RGB Tour: Nashville & Atlanta

RGB Setlist

Before I jump into city specifics, I think it makes the most sense to talk about the RGB tour in general (keep in mind I have a whole three shows’ expertise under my belt and that the tour isn’t even halfway done, so obviously this is super subjective). Despite avoiding setlist spoilers before attending these shows, I couldn’t escape comments here and there wishing that Hanson would play more new songs off of Red Green Blue and less singles. After experiencing a few shows for myself, I’m both inclined to agree but also thankful for what we got. The fangirl in me wants as many new songs as she can possibly get and also “Rambling Heart” every night for the rest of forever. The live music fan in me just wants the maximum number of upbeat songs that can be crammed into a single setlist and leave her begging for water and a nap. Somewhere in the middle of both of those things is the fact that if they actually played RGB all the way through, my hansonstage stats might benefit, but I’m pretty sure I’d be begging for “If Only” by mid-Green.

RGB is a lot more quiet and mellow than everything that came before it, and I feel like this might be one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations where we wouldn’t actually be any happier if we got what we think we wanted. In short: The RGB tour setlist might be a little Middle of Everywhere Tour 2.0, but at least the MOE tour understood the assignment to keep my adrenaline going. 

If they're only going to do a few new songs, though, "Cold as Ice" 1,000% belongs on this setlist. Forgive my previous album review where I couldn't commit to a favorite song from Green; I'd now like to go on the record to say that my favorite song from Green is "Cold As Ice" live. Isaac gets so into it and looks like there is nothing he'd rather be doing than singing that song, and honestly there's nothing I'd rather be doing in that moment than standing in the room to witness it. A+, please play it every night and pity anyone who misses it. 

I also have no idea who pitched the idea of playing [name redacted bc I'm not going to be the one spoiling it for you. If you know, you know] before "If Only", but it's the perfect mix of mainstream and obscure to play for a crowd full of people in my age range. Whether you've been to a hundred Hanson shows and think you know every upcoming note, or you've been dragged by a friend and never heard a Hanson song in your life, the first time you hear it is sure to make you go "Wait, is that...?" Yep. It is.

Nashville

The first time I saw Hanson perform at the Ryman Auditorium was at a Blood:Water event back in 2011. I had balcony seats and they only played four songs. Cell phone cameras were garbage and real cameras weren't allowed, so I don't have a single photo from that day. Coming back over ten years later to watch them play a full show to a sold out crowd from the front row was a totally different experience and a great way to watch my first show of the RGB tour. I don't have a Hanson bucket list and I never set out to mark off seeing Hanson from the front row at various iconic venues around the world, but after the second biggest presale fail I've ever witnessed, I wasn't mad when my friend pulled us tickets in row AA amidst the chaos. (If the Ryman presale stressed you out, let me tell you about the time a seated presale went so wrong that the one college class I planned to skip turned into TWO DAYS because the glitches went on for hours until it got rescheduled for the following day).

To be honest, I was a little worried that everyone panic-buying "bad" seats and then buying more when they found better would leave quite a few empties even though the event was officially sold out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the crowd looked full and excited to be there in person, though, with the only noticeable gaps being in the extreme corners of the balcony.

I walked in a little late thanks to a horrendously long merch line and ended up missing the opener's first song. His name is John Calvin Abney, though give it a few months and he'll be relegated to either John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt or Paul Tovar in my mind due to lack of memory and reasons. In all seriousness though, this dude is talented with a harmonica and handled himself extremely well when his guitar suddenly went out in the middle of a song. He spent the whole rest of the song playing his guitar right up to the microphone next to his face while the crowd clapped (semi) rhythmically to help him out, and I'm sure the moment he was stuck singing with no guitar in the middle of the sold out Ryman isn't one he'll soon forget.

After hearing that the new songs were few and far between, I was happily surprised to hear Zac choose "Wake Up" as his solo. Paul McDonald made a surprise appearance during "Write You A Song" since he co-wrote it with Isaac and happens to live in Nashville, so that was fun. Isaac had the crowd vote for his solo, and the options were "Deeper," "Hand in Hand," and "River." "River" won (I hear this had already  happened at a few shows and "River" was on a winning streak). It was easily a crowd favorite, especially being followed by part of "I Only Wanna Be With You."

The show ended with "Change In My Life" a capella with no microphones, which reminded me a lot of "Too Much Heaven" at the Sydney Opera House and was another one of those moments in Hanson history that I was grateful to witness in person. They sounded amazing, but let's be honest--our clapping didn't. 

Outtakes:

1. Nashville on a Friday night is WAAAY crazier than I remembered. We had to leave a bar without ever going inside because I literally could not hear my friend shouting to me on the sidewalk outside of it.
2. There was a fantastic moment where I felt like Taylor was looking right at me during the show, only to turn and realize he's looking at the girl who has materialized behind my back that is being dragged away by security. I'm not sure what all I missed, but by the time I noticed, my chair was almost folded in half with my things falling out of it, and there was a spilled drink flowing underneath it. Which brings me to...
3. If you're going to drink at a show, I support your good time, but also like...try to drink it all before you get excited and trample it? That was one of probably five or more drinks that got spilled in my vicinity throughout the night, and they flowed from every direction around me except the stage. Y'all, I promise the Ryman floor is not as thirsty as you are.
4. Note to past-self: ditch taking photos during the final bow. The really cool crowd shot from behind the stage is significantly less cool to look back on when you blocked your own face with your phone. Also not worth it when all of your bow photos are 50% your friends clapping hands anyway.

Atlanta

In true tour fashion of questionable decisions, we opted to drive the four hours straight to Atlanta after the Nashville show instead of waiting for the following day in hopes of avoiding terrible traffic. It actually paid off, but we didn't get to bed until 5am and then slept until noon. Since I chose the balcony in Atlanta, I stood in the merch line for a friend and spent all of two minutes waiting vs. the hour I spent in Nashville. It's crazy the difference a seated show makes, but Nashville also had limited special edition hatch print posters, so I'm sure that added to the demand.

The setlist was very similar to Nashville, but a few notable differences were "Broken Angel" in place of "Wake Up," "You Never Know" instead of "Thinking Bout Something," and the introduction of a fun new cover mashup that starts with War's "Low Rider" and goes into "Oh La La La." It's not a pairing I would have ever dreamed up, and "Oh La La La" is an unexpected deep cut to play at a regular show, but it totally works. I surprised myself a little with this opinion, but "Oh La La La" might actually be one of my favorite songs on this tour's setlist.

Outtakes:

1. Man Vs. Fries is good but not $40 Doordash good, especially when you're shorted fried Oreos.
2. I drifted off during our overnight drive and woke up around 3am to a heated debate about the technical definition of slavery, and all I could think is this is it. This is what old people road trips are like. 
3. Not playing "Rambling Heart" in "Hotlanta" was an actual crime.
4. My tolerance for the fist pumping "heys" at the beginning of "Don't Let Me Down" is at least 30 seconds shorter than Taylor wants to keep it up. There was a certain point both nights where it felt unnatural to keep it going and all I could think towards Taylor was "Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen."

Final Thoughts: 

I loved it and had a great time, as usual. I had a lot of fun traveling and hanging out with my friends, and driving a simple four hours between shows made me realize 1) how much my travel habits have changed and relied on flying in the last few years, and 2) how much I miss "classic" tour with weeks in a car on the road. It can be exhausting and dirty and stressful, but there's something about the long hours, the late night truckstop runs, and the utter delirium of confused and contagious crying laughter in the middle of the night that can't be replicated on a plane or anywhere else in the world. Nashville and Atlanta felt like a tease in a way, a quick dip of my toe into my favorite pool, but ultimately I didn't get to go swimming.

I suppose it's a good thing that I came away wanting more, that I don't have to worry about feeling burnt out or wonder if I'm "over" this band, because clearly I'm not. If I only had two words to describe this trip, I'd choose "not enough," which is exactly how I'd describe my very first show, too.

Thankfully, I hear the road goes on forever.

String Theory: Atlanta & Nashville

This post picks up right where the last one left off, at 4am coming home from Phoenix. The abridged version is this: I am an idiot who planned a cross country trip to see two shows, then three days back home, and then a six hour drive to the next two shows with a four hour drive in between and then a nine hour drive home again. The problem is I (perhaps willfully) forgot those three days "off" from traveling were actually full overnight shifts for me at work. The day before I left for Atlanta, I worked 11 hours overnight, took a three hour nap, packed, and somehow slept again that same night and got up at 6am to leave. These shows did an excellent job of reminding me that while I am physically not the same stupid college student that once drove nine hours home overnight from Birmingham, AL to run straight into my 9am English class, sometimes I make the mistake of acting like it. It's a miracle I made it to Atlanta and back home on my own, and I sure hope I remember this feeling next time I look at flight prices and think "Nah, it's just a six hour drive."

Both of these shows were packed. Nashville was definitely sold out, and Atlanta must have been really close. For the Atlanta show I was in the last seat on Zac's side a few rows from the stage. The drums seemed a little overpowering from there at times, and I noticed during the second half of the show I had trouble hearing Zac and Taylor's vocals on a few songs, but I think that was more of a technical issue than my seat location. This particular venue had a light pattern projected on the back wall behind the orchestra that changed with each song, and I had to appreciate the fitting starry backdrop during "Reaching for the Sky."

Despite having rehearsed and performed this show plenty of times by now, this one brought out the kind of technical difficulty no amount of practice can fix. It wasn't bad or even all that noticeable if you hadn't already seen the show, but Taylor's acoustic guitar didn't work during "No Rest For The Weary."  You can't exactly stop an entire symphony for one instrument, so he kept playing silently. Isaac tried to give Taylor his guitar at first, but there wasn't time to switch mid-song. They handled it like true professionals, Taylor strumming his heart out on an oddly silent guitar on the off chance that it would work, and Isaac picking up the chords on his electric guitar to fill the void. They played the whole song that way, and it was a weirdly good performance to see them soldier on and another beautiful show overall. And as for instructions on how to act at these shows? Fear not, the Atlanta Symphony souvenir shop has us covered:

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The Atlanta Symphony souvenir shop was selling appropriate #hansonstringtheory merchandise.

A post shared by Holly (@_hollywouldnt) on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:35am PDT

(I only wish there were a few to distribute later when people screamed bloody murder and literally chased Taylor and Zac from the stage door to the bus. This is why we can't have nice things.)

I was really excited for Nashville because it looked like a cool venue with lofty ceilings, chandeliers, and some unique tiers of box seating all around the room. We opted to sit side-stage similar to where I sat in Denver, but behind Taylor's piano instead of behind the drums. It was fun to hear some bells (and a giant xylophone?) that my ears hadn't picked out at any of the earlier shows. The crowd was pretty respectful, though come to think of it, so was Atlanta pre-bus. Way to uphold the stereotype, southerners! There was a funny moment during "Chasing Down My Dreams" when Zac started early. He sang the opening line "Now that I've started" before anyone else actually started. If you're going to screw up a line, it might as well be that one. We all had a good laugh at the irony and he sang it again, this time with the rest of the orchestra. I had a ton of fun at this one and was so ready to stand up and clap during "I Was Born" when the invitation finally came. As much as I'm loving String Theory, I know I'm going to be so excited to see a "normal" Hanson show again the next time I have that opportunity.

I've really enjoyed seeing this show from so many different angles, and by this point I have seen it just about everywhere from front row to the balcony to the side of the stage and behind the orchestra. They've all offered something a little different and I've enjoyed each one for different reasons. If you only get to do it once, I do think going for center in the middle of the crowd or balcony is the best sound and view, even if you love front row every other time. Of course if you have front row for your only show, you also aren't going home disappointed. In any case, see it if you can, and try a few different views if you get the chance. You know the drill. Get out there and Do, Go, and Be(have). If you're not sure why, just ask the Atlanta Symphony. 😉

MOE Tour: Nashville & Birmingham

I already gushed about how much I loved the setlist in my first post about this tour. Unfortunately, loving the same setlist seven times in a row doesn't really translate well into writing seven completely different blog posts about the music. This is how I wound up writing my first double "show review" where I didn't actually mention the shows. Oops. I promise I enjoyed them and they were worth every minute and penny; I just won't bore you by telling you how much I loved "Fired Up" again (oh wait, yes I will. It's great).

So here you go, a show review about everything but the shows in Nashville and Birmingham.

My friends kept saying something about bachelorette parties on the way to Nashville, but I didn’t think much of it until we were there and I witnessed it for myself. They started a bachelorette count when we showed up around 3pm, and by the time we went home, they had counted at least 20 separate parties. I had no idea that Nashville was the Vegas of the east, but now I’ve seen undeniable proof. It was a Saturday and there was some kind of food festival going on, so downtown was packed with people. Pedal bars drove up and down the street all day long; one finally had the foresight to blast MMMBop as they pedaled by just before doors. Every bar and restaurant had their doors propped open with the sound of live music pouring into the street, which left us hearing a mix of no less than seven different songs at any given moment. It might be the only time I’ve ever been glad to get into the show to get away from all of the music. I can’t even imagine the chaos a walk would have added to the mix.

We enjoyed a low-key show from the balcony and feasted on fried pickles right up until show time. I got to spend this particular show with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while which was more memorable for me than any specific moment or song.

Most memorable show moment: getting to hear "I Don't Want to Go Home" for the first time on tour, complete with Zac's PG-13 altered first verse.

The bus crowd after the show was a little wild and we wound up leaving before any of Hanson came out. Someone from one of the 20+ bachelorette parties had an inflatable doll that was pretty inappropriate for the little girl standing next to it, and someone had the weirdest fan sign I’ve ever seen in my life. It featured Zac’s face and body photoshopped in next to what I assume was a picture of the girl holding the sign, and both were in a laying/sleeping position. It read “I’ll be With You In Your Dreams,” and I hope there was a better explanation than the ones going through my mind when I saw it.

We got some sleep after Nashville and headed to Birmingham the following morning. It was scorching hot for the first half of the day and poured rain in the afternoon. My umbrella did double duty protecting me from the sun and the rain, and I felt justified in my packing choices when I got to break out the rain boots and rain jacket. Several people told me I reminded them of “It” because of my yellow jacket and red umbrella reminiscent of Georgie’s iconic single red balloon. I bought it all before the remake came out, I swear. We played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed UNO with some strangers in line, because why not? I wish I had exchanged info with the girls because they were really nice.

A post shared by Holly (@_hollywouldnt) on Sep 17, 2017 at 2:56pm PDT

The crowd at the Birmingham show was a little rowdy. One of our UNO friends had a M&G but got pushed out of front row by someone that came in after them, so that was really disappointing to find out. Someone passed out in the middle of the crowd before the show even started, and a police officer who was there got called over to deal with some mild argument about a 2nd row spot. After that, the officer ended up stepping up on the barricade and passing out bottled water because it was packed and and getting hot.

Most memorable show moment: getting to hear “A Song to Sing” in place of “With You In Your Dreams.” 

The bus crowd after this particular show trumps my previous weirdest bus experience in Phoenix from last tour. Everyone was loud and excited and quite possibly drunk. Zac came out first and playfully screamed at the crowd which just riled everybody up more and made them scream back louder. I was standing on an end past where the barricade ended, and when he came our way there was a surge from behind and I almost got pushed into him. I got pushed so far into his personal bubble that I ended up just turning my back to him for lack of anywhere else to go while he tried to reach for items to autograph from the people behind us. It was too crazy out there to try to trade places with people and take turns like I would in a calmer situation.

Here's exhibit A of what I mean: When I turned to face the crowd behind me, I realized that a fan I didn’t recognize had her arm wrapped around my friend Holly’s neck, cell phone in hand, trying to angle her phone just right to get Zac in the background of a selfie. Holly had a confused and shocked look on her face, and I blurted out something to the effect of “Can you let my friend go? I want her to live.” The girl immediately let go and apologized profusely; turns out she was just so excited at seeing Zac that she honestly didn’t realize she had snaked her arm around Holly’s neck and was close to choking her in the process. I lost it at that point and felt right at home in the chaos standing there laughing so hard I was crying and snorting with my back completely turned to the reason I was out there in the first place. Security had a little bit of a better handle on things by the time Taylor came out next, but I watched him sign a tree-shaped air freshener with a reaction like it was just another copy of any of their albums, so I can’t say it got any less weird. Isaac came out last and made me cry laughing again with a single sentence: “Sorry guys, Taylor definitely won’t be coming out tonight." That's funny, I could have sworn I just watched him smell someone's autograph.

We ended up walking to Waffle House because we were starving and apparently not ready for the weirdness to end. Our waitress had a nametag that said "Baby Mama," and that is indeed what everyone was calling her. A homeless man came inside carrying a bouquet of flowers and tried to offer it to the staff and then some other customers and told us he had just taken them from a hospital. All of our meals were supposed to include bacon, but Baby Mama asked my friends if it was okay if I got the last piece because the kitchen ran out. Then another homeless man came in asking for food and said he didn't mind if it was sautéed, grilled, or filleted (in that order!), and we started side-eying him hard for accurately quoting "Dance Like You Don't Care."

And people ask me why I go to the same show over and over again. This could never get boring even without an ounce of music.

Well: Done Celebration Nashville 5/10

This show was one of those last-minute flukes that just sort of works. I was already planning a trip to Tulsa, and I was carpooling with friends in Tennessee, so when Hanson plans to be where I am already going to be at the same time I'm going to be there, who am I to say no?

It wasn't just a Hanson concert though, and I would have been disappointed if I had gone into it with that sort of expectation. Instead, it was a celebration of a vision, a passion, and an accomplishment after countless people joined together to contribute to the building of 1,000 wells. Hanson was just one of many guests including Jars of Clay, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Eric Wainaina to name a few. Each performed a short set and spoke a bit about the inspiration behind building the wells, encouraging audience members to get involved and thanking them for doing their part. I enjoyed all of the performances, but I was especially moved by Jars of Clay's performance. They were full of passion and had a bit of a spiritual theme going which I loved. One song in particular stood out to me at the time (I think it was called "Oh My God"?). I'll definitely have to check out more of their music

Eric Wainaina was last and definitely an interesting performer. He is from Kenya and brought a full band including a backup singer that doubled as a backup dancer, so it was a completely different style of music than I'm used to. I loved watching the dancing, and got a huge kick when he had the audience play imaginary violins (not so much when he pointed right at me and my friend for not doing it along with them, but we were two of about 4 people in our entire section, and it felt weirdly exposed).

Hanson went on before Jars of Clay and gave a brief explanation about their walks and how they contributed to building a well through takethewalk.net They played a short set of songs that related to the celebration at hand, and their voices blended together as well as ever.

1. Carry You There
2. Waiting For This
3. This Time Around
4. Great Divide

It was definitely more laid back than your average Hanson show, and everyone stayed seated with the exception of two girls I saw who were on their feet and jumping around the whole time. It didn't really seem like the right time and place for that, but to each his own. The guy that introduced them to the stage mentioned that their new single "Give it a Little" had reached number one on the VH1 countdown, and I couldn't help but giggle a little at the new title, especially after the mock GAL tee was misspelled just days before. Who knew those three words were so difficult?

At the end of the show, all of the artists came back out and sang along to Jars of Clay's "The Shelter." I've never seen a stage so packed full of performers in my life; everyone was shoulder to shoulder and there were a few behind others. Everyone on stage and the audience sang along repeating "In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live," and it was a fantastic moment to be a part of. I felt like we were supposed to all link arms and sway or something, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It was just a good, tangible moment of solidarity between everyone on stage and in the audience, and the whole thing was about so much more than just Hanson. It felt like a true celebration of unity and a job well done.

After the show, some of the girls I was with wanted to wait outside to try to meet Hanson. There wasn't really a designated area to do this, so it got chaotic fast with everyone crammed onto the sidewalk to stay out of the way of traffic in the parking lot. There were lots of people in a small space, so I tried to hang back and out of the way with no intention of pushing towards a Hanson. I watched from a distance as the guys came out and Taylor addressed the crowd as someone immediately asked for a picture. He politely said that they would only be doing autographs, and I watched as his polite smile revealed the briefest flicker of annoyance as the girl he had declined shoved her face next to his anyway and a flash went off. I was angry for him, but he simply smiled and continued to sign for the mass around him. At one point Isaac headed straight towards where I was standing away from the crowd and said "Sorry, guys!" as he made his escape. I stepped aside to let him pass and absentmindedly echoed back, "Sorry, Isaac!" as if the crowd was my fault.

I ended up holding a friend's camera to take pictures for her and got my program signed by Taylor and Zac along the way. I told Zac how much I loved the final group performance and that I would see him in Tulsa, and he promised that it would be a good show and worth the trip (side note: it was).

Catching Up Part 2: Nashville & Louisville 2008

Since I'm out of old blogs to post, I'll have to write some new stuff about the shows I've been to recently. I did Nashville and Louisville back to back, and I roadtripped with some friends I made at the Asheville show back in May. I can see myself going on a lot of trips with these girls in the future, because they're awesome. So:

Nashville (10/3/08)

My friend Whitney met me in Charleston Thursday afternoon, and we headed for Knoxville, where several friends would be meeting us to make the rest of the trip. Six hours later, we arrived in Knoxville and made the spur-of-the-moment decision to camp out for Nashville. So 3ish hours after that, we laid down our sleeping bags in front of the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, and occupied #s 12-20 in line. I have a sleep disorder though, and really, I didn't sleep at all. There wasn't much line drama, accept for one couple who decided to just stand at the front of the line about 30 min. before doors, which is just unacceptable when we've all slept outside (thankfully they were persuaded to leave by some angry fans). We all ended up occupying a good chunk of rows 1-3 right in front of the piano during the show. I was really excited to hear Get up and Go live for the first time, because it's been one of the songs at the top of my "must hear live" list. We all went crazy and did the Macarena during Can't Stop (don't ask, I don't know whose idea it was, but it was genius), and I can only imagine the look on Taylor's face if he happened to see. It was an awesome show, especially being up front right there with all of my friends.

Louisville (10/4/08)

We all headed out of Nashville around 2 AM with the intention of driving until we couldn't drive any more. For 2 carloads of us, that meant stopping at a rest stop and sleeping. For me and my insomnia, it meant resting for 20 min. at a rest stop and then driving the rest of the way to Louisville. There was a point where I was getting exhausted and my eyes were shutting, and the two people in my car were passed out and not helping, so I prayed that I would find a rest stop because I knew it was getting dangerous to keep going. So God laughs by sending me a CLOSED rest stop about 2 seconds later. But then, all of a sudden I'm getting passed by Hanson's tour bus, which for whatever reason is driving with emergency flashers on. This woke me up a good bit, AND gave me a literal goal to follow until I could find a rest stop. We made it into Louisville a little before 6 AM, and the city was dead. There was no one in line (this was where they had "Camp Hanson" set up inside), and we couldn't even find the front doors to the venue. We decided to rent a cheap hotel room and just sleep until the other girls in our group arrived, but alas, 2/3 of us in the car weren't 21, and the one 21 year old had left her ID in one of the other cars. We must have driven around for about an hour looking for a cheap hotel that might accept someone under 21, and then drove around in search of parking. When we finally ended up inside, I passed out in a chair for a few minutes before we were all sent back outside at 9 AM. 

The show was the earliest I've ever seen. Doors were at 6, and just as we got into our spots in the venue, Everybody Else came on stage and started playing (which is absurd since I was #45 or something in line...most people were still outside). EBE actually got kicked off stage during their last song. They got a few chords in, then said "Just kidding! Apparently we're out of time." My friends and I were directly behind the handicap barricade (which was one of those pull-out elastic thingies--worst barricade ever!), which put us about 4-5 rows back in the crowd, but with no one in front of us. It got kind of crazy, though, being next to that flimsy elastic barricade, and we slowly ended up inching further into the handicap space because of the pushing of the crowd (the handicap area took up about 1/6 of the floor space, and there were only TWO people in it. I have no idea what the venue people were thinking). Some girl behind me was practically laying on me, so I looked around and noticed no one was pushing her and she even had some space behind her. I pointedly asked her if someone was pushing her into me since she was so close. She looked confused and said no, so I said "Then can you please get off of me?" and she left me alone for the rest of the night.

I spent the first few songs and most of the opening acts being really stressed out about the crowd and the barricade, but I finally got over it and enjoyed myself. I was excited to hear "Deeper" for the first time, and I somehow ended up with my first guitar pick when Isaac threw one out during "Great Divide." At one point, a girl I had met in line came past me looking sick and heading for the handicap section which would give her room to breathe. I gladly moved aside so she could get out, but unfortunately she ended up putting a stool directly in front of me and staying, completely blocking my view. I felt kind of rude, especially since it was a nice girl I had met in line earlier, but I felt that it was very rude of her to take advantage of the handicap area and then block my view entirely. I did get her to inch over a bit, but that was all. Before they played Soulshine, Isaac mentined a girl they had met last year and how she had been going through some rough times. It was one of the girls in the handicap section, and he ended up dedicating the song to her and personally handing her a guitar pick. It was so sweet! I don't know the girl's story, but I felt so happy for her with what Isaac did. Overall, it was a good show, but this one is probably lower down on the list. I guess the crowd killed it for me a bit.

P.S. I'd been wandering all day what the top of Taylor's hat said, and I finally saw it clearly at the bus after the show:

Kudos to you if you know what "Ba La La" means. I don't.