October 27, 2009

DC Fan Club Event

I don't have a whole lot to say for this one since it was a short show and nobody really waited in line for an extended period of time. It was a good time, but I would be tempted to say it wasn't really worth the drive if they hadn't pulled out Devil's Nachos for the first time. I drove to Charlotte to meet up with 3 friends and we all rode together from there. We drove there and back in the same day, which was really intense and left me sprinting back to class on no sleep with no shower just like Chicago. It's becoming a bad habit, really. I was a little terrified to drive in DC, but it really wasn't that bad, thankfully. And we found valet parking for $5 attached to the hotel, so that was pretty perfect.

The show itself was good, but the setup was horrible. There were lots of rows of chairs, but not nearly enough for everyone. I totally called that the people who arrived last would get to sit on the floor up front, and I was right. I'm not at all angry with those people--they got pretty lucky! And I had some friends up there. However, it caused some definite tension in the crowd and people were getting kind of riled up over having waited in line for a while only to have people who didn't wait at all get to sit a foot in front of Hanson. Some people got out of their seats and sat on the floor, but I didn't see any point in adding to the tension. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if the chairs weren't arranged in a way so that NO ONE but the people in the front or on the very end of an aisle could see. I had to just trust that Isaac was there because I didn't see him at all until the group photos.

The performance was great, though I feel like Taylor was still battling the tail end of the flu. He sounded fine to me but he looked a bit strained to hit higher notes at one point. I was a little disappointed in the setlist because I expected them to pull out some rarer things, but the only song I hadn't heard was Devil's Nachos. As a HUGE fan of that song, though, I was completely ecstatic not only to be hearing it live, but to be hearing it as it was played live for the first time ever. Zac introduced it by saying we were welcome to sing along as we were now officially allowed to know that it existed. It was definitely the highlight of the night. I'm not going to lie, though, I feel like Follow Your Lead could have stayed home. Another highlight was Kiss Me When You Come Home. I heard it back in may, but it was neat to hear it again having heard it only that one time. There's something different about hearing new music live that you don't know the words to, and it's not a feeling you get to experience often.

I was a little disappointed in the Q&A session as well;I don't remember what all was asked, but several questions were variations of things that have definitely been asked and answered before. One girl asked if Been there Before had an Otis Redding and Johnny Cash reference. Beyond the fact that I feel like this is common knowledge and not worth using up one of the few questions we were allowed, the girl framed the question by pretty much saying "I already asked this on a walk and I think you said yes, but I wanted to make sure...." Fail. I'm hesitant to call out this person on the grounds that I should feel bad, but no, I think it was selfish to use up a question that you already asked just to draw attention to yourself for a second time. Someone asked what they were dressing as for Halloween, but they said they hadn't really thought about it. They ended up saying they were going to dress as Hellogoodbye, but I don't know how serious they were about that. Someone else asked where they were during Sept. 11th (appropriate since we were in DC near the pentagon), and they said they were in LA working on Underneath. Isaac gave a pretty eloquent answer off the top of his head; I was impressed.

Another girl prefaced a question by saying she had done research on it, but then proceeded to fail by stating that she thought they lived in New York. She basically asked why Hanson didn't step it up and work with governors (or senators? sorry, don't even remember--some type of representative) more in taking action. It received a few boos, but I feel like the guys did a great job answering and explaining that more can be done by appealing to the masses, and that they have in fact spoken with the people she suggested. I'm hardcore failing to explain their answer, but they did a fantastic job defending themselves and supporting their position.

The group pictures were pretty large, probably 15-20 people in each as usual. My friends and I were in one of the later ones, which is something I haven't experienced in the past being in the first and second group photos at the other two events I've been to. I'm not sure why, but I walked up to Taylor and told him I was short so I needed to be down front, so he moved me to the center of the bottom row next to Isaac. I don't really recall him moving other people around, so I don't know why it seemed reasonable at the time to tell him where I needed to go in the picture. Afterwards, I went to shake his hand but someone else started talking to him at the same time, so he got really distracted and more or less ended up awkwardly holding my hand for a few seconds without shaking it. Two of my friends went up to Zac and hugged him and said "See you in Charlotte!" so I decided to jump on that bandwagon, but for some reason I half apologized while doing it. I'm pretty sure I said "Sorry, I'm going to do it too," (really? Is it ever appropriate to say that when you hug someone?) then hugged him and said "See you in Charlotte!" He said I was succumbing to peer pressure and he understood. I had never hugged any of them and felt pretty awkward about it; I don't think I'll be asking for a hug from one of them again; in the future I'll just let it just happen if such a situation ever comes up, and if not, no more hugs. But Taylor did jokingly say Zac was going to hug every person at the event, and I did see him giving a LOT of hugs, so I'll just assume it was okay. I tried to get back to Isaac to shake his hand and tell him I enjoyed the show, but got herded out on the way and didn't get to greet him.

All in all it was a good show that could have been a little better, but I'm glad I went and I can't wait to see the group picture.

*This is proof as to why I should never begin a post with "I don't have much to say..." I will ultimately prove myself wrong.
I love this picture simply because I was completely oblivious to the fact that I was being an Isaac twin at the time.

No comments: