RGB Tour: Minneapolis

And I Waited

For round two of the RGB tour, I flew from South Carolina to Minneapolis, then roadtripped from Minneapolis to Fargo and Winnipeg with four friends. If you enjoy reading fan experiences and are also a reader of the blog Scream and Be Frees or Hansonstage, be forewarned that we traveled together for these three shows and our stories are bound to have similarities. We’re also different people with different perspectives that didn’t stand next to each other every night, so I’m sure there will be some variation, too. It might even be fun to see what stood out more to different people in the same room.

Personally, my trip to Minneapolis was flawless. I got upgraded to first class, and somehow the only flight delay I experienced cut down an obscene layover from three hours to two and gave me an extra hour of sleep. That never happens. Thanks (for once), American!

We arrived at the venue just late/early enough to experience some of the joys that always seem to accompany middle of the night adventures. First, I was catcalled by a homeless man who started out with your standard “Hey baby, you’re beautiful. What’s your name?” which has been universal creep language for decades, but he really brought things forward into the 2020s when he began trying to guess my name (“Is it Melissa? Britney? Maybe you’re a Laura…”), and when I finally said “No,” he goes “Oh, so it’s Karen.” Dude’s got jokes.

Not long after that, we were approached by another man who was walking alone carrying what appeared to be a garment bag fresh from the dry cleaners (again…this was still the middle of the night. Context is everything). He told us he was going to meet his son who just got off a shift from a pizza shop and asked if we’d like ten free pizzas. Just to be clear, there were only three of us. We politely declined, listened to him ramble about something else unrelated, and then he wandered away. I was certain he was either lying, confused, or a little of both until about half an hour later we started to see people wandering down the street separately from each other with pizza boxes in hand coming from the direction he had gone. I’m not sad we missed out on free street pizza, but there’s something nice about the seemingly weirdoes of an area really looking out for each other.

The line was pretty relaxed all day, and by the time doors opened I was lucky enough to snag a great spot in the front row on Taylor’s side. It was my first time seeing Allen Mack Myers Moore opening, and I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the energy of having a full band on stage instead of Hanson’s usual guy with a guitar formula.

The first noticeable difference in the setlist from my previous shows was when Isaac pulled out “For Your Love” for his solo. He introduced it by saying “This is the first time this song has been played on this tour,” and while it was the first time *I* heard it this tour, that statement was not actually true. I swear I’ve heard Isaac make incorrect “This is the first time…” statements about songs at least four times now, but I’d probably suffer from setlist amnesia too if I was in the middle of a 90-show run. 

After my last three shows were over, I was sad to hear that I missed “Dressed in Brown Eyes” featuring John Calvin Abney on the harmonica later in the tour, so I was really happy to get to hear it in Minneapolis featuring Zack Mack from AMMM instead. It’s such a fun fan club song and I’m glad it made its way into a regular show.

It's Happening

I could try to pretend that I have anything left to say about this show that doesn’t relate to “Don’t Let Me Down,” but let’s be real. When I look back on this show in the future, the thing that is going to come to mind is the guest appearance of Reggie Willie.

I'll rewind for a moment just in case your forwarding address is under a rock: One of Hanson's singles from their latest album Red Green Blue is a Zac lead called "Don't Let Me Down" that features guitar from Zach Myers of Shinedown, who also happens to be Zach Myers of Allen Mack Myers Moore who was opening for Hanson at this show. If you have any hope of understanding what happened, you need to have seen the music video first.

I think we all had a little bit of an inkling that Reggie could make an appearance since Zac did a version of it already in Springfield, Zach Myers was heavily teasing his presence on social media right before the show, and this was the last “real” show Zach would be at to play guitar. At one point I even said “wouldn’t it be cool if he broke out the muscle suit from the video?” However, no version of me could have predicted the involvement of fruit.

When they all walked back out on stage for the encore, the lights were dimmed but I immediately noticed the tank top and shorts and knew we were about to get an epic performance. Unlike in Springfield, this time Zac was wearing the full original costume from the music video- Dum Bell’s gym shirt, yellow shorts, and upper body muscle suit with sunglasses. When Zac/Reggie walked out from behind the piano and the lights came back on, you can literally see the video I was taking at the time fall over and aim at the floor for a moment as my brain short circuited trying to process what I was seeing. I swear my hand just lost function momentarily while all power was rerouted to my eyes to decipher reality. It took me a split second to decide THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT REAL, and I got a good laugh thinking of the socks or whatever might be stuffed in those shorts for comedic effect after how thirsty fans got from the previous performance. This was clearly Zac’s troll response to the collective fandom meltdown those tiny blue shorts caused in Springfield.

I was laughing right up until he put his hand down his shorts and pulled out an actual banana, took a bite, and lobbed it in my general direction. There are certain situations in life where you’d like to think you know how you would react if it happened to you, but sometimes it takes actually being in that situation to find out what’s really in your heart. I’m proud to say that when that crotch banana came flying over my head, my gut instinct was to duck—not catch it. I think my favorite part was relaying this story to my absent friend later whose casual reply was “Well duh, you’re allergic to bananas!” Minor details. 

(P.S. Shoutout to Zach Myers for the best look of instant regret I have ever seen in my life the second after he bites the banana and seems to register that he's now committed to chewing and swallowing it.)

Though the whole thing was clearly meant to be some exaggerated workout display, a few of his moves were definitely bordering on bad male stripper vibes, and I couldn’t help but remember a time years ago when the same friend and I saw a small taste of something similar. You can check out the full story in my Instagram post below, but TL;DR, I’m pretty sure I met pre-fame Reggie back in 2013.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Holly (@_hollywouldnt)

The whole performance was hilarious, and I'm really glad I got to be there in person for what has got to be the biggest "WTF is happening" moment I've ever experienced at a Hanson show. Well, maybe second to the time Taylor unexpectedly invited me on stage and then SUPER unexpectedly started dancing with me. And maybe third to the time that one guy jumped head first out of the balcony in front of me. I think the bottom line here is that anyone who thinks all Hanson shows are the same is not living the same fan life I am. Thanks, Hanson, for never letting me down when it comes to having a good time.

I finally got a new phone that does decent things even if it can't write blogs for me just yet, so while I'm usually quick to give you the thousand words instead of the picture, I'll leave you with a full HD video of my view for once:

TL;DR BTS lingo translation: "Don't Let Me (Look) Down". (Am I doing this right,  Rachel? 👋🤣)