Hanson in New England

Hanson did a whirlwind 3 shows in New England this past week.  Our trip started on Wednesday, when we took the ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket.  Hanson would be playing the following night at a very small venue that held less then 400 people (including staff).  It was nearly sold out despite the high costs of staying over night on the island for fans. We did a bit of exploring and went to the Shipwreck Museum and the Whaling Museum before heading to Muse for the show.  I have never seen a smaller stage and Hanson’s heads were practically touching the ceiling with them just standing there, and I am not sure at all how they fit the 3 band members plus Andrew and Dimitrius plus 2 techs.  I ended up in the front right by where they had to enter/exit and was able to get high fives from all of them as they left the stage.  The locals were incredibly rude and yelling that they only came for MMMBop and they should play it and mocking the fans who traveled for the show wondering “why?” when they just jogged there from their house, as well we screaming “the 8 year old is singing!” when Zac moved to the piano for Juliet. Afterwards was Taylor’s dance party that went until about 12:30am.  The locals seemed to clear out after MMMBop (which I kind of wish they had played earlier in the set) and while a few did hang around a bit for the afterparty, it seemed to be mostly fans left by the end of the night.

There once was a fan in Nantucket,
Who’d driven for hours to pluck it.
The night felt so near,
With her favorite band here,
She thought, “This is my shot — better luck it!”

The next morning when we got to the docks to catch our ferry back to the mainland, we ended up bumping into Hanson. Taylor said Good Morning and we realized we would be on the same ferry back.  Zac came and chatted with us a bit about the casino show coming up and I was able to tell him about the Comic Con that was going on as well.  Once we got back to my car in Hyannis we headed to the Providence airport to pick up a friend and made our way to my normal stomping grounds, Mohegan Sun.  I opted to rent a scooter for our 2 days there which was probably one of the best ideas I had ever had.  Friday night we scoped out Sun Patio and watched the 52nd Street Band – a Billy Joel cover band for a bit.  I ended up leaving around 11, but we had spotted Isaac at the bar and my friends stayed to chat with him for a bit.

Saturday I was splitting my time between Hanson and Comic Con so after we ate lunch I made my way to the con – while the scooter was super helpful for my legs, it was super chaotic navigating it through the con.  I ended up immediately waiting for Ke Huy Quan who was on a break for another 15-20 minutes.  Once he came back, Brian Posehn was waiting to greet him and then the line got moving.  He chatted with everyone for a bit – I got to tell him that I am an engineer partly because of Data and he asked if I liked doing that I said yes, that I worked on making helicopters and he seemed very impressed.  He was as sweet as could be and I was so glad that things worked out so I could meet him!  After I went to see Carl Palino who made the Hanson clay puppets for “Celebrity Death Match”  He had a photo of Hanson v the Spice Girls so I had him sign it for me and let him know that Hanson was there.  He said he wasn’t sure he would recognize them now that they were grown men but told me if I saw them to tell them to go see him.  I mentioned I had previously told Isaac and Zac he would be there but weren’t sure if they’d make it to the con or not.  After I finished there, I went to hang out with my friends for a bit, before heading back up for my photo op with Ke.  The photo op was scheduled for 6:30pm and Hanson was set to hit the stage at 7pm so I knew I would have a fangirl 5k to do once the photo was done.  Fortunately the photo op people were awesome and let me go through the line first.  Ke was incredibly sweet and helped me off the scooter and walk over to the photo spot and then helped me back to the scooter after.  As I was leaving, they announced it was 6:40pm and the con would be ending soon.  I ended up making it to the spot my friends had saved for me at the show by 6:55pm!! What perfect timing. (To see one of the other reasons I am an engineer)

After having a great day, everything went downhill when we entered Avalon for the After Party.  I won’t get into all the specifics but Mohegan Sun struck again with not knowing how to deal with those who have disabilities.  I gave Taylor until 11 or the end of the Savannah Bananas game that was being played to come out – and he did not – so we ended up leaving because the club was not at all our scene and not at all what we were expecting from a Taylor after party.  We ended up bumping into Isaac on the way out and I gave him the signed photo I had gotten from Carl of the Celebrity Deathmatch scene.

Sunday morning we left for Maine, found somewhere to eat and then paid for close parking ($60!) to the On the Ocean festival.  The staff was very accommodating and brought us right to the ADA area which we decided to stay in for the whole show.  We didn’t bother trying to get to the other stage and only saw Joy (who was a lot less annoying than when she opened for John Mayer, which we decided must have just been nerves) Hanson and Guster.  Guster also had a B-stage that was right in front of the ADA area so that was pretty fun when they came out and did a few songs back there.