Give A Little
20. If Only
21. Lost Without Each Other

22. Long Way To The Top w/ Stephen Kellogg and Goose

Make It Out Alive – Members Only Event 2010

Katie November 2, 2010 0 Comments

AKA… “I spent $350 to fly to Tulsa for ‘Thriller’ and all I got was Ghostbusters”

jkjk.  Although, I did really want them to play Thriller!

This years Halloween was probably one of my more eventful ones.  I left the house at 4:30am thinking I was running a bit late.  Got to the parking lot at 5:30 and was shuttled to the airport. I was through security in no time and ended up with an hour to kill.  My first flight was from Hartford to Atlanta.  Then I took their underground train over a concourse and waited to board to OKC. I pretty much slept the entire flight both times.

Keena picked me up and we met up with Becky for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then made our way to Tulsa.  We got there around 5:30 and were going to go to Hanson’s office (across the street) for pictures but after Keena and Becky parked the car the line had kind of formed around me so we stayed in it. 

At 6pm we had our photos taken for the costume contest and were checked in for the event – but we couldn’t go inside until 8!  Once we were let in, Keena and Becky went ahead and saved me a spot while I slowly made my way inside.  I was in the front row by a speaker in front of Taylor so I could lean on the speaker.  I actually ended up sitting on the stage for quite a bit while we waited for something to happen!

Then finally, Zac came on stage to emcee the costume contest. He told us he wasn’t yet in costume and that he wasn’t Joe Jonas… because the costumes they were wearing were going to match, so he didn’t want to give anything away coming out in costume before the other 2 would be on the stage.  He also said he felt like a standup comedian but it was ok because we laugh at anything he says.  The finalists for the costume content came on stage and we were told how we could vote for the winners.  Via their website via cellphone but of course my phone died before we got inside so no voting for me!

Then it took forever to set up for the show.  I saw them bring out a huge lyric sheet and was able to make out that it said “Ghostbusters” and ruined the surprise for everyone around me!  Then setlists were put down and I was so bummed – no THRILLER!!!! But at least I did get 1 new cover song added to my list – and probably not one they’ll be doing again on tour. (EDIT: just got word after I had written this that they played it at the Dallas show. There goes my theory lol)

Isaac and Taylor came on stage as 2 of the 3 musketeers and then Zac came on stage – as a 3 musketeers candy bar (with a sword).  They said there was probably a short list of drummers who had drummed dressed as a candy bar.  Zac mentioned something about the Rock N Roll hall of fame and they said there would be a special place for him in the Mars Bars Hall of Fame.  (It was kind of hard to hear them when they talked)  There was also a lot of inappropriate talk about “swords”

After the short set, it was time for a Q&A; where nothing new was asked! (Although the girls dressed as Ghostbusters did ask if someone called them which was cute)  Listen to the reporter interviews on HNet people! Everything that was asked was pretty much answered in the reporter interviews.

Then we were told there was no time for group pics, but we did get a signed photo on the way out.  I picked up a glow in the dark event tshirt and passed on the poster and the 5 of 5 shirts. (I wanted all 5 and couldn’t justify buying 5 Vneck shirts that are black (which i therefore never end up wearing) that said Hanson on them – so since I couldn’t decide on 1 I was getting none)

Then we had an exciting trip to QuikTrip and it was back to OKC to sleep – Keena tells me I fell asleep really fast.  It was about 4am my time at that point – so it made sense I was out haha

This morning we got Taco Bueno for lunch so I could try their tacos (they were good – but I still prefer Taco Bell – which is good considering that is all we have up here!) and then I was off to the airport.

Had another layover in Atlanta, this time had to go 2 concourses over and then finally got back to Hartford.  When I got in my car the tire pressure light was on but I managed to make it home without any problems and now I have that to take care of!

I may or may not post photos later… I’m not sure what I have.

Make It Out Alive
And I Waited
You Never Know
Speechless
This Time Around
Dancing In The Wind
Hand in Hand
Voice In The Chorus
Something Going Round
Ugly Truth
Thinking Bout Somethin
Can’t Stop
In The City
Ghostbusters!