By: HansonGurl14 (yeah, original, right?)

OK well I am not Siskel and I am not Ebert... But I've been to quite a few concerts, and I know that this one was one of the best, if not the best. I kind of missed most of Admiral Twin's performance, so I can't tell much of that, but that's another long story... But at this particular Hanson concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, all I can say is that Hanson... well, they "rocked the joint", to quote Taylor in Tulsa, Tokyo and the Middle of Nowhere. I don't think it will ever be the same. Let's see... where do I start...

I think the best place to start is the parking lot, where it all begins, I guess you could say. The cars in this parking lot, were, to say the least, COLORFUL. Many, many people bought that "car chalk" stuff, and there were lots of cars that had stuff like "We Luv Hanson" painted all over the windows. Two of those cars came with me... But a lot of the sayings were really clever, like "In an MMMBop we're gone... to a HANSON concert" and stuff like that. Then, as you walk down the steps out of the parking lot, you get a look at the crowd. Faces painted. Hair in dreadlocks, a' la' Zac. Signs for Isaac. Signs for Taylor. Signs for Zac. Signs singing the praise of all three of them. One sign even said, "Taylor, will you marry me?" which is alright, I guess, he probably thought it was funny, but if you want my personal opinion, as mature as he is, I don't think he's gonna get married at 15... And since only one gate was open, and I guess they were checking for cameras, the crowd practically wrapped AROUND the Arena... and I was at the end, great...

But the crowd was very vocal. "Hanson, Hanson, Hanson," and "TAYLOR! ISAAC! ZAC!," and the thing is, there was nobody there except the fans and their escorts! (The Arena provided a room, soundproof, I guess, for those parents who didn't want to send their kids alone but who also wanted to keep their hearing and not burst their eardrums... I thought that was kind of funny...). There was a lady who was giving away MOE backstage passes (I GOT ONE! But that story's next, it's too long for this review). So when we finally got in the gates, we went to our seats.

Now the Civic Arena is mainly for playing hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they also do concerts and circuses and stuff (and I always wonder what the heck they do with the ice!). So it's like round, and the stage was set up on the far right hand side, or the far left, depending on where you stand, I guess. But from the entrance, it was on the far right, and they had the seats behind the stage closed off. There were floor seats, Igloo Club seats, (Those are good, we got those! Floor were sold out, but we were only 6 rows from floor, so our seats kicked!), and then B, C, D, E, and F seats, too, I think. And I heard that it sold out, but I'm not positive, that's just what I heard. I can't tell you much about Admiral Twin's performance, I wasn't there to see it, but I did catch the last song and it was good. Then the stage hands, you know, they did their thing rearranging everything. And while they did this, there were four LONG-HAIRED people running around the balcony backstage and making everyone scream. Now, I don't know if it was Hanson, but if it wasn't, then those people sure were popular. Either that or they got lots of everyone to think they were Hanson.

So after that it got semi-quiet again. And then the lights dimmed, and the screaming swelled, and you heard the opening notes of Gimmie Some Lovin'. And everyone went WILD. Honestly, you could not hear yourself think. I saw Hanson in DC at the Nissan Pavillion, too, and I don't know if it was just because we were indoors this time or what, but it seemed so much louder! And that was really cool! So they sang that and then they go, "You guys are wild!" and they talked for a little bit, saying things like, "How are you guys doing?... I CAN'T HEAR YOU!... WHAT?" and then, "COME ON! LOUDER!!!!!" (No wonder they call everyone the Scream Squad.) You know, they kinda egg it on, but of course we love every minute of it!). And then they sang a few more songs. They started to play "Weird," and then they stopped. Then they started again, and then they stopped. Then they started agian, and they stopped. Taylor was playing with the cords (cords, like wires, not CHORDS. The amp cords, I guess). I don't know what was wrong, whether it was a problem with the amplifiers or if they just couldn't get the intro right. So they sang something else. Then they exited the stage and brought out the stuff and said, "Welcome to our Three Car Garage!" Zac walked around and collected all the stuffed animals and stuff that people threw onstage, and he kinda tossed it around the stage corner, behind the backdrop. Then they did "River," and "Soldier," "Sometimes," "Stories," (which I couldn't hear at all, I don't know if it was the mikes or the screaming, probably both), and I think "Pictures." Then Taylor and Zac said, "We'll be right back, see you in a minute," and they left. Then the guys with the red Albertane Tour jumpsuits came and re-did the stage again, and then Isaac sat down at the piano and played "More Than Anything" solo. Then they rearranged the stage AGAIN, and they finished out the set. They sang "Madeline" and dedicated it to all the Madelines. Then they said, "Hey! All of you with those glow thingies, we wanna see them in the air! Cause Zac has some of his own!," and Zac had these drumsticks that glowed red and green. They did "I Will Come To You," and a few others. They got up and got their Super Soakers and sprayed they crowd. They left their instruments and shook hands with some people in the front row. The people in the crowd sprayed silly string at them. It was really cool! They said, "This is one you should know..." and they played MMMBop. Then they said, "Well, thanks for coming tonight! We'll catch ya later!" and they left the stage. Everybody kept screaming, and then you hear... "Do you want us back? Then you're gonna have to SCREAM!!!" and everybody SCREAMED. And they ran back onstage and did some more songs, Summertime Blues, Good Lovin', and lots of others. With You In Your Dreams. And of course they sang the song the tour got it's name from, "Man From Milwaukee." They sang all their really terriffic songs, and plus they did the cover songs that they like. I think my favorite was either "Thinking of You" or "Where's the Love."

Some things I also noticed, about the overall performance. I saw Hanson in DC, like I said, and here they put on more of a show. Like, here they had lighting sequences and they shined a Hanson symbol and the Albertane Tour logo on the ceiling (I guess they couldn't do that at the Nissan Pavillion, it's outdoors and the rays would have just spread out and it wouldn't have worked, but still). And in "Where's the Love" they had like lightening bolts shining on the screens. It was really cool! And Isaac walked around more, I guess because he can do that, you know Taylor and Zac really can't move their instruments around. But anyway Isaac walked around, he played by Taylor, he played by the back-ups, he played by Zac, he even jumped off Zac's drum platform, because Zac's drums were on a raised platform. Here it was more about the music. It was more FUN. In Washington, it was one of their earlier shows, and it seemed like they came, they sang, they left. Now don't get me wrong it was REALLY REALLY REALLY great, and I mean, it was so cool because it was a HANSON concert, but here it was more loose and relaxed instead of all about the business. And I think they enjoyed it more, too. But I guess that all Hanson concerts are gonna rock no matter where they are. And thus I end my Pittsburgh concert review.

Peace!