My Hanson Experience
It all started on Saturday September 9th. Melissa and I were at my friend Megan's house in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Megan has been my penpal on the Net for about 3 and a half years and this was the first time we'd met, I'd been staying at her house for the week). Megan's friend Teena came to Megan's Mom's work to pick us up. After loading all our stuff into the car we set off for Teena's so we could drop all our luggage off there. After that we got on the freeway and drove to New York City. It was a fun ride, especially the traffic jam we encountered on the way because we entertained ourselves by informing all the cars around us about how much we love Hanson. This involved me hanging out Teena's sunroof with a Hanson poster and screaming Hanson rock! It was the funniest thing. I love acting like those stupid teenies do all the time!
We finally got in the city and it took us forever to find our hotel, which was the Holiday Inn Uptown on 57th St. We finally found it and went up to our room to meet up with Teena's friends Natalie and Ashley who were staying there too and Natalie's mom was there as well.
Megan had gotten me a VIP pass for the Macy's meet and greet which was the next day but I didn't have a wristband for the mini-concert so I didn't think I could get in. Megan, Teena, Ashley and Natalie all had wristbands and wanted to get a good spot for the concert so me and Mel said goodbye to them and they went to sleep outside at Macy's overnight so they could get a good spot. Me and Mel got something to eat and then went to sleep so we could get an early night.
In the morning we walked up to the 59th Street subway station and did a detour past Trump International Hotel and Tower (where Hanson stay everytime they are in NYC) to see if we could see anything interesting. All we saw were a bunch of fans so we didn't stay. We took the subway to 34th Street so we could go to Macy's to drop off a pair of Ashley's shoes and see how the others were going. After seeing them we walked over to Penn. Station so we could buy our Amtrak train passes for the rest of our trip. Then we got back on the subway and rode it to Chinatown so we could look around there.
At about 2PM we got back to Macy's and we just looked at the clothes inside the store. After that I said goodbye to Mel who was going back to the hotel then I went around to find a line for the Meet and Greet. The only line I found was the one for the mini concert so I just showed them my pass and jumped in the line. I followed the security escort right into the concert. I was so happy. I thought with my VIP pass I could only go into the meet and greet so being in the concert was awesome. I was finally going to get to see Hanson perform! Once we got in there and packed into the crowd we had to wait for like forever for it to start (Hanson just love to be on time for everything!). I got talking to this guy Tyler and we hang out for the whole concert. He was really tall so he took a bunch of pictures with my camera for me during the show.
The show was sponsored by Macy's and Seventeen magazine so they had this totally boring back to school Seventeen fashion show first. Everyone was like yelling "This is dumb! We want Hanson" and I was just laughing at everyone cos I figured I'd already waited 3 and a half years to see Hanson so a hour or two isn't going to make much difference!
The show finally finished and this guy came out to introduce Hanson. The moment he did the crowd surged forward and instead of being about ¾ the way back I was well over ½ way towards the front which was really cool!
Hanson came running out and I almost flipped out but kept myself together. I didn't want to look like those dumb teenies who scream and cry and stuff. They looked so good! It was hard to tell what they were wearing from where I was but from what I could see, Isaac was wearing a light blue long sleeved shirt and I had no idea what he had on his bottom half. Taylor had on a white shirt with "The Music Lives" written on it in a black marker which I think he'd written on himself! ( I guess this is Tay showing his creative side!!). Later on for the meet and greet he put on a brown leather jacket. Zac had on a navy tight shirt with a "ZZ Top" print on it.
They played "Where's the Love" first and then this other song which I found out later was a cover of the Jimi Hendrix song "Crosstown Traffic" - I wasn't really into this song too much to start with. Then they talked for a bit but don't ask me what they said because I was in too much of a daze!
After that they played the rest of the set which was "This Time Around", "You Never Know" and "If Only".
After the concert had finished all of us with the guitar VIP passes had to go up to the 9th floor of Macy's and line up for the meet and greet. I met up with Meg, Teena, Ashley and Natalie and told them I'd seen the concert. We all went up to the 9th floor and waited in line.
*Me and Megan at Macys*
After waiting in line for what seemed like 2 hours but was only really about 20 - 30 minutes we finally got through into the curtained off area where the table that Hanson sat at was set up. I almost completely freaked out when I realised how close I was to them but I didn't cos I would have felt like a total idiot! They were sitting up front at the table and they looked so hot!! hehehe
They were playing the "This Time Around" CD in this area. I took a few pictures as I was walking up but I put my camera away when I got close to the front cos shoving a camera in their face is so rude. There were people handing out the pictures that we could have signed. I walked up to Taylor and set my picture down on the table. He signed it and shook my hand. As he was shaking my hand I said, "Hi! My name's Sarah, I'm from New Zealand. It's really nice to meet you Taylor." He smiled and said "Wow! New Zealand! Its nice to meet you too!" Then I said, "you really need to come and play in NZ" and he was like "yeah we really want to." I said "bye" and he smiled and waved and passed my picture onto Isaac.
I moved onto Isaac and told him the same thing I'd told Taylor. He was like "Wow, awesome, New Zealand. That's so cool! I really want to come over and play there soon. Hopefully we'll be there later on this year." He gave me a huge smile, signed my picture and passed it on to Zac. Zac took my picture and signed it. I told him my name and where I was from. He gave me a huge smile and said "New Zealand? Cool!" I said, "See you at the show tomorrow night" and he goes "yeah, see you tomorrow night!" I walked away so they couldn't see me and suddenly felt totally overwhelmed that I burst into tears! I was so happy. I kept thanking Megan for getting the ticket for me. It was amazing!
After that we ran out of Macy's and took a cab up to Trump to see if we could try to catch them there when they got back. We waited for ages and there were a lot of fans there. I turned around for a second and missed seeing Zac run in. Everyone was like "where are the others?" We looked through the doors and Tay was standing in the lobby cos he'd come in through the backdoor (I had no idea where Ike was). We didn't bother to wait any longer cos we were hungry and tired. Me, Meg and Teena began walking back to the hotel and got MacDonalds on our way back. We ate our food back at the hotel then showered. We got all our stuff together that we were going to need then we rested a bit before we went down to the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Centre. At about 10:30 PM we went down there and set up camp. It was a general admission concert so that's why we were lining up over night to get a good spot. We stayed there all night. We had a blanket underneath us and a sleeping back over us. We were practically sleeping in a parking garage. It was really funny! It was me, Teena, Ashley and Megan (Natalie was sleeping at the hotel). I think I got about 3 hours sleep between 2AM and 5AM. At about 8AM we organised our stuff and Natalie's mom came to save our spot so we could go up to Trump again to see if we could catch up with them on their way back from CBS This Morning. We got there like two seconds after they'd arrived so we just missed them. We waited there for ages then we heard that there were more people arriving at the concert so we went back to our space in line. We waited there all day until about 4PM when everyone made a condensed line. We stood in that squished line until about 6:15PM when they finally let us in. Thankfully because it was so hot standing there with no shelter from the sun.
We ran inside and made a dash for the front. We were given wristbands and we had to go in to the front area. I made it to second row which was awesome. I had an excellent view of Ike, and ok view of Tay and a pretty good view of Zac.
We waited about half an hour and then "Neve" they opening band, came out. They were really good and played about 6 songs. After they left the stage we had to wait about another 20 minutes before Hanson came on. When the guy from the radio announced them they all ran out. It was amazing! I couldn't believe after all this time I was finally at a Hanson concert. I mean, I'd seen them at Macy's the day before but this was so much different. It was the most amazing concert I have ever been to in my whole life. They did an awesome job, had so much energy and were so into it! Here is the Hammerstein setlist:
µ Look at you
µ Crosstown Traffic
µ Where's the Love
µ Runaway Run (this song totally rocks live!)
µ Wish That I Was There
µ Save Me (this totally made me cry because I love it so much)
µ Can't Stop (Ah! Favourite song on the new album! Woohoo!)
µ Thinking Of You
µ Piece Of My Heart (Janis Joplin cover)
µ Lucy (Zac is just way too cute singing this now!)
µ A Song To Sing (Cried in this too - yes I am a wuss!)
µ Sure About It
µ Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones cover)
µ A Minute Without You
µ Dying To Be Alive
µ River
µ Man From Milwaukee
µ This Time Around
µ If Only
µ Speechless (This is where they introduce the band. Taylor just runs around the stage doing a "I'm not worthy" bowing thing to the band members!)
µ Hand In Hand
µ You Never Know
µ Johnny B Good
µ MMMBop
µ In The City (I was never really a fan of this song until I heard it live!)
µ I Want You to Want Me (this song was last covered by "Letters to Cleo" but was originally done by "Cheap Trick").
µ This Time Around (this was just a section of it done accapella)
The following songs were done acoustically -
Lucy, A Song to Sing, Sure About It and Love Song
Jonny Lang was a special guest at this concert and he was awesome. He joined in on -
Hand In Hand, You Never Know and then in his honour Johnny B Good.
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After the concert finished we ran and jumped into Natalie's mom's car and drove straight to Trump. I waited there until about midnight for them but I was so tired that I said goodbye to the others and went and got into a cab and took it to the friend's place that me and Melissa we staying at for the next 2 nights. Megan, Teena, Ashley and Natalie stayed there and they told me later that Hanson finally came back to Trump at like 1:45AM and they met them.
At about 9AM the next day (12th September) me and Melissa arrived at Trump to wait for Hanson and meet up with Megan and Teena who had driven back to Teena's house that night. We waited there until about one in the afternoon until they finally came out. Zac just walked past us, said hi and got into the van. Isaac came out, I said hi to him and then he walked closer to the van and talked to some girls there. As soon as Taylor came out I said to him, "Hi Taylor, my name's Sarah and I'm from New Zealand. I was wondering if I could please get a picture with you?" He looked at me and goes "Oh Wow! Sure!" I handed my camera to Megan and then he stood next to me and pulled me closer putting his arm around my waist so I just put my arm around his waist too. I was shaking - I have no idea why - I was trying to hide the shaking though. After Megan took the picture he shook my hand and I said "thank you", he goes. "sure, no problem." Then some other girl asked him for a picture and he was like "We're really late. I can't guys, sorry." Then they girl looked at me and goes. "Well why did she get a picture?" and Taylor goes "Cos she's from New Zealand and she hasn't got a picture yet" and then he smiled at me. I gave him the letter I'd written for them and then they left. I was so happy. I'd finally gotten a picture with him.
*Me and Taylor at Trump*
(this picture was taken by Teena)
After that Teena drove us back to where we were staying. We said goodbye to Megan and Teena and they went back to Teena's. Me and Melissa were going to Washington DC the next day and meeting up with Meg and Teena on the 14th after the DC Hanson concert.
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14th September - Me and Melissa were in the Air and Space Museum on the 14th just looking around when we practically ran into Diana, Jessica, Avery, Mackenzie, Zoe and the kids baby-sitter Ashley. We didn't say anything to them cos we would have felt really stupid and it would have been pointless to because that would have been annoying for them. About a half an hour later we were outside in the park Mackie comes running out and starts screaming chasing after the birds. It was so cute!
After that we went up to the concert venue for the DC concert that night (the Warner Theatre) and got the car keys off Teena so we could put our stuff in the car. After that all four of us went to eat at Planet Hollywood then Meg and Teena went to the concert and me and Melissa went to do some more sightseeing.
After we were done sightseeing we went back to the Warner Theatre to meet them but the concert wasn't finished yet. We waited outside for a bit then realised that there was like no security at the doors or anything so we just walked in and stood at the back of the theatre and watched the last 20 minutes of the concert for free! It was so cool!
When the concert ended we met up with Meg & Teena and went to get the car. They wanted to follow the guys to see where they were staying so we sat outside the concert venue in the car and waited for about 2 hours until they finally left. We ended up following them for 4 hours which included a stop at a truck stop where we got told off for being there and then told "if you're lost you should go to that little store and buy a map"!! It was so funny. Ike was in the bus looking out the window - this was like 3AM by the way - and we were like ducking so he couldn't see us. We followed them all the way to the Wyndham Hotel in Philadelphia. We wrote down the address so we could come back there on the day of the Philadelphia concert. After we'd done that we drove back to Teena's moms and crashed out!
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16th September - We left Teena's at about 11AM for Philadelphia (me, Teena, Meg and Nora - our friend from Pittsburgh, PA). We drove straight to the hotel to wait for them. Security at the Wyndham was a lot different to Trump because we just walked straight into the lobby and no one said anything about us being there. We waited for about 2 hours before we caught any glimpse of them at all. Our first was of Zac and Ike. Zac came through the door first and said hi to us all. We asked him if he could stop and take pictures but he said he had to go upstairs to do some stuff but he'd be back soon. Ike came in almost straight after him. He stopped for a second and I asked him to take a picture with him. I told him where I was from and stuff and he agreed. He then said he really had to go upstairs but he'd be back soon.
*Me and Ike at the Wyndham in Philadelphia*
(this second picture was taken by Nora)
A little while later Taylor came in and was with Walker. They looked like they were in a rush so we didn't ask for pictures or anything. We just said hi. Taylor stopped and then looked at me, Meg and Teena and goes "Oh hey! How was the drive?" We all just looked at each other completely stunned thinking he meant us following them 2 nights before. Teena followed him over to the elevator and said to him "Taylor, may I ask you which drive you're referring to?" and he goes, "oh, the drive from your place to here." Teena came back and told us and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Zac came down about half an hour later with Diana, Mackie, Avie and Jessie. He seemed pretty hurried and all these teenies were trying to mob him so I just said hi and that's it. Teena managed to ask him for a picture but that's basically all he took.
Nora and Megan followed him to the door and just before he went out Nora screams out "Zac! I love M2M (the group who opened for Hanson from DC onwards)!" Zac turned around and smiled at her. Then she goes, "Can I take a picture with you since I love M2M?" and Zac went right up to her and goes loudly "WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!" he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her and goes "I LOVE LED ZEPPLIN!" He laughed, smiled and then went outside into the tour bus. It was the funniest thing. We laughed so hard. Especially Nora.
About 10 minutes later Taylor and Isaac came down with Ashley, Patricia (their publicist), Walker, Zoe and two girls who everyone thought were their girlfriends (Megan found out later that the girls were just friends of theirs that they had known when they lived in Virginia) . Walker was all like "give them some space" so everyone moved out of their way and plus we were a little shocked by the girls since at the time we were positive that they were girlfriends or something. Everyone moved back and they went straight to the tour bus. Everyone was a little disappointed but we didn't have to wait too long and they came off the bus to talk to us. It was only Ike and Tay though. Zac was inside getting ready for the concert.
I walked calmly up to Ike and Tay and introduced myself to them again. I told them that they really need to come and play in NZ. They told me that they had been scheduled to come to NZ about 4 times but their record company had changed it everytime. I told them that NZ was much nicer than Australia (J) and Taylor goes "Yeah, I've heard it's a really beautiful country." Isaac and Taylor probably talked to me about NZ for about 5-10 minutes. It was so cool!
I really wanted another picture with Taylor because I wasn't too impressed with my one from Trump (see what a fuss pot I was becoming after meeting them more than twice!) so I said "Taylor, I was just wondering if I'd be able to get a picture?" and he said, "Well we aren't really doing pictures and if I say yes to you then I have to say yes to everyone else. Sorry, I know you're from NZ and all." I was about to say fair enough when Ike looks at Taylor and goes, "You know Tay you should really get a picture with her because from New Zealand and she's come so far." Taylor smiled at me, handed Megan my camera and said "she'll take it, she's the photographer." Megan was just like "what?". He put is arm around me and we took the picture. I shook his hand and was like "thank you so much."
*Me and Taylor at the Wyndham in Philadelphia*
While all this was going on Nora had been looking in her purse for something for Taylor to sign and all she could find was a $1 bill so she passed it to him and he signed it. Chris Sabec was all like "that's defacing government property Taylor" and Taylor just ignored him. When he'd signed it he couldn't figure out who's it was. Nora is just standing there trying to get his attention by going "Taylor, Taylor, Taylor" but he wasn't listening, so seeing this Megan goes, "BLONDIE!" and he looks at her and Nora and handed Nora the bill!
After taking my picture Taylor had been asked to more pics with people and being the nice guy he is he agreed. So finally Teena got to ask him for a picture and he was like "ok, this is the last one". So Nora thought, screw this, cos she wanted a pic, so she asked Teena if she could get in the pic too. Teena agreed so Nora went to step up on the curb and missed it. She almost fell backwards but Taylor grabbed her arm to steady her. Nora was like "Holy Shit!" and then Taylor goes "Holy Shit! I've never seen that before!". It was so funny! Hearing Hanson swear is the funniest thing you will ever hear! Me, Meg, Nora and Teena were in absolute hysterics!!
So after that the guys had to leave so we said goodbye to them and then began walking to the car as their bus drove off. I was really happy that I had actually gotten to have a decent conversation with them. The only disappointing thing was that I never really got to say much to Zac or get a picture with him :o(
We went to Kmart to get our pics developed and Megan discovered there had been no film in her camera so she was upset cos obviously she had taken no pictures. We got out pictures back and then met up with our friend Bianca and her Mom who were going to the concert with us.
Then we finally headed up to the Tower Theater for the concert which wasn't even really in Philadelphia, it was in Upper Darby which is like the scariest, ghetto place!
Me, Megan and Nora were meant to pick up our tickets at the Will-Call window but when we got there they lady didn't have them so she had to look up our confirmation numbers and then she wrote us out a little slip of paper which sucked because I didn't get a ticket stub. They were checking cameras at this concert so being the shady person I am I shoved my camera in my sock!
Me and Megan had 16th row tickets as did Teena but somehow she managed to sneak up to the 3rd row or something. Nora had a fifth row ticket which her and Megan were going to share. Nora was there for the first half of the concert and Megan was down there for the second half. Nora was meant to go back down there for the encore but she let me go instead which was awesome, so I had 5th row for a little bit!!
At about 7PM "M2M" came on. Me and Meg said down for most of their performance (we're not real into M2M!) and used are little mouth glow sticks as lights and waved them around in the air laughing at M2M. It was so funny. Ashley Greyson and Jessie Hanson were standing in the soundbooth for M2M not looking like they were enjoying it at all. It was really funny.
At about 8PM Hanson finally came out. It was so cool to see them again. They looked as awesome as always. Taylor was wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt and greyish/black pants/jeans. Later he pulled off the shirt and had on light grey tank top underneath.
Isaac had on brown leather pants and a patterned shirt that had orange, brown and white in it.
Zac had on grey cargo pants and a blue & maroon shirt with the number 11 on it.
Although they didn't seem to have as much energy here as they did at Hammerstein it was still an awesome performance. Here's the setlist for the Tower Theater - Philadelphia:
µ Look At You
µ Crosstown Traffic
µ Where's the Love
µ Runaway Run
µ I Don't Know
µ Save Me (yep, I cried again!)
µ Smile
µ Can't Stop (man this song rocks!!!)
µ Thinking of You
µ Piece of My Heart
µ Lucy
µ A Song to Sing
µ Sure About It
µ Love Song
µ Can't Always Get What You Want
µ You Never Know
µ A Minute Without You (Ah! I love this song live. Everyone gets so into it!)
µ This Time Around
µ Hand In Hand
µ Speechless (Taylor did he little bowing thing again - I think he's trying to make it some sort of trademark (???))
µ If Only
µ MMMBop (no matter how sick I got of this song I still love it just as much as I did 3 and a half years ago)
µ In the City
µ I Want You to Want (I forgot to mention what they do in during this song. Taylor takes over the drums to play and Zac runs around the stage clapping and trying to dance. It's the funniest thing but it's so cute.)
A Song to Sing (in which I cried again! - told you I was a wuss!), Sure About It, Love Song, Can't Always Get What You Want were all acoustic.
Also at this concert a stupid fan climbed up on stage and attempted to make her way towards Taylor. She was quickly apprehended by Romeo (Hanson's roadie) and escorted off stage. Taylor looked petrified and Zac & Ike were laughing themselves silly. I found it pretty amusing too!
After the concert we went into MacDonalds where there were a lot of people who'd been at the concert. We were just laughing really loud and yelling to each other about meeting Hanson (me and Nora were doing this - we tried to drag Megan into it but she was laughing too much). We were screaming stuff like "Oh MY GOSH NORA! HAVE YOU MET HANSON?" and then Nora would scream, "YES!!!! OH MY GOSH SARAH! HAVE YOU MET HANSON?!!!" It was so funny! All the stupid little teenies were giving us the worst looks so we just yelled more!
After that we drove back to Teena's. I was pretty bummed because I knew this would be my last concert for awhile but then I thought about how fortunate I've been being able to see them in concert and meet them. I am so happy that it all happened and my dream finally came true.
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