Hanson 10/22 – Zac’s 23rd Birthday

I was going to start out this blog by saying that I’ve never been to a concert on one of the artists birthdays before, but then I realized that would be a lie because it was Ramiele’s birthday at the American Idol concert last month! (And perhaps it was others birthdays as well but I just wasn’t paying attention or have forgotten through the years)

But I have been to a Hanson concert on both MY birthday and now Zac’s birthday too, so that must count for something.

I heard 4 new songs – which i was happy about. It took me 2 shows in a row to get 4 new songs in April. (But they also didn’t have a new EP they were promoting) One of which was the only song I hadn’t previously heard from “The Walk”, Fire On The Mountain. Zac did it as a solo on guitar and it was spectacular. (I had heard them sound checking it when I arrived so I kept my fingers crossed)

Two were from Take The Walk EP – Hope It Comes Soon and Follow Your Lead. They had sang the other 2 previously on tour – hopefully I didn’t miss my chance to hear those completely. (Like I think I might have done with “Love Somebody to Know” on the Underneath tour)

And the final new song was a cover, Higher, which I believe was from Sly and the Family Stone.

Other highlights were – Underneath which hadn’t been played in a while (at any show I’ve been to, anyway) and Running Man followed by Oh Darlin’. Gotta love the back to back Zac!

Before Zac did his solo, a lot of the audience put on birthday hats. Zac commented that we were all wearing funny hats. Then he said something like, “No more tattoos? Just funny hats?” taking a jab at how a lot of Hanson fans get tattoos of lyrics, symbols and images that remind them of the band (Or at least that is how I took it)

Later on Taylor talked about how Zac was going to be 23 and i’m not sure exactly what happened but it ended with Zac calling Taylor a jerk!

And maybe this is obsessive, but once again I was thinking scrapbook layouts while taking pics. “Zac of All Trades” for a title – he played the drums, guitar, harmonica and djembe!

Opening acts were Everybody Else (I met Carrick after the show) and Dave Barnes. I was impressed with both of them and will be heading over to iTunes soon to pick up some of their stuff!

 

The setlist was:
1. Something Going Round
2. Higher (cover)
3. Been There Before
4. Minute Without You
5. Penny & Me
6. Follow Your Lead
7. Great Divide

8. Georgia (acoustic)
9. Go (acoustic)
10. Underneath (acoustic)
11. Fire On The Mountain (Zac solo)

12. Dancin’ in the Wind
13. Blue Sky
14. Where’s the Love
15. Hope It Comes Soon
16. Can’t Stop
17. Running Man
18. Oh Darlin’
19. MMMBop
20. If Only / Lets Get It On
21. Hey
22. Watch Over Me

Encore
23. Lost Without Each Other

 

Row K and Jonas 3d Movie

I’ve finally gotten word from the Backstreet Boys that my seats are in Row K. I think that is 9th row because if I remember correctly, the section they are in starts with C. But at the most, it’s 11 rows back which is not bad at all. Significantly closer than our 2001 show – so I’ll take it!

Jonas Brothers have named their 3D movie:

Not sure if I’m feeling the name, it’s kind of blah. But no matter what it’s called I’ll be seeing it, since I very well might be in it!

Blake Lewis October 10

Thursday I was at work, working. (Because really, what else is there to do at work?) When my phone began to ring. It was an 860 number, but hey, I was at work so of course I answered! It was Q105 calling to tell me that I had won passes to meet Blake Lewis at Mohegan Sun Friday night! I had to get to the radio station before 5 on Friday and be at the casino by 5:45 for the Meet and Greet.

We picked up our passes from the station and were told that we would get to meet Blake around 6, he’d be performing at 7 until about 7:30 and then after that we would get to jump the line for the merch signing. Which seemed weird. Was Blake not going to sign at the Meet and Greet?

At 5:45, we met up wit Stephanie from Mohegan and she told us to go through doors and wait and that no one was in there yet. (Though I very badly wanted to scream like Blake was there to freak out the other girls waiting to come in)

A little while later, Blake came in and then left. And then came back. We thought we’d be moving to another room but we weren’t, we did the M&G; in this little lobby area. And Blake did sign. (I bought his CD and got it signed and Lauren had him sign her pass)

 

Everyone got a photo with him and then we left for dinner which was Ben and Jerrys ice cream.

When we got back to the stage area there was a nice crowd that had formed. I decided to go to the upper level and look down for the performance, while Lauren stayed below for a little bit and then met me up top.

Blake performed 4 or 5 songs, including a free style one he made up about Mohegan Sun. Then everyone made a mad dash down to SolToro for the signing – but Lauren and I went to gamble since we didn’t really see the point in getting in line again when we already got stuff signed.

All in all it was pretty weird.. but very cool.

 

American Idols Live September 6

The Idols did not disappoint! Even Kristy Lee Cook, who was mediocre at best on the show, found her niche and actually made the songs she sang sound decent!

I left the show impressed and knew that I would absolutely have to see David Cook again – even if it meant I had to fly to the moon to do it. He was THAT good. I also wouldn’t mind checking out Michael Johns again either.

The performers were:
Chickezie, Ramile Malluby, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Kristy Lee Cook, Brooke White, Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado, David Archuletta, David Cook

 

Push Play September 5

One of the funnier moments of the night was when a cop came over to 2 guys and asked them if they were staying for the show. “My son is the lead singer” one said. The other was the bands manager. Apparently they had asked some girls if they were on the street team and how old they were and the girls found it creepy and told their parents who told the cop.

I’m not sure if I’d go see Push Play again. They are about to make the “big times” but I really think they need some work and need to become more polished.

Honor Society August 27

Because we’re bored, this post comes to you as a conversation…

Lauren: It was a bright and shiny day. I was running a half hour late due to traffic so I texted Katie that I would drive. When I pulled into her driveway at 4 p.m., her mom pulled up next to me, of course, I thought that someone was following me instead! Katie and I jumped in my car (not literally) and were on our way to New Jersey!

Katie: Again! haha.

Lauren: Yes, we head to New Jersey for the second time in a month.

Katie: What should have been an hour and a half ride, ended up being more like 3 hours.

Lauren: That was a redonculus trek. Not only was there traffic, there was an fender-bender caused by the bumper-to-bumper traffic!

Katie: Anywho, despite a little confusion with our trusty TomTom, we made it to Oakes Park with time to spare.

Lauren: And at 7:38 p.m. the gentlemen introduced and walked to the front of the gazebo.

Katie: And what we thought would be a peaceful evening, sitting down and enjoying the show was ruined, when Michael told everyone to stand up, and we could no longer see!

Lauren: Thanks Mike!

Katie: Then you left me when they started to play. 🙁

Lauren: I didn’t leave for long!

Katie: Okay, you’re right…Lauren went to scope out a decent spot for us to move to. We ended up standing on the side of the “stage” for several songs.

Lauren: We were there for pretty much the entire show.

Katie: Oh.. maybe i was distracted.

Lauren: What else is new – anyways, below is the set list:

This Bed is An Ocean
Kiss me Like You Mean It
Why Didn’t I?
No Win Situation
Two Rebels
Unpredictable
Goodnight my Love
Nobody Has To Know
The Takeover
See u In The Dark

Honor Society August 23

August 23 Lauren and I had tickets to see John Mayer in Hartford. But one day I was looking at HS’s myspace and was like “They added a date…” So we decided to try and sell the Mayer tickets (which we were successful at the last minute in doing) and head to Long Island (Islip, NY) to see the gentlemen.

Connecticut and Long Island are kind of parallel to each other. But there is no bridge connecting them. There is a ferry but we would have had to take the car with us and it would have gotten pretty expensive. So basically we drove down the coast of Connecticut, into New York and then up parallel through Long Island, kind of sort of back tracking. I kind of wanted to build a bridge. Or invent a flying car. You know, whatever could get us there fastest.

We got there early and decided to try and see the beach. Except, this is Long Island, everything was private. So we didn’t find much of anything… saw some boats though.

Once we parked, we spotted all the guys on their cell phones. It almost looked like they were all talking to each other. Pretty funny. We paid our $10 donation/admission (It was a benefit for Lupus) and found out that Honor Society wouldn’t be going on until 10 pm. As we listened to the other bands and they said their names, we could tell that this concert was running WAY behind schedule.

The guys took the stage about 10:30 and ended their set around 11:30. We thought they might get shut down because of noise ordinances or whatever it is. Here in CT, I think you can’t play past 11. But despite the wait, a great show was performed, as always.

We quickly said goodbye to Andrew and made our parallel backtracking trek home.

The setlist for the evening was:
This Bed Is An Ocean
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
Why Didnt I
No Win Situation
Two Rebels
Nobody Has To Know
See U In The Dark

Honor Society August 15


Although Katie graduated from college in 2006 and I graduated from college in 2007, we both decided to go back to school one more time on August 15th. Our teachers were none other than Honor Society. They performed in front of an all ages audience at the School of Rock East in South Hackensack, New Jersey.

The bus — er — car ride to New Jersey was no ordinary car ride. As we were driving into the city, I noticed that the sun was leaving us and we were heading into a storm. I got a little excited while we were driving over the George Washington Bridge because the sky was dark and greenish and there were bolts of lightning. In my eyes, it was gorgeous, so I had to take pictures:


Of course, the entire time we were driving over the bridge I was yelling to Katie “Look at that!,” “Do you see the color in the sky?!,” “It’s not even dark over Manhattan!” Did I mention that Katie was driving?

As soon as we passed over the bridge, the sky opened up. It was raining so hard that everyone reduced their speed by 20 mph. It was insane. We couldn’t even pull over because there wasn’t a shoulder.


When we hit South Hackensack, the rain had let up, but the sky was still dark and dreary-looking. We drove to McDonald’s to make a pit stop and to eat (well, I ate because I was starving). Then we headed to the School of Rock. We sat in the parking lot for awhile and watched as girls began to form a line. It began to rain again and a guy walked out (everyone was actually standing at a secondary door), looked at everyone and asked why they weren’t home, since there was a…… tornado warning!!!!!
That explains why the sky was so green. Anyway, after this guy told the girls that there was a tornado warning, the girls were allowed to go inside through the other door (the real entrance) in School of Rock.
Honor Society was the first band to perform. We got to see the guys set up, do a soundcheck and of course rock out!

The set list for the show was as follows:
This Bed Is An Ocean
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
Why Didn’t I?
No Win Situation
Two Rebels
Nobody Has To Know
The Takeover
See U In The Dark

Jonas Brothers 3-D Movie August 10


Have you ever been on the freight elevator at Madison Square Garden? Or how about on the jumbo screens? I have!

Friday at work I entered a Jonas contest through their fanclub, Team Jonas. For some reason after I finished entering I IMed the intern (appropriately named Joe) and told him “I just entered a Jonas Brothers contest.. and I just KNOW I’m going to win it”

Well, I didn’t win. But I did get an email about a different event that I had “won” my way into. The email was vague and it was secretive. We had to meet at MSG on the 10th at noon, no later. We would see a special performance that would be filmed. and if we told anyone, Big Rob would be sent to destroy us.

We waited in line for a while and they sent us in in groups of like 25 or 30. We had a mom and daughter in front of us and for some reason that is when wristband guy decided to go from yellow to pink. We weren’t sure what that meant.

We waited in another line and then were taken through the depths of MSG to the freight elevator. We got out and went past the Family Room (no sign of Frankie though) and then were brought into the floor of MSG. First we were told to go up to the seats, but the section filled and a woman told us to go to the seats up front they were filling.

First we were in the 5th row like 2 people from the catwalk, but the director or whoever he was had us move to the second row of first row. (They packed in 2 rows of people) and I was right next to the cat walk. You could see our tiny heads on the jumbo screen but really if you weren’t there with us, you wouldn’t know it was us.

The guys went though a bunch of scenes 2 or 3 times. Which was cool because you could watch the first take, figure out where a good picture point would be and take it on the 2nd or 3rd. (As long as there was no flash. If not you’d get kicked out)

This seemed to take forever. Then for A Little Bit Longer we had to fill in the section behind Nick so it looked like people were there. After that, we were done.

All our stuff was still in the front row (we were told not to take it) and then when we went to get it – got yelled at. Everyone on set was flipping out that we HAD TO LEAVE! and I was like wtf.. we just gave you free labor and now you’re going to yell at us? But Kevin realized that they were being stupid and was like “Thank you guys for coming!” Good save Kevin, good save.

Some highlights..
“Fake Jonas” was taking photos in one of the upper sections and Kevin was like “FAKE JONAS!” and they waved. They looked good when they were way up there but later they came down and looked nothing like Jonas.

One one take before they introduced Demi – Joe said “give it up for our friend, snufflupagaus” (and i butchered that spelling, but it was funny just the same)

 

Jonas Brothers August 10


After being in the 3-D movie, and since we were already in the city (and it was raining – or we’d have done a double decker bus tour) we decided to see if we could get tickets for the “sold out” show that evening.

And we could! and they weren’t that bad of seats!

And then during Demi’s set a boy came and sat next to me!

 

And I thought, this is a weird, a 20something boy is sitting near me and he was not dragged here by a sister or a girlfriend… he is all alone.

Then a girl from a section over comes by and is like “Are you Silas from Weeds?” and he said “yes” and she said “I love that show! Can i get a picture!” (Although at the time I heard “Are you Cyrus from….”)

They took a picture and then he slouched down in his seat. (He is Hunter Parrish, currently in Spring Awakening) but he seemed to be into Demi’s set. After she was done, he left.

The set was basically the same as Hartford, except they were “filming” for the 3-D movie (but I didn’t see any cameras?) and therefore special guest Taylor Swift had to come out and she sang “Should Have Said No” with the boys.

We somehow managed to get out of MSG in like 5 seconds (how, I dont know) hopped in a cab and made our way back to CT. Our train car was FULL of girls who were at the show too so that was cool. (But none of them knew who Hunter was so that was a mystery for a day or so lol)

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