After the concert is over...

Now that “concert time” is almost upon us again, I’ve been thinking about 1998. Remember how exciting it was to see Hanson perform live for the first time? How cool it was to be there when the curtain dropped, colored lights flashing, with Taylor on the right side of the stage behind keyboards, Isaac on the left with his guitar and Zac in the middle at his drums cranking out their version of “Gimme Some Lovin” in competition with the deafening sound of thousands of screaming fans? Finally... there we were with Hanson in the house playing their music for us, songs they had written long before in their home hoping to do just this. There was no doubt about it, we had walked into a magical world... no gimmicks, no games, no tricks... just the men and their music doing what they love and their love for it showed as they took us on an unforgettable ride.

Well, here’s how it’ll probably be for some of us after we see them again...

The last song will be played, and they will go to center stage, join hands, raise them together and bow in unison. They will wave goodbye to the crowd of cheering fans who will want them to stay, but they won’t. They will have to leave and so will the fans who will try and hang on to every last second of 2 hours that seemed like a minute passing so as not to lose the excitement of it, totally pumped, not wanting it to be over.

We will walk out to our cars in the parking lot and get in them chattering incessantly along the way about what we just witnessed. We will probably even pop in a Hanson CD and listen to it on the way home singing along as though it were an extension of the concert in an effort to make it last longer. And we’ll talk about how cool the guys were and how awesome they played and we’ll wonder when we’ll ever be able to do it again.

And we can’t help but wonder, if we weren’t fortunate enough to have been enlisted in the elite echelon of “backstage groupies” what it would be like to actually meet the guys and shake their hands and tell them what we’ve always wanted them to hear us say and have them know that we DO exist, we are a REAL person, a dedicated fan in the faceless crowd and we LOVE the music and we BUY the CDs and we GO to the concerts and we are out here for them supporting them every step of the way and we want them to KNOW it!!!

And when we arrive home, we will have calmed down and come back to reality and will reflect more privately on the events of the evening and be happy that we were part of a happening so cool. We will get ready for bed, brush our teeth and climb into bed and lay our head on our pillow and go to sleep with a smile on our face because we know they had as much fun as we did tonight and it was awesome being able to share that with Hanson. But we’ll also be kinda sad because we’ll have to wonder... when will be able to we do it again?

And after Hanson leaves the stage...

After wrapping up their final backstage encounters and details, they’ll reunite with their family members and become the family unit again, rather than the band. And they will be able to let down their guard and be themselves surrounded by the comfort of a loving family. Then they’ll change into more comfortable clothes after a quick shower and grab a bite to eat to replace some of the energy they used up on stage. The tour bus will be waiting and they’ll hop onto their home on the road and head out in the middle of the night toward the city where their next performance will take place. They may still be pumped from 2 hours of nonstop energy-expending wailing and the relay of excitement between themselves and the ever-faithful crowd of fans.

And as they reflect on what has just transpired, in conversation between themselves perhaps they’ll discuss something that they felt didn’t quite go as well as they had expected (but no one else even noticed) and how cool it was being with that group of fans and maybe discuss plans for tomorrow’s journey. And silently they may even recall the face of someone who perhaps caught their eye during the evening and wonder what it would have been like to have met and talked to that person. Or they may reflect on what the night’s performance meant for them personally.

And they will eventually wind down and relax and have to give in to sleep. As they climb into their bunks and lay their heads on their pillows they will drift off in peaceful slumber, content and thankful that they are so very fortunate to actually be living their dream. And they will snuggle in for the night, peaceful and quiet inside, while outside on the highway the constant clicking of a million white lines is counting down and leading them to the next city where it will happen all over again... for them.