Some of you who will be reading this know that my daughter Heather (age 12) and I have actually been to two concerts this summer. The first one was at Pine Knob in the Detroit area, back in June, and I didn't write a review of that one for a number of reasons. We were on the lawn, couldn't see much, and felt like we missed a whole lot, and since I knew others who were writing good, thorough reviews of that concert. So I decided to skip doing a full review of it. This one, however, was another matter. We had some great experiences, between the concert itself and what came before it, and I wanted to get down every possible detail before they fade from my memory.

I wrote this review with Heather's help, especially the concert part, because she was fortunate to have experienced some things I missed out on (if she wasn't my own kid, I'd have to be real jealous, but fortunately, there's this vicarious mom thing that makes me feel like I did experience them myself in a way).

The review is in two parts, because we were lucky enough to actually get into the Planet Hollywood Press Conference that took place in Chicago the afternoon before the concert. The first part covers that and the second part is about the concert itself. I have tried very hard to get all the details right; however, I'm sure there are bound to be some inaccuracies and omissions. So just think of this as an account of our personal impressions, with the greatest amount of space given to the things that left the biggest impression on us, rather than a purely factual description of everything that happened.

Also, I'd like to apologize if this review seems to contain a lot of unfavorable comments about teenies. I actually have nothing against teenies as individuals; in fact, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I used to be a teenie myself, and I remember a great deal of what that felt like. I actually met some very nice teenies that day, but in large groups, I find them hard to take, especially after being repeatedly pushed, shoved, gouged, and nearly trampled. Hence some of the negative comments here, which I hope nobody will take personally.

Part 1: Planet Hollywood

I still can't get over the fact that we actually got in. I heard about the press conference a few days ahead of time, but didn't make up my mind about going until a couple of days before. So we didn't have much time to prepare or make decisions about what time we should try to get there. I figured getting in was a long shot anyway, so I decided not to kill myself getting up before the crack of dawn, but just to go several hours ahead of time to get a place in line and hope for a glimpse of them going in. As it turned out, we got a bit more than that.

We arrived a little before 10 a.m. to find a good-sized but not gigantic crowd of people (don't ask me how many, I'm lousy at estimating things like that, but it seemed to stretch for less than a third of the block) lined up outside the building. Encouraged by the manageable size of the crowd, we took our place at the end of the line and prepared to wait out the 3 hours until the scheduled 1 p.m. start of the press conference. I passed the time as I usually do in such situations, by people-watching. There were, of course, plenty of giggly, shrieking teenies waving everything from magazine pinups to copies of the official bio to handmade posters, and lots of family groups with moms, a few dads, and children of all ages. The sprinkling of adults present all seemed to be parents who were accompanying their kids, and it was hard to tell how many of them were personally enthused about being there. I saw an adult or two in a Hanson T-shirt, but none who were acting like they were anywhere near as excited as I was about the whole thing. I always wonder how many adults don't let on that they care just because they think they aren't supposed to, but of course I'll never know. And I think the kids mostly assumed that the grownups weren't all that interested in Hanson, which could account for their lack of inhibition about shoving themselves in front of me! I did get asked by one girl why I was wearing a Hanson shirt. I said, "Because I'm a fan, too!" and I'm happy to report that my reply was well-received. I also got a couple of questions/comments about the Albertane hat I was wearing (purchased at the Detroit concert).

They started letting people in a little before 12, I think. It was done in small groups, anywhere from 2 to about 5 people at a time, which means the whole process stretched out for what seemed like an interminable period. I gathered that they were seating people at tables as they went in and were letting each group enter as the last was seated. As time went on, and we moved up in line bit by bit, it became apparent to us that we were either going to get in or just barely miss it, so the suspense got worse and worse. We spent quite a bit of time standing right outside the door, and during that time some local TV people showed up to shoot footage for their newscasts. One TV reporter and a Planet Hollywood staff member coached the crowd to start screaming and/or singing on a prearranged cue (so much for spontaneity) and the cameras rolled. I was right behind the first row of teenies, yelling for all I was worth, waving my Albertane hat, and knowing I looked like an absolute fool, but not giving a rip. I know Heather and I both must have made it into some of the footage, but I didn't see us in the one newscast my husband taped that night.

So there we were, wondering, will we get in or won't we get in, with the teenies going more and more ballistic every time anything resembling a van, limousine, or bus drove by (some teenies aren't the least bit picky about what they scream at!), when to our delight (not to mention relief), we were finally ushered in. By that time, all the tables in the dining room had evidently been filled, and we were directed to the bar area just inside the front door. It turned out to be a cool place to be in a lot of ways, because we had a view of both the front entrance of Planet Hollywood and what we were to learn was the door to the private dining room where the Hanson family was sequestered. The only thing wrong with being in the bar was that there was a railing around the whole thing, which not only restricted our mobility but meant that if you managed to shove your way up to the front, you got squished against the railing by the teenies pressing behind you (which happened to me repeatedly).

While we were waiting, we had been told by a Planet Hollywood staff member that the band and their family were already in the building having lunch in a private dining room. The staff member also said that the people who had camped out on the sidewalk the night before had been allowed to go in earlier and meet the guys. (Guess where Heather and I will be sleeping the next time Hanson comes to Chicago.) That led me to believe that the crowd waiting outside was going to be disappointed in its desire to get a glimpse of Hanson going in, but fortunately, I was wrong. What eventually happened when the time came was that Isaac, Taylor, and Zac snuck out a back door, got on the big blue bus, and rode up to the front in style, to be viewed by the fans and photographed and filmed by the media making an elaborately staged grand entrance! Nothing wrong with that in the least, but I thought it was interesting. Hey, that's show biz for you, never pass up a chance to create a spectacle!

But when we got in, we didn't know that was going to happen, or that Hanson was going to come walking through the front entrance right before our eyes. And we definitely didn't realize that we were stationed right outside the Hansons' private dining room. The first thing we noticed was the location of the table where the guys were obviously going to be sitting for the press conference and the fact that the view of it was rather obstructed by display cases and fake palm trees. While we were waiting for something to happen, I walked around trying to figure out where the best sightlines were. That was an activity that turned out to be unnecessary in the end, but it helped pass the time while we were waiting.

Finally the BIG moment arrived. We saw the front end of the big blue bus when it pulled up outside, its arrival heralded by a deafening wave of screams from the crowd outside. We couldn't see the guys getting off, we knew when it happened by the way the screaming got even louder. That was the signal for the crowd in the bar area to surge over to the side toward the front door, and then, suddenly, after all that interminable waiting, there THEY were, only a few feet away of us, as large as life and twice as gorgeous. I missed seeing Zac when they came through the door, I think just because Isaac and Taylor were tall enough to be visible over all the little teenie heads that were in my way and he wasn't. But I got a darned good look at the other two. The first thing I noticed was their hair. Isaac's was in a ponytail, and Taylor's was down, very full and bouncy and nicely turned under at the ends. (When I saw Zac a few moments later, his hair was also full and bouncy, like it always is, and really long, well past his shoulders.)They scooted past us very quickly, smiling and waving a little, but obviously in a hurry to get through the area.

Getting back to my impressions of the guys, another thing I noticed was that Taylor was even more unbelievably, flawlessly, BLINDINGLY beautiful than I had ever even imagined. Looking at his face was like staring directly into the sun, literally dazzling. The effect that the sight of him had on me came as something of a shock, because while I OF COURSE knew he was marvelous-looking (duh, I'm not blind), he has never really made my heart beat any faster (Isaac is the one who does that). So I absolutely did not expect to be stunned like a deer in somebody's headlights by the sight of him. So much for thinking you know yourself. All I can say is, there is a charismatic quality that he simply exudes, and I found out that day that I am not completely immune to it.

As for Isaac, well, I knew seeing him was going to have a major impact on me, so no surprises there. The first thing I saw when he walked in was the ponytail, as I said, then I noticed the sweet smile he was flashing at the waiting fans. (It's the same sweet smile we've all seen a million times, but it's even sweeter in person.) As he walked by, I caught his profile and saw that his forehead really is just as prominent as it looks in some of the pictures, especially with his hair pulled back off his face. I also noticed that he definitely looked taller than Taylor. I know there has been some speculation on that score recently, and even though they said in the Yahoo chat that Isaac is still about an inch taller, I have heard some skepticism expressed. Well, Isaac definitely did look taller than Taylor to me last Friday, and Taylor didn't look a bit taller than the height of 5'9" that they gave on Yahoo, even though I know he often seems bigger than that in pictures and TV appearances.

The guys went by too fast for me to take in any details about what they were wearing, surprised us by not going directly to the table that was obviously set up for them. Instead, they headed straight through a curtained-covered glass door on the other side of the bar which I had not paid much attention to up to that point. During the time they were on the other side of that door, everyone's eyes were, of course, fixed on it, and it opened every so often to reveal tiny but tantalizing glimpses of what lay beyond it.

Like everyone else, I was straining to catch a glimpse of Hanson every time the door opened, but the first recognizable person I saw was a woman with blonde, braided hair holding a baby, obviously Diana and Zoe. That was when I realized that the room the guys had retreated into was the private dining room where the rest of the family had been sequestered all along. The teenies evidently figured it out, too, because a bunch of them sang "Happy Birthday" to Jessica, not once but twice. I didn't even know when her birthday was myself, since I make a conscious effort to stay away from websites where information of that type is available. (Being aware of the antipathy the parents have toward such things, I don't even really want to know when the children's birthdays are.) But evidently some of the teenies knew, and felt it needed to be acknowledged.

I don't know how long the guys were in there, but of course, it seemed like an eternity to those of us waiting outside. Every time the door opened to let someone in or out and the crowd would get all excited, thinking that Hanson was coming out, only to be disappointed again and again. I saw Zac in there during one of the door openings, and another time I saw the back of Taylor's head, but I didn't get any glimpses of Isaac. It was tantalizing, knowing they were all in there, right on the other side of that door, but not being able to see them.

At last they finally did emerge and took their places at the table, and the press conference began. Isaac has taken his hair down while they were behind closed doors, but the other two emerged looking exactly the same. Once they were seated at the table, I immediately began to feel frustrated, because as I said before, the view was obstructed. There was no one location from which I could see all of them, and Isaac, of course, had to sit in the spot that was the hardest to see. But I soon discovered that the whole thing was being televised on closed-circuit TV, and from that point on, I watched and listened on a TV set that was mounted on the wall above the bar.

What were they asked, and what were their answers? I am sorry to say that I have no idea whatsoever! The only question I really remember was one along the lines of what advice they had about how to fulfill one's dreams. And I remember Isaac launching into one of his by now familiar discourses about how the important thing is to do what you love, how they are doing what they're doing because they love it, etc., which was, as usual, echoed by his brothers. I have heard it all a thousand times but I could gladly listen to it ten thousand more without ever getting tired of it, because it is so sweet and so sincere, and it is always delightful to hear even yet again how much they really do love doing the very things that give the rest of us so much joy. After that, the rest of the press conference is a total blur in my mind. I know I heard what they were saying at the time, but I can't remember any of it. I do remember that Isaac and Taylor did most of the talking, and that it seemed to be Zac's choice to let them do so. He mostly sat there smiling and watching whichever one was talking with that patented Hanson adoring brother look on his face.

What sticks in my memory mostly clearly is how they looked, and while I was watching them on TV, I was finally able to take in some details about what they were wearing. Isaac and Taylor were both in solid-colored shirts with (I think) jeans. Taylor's was orange, with short sleeves, worn over a black T-shirt, and Isaac wore a brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves over a gray T-shirt. (By the way, this is neither here nor there, but why is it that those guys always seem to wear two shirts, no matter what the temperature is? It wasn't very hot in Chicago that day, but they did the same thing at the concert in Detroit when it was blistering, stinking hot. Why the heck is that?) Zac was the standout in the wardrobe department that day. He had on a black, v-necked shirt or sweater with a jacket over it that I swear he must have borrowed from Taylor. Not only because was it a very Tayloresque garment, but the sleeves were about two inches too long for him and came down over his hands. It was light tan with fancy stitching and it looked nice, but I kept feeling like I was looking at a tampered-with photograph with the wrong head pasted on the body.

I really do wish I could remember more about what was said, but I presume the Q's and A's will crop somewhere, in a mag and/or on-line, eventually. According to a Chicago newspaper article about the event, one of the questions was "What is your secret, unfulfilled fantasy?" and Taylor said, "To meet every single person here." (Gee, Tay, we would have been more than willing to accommodate you there.) It did seem to me that they were treated pretty respectfully by the press. At this point in time, most of the press (Entertainment Weekly notwithstanding) actually does seem to have figured out that they aren't just a bunch of dumb kids, and I felt like I could sense that on Friday.

After the press conference ended, there was some delay while the Planet Hollywood staff made sure things were secured for the guys' safe departure. ITZ went in the private dining room again while that was being done, and finally the departures began. The other family members came out first, with Mackie, Diana, and Zoe (in her mother's arms) leading the way. I didn't get a good look at the baby because I was checking out Diana's cute braided hairdo, but according to Heather, Zoe has curly hair like her oldest brother. (Remember, you heard it here first!) The girls were next (I only saw Jessica, though I presume Avery must have been there as well). Jessica was smiling and looked like she was enjoying the attention from the teenies, so I got the feeling that she may have actually appreciated the songfest earlier. Walker brought up the rear, accompanied by other members of the Hanson entourage. Ashley Greyson was there, too, but I didn't realize it was him at the time. I saw a guy who looked so much like a certain MTV veejay that my first thought was "What the heck is Carson Daly doing in Chicago?" Then I thought, "Naaaah," but it wasn't until later on, at the concert, that I found out that the Carson clone was Ash.

After the family members were safely out of the restaurant and on board the big blue bus, the guys finally emerged. This time they did not hurry by quite as fast, and took a little more time to greet and hand-touch. I was waving my Albertane hat like crazy, trying to attract attention, but no luck. I had one wild, crazy urge that I'm almost sorry I didn't give into. Waving that hat the way I was, it would have been just so easy to sort of accidentally on purpose drop it in front of them as they came up the aisle. And we all know what nice, polite guys they are, right? Do you see where I'm going with this? Maybe, just maybe, one of them would have stopped and picked it up, and looked around for its owner? Hey, it's not impossible, and I was really, really thinking about it, but I was afraid it would be too obvious a ploy and I just couldn't quite summon up the nerve. I was trying to psych myself up to do it, but the sight of Taylor's face as he came up the aisle had that "deer in the headlights" effect on me again (dang that Taylor anyway, the guy is downright dangerous!), and all I could do was stand there and gape.

As they came around the corner of the bar area, Isaac and Taylor both started to reach out and touch hands, making eye contact and smiling. As soon as I realized it, I immediately lunged in their direction, but I had a podium and about a dozen teenies in my way and it was all over too fast for me to get there in time. Meanwhile, Heather says she was within a couple of inches of being able to touch Zac's arm at one point, but he too busy greeting fans on the other side of the aisle to notice her. So neither of us succeeded in getting any attention from her favorite guy.

Almost before we knew it, the guys were out the door and heading for the bus. Of course, the crowd started to surge after them immediately, but were thwarted by the revolving door, which had been locked previously. I knew it was locked myself, having seen the Planet Hollywood staff do it, and I was trying to get to the other door, the one that actually worked. But I got swept up in the crowd and it took me a few moments to fight my way across the sea of teenies. By the time I got out on the pavement, the guys had boarded the big blue bus, and all I could do was snap a few pics of it as it pulled away.

But what an experience, to be that close to them, literally in the same room, almost within arm's length at some points. To see their faces so closely and so clearly. Not the ultimate, of course; to meet, to touch, to actually have a conversation with them, but pretty darned good nonetheless. I left Planet Hollywood that afternoon feeling that, no matter what happened at the concert, we had already more than made up for being a million miles away from the stage at Pine Knob.

Part 2: The Concert

We drove directly from downtown Chicago to the New World Music Theatre in rush hour traffic and didn't get there until nearly 6:00, because of the congestion on the expressway. So we were too late to hear the sound check. Fortunately, we had been fortunate enough to hear it at Pine Knob, so we were disappointed (at least I was) but could at least say we've had that experience one.

Once we were inside the venue's gates, we immediately began scoping the place out for someone giving out backstage passes. It turned out to be quite an undertaking, because the NWMT is huge. There are two very large concession areas, one on either side of the pavilion, and the only way to get from one to the other is to walk all the way to the back of the pavilion, across the considerable width of the whole thing, and then down the other side. It was quite a hike, and we made the trip from one side to the other several times. However, despite all our efforts, we never managed to be in the right place at the right time, and from what I learned later, the lawn might have actually been a better place to be.

I finally spotted some people I knew from the Hanson news group. They were standing near the VIP entrance., chatting with a guy who I recognized as the clone of Carson Daly I'd seen at Planet Hollywood. Once I joined them, I had a chance to read his name tag and realized that he was Ashley Greyson. In answer to someone's question, he said that he had been giving out passes earlier but was all out. He also said that he had only had 10 to begin with, and that there were a lot of other types of VIPs at this concert and consequently a shortage of backstage passes for MOE members. There is only time for the guys to see a finite number of people backstage, and the more non-MOE members there are, the fewer passes remain for MOE members. Grrrrrrrr. (Not grrrrring at Ash here, it wasn't his fault; just grrrrrring at the situation. I don't want to spend too much time editorializing, but really it's quite frustrating how inconsistently the MOE backstage pass thing has been handled from one concert to another on this tour. Let's all hope they work out a more equitable system for doing these things before they tour again.)

Okay, down off the soapbox and back to the concert. By the time the conversation with Ash was concluded, Admiral Twin's set was well underway, and Heather and I headed off to find our seats, which were up in the nosebleed section. We were planning to try and sneak down to some unoccupied seats closer to the front, and as will be seen, Heather was considerably more successful in that endeavor than I was.

The seating in that venue is divided into front and back sections with a concourse running in between, and our seats were almost all the way at the back of the back section. I managed to get down into the first few rows of the back section, but no farther, because the front section was guarded by teams of three or four ushers standing at the entrance to every aisle. It was hard to even get into the concourse between the two sections, much less any of the aisles that led down front. I tried a few times, but every time I took a step in the wrong direction, one or more ushers moved to thwart me, and a couple of them eventually started eyeing me suspiciously. I finally decided it wasn't worth the hassle and concentrated on looking for a seat with good sightlines and a clear view of the TV screens to watch the concert from.

As much as I would have liked to get down front, after the close up look I'd gotten at the guys at Planet Hollywood, I felt reasonably content watching the concert from afar. But my gutsy little girl was another matter. She kept on trying and I didn't see much of her after the first segment of the show. When we met up after the show, I learned that she had succeeded in getting all the way down to the edge of the stage, where she had a ton of fun. I'll be describing her adventures later, but first, here are my impressions from back in the back.

I guess everyone has heard by now, even if you haven't been to a concert, that Hanson's set is concealed behind a curtain while Admiral Twin plays. Well, at the NWMT, the stage was too wide for the curtain, so it didn't completely cover everything. You could see "oil derricks" on either side of it the whole time. Also, after AT was done, the crew came out to prepare the stage for Hanson's entrance as usual, and while they were working, the curtain kept blowing up to fully expose what was behind it. It was really kind of funny watching them try to get it to stay down while it kept going up again, over and over. They finally did get it down and keep it that way, but it took several attempts.

As everyone reading this probably also knows, when the guys are ready to go on, they take their places behind the curtain, the music starts, lights flash on the curtain, and then it raises to reveal them. It's quite a dramatic effect, and I can't help but think that no matter how many times you might see this, the moment when that curtain goes up would be a heart-stopping one. Because after the waiting and "hansonticipating", finally there THEY are, playing, singing, looking GOOD, right in front of you, and you can hardly believe that the moment has finally arrived. The Chicago concert was certainly no exception in that regard.

When the curtain went up, Zac was obscured behind the drums as usual. I could see Taylor a bit better, but from the angle I was viewing from, it was hard to get a good look at what he was wearing at first. But between the looks I got later and Heather's report from down front, here's the rundown:

Taylor—silvery pants in a shiny, glittery fabric, and a light blue or gray shirt (could have been the same one he had on at Pine Knob) open over a black T-shirt. The outer shirt came off after the first portion of the concert, and he played the rest of the show in just the T-shirt. His hair was down the whole time, and it had that casually messy look that it had on the Magic Hour and Tonight Show appearances a few weeks before. Zac—dark blue jumpsuit. That's right, jumpsuit. I assumed it was a shirt and pants at first, but Heather saw it up close and she assures me that it was indeed a jumpsuit. It was very cool-looking, too. His hair was also down the whole time. Isaac—a long, flowing, light blue shirt buttoned up over a black T-shirt; the pants were also a light color, either blue or gray, I think. Everything he wore that night was in soft, shimmery, satiny looking fabrics, except for the T-shirt. And his hair—

Sorry, I just have to start a separate paragraph for Isaac's hair. The way it looked on Friday night, it deserves one, okay? I have never seen it looking more gorgeous, ever. He left it down the whole time, except at the very end when they came back for the encore, and it was nice and long, grown out quite a bit from that chin-length haircut he had back in the spring (that guy's hair must grow FAST, btw). And it was CURLY and FLUFFY to the max. As if that wasn't enough, there were lights falling on him from behind that shone through the curls and made them seem to glow like a golden halo. It really was quite a striking effect. At the risk of sounding corny, in that flowing, silky shirt, with that glowing corona of curls, he literally looked like an angel.

The people who are reading this who know me well are probably going to laugh their heads off at me for saying this, but really I can't think of anything in particular to say about how Taylor and Zac looked. They both looked great, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about the appearance of either one. Isaac's looks, however, were just way out of the ordinary that night. I was much more impressed with the way he looked in Chicago than I was in Detroit, where he wore a ponytail and plain-looking dark clothes the whole time.

Okay, I'll shut up now about how gorgeous Isaac was. Now where was I? Okay, the guys are on stage now. Anybody who is likely to be reading this probably pretty much knows the general lineup of songs on the tour by now, and that the opener is always "Give Me Some Loving" followed by "Shake Your Tailfeather." No surprises there, and no major ones later, as I recall, although I am admittedly bad about remembering things like which songs were played in what sequence. Also, the screaming was SO loud at this concert that it was actually hard to tell what they were playing at times, and understanding the introductions was even harder.

I've heard a rumor floating around that "Surely as the Sun" was performed in Chicago, and all I can say is that they did not do that song, unless it has somehow been changed to the point of unrecognizability. I do not remember hearing it, and I don't know how I could possibly have missed it, even with all the screaming. I do remember that they played all the covers that they've been doing on the tour, including "Money", which I understand has been omitted from some of the shows. They also did "Ever Lonely", the one never-before heard Hanson song that they usually dedicate to Hanson crew member and close bud Ashley Greyson.

And of course there was that glorious moment at the end of the garage segment when Taylor and Zac left the stage and Isaac sat down at the keyboard to do "More than Anything." That number was a big surprise at the beginning of the tour, but word has definitely gotten around. As soon as he put down the guitar and started heading for the keyboard, there was a crescendo of screams that hardly let up during the whole song. (Just once, it would be so nice to hear "More than Anything" without having to strain to hear it over the screams. I cannot wait until that live album and video come out.)

As has already been written numerous times, in reviews of other concerts, this is a marvelous number, and not just for hard-core Isaac fans. In the first place, it's an absolutely beautiful ballad, which prior to the tour had only been heard by those fans who were either fortunate or obsessed enough (or like me, both) to be able to get hold of a bootleg copy of Boomerang. I think it's wonderful that so many more people have been able to hear it now, and (assuming it's on the live album and video, which I can't imagine it not being), it will soon get even wider exposure. This is a song that deserves all the exposure it can get, believe me. It's gotten some very interesting comments from reviewers since he began doing it on the tour. A Chicago reporter said the song would be at home in Elton John's repertoire, and a Detroit reporter called it a "power ballad" and described Isaac's vocal as "Billy Joel-style". Very high, and very well-deserved praise, in my opinion.

On Boomerang, the song is beautiful and moving, but when he performs it now it is absolutely exquisite. When it was originally recorded (about three years ago, I think) Isaac's voice was still in the process of changing, about where Taylor's was on some of the MON tracks. He had a very sweet, breathy little voice at the time, and his performance on the recording is beautifully expressive. I love listening to it and always will. But now, hearing it in that full, rich baritone....words utterly fail me in trying to describe what it's like, so I guess we'll all just have to wait for the album and video. And in Chicago, the camera work done by the venue staff for the big TV screens enhanced the experience greatly. They did lots of beautiful close-ups, both of his face, from a variety of angles, some even superimposing a profile with a full-face shot. There were also some nice shots of those long, graceful fingers on the keyboard, which made me appreciate more fully just how good a keyboardist he really is. And the dashingly romantic figure he cut that night in those silky clothes and long fluffy curls made the whole thing truly a thing of beauty to watch.

I've seen a lot of concert reviews that said he does the whole song with his eyes closed, but that was not my impression in Chicago. It seemed to me that a good part of the time he was actually looking down at the keyboard, which made his eyes appear to be closed, but they really weren't. He definitely did not look at the audience much, though. He has added something new to his performance since the tour began: he now points a finger at the audience towards the end ("I'd give anything and everything I have just to be with YOU"). Not terribly original (borrowed from Taylor on IWCTY), but of course, it drives the teenies wild. Watch for it at future concerts, you who are going to one. You don't want to miss it.

The concert also included the other elements which have become standard fare on the tour, including Taylor's brief drumming stint, Isaac's elbowing Taylor out of the way to take over the keyboard for a little while (during which Taylor ran around all over the stage), Zac's electric drumsticks (he does some real fancy flashing and with those things), the shtick with the super soakers, and so forth. All the usual fun stuff. I'm lousy at absorbing details when something is happening right before my eyes, so the memories are a blur, but basically it was all pretty much like what I remembered from Detroit.

When they came out for the third segment of the show, Taylor's and Zac's hair and attire was unchanged, but Isaac had exchanged his light blue shirt for a satiny black one with a zipper up the front, which he wore open over his black T-shirt. The last part of the concert is the most "physical" and Isaac does a lot of running around the stage and leaping on and off the various platforms. This concert was no exception, and in what has come to be almost an expected occurrence, he fell on one of his attempts at jumping off the drum riser. This time he landed on his butt instead of his knees, and he leaped up rubbing his backside with a big sheepish grin and picked up right where he left off.

It was during this part of the concert that Heather made her way all the way down to the front. She got there right after the start of Man from Milwaukee, which was near the beginning of the 3rd segment, and she snagged a spot right at the edge of the stage, smack dab in the middle, where she stayed for the rest of the show. She says she got a better look at Isaac than either of the others, because Taylor and Zac didn't come out from behind their instruments that much while she was down there. In fact, Zac was behind the drums the whole time, except when he came down to leave the stage before the encore and at the end of the show. The next few paragraphs are based mostly on what she told me.

Isaac frequently walked over to the edge of the stage and leaned over the crowd while he was playing, and every time he did it, those curls fell over his face like a golden waterfall. It must have been quite a treat for the teenies down front, and Heather says they went ballistic every time. (Just watching it on the TV monitor was pretty cool.) In fact, Heather claims that the teenies were throwing more hissy fits over Ike and Zac, between the two of them, than over Taylor. I have no personal knowledge of whether this is true, but that I can certainly vouch for the fact that the place went up for grabs every time Zac's face appeared on the TV screens.

I can't remember for sure what the last song was before the encore (possibly "MMMBop"), but when they returned to the stage, Isaac had put his hair in a ponytail and he was wearing only his black T-shirt. My daughter was among the favored few who actually saw him take the other shirt off. She says that when they started to come back on-stage, he still had it on, but he pulled it off just before they came all the way back out. Only a few lucky people down front were able to see him do it, but it must have been a memorable moment for them.

"Summertime Blues" is a really fun number. Among other things, Isaac does a goofy voice that is so deep that the first time I heard it in Detroit, I looked around and said "What was that?" After hearing it twice, I still can't figure out how he does it. Also, they got the crowd singing along on the chorus ("There ain't no cure for the summertime blues!") and Taylor walked over to the edge of the stage and held the microphone down to the audience. Heather says he was directly in front of her when he did it.

I recently learned an interesting (to me anyway) bit of trivia regarding this song. During a telephone interview on a Rockford, Illinois radio station, Isaac mentioned that "Summertime Blues" was one of the songs that was on the famous 1950s rock and roll compilation tape that the Hansons took to South America with them. So it must have been one of the first oldies that the guys learned. How fitting to use it as the closing number on their first tour.

That turned out to be the last song, because they didn't come back out for the a cappella "Weird" encore and bow. Heather says they didn't lean over the stage and touch people's hands on the way offstage either. From what I've read in other people's reviews, the teenies down front were being particularly aggressive in trying to rush the stage, and that evidently had something to do with the omission of both those elements. They did make use of those super soakers on the way offstage, both before and after the encore and of course they flung the water from their water bottles on the crowd as usual. Taylor also tossed his water bottle out into the audience after he emptied it.

After getting hit by sidespray from one of Zac's super soaker shots, Heather evidently managed to attract his attention. At least she claims he looked right at her and aimed the super soaker directly at her, not once but twice. She also says Taylor dumped about half of his water on her from his water bottle. She only got hit by one drop of water from Isaac, but she claims he looked at her a few times when he was doing that leaning over the stage thing. At least she thinks he did. I asked her why she couldn't tell for sure, and she said it was because his hair was covering up his face. I didn't point out that, in that case, it might have been hard for him to be looking at anybody! Whether Isaac actually did look at her is anybody's guess (although I guess he may have, since she was right at the edge of the stage), but in any case she went home a very happy camper, convinced that she had gotten personal attention from all three guys.

When they didn't come back out and do "Weird", the crowd hesitated for a moment. You could just feel people thinking "What happened? They're not coming back out?" But the lights went up, leaving no doubt remaining, and people began to file out. I started looking around for Heather, and she finally came swaggering up from the stage area with a great big grin on her face and proceeded to tell me about the adventures I have just related. We headed out to the concession area where we picked up a few items at one of the souvenir booths, and then found a spot by the gates to wait for the big blue bus to emerge.

The crowd of waiting fans was arranged along the roadway the bus would have to drive out on, and we managed to get up to the front. The people behind us kept pushing forward, and every so often, we'd find ourselves standing in the road, whereupon the security guards would force everyone back. This happened so many times it got monotonous, and in the meantime, of course there was an outbreak of screaming every time anyone saw the slightest movement on the other side of the fence.

But like everything else we had waited for that day, it eventually happened. With dozens of security guards forming a human barrier between the fans and the road, the gates finally opened and a big blue bus drove slowly out. Hundreds of necks craned but there were no recognizable faces visible in the windows. Dang! Before the crowd even had a chance to breathe a sigh of disappointment, however, the first blue bus was followed by a second, and in this one, the figures of Isaac and Taylor were clearly visible, standing right up in the front. The first thing I spotted was Isaac's ponytailed profile, then I noticed Taylor standing next to him. As a nice added touch, the lights were on inside the bus, so we could see them really well. (I don't know where Zac was; he could very well have been standing on the other side of Taylor, but if so, he wasn't visible from our side of the road.) Anyway, I just thought it was really sweet of them to position themselves that way and have the lights on, just so the fans could see them. (Thanks, guys!)

As the bus continued to move away from us, the teenies began to break free from the chain of security guards and started chasing after the bus in a futile attempt to either touch it or grab Hanson and try to drag them back. I couldn't really blame them in a way, as stupid as it was, because after spending an evening with Hanson, it's really hard to let them out of your sight again.

That was the end for us, except for the trudge to the car and the long, long ride home. And this, finally is the end of this review. It was a long, exhausting, thrilling day that we will never forget, and we can hardly wait for the next tour.