MY FIRST HANSON CONCERT
Avalon Nightclub in Boston, Massachusettes
December 10, 1997
Thanks to Ravi for the picture.
I just had to see Hanson in concert. It was a strong desire of mine. I told a friend of mine to let me know if he heard of them putting on show to let me know. Later he told me to listen to Kiss 108 radio station from Boston because he heard that Hanson would play at the annual Christmas party. Of course I had to start listening. In order to get tickets for the big event, that several acts were scheduled to perform at, was to win them. The station was playing "I Will Come To You" and "What Christmas Means To Me" in their regular rotation. Hanson was pretty popular. Many parents were calling into the station complaining that is too bad that their kids and teenagers could not attend the event, since you had to be 21 to get in the Avalon nightclub, where the party will be held. Hanson heard about this and decided to do a daytime show so kids could come. They are so nice! Therefore, I tried to win tickets to this event, where Hanson played 4 songs and Robyn performed also. Unfortunately, I did not win 4 tickets and my 2 sons were very disappointed, because they wanted to see Hanson. I then tried to win a pair of tickets for the annual Kissmas Party.
I called everytime I heard Isaac say be the 12th caller to win tickets. I was getting discouraged after trying for 2 weeks. I was starting to get anxious and feeling down because I wanted to see Hanson so badly. The event was in a week! Sue, the mother of 2 kids I babysat for, asked me one afternoon as she was picking up her kids, if I had won the tickets yet. She told me to keep trying, because she had not slept well the night before because she kept dreaming that I had won. I took her advice and kept calling even though that night I was going out with friends. I won 7:30 that night! YIPEE!!!!!!!! I have never won anything in my life! Thank you Sue!
The same friend who told me about Hanson playing at the Kiss Christmas party brought me to the radio station to get my tickets before the show. It was a 2 hour drive from where I live in New Hampshire, so I took the day off from work to go. He showed me how to get to the Avalon night club in Boston, since I would be the one to be driving to the show the next night.
The day finally arrived when I would be going to see Hanson. YAY! It was December 10, 1997, a Thursday. After I was done babysitting, I got ready and after much thought I decided to wear my red dress. It was comfortable, but still dressy. I picked up my sister and we headed. We stopped so she could get a coffee to wake up. She had been on her feet all day waitressing. After my sister bought a toy to bring as admission into the show for the Toys For Tots program, we were on the road to Boston. I hate driving in the city! I get nervous driving on multi-lane highway. The toughest part for me was Storrow Drive. It is a one way tunnel and very confusing. You have to go pretty fast and there are cars entering and exiting with entering and exiting ramps on both sides of the road! I had to remember which lane to be in to make my exits and I was driving in the middle of both lanes going slower than the speed limit with cars beeping at me! I made it though. When we arrived at the place there was a long line we had to wait in for about 20 minutes. I looked around for any sign of Hanson and I did not see one. There were several buses but I had no idea if one was theirs or which one it would be. I had my stack of Hanson books, CD and poster to have the guys sign in case I would meet them. My kids and the kids I babysat wanted their autographs. After we got in we saw that there was no place left for us to sit. That was fine since I wanted to be as close to the stage as we could get. The Avalon is so cool. It has a high ceiling and the speaker system and accustics are awesome. We started dancing, since the dance tunes were very inviting. The load pulsating music coming through the extrodinary speakers just vibrated through your body and it felt like someone punched our foreheads and tops of our heads a couple of times! It was so funny! We were laughing our butts off! These two women about my age started talking to us and I soon found out that they were there just for Hanson like I was. One woman had a glass figure from her daughter and wanted her mom to give it to Zac. They said saw Zac spraying silly string outside at people while they were waiting to get in!
Fiona Apple played first. She is so petite and cute! She did great. She is very expressive and smooth with her moves. Her voice is very powerful. When she was finished, her crew removed her equipment and another crew set up the next band's equipment. I soon realized that the equipment belonged to Hanson when the smaller than usual drum set was set up and I saw the Hanson logo on the bass drum! A man put guitar picks on Isaac's microphone stand. The keyboard was set up. I was watching everything! After the stage was set for Hanson to play, Matty in the morning (what they call the morning DJ)came onstage to welcome everyone.
Matty then introduced Hanson saying that they put on a great show there earlier and the audience will be surprised to see them since they have a lot of talent for their ages. It was weird to not hear the typical cheering that goes on when Hanson is around. I had to remind myself that the crowd was 21 and older, not the typical Hanson audience. It was very exciting to me when Hanson came onstage! It was surreal for me. I was used to seeing their pictures, TV appearances, and videos. Now they were standing right in front of me! They were absolutely adorable! They looked so young to me and they should look that way, since I am old enough to be their mom! The guys took their position on stage. Isaac greeted the crowd and told the audience that the guy that introduced them did not know what he was talking about. I guess Isaac did not like to be reminded of his age and doesn't see any correlation between the ages of the members of a band and the talent of a band. Isaac was wearing a gray button down short sleeved shirt and Taylor was wearing a black long sleeved shirt that was beaded, the beads sparkled from the lights. I don't remember what Zac was wearing, because he was hidden quite a bit behind his drum set. I think it was a blue shirt, but I'm not 100% sure. I felt sorry for Zac a little because he looked a little sad and his brothers did all the talking whenever there was talking. Taylor and Isaac each introduced a couple of the songs. Isaac told the crowd that he knows we are older than the typical crowd they play for, but couldn't we at least move a little. He was right, the crowd overall was not getting into the music. I was singing along and dancing and so were the 2 women who were my age. My sister was getting into it also. One man in front of me called his daughter and told here Hanson was performing now and held his cell phone up so she could hear their whole performance! I thought that was so nice of him. Obviously there were other parents there like me who tried to get tickets for their children but had no luck.
Hanson put on a great show, as I knew they would. They sang 7 songs. They started off with "Thinking of You", one of my favorites. "MMMBop" was the last song they performed. Taylor told the crowd that we should all know this one before they played "MMMBop". The other songs they played were: "A Minute Without You", "Where's the Love", "I Will Come to You", "What Christmas Means to Me", and "Run Rudolf Run". Isaac was really getting into it on stage. He is a great guitarist. Taylor had the most energy! He was bouncing up and down the whole show and even though the crowd was mellow he was enthusiastic. In no time the sweat was just pouring off him. He took off his black shirt to reveal a white t-shirt. One women who was friends with the woman who had a gift to give Zac from her duaghter hollered "take it off baby!" Tay is a cutie - they all are! She was yelling the words to "A Minute Without You". I knew that she was a fan then. A few times I wanted to holler to the guys. They would hear it since I was so close, but I chickened out. I think all the adults there would think I was weird if I did that! I wanted the show to go on forever.
I was sad when Hanson said goodbye. Isaac said they will be back and play a real concert next time. I told myself that I will definitely try to see them when they go on their first officail tour. When they left the stage I was goin gto try to go meet them but there were workers all around and there seemed no place to get backstage so I decided against it. Michael Bolton played next. He was okay, but not a particularr favorite of mine. As Chumbawumba's crew was setting up, my sister needed to sit down because she was so tired. She did not want to sit on the floor and we could not leave and come back so we left. That was alright with me since I really only wanted to see Hanson. If I knew we were not staying for the night It would of been cool to leave right after Hanson and then I could of seen them outside! Oh well, there was no way of knowing. We went to a bar down the street sit down and get something to eat and then we headed home. The ride home was a lot less stressful!
I would have to say that this concert was the best concert that I have ever seen in my life. The reasons for this is because Hanson is my favorite band and I was so close to the stage. Hanson is the best!
I finished writting this article on August 12, 2000.
CONCERTS
