*The Hanson Experience!*

Hanson appeared at Shoreline Ampitheater on Wednesday July 15th. Thats pretty close to where I live (near San Francisco, CA) and I missed the concert because I didn't have tickets, the reserved seating was sold out in 35 minutes!! I did every thing I could to get tickets, but I coulden't get any reserved seating, and I had no one to drive me for grass seats (my parents work and I woulden't be able to get there early enough). Anyways it was a huge disappointment for me, because I had been planning on going for months.

If you went to a Hanson concert, or had some other Hanson experience, I would love it if you would do a review or a story of it, and I could post it on my page. Please e-mail me, my address is at the bottom of the page.
Thanks

June 26, 1998
My Experience at Great Woods
My friends, Denise, Laura and Emily, and I arrived at Great Woods at quarter to 6 for the Hanson concert that starts at 7:30. The place was TOTALLY PACKED!!! I can't even estimate how many people were there waiting in line! Being the little angels that we are, we cut at least 300 people. =) After about 10 minutes, they o p e n e d the gates and people began filing in. Of course, we were still near the end of the line, so we had to wait about 15 more minutes to get in. When we finally got in, we rushed to the lawn seats section. There were no good seats left whatsoever! Tons of blankets were already lined up. We searched for about 10 minutes, until we found a small section between two blankets. We sat down, but the lady in back of us was complaining that we were in her way. Angrily, we got up and began searching some more. We found an unoccupied blanket at the very front of the lawn seats section. We decided to stay there until the owners came back.
It was getting close to concert time, and the people still hadn't come back, so we figured we were safe to stay there. Just then, the curtain started to mOvE or something, because some people began to scream. Everyone rushed foward. Needless to say, Hanson didn't appear, so the audience began to calm down a little. It was getting real close to show time and people were fighting for their seats. It was getting crazy! One lady was hitting anyone who came near her with a poster! We had the perfect seats (well, perfect for lawn seats!)! We were dead center stage, in the very front row of the lawn. It was awesome! There were these girls behind us from Vermont. They were really nice and we had a lot of fun with them.
Finally, around quarter to 8, the stage lit up. AdmiralTwin appeared, wearing black suits and shades. The audience went crazy! I expected everyone to be booing for them...cause we were here to see Hanson, but people were really polite. The band introduced themselves, saying they were from Tulsa. Everyone cheered REALLY LOUD when they said Tulsa! Then AdmiralTwin played their first song. They weren't that bad, but I was really looking foward to seeing Hanson. After their fifth song, they were finished and left.
It finally hit everyone that we were going to see Hanson, like, really soon! There were tons of cheers, and I could already see girls crying! We expected Hanson to come out after about 5 minutes, but they didn't. We had to wait 45 minutes in anticipation! Talk about torture! They had to set up the equiptment, lights, and stuff. Every time the curtain moved, everyone would cheer, expecting Hanson to come out...but they didn't.
Finally the curtain rose, revealing Hanson playing "Gimme Some Lovin'". The cheering, screeching and screaming was soooooooooo loud! I couldn't even hear myself screaming at the TOP of my lungs! It was incredible!
Let me just tell you a little bit about the guys and scenery first...
Isaac was wearing a brown swirly shirt with black leather pants, and his hair was pulled back. Tay was wearing a white button-down shirt and red pants. His hair was left down. Zac was wearing a black/grey/white army tee and black pants. He had his hair down at the beginning, but pulled it up later. The stage was really cool. There were two light-up "pyramid" things on each side of the stage. Behind them were all different kinds of lights. They were flashing every color you could imagine! When it got dark, it looked awesome!
Ok - back to the concert!...
Everyone was singing/cheering sooooo loud! After the first song was over, Tay said, "Thanks for having us!" And he introduced the tour and everything.
(I don't remember the order of most of the songs they played, but these are all the ones they played: "Gimme Some Lovin", "Thinking of You", "Mmmbop", "Weird" a cappella, "Speechless", "Wheres the Love, "Look at You", "I Will Come to You", "Minute Without You", "With You In Your Dreams", "Day Has Come", "Soldier", "Sometimes", "Stories", "River", "More Than Anything", and 2 songs from Boomerang/Mmmbop that I didn't know. They also played "Money" {Ya know, the one that goes..."The best things in life are free...but you can give them to the birds and the bees...I want your money...Thats what I want!}, and "Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues" {title?}, "Shake Your Tail Feather", and "Good Lovin'".
After Tay was done introducing, they played another song. Then they sat down on some chairs in the middle of the stage and played an acoustic song. Then they turned really serious as they dedicated "With You In Your Dreams" to their grandmother. Then they played it. it was really sad! Lots of people had lighters and glow sticks that they were holding up. Then they took a short break.
After about 5 minutes, they came back on stage. They played the "no words" song thats at the end of TT&MON, but get this... in the middle of the song, Taylor took Zac's place and played the drums! It was soo weird! He was pretty good too! While Tay was playing, Zac was just running around the stage, karate kicking and kicking beach balls. Then they switched back and played more songs. During one of the songs, (much to the crowd's delight) Tay took off the button shirt, revealing his teeny-tiny white tee! Us girls went CrAzY!! His muscles were practically bulging out of it! He looked soo good! Then they played another song, then took a short break.
When they came back on stage, Zac had these glowing drum sticks. They were too cool! They sparkled white, yellow, and red when they played their next song. Awesome! Then they played "A Minute Without You". Taylor dedicated it to "All you guys in the lawn!"!! We all went CRAZY! Jumping up and down, shouting "Yeah - that's us!" By that time, my ears were hurting like crazy!! You have NEVER heard anyting that loud!! Everytime I cheered/screamed/sang, my ears would make a buzzing noise! Thats how loud it was!
After that, they played "Mmmbop". Everyone got all hyped up and started singing WICKED loud to this one! It was so fun! Then they said "Thanks for having us, it's been a blast!" and left the stage. We were all sooo disappointed that they left! Everyone was chanting, "Hanson, Hanson!", so of course they had to come back out! Hanson played two more songs.
After the last song, they left their instruments and went centerstage. They sang "Weird" (a capella). It sounded amazing! Then they ran around the stage, throwing water on everyone. They shook some fan's hands, and Zac threw his drumsticks to a LUCKY fan! They (and US) were having a BLAST! Then they really said goodbye, and left.
The concert was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome!! (I know that "so" was annoying, but it absolutely, positively deserved it!) After the concert, my legs were killing, I was practically deaf, and I had no voice at all, BUT it was completely worth it!! I soooo recommend going to one of their concerts! It was the best time of my life!
~written by Carissa
Her page is calledHanson Rockz

-July 31,1998- I saw them at the New World Music Theatre. we got there at lik 3:30 4:00 but the show didn't start till 7:30. when we walked in my friend and i bought shirts posters programs and fake backstage passes. then we were just waiting to find out which gate we were suposed to wait by and their bus drove right in front of us, everybody made a mad dash after it and stared screaming,but we didn't see any of them come out of the bus because there were to many people in front of us. then we found the gate and we were just sitting there waiting for them to open and we got tierd of doing that so we started walking around, and we saw the B96 van with abunch of people crowding around it so we went over. B96 gave us small packages of sea & ski sport (which i still have) and took a picture of everyone there and they said that they were going to send it to Hanson. then we went back to the gate and we heard Zac's drums (we had lawn seats so we could see where we were going to be sitting)so we ran over to the fence which was like a border to where the section ended, and we saw Hanson practicing! (no joke) then Taylor said into the mic (by the way we could see them and they could see us) "how does that sound?" and some girl yelled back "it sounds great!". Then we were waiting for the gates to open and we were painting our faces w/stuff like "Hanson Rules". a few hours later after we were in the world music theatrethe show started at about 7:30 and admiral twin came on they were really good (the drummer is the author of the offical hanson book). at about 8:30 Hanson came on and they sang "gimmie some lovin and shake a tail feather" then they sang "thinking of you, where's the love, weird, with you in your dreams, money (that's what i want)" Then Zac and Tay left the stage and Isaac sang "more than anything" then Tay and Zac came back and they sang "surely as the sun,a minute without you (which they deticated to people that had lawn seat and we all went crazy) i will come to you, and mmmbop" the Tay said " If you guys aren't breaking a sweat you should be by the end of this song" and then thay sang "man from milwaukee" then Tay said "it's been a blast" and they left. and everyone started chanting HANSON! HANSON! HANSON! and then they came back and sang "summer time blues" and got the crowd into it like they would say "and there ain't no cure" and the fans would say "for the summer time blues" and then Tay said "it's been great see you guys next time" and they left for real.
p.s. and like halfway between the show Tay said "i wanna see everyone's glow sticks up in the air." and then he said "i see them and Zac's got some of his own" (zac's drum sticks we glowing) and in the middle of one of the songs zac got up to though some thing at the fans and Tay started to play the drums! and he was really good too.
well that's my hanson experience
~Tiffany

Hey! On September 18 i wen to see hanson live in west palm, florida. i had to fly from nassau, bahamas to fl and the whole flight seemed like an hour!!! i was so psyched! i had loved hanson for about 2 years and it was my dream to see them!
we got the concert at 6 for the 7:30 performance. there was so many people there it was overwhelming! but it was very awesome!
at about 8:00, admirable twin came on and played for about an hour. the audience was really into it but i wanted to see "my tay"!!! After admirable twin left, the curtain opened and hanson walked on and started getting us all into the show! the first song was "gimme some love" and i was screaming the loudest!!!!
after the 3rd sing, taylor was talking to the audience and i decided to yell, "I LOVE YOU, TAY!!!" he just looked at me and smild because everyone else was quiet and i was jumping up and down so he knew it was me! i was in the seated area and looking at cebter stage! tay, ike, and zac all smiled at me 3 other times because i was the one who was jumping! everybody else was just clapping or singing, i was the only one jumping!!! they even waved goodbye to me when they left!!
it was the most awesome night of my life!
~Jen

Hi! Here is my account of the Hanson concert at Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey on August 24, 1998. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email me.
We arrived at Continental Arilines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ at 6:00. As we were pulling into the parking lot, there were scalpers everywhere selling tickets, and tons of cars beeping their horns while dangling posters of Ike, Tay and Zac out the window. I knew then it was going to be a wild night. My mom and I parked and got out of the car, and as I looked around at the slew of twelve-year-olds clad in Hanson apparel, I felt a little out of place. It seemed like I was the only person not sporting a Hanson t-shirt, but I soon forgot about that when I saw the line to get in. You see, they still weren't letting people in, and the line wrapped around in a big U. My mom and I joined the end, and soon were talking with a 12 year-old girl who was insisting that she had heard that Zac (her favorite) had broken his leg while jumping off the stage during practice.Needless to say, it wasn't true. Well, I hadwarned my mom that the screams would be loud, but I couldn't prepare her for the girl behind me. First of all, she was carrying a sign that said, "If Taylor has a girlfriend, I will kill her!" Then some poor, unassuming family came along: about three sisters, one of which looked about Tay's age, and their mom. They had taken a limo to the concert and were getting out. Well talk about jumping to conclusions! The loud girl with the Taylor poster says, "Is that Taylor's girlfriend! It must be Her, she came in a limo! I'm going to beat her up!" One of her friends remarked that lots of people arrive in limos. So the loud girl yells over to the girl she assumed to be Taylor's girlfriend, "Are you meeting Hanson backstage?" The girl didn't hear her and the loud one proceeded to get really irritated. She commented, "What a snob! That girl is so snobby!" My mom and I were just standing there, looking at each other, amused at how people take all of this so seriously. I mean, if Tay wants to have a girlfriend, he should be able to without the girl risking bodily harm. Anyway, loud girl obviously got bored with that prospect and began dedicating her time to shouting "Scream if you love Hanson!!" All of the kids around us let out shrieks. My mom covered her ears and looked pained, but I just thought it was funny. Some of the ensembles these kids were wearing were great. Every Hanson t-shirt imaginable. There was even one girl who had taken a velvet top hat, and glued magazine cutouts of all the brothers all over the hat and then covered it with either tape or clear plastic. And of course, for the ubiquitous poster. There was one poster that was totally awesome, I just have to tell you about it. It was larger than most posters, and really carefully done. The girl had glued many different pictures of Hanson as a border, from the milk ad to the first TV guide shoot. Then she had drawn a big Hanson symbol really neatly in the middle and written "I'm crazy about Hanson!" Everyone was complimenting her on it. Then, finally, we reached the gates and were let in. I remember walking up the stairs into the arena thinking how exciting this was going to be. We had about an hour to kill before Admiral Twin came on, so I got a pretzel and my issue of MOE and sat in my seat reading. The lady next to us was really nice, and she had brought her binoculars, which she let us use. Well, after I had gone through MOE for awhile, and the place was beginning to fill up, there was music playing, just a constant mix kind of like the radio except with no advertisements or DJ talk. Everytime a song on the mix ended, the audience assumed this meant the show was beginning, and started screaming. That is, until a new song began, and so on in the vicious cycle.
Just when I was starting to get really antsy, Admiral Twin came on. Here's my opinion of them: I think they are very good musicians, but I did not like their material. There was only one song I liked at all. So I was basically bored though that whole part. When they finished it was eight o' clock and they put down a curtain and began setting up for Hanson. The crowd was getting really antsy, partly because in one of the skyboxes there was a family of three brothers and a tall father that kept waving and jumping around. The lady next to me with the binoculars told me it wasn't them and I couldn't tell when I used the binoculars myself but I would like to believe it was and the audience certainly thought so. Then, the light went out in the skybox and a few minutes later, Hanson was on, so I really want to believe it was them waving to us the whole time. If it wasn't, what a bunch of imposters!
Anyway, the audience went nuts when Hanson came on. Their first song was "Gimme some lovin'." I'm not big on their covers; I'd rather hear their material, but they played it very well, and the parents seemed to appreciate it. I was on the Ike side, by the way, but I had a really good view of Tay because he was facing us. Anyway, I borrowed the lady's binoculars to look up close at them. Isaac had on the coolest outfit! He was wearing black dress pants with silver "dots" I guess you'd call them, but they weren't loud polka dots or anything, they were really dressy and nice, with a black t-shirt and a silver shirt over it. His hair was in a ponytail. Zac had on red pants and a black shirt with his hair down. Tay was wearing green cords and a black shirt, and his hair was down but it looked really unkempt, there were flyaways everywhere. It's okay though, he still looked hot! Anyway, "Gimme some lovin' " was a good song. Next they did "Thinking of you." I leapt out of my seat and started singing along and dancing with the rest of the crowd. When Zac did his little solo, the crowd went NUTS!! I figure there were a lot of Zac fans there. Honestly, Zac didn't get to do very much singing by himself, that was really it. On "Man from Milwaukee" they all sang. My guess is that his voice is totally changing and they're trying to hide it as much as they can. I couldn't really hear his solo because of all the screaming so I couldn't judge how good it was. Anyway, the next song was "Where's the love" which I sang along with and danced to again. Tay went wild, jumping up and down. Again, I couldn't hear Zac's short solo "waiting for the bright light to break through" very well because of the screams, but it sounded like his voice has definitely gotten deeper. Ike's solo sounded great! Onto "River." It sounded good, and we all sang along but it wasn't the highlight or anything. I enjoyed it. Next was "Weird." It was sooooo good!!! The crowd went crazy. I really enjoyed that. Taylor's voice sounded so soulful! After "Weird", they went backstage, and the crew setup the garage background. Then came a type of "Hanson unplugged" where they all sat down and looked very comfy while doing another cover, and then "With you in your dreams" which was so beautiful and sad. They sounded especially good on that. Finally they did "Stories" which is my favorite song off of "Three Car Garage" besides Mmmbop of course. It sounded great. Then Isaac did "More than Anything." I thought that that was the best song of the entire night. He sang it so poignantly and his voice was beautiful, besides I had never heard that song before and loved it. It made me somehow like Ike a lot more. Even my mom was totally impressed with his talent. His voice sounded amazing! It was just so gorgeous, I can't get over it. They better release that as a single! After that, "unplugged" was over, they inroduced the backup band. It was cool because they were all running around the stage. Another thing I should mention is sometimes Ike would go around to Tay, Zac and the backup band and confer with them before a song. I noticed a pattern with this; it was usually before a cover that he would talk to them. I don't know what they were saying but it was cool because it was nice to see them talking to each other. Anyway, they did a new song they had written. I thought it was okay, but in my opinion it won't be a number 1 hit or anything. Next they did "I will come to you" which was another highlight. We all sang along and swayed and Tay sounded wonderful! That was definitely one of his best performances of the night. Then they did "Speechless," which isn't one of my favorites but it was better than a cover. Taylor was playing his keyboards like they were congas! It was crazy. They did "Sometimes" and "Soldier" next, followed by "Good Lovin' " before Ike said, "I would like to dedicate this next song to all of you people in the upper section, and the spotlight came right on us! We all went mad, my mom was just sitting there covering her ears. He continued "because we can't live a minute without you!" The crowd went wild and as they started playing the opening the notes we were already dancing. We all sang along and Isaac sounded great, as did Tay and Zac. My favorite part of that song was at the end, where there is no background except for the melody and they're singing, "when the minutes seem like hours and the hours seem like days" It sounded so good. After that song, we were all totally hyper, and we all knew what was to come next when one of the crew brought out Tay's congas. The crowd was going wild before they even announced "Mmmbop." Then even my mom got up and we all sang the entire song, so loud. It was awesome. That was probably the second best part of the night, behind "More than anything." After "Mmmbop" Tay says "And for our last song...." and everybody let out this great big disappointed sigh before he told us about how it was the bonus track and all, you know what I'm talking about......"Man from Milwaukee!!!!" It sounded good, but I couldn't hear Zac's solo very well again, but it sounded like he was going slower than he does on MON. After they finished that song, they of course got out their Super Soakers and doused everyone besides touching the hands of all the girls in the front row (which made me pine wistfully for front row seats!) and went backstage. We went crazy, chanting "Hanson" and screaming really loud until they came back out and said "Well we're just hanging around, would you guys like us to play a couple more songs (Tay said that)" and of course we all screamed. So They played "Look at you" and "Summertime Blues" and then did "Weird" acapella, which was beautiful! Then of course they got out the SuperSoakers some more, and were heading off the stage when we all started screaming again and Tay goes "You mean you guys want more?" so they all came out and bowed. Then they left the stage after thanking us for being such a great audience. I knew it was all over when the lights came back on. I had been standing there, hoping they would come out again, holding onto the moment.
Overall, I had a really good time. I kept thinking about how cool it must be to be Hanson and get to perform for capacity crowds that are chanting your name. Besides, I reflected on just how talented they are. I can barely play "Mmmbop" on the piano, and they play, sing, write, produce, and they're all younger than me. It kinda made me yearn to meet them, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. It also made me especially jealous of the girl three rows behind me who got to go backstage and meet them for what merit I don't know. They seem like such dynamic, interesting people, and would be awesome to meet. I'm so glad I got to see them in concert. I've come to a few conclusions: 1) I like Ike a lot better than I thought I did 2)They are all extremely talented 3) Zac needs to sing lead more, unless of course he is still going through his voice change, which I suspect he is right now 4) they really appreciate their fans 5)Zac needs to do more of the talking on stage. It's always Ike ot Tay that introduce songs. Zac should do that more. He certainly has a loyal fan base! 6) They are nice, with touching hands, kicking beach balls into the crowd, giving away drumsticks, and of course the SuperSoakers. They didn't have to do any of that stuff, but they wanted to and it made them seem more human.
This definitely ranks up there as one of the best experiences in my life, and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again!!
Krista, 17
Hessler@warwick.net

© 1997 hansnchic1@aol.com

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