Back to the Island 2016

Intro(spection)
With each new Back to the Island event, there is some instinct in me that can't help but compare things to past BTTI events. Throughout the trip, I find myself thinking things like "They made X way better this year" or "X seemed more prepared the first time" (have fun filling in those blanks). If you've been more than once, it's inevitable that you're going to judge things based on your own past experiences, for better or for worse. You can see it in my other Back to the Island reviews, and it's probably strongest in my 2015 BTTI post.

It's a habit I'd like to break because ranking things will always identify a "best." And in that way of thinking, everything else begins to feel like it pales in comparison, even when it doesn't. The fourth Back to the Island is the one that made me realize that each event has had its own unique and unrepeatable vibe, and that none of those will ever be recreated exactly the way we experienced them no matter how hard we try. Each one has been special and amazing in its own right. We can return, but we can never really go "back."

Back to the Island 2016 is going to leave me in a special state of nostalgia all its own. I'm not talking specifically about the band or the shows or the events, as amazing as any of those were. I'm talking about the overall atmosphere of calm and bittersweet contentment that felt so strong to me while I was there. Maybe it was just exactly what I needed after the hardest year of my life, but I felt like I was surrounded by great people the entire time. Everyone I encountered was wonderful, and I'm so happy to have spent time growing some friendships and meeting plenty of potential new friends along the way. If you were there, thank you for being awesome. I'm going to stop myself short of quoting the Golden Girls theme song.

Show One
The first night was special to me on principle because it marked my 100th Hanson show. I got to hear my (current) favorite Hanson song live for the second (?) time ever and got to do it from the front row. It all felt right. The set finished out with a stream of some of my favorite upbeat songs all in a row--"Tearing It Down," "If Only," "Lost Without Each Other," "Sound of Light," and a "White Collar Crimes" encore. My knees were begging me to quit jumping on the sand by the end of the night, and the only thing missing was an exhausting round of "In the City." It was a great show to kickoff the week.

Show Two
You all saw my last post before I left, so let's not pretend the announcement of a covers show sent me into excited hysterics. After the show, I heard someone refer to it as the "Cliff's Notes version of the RNR tour" and it felt like time to start a slow clap. Despite the predictable nature of that show, it easily had more energy than the four covers sets I saw during the RNR tour. And if we're going to label it as a Cliff's Notes version, I might as well continue the analogy and admit that it would definitely get you an A on the test and might have been better than the actual book. Bottom line, yeah, it was predictable, but it was full of undeniably good performances. "Kate" was a standout, and Zac was as obnoxiously on point for "Chain of Fools" as he was all tour. I can't even comprehend his level of talent. I'm happy that so many foreign fans that couldn't make the tour were able to have this experience, too, I just wish they had done something to tailor it a little more to this special event. And I'm still holding out for that "Holiday From Real" cover one day.

This show actually got canceled due to a lot of rain and lightning, and I was super thankful that they chose to change the date rather than move it somewhere indoors.

Show Three
The final show put me in kind of a weird place. I was already a bit of an emotional wreck thanks to Isaac's solo set (can we call it a slow-lo set? no?), so "Watch Over Me," "Call Out My Name," "Never Let Go," and "A Song to Sing" all in a row were exactly the wrong combination to lift my spirits on the six-month anniversary of losing my dad. I pretty much wanted to throw rocks at the acoustic set and demand "Scream and Be Free" in its place (which thankfully did come later). They played a lot of singles but I really didn't mind because most of them are upbeat and happy and were very welcome at the time. Tragic Symphony was a great opener, and I can't wait for "Fired Up" and "In the City" to hit a rough patch in their year-long relationship and call it quits. I love them both individually and miss their full potential on their own.

Zac's Solo Show
In my opinion, Zac gave his best solo performance yet this year. His voice sounded amazing, and he chose a good combination of songs. It was neat getting to hear "Lucy" as a solo because Zac usually plays the drums on this song, and "Up all Night" was a fun and appropriate ending. He had us all laughing when he forgot a line from "Give Me Your Best Shot" and wouldn't move on until he got it right. At first, he stopped playing to restart the verse since he forgot the lyrics. He played a few more notes, then went "Nope, still don't know it" and stopped again. Next, he went for the ask the audience lifeline and asked the crowd "Does anyone know it?" He shot down a few shouted answers as incorrect before finally whipping out his phone and going "I'm Googling this." So yeah, that happened. Zac Googled his own song lyrics in the middle of a song, found the right line, and kept going like that was a normal thing to do. It was a about half a step away from Isaac playing Smile without knowing it last year.

Taylor's Solo Show
Taylor's solo show was actually my favorite this year, and I had a moment to tell him as much. The conversation went exactly as I anticipated, meaning it began with me complimenting his set, led to him questioning what I liked about it, and ended with me completely failing to convey exactly what made it my favorite. (I didn't fist bump or hug him though, so win?) What I managed to tell him is that he won me over with "Crazy Beautiful" because I love that song as a solo. It's true enough, but the full truth is that his set was my favorite simply because I loved his voice and he consistently gave a great performance of every song he chose. I haven't played the piano in years, but I still have an ear for it and am always drawn to good piano music. I've heard "Weird" as a solo a few times now and it is definitely one of my favorites. "Dying to Be Alive" was a great choice, too. And yes, I do love "Crazy Beautiful," and one day I hope to hear the Underneath Acoustic Live version in person.

Isaac's Solo Show
Isaac's show turned into Isaac request hour, meaning he showed up about 45 minutes late with no real game plan or setlist as far as I could tell. He had to switch guitars and tune between almost every song, and everything was so off-the-cuff that I feel sure his set has the most polarized opinions with people either loving it or being done with it about halfway through. It was unique, I'll give him that, and it was certainly endearing at times. I didn't personally love the request format though because I was too far away to make a request, and I'd rather be a little letdown by a Hanson-chosen set than feel annoyed hearing the same people shouting the same song six times because he hasn't played it yet.

The best part about Isaac's show was getting to hear a really old unreleased song that none of us knew existed called "A Life Without You." It made me cry and it was all a little downhill from there in the emotion department, but he definitely wins points for surprising us all with such an obscure song, and on the piano at that. You can actually hear some of the piano part in TT&MON. I've wondered for years what song that came from, and now we know.

The Events
 I don't have a lot to say about the events, but I enjoyed them. I was happy to see Taylor tackle something a bit more interactive with tie dye this year and I hope he'll continue to do his own event outside of the after party going forward. Unpopular opinion, but I kind of hope everyone got selfie mode out of their system for Taylor's next event. That, or let's just go ahead and skip the formalities and call it "Selfies with Taylor" instead. Zac's bracelet making was enjoyable and I actually like the bracelet I made and how everyone was seated and calm during his event. It's the first time I didn't see people following him from group to group. Isaac's trivia was all focused on lyrics, so it was right up my alley and I'm pretty sure I got all but one of the questions right. It was fun to watch a friend get to go up on stage with Isaac and answer a question, too. I feel like 2017 is Isaac's year to try his hand at tie dying and Zac's year to oversee a team-based sandcastle competition. It could happen.

The after party was something else. The stage was super low and had stairs on either side. About 30 minutes in, I was literally standing there being impressed and thinking how respectful everyone up front was being by not taking advantage of such easy access, when I turned and saw a girl on stage with Taylor. And then another. And then a third (I think). Not all at once, but in pretty quick succession. The Free Willy wrap-up song came pretty quickly after that, and then it was over and there was nothing left to do but avoid going to bed because then it's really the end.

The Outtakes 
My airport experiences were nothing short of interesting this trip. When I made it to the customs counter in Jamaica and handed over my passport, I got all the typical questions. "How long will you be staying?" "Why are you visiting?" "Is this your first time in Jamaica?" It was this last question that yielded a weird response. I told the customs officer that it was actually my third time visiting Jamaica, and as I said this, he flipped through my passport to find the previous stamps. When he found the page, he stopped and stared at it for a little too long, in my opinion. "Have you visited Jamaica two days in a row?" he asked. I told him I had been once in 2013, once in 2014, and then again now. He nodded and called over another employee. They huddled over my passport together, whispered some things I couldn't hear, and then laughed. One pulled out a cell phone and took pictures of it. The two guys actually started craning their necks as though they were looking to bring over more of their coworkers to gawk at what looked like a normal passport page to me, but they couldn't get anyone else's attention and they eventually parted ways and handed my passport back over. I asked if everything was okay and received a quick "Oh no, it's not your fault" and was sent on my way with no further explanation. When I finally got away from the counter, I looked and saw that whoever stamped my passport in 2014 stamped it with a 2013 stamp, so I had two stamps side by side that said Jan. 10, 2013 and Jan. 11, 2013. Customs fail.

On the trip home I managed to be the idiot with a 20 oz. bottle of water in my carry on bag that I forgot I put in there for the bus ride. Security removed it and started opening packing cubes while they were at it. She pulled out my black drawstring bag that had all of my electronics in it, pointed at a light shining through the bottom, and gave me the most unamused look (portable phone charger w/built in flashlight ftw). Next came the little unlabeled baggie of rock candy that Jewel Paradise Cove left on our pillows the night before, and I guess I can see how that might look suspicious. I made it through with everything but the water, but had to do a little repacking and felt like the new kid to the airport after that. 2/3 of Hanson ended up being on my flight home, so I treated myself to the weird inception that is listening to your favorite band on your iPod while riding on a plane with them. It was a short-lived experience because I passed out about five minutes in.

We did discover a new way to delay post-concert depression this time:

Climb a waterfall when it's over. (Shoutout to the man climbing with a selfie stick in a speedo in the background. I didn't have the heart to crop him out.)

Five Island-Themed Covers Perfect for BTTI

I'm about 90 miles down the speculation railroad if anyone needs to find me, btw. Please don't take this post too seriously or as any sort of fact. Minimum details + maximum excitement = mucho speculation. It's fan science.

The last two years of Hanson's Back to the Island events have included themed shows. There was Anthem night, Fan Club night, Setlist Voting night, and Christmas/Covers night, to name a few. We haven't been told any themes yet if there are any for 2016, which means it's time to speculate away. Will there be themes? Setlist voting? Will they just surprise us when we get there? (My personal vote goes to the element of surprise). One theory I've seen a few times already is the possibility of a Roots & Rock 'n' Roll themed night, which makes sense considering they just finished a very limited tour of the same concept. I could see this being an accurate assumption; it works from a rehearsal perspective and given the fact that there aren't any plans to take this tour beyond those 10 U.S. cities as far as we know. It does make sense, but with such a hefty price tag, I always want BTTI to be an experience that I couldn't get on tour. That being said, there is a way to refresh the Roots & Rock 'n' Roll theme to give it a new edge that would make me super happy, and it's something I've hoped they would do since the first event was announced back in 2012.

Five Island/Beach-themed Cover Songs
(That Would Make Me Forgive Hanson For Another Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Show)

1. "Island in the Sun" by Weezer

2. "Holiday from Real" by Jack's Mannequin (Andrew McMahon)

3. "Kokomo" by The Beach Boys



4. "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles



5. "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid



Hey, it happened once. It can happen again.

6. My Heart Will Go On
(No, I'm actually super kidding about that one.)

Jokes aside, I'm sure whatever they choose to do will be fun, and I can't wait to find out!

Anti-Bucket List 2015

Photo: Joshua Tree, California

What is an Anti-Bucket List?
My Anti-Bucket List 2013
My Anti-Bucket List 2014

Try making your own at www.canva.com.

Hanson Day vs. Back to the Island

In the last few years, Hanson has created two annual events for fan club members: Hanson Day and Back to the Island. These are arguably the holy grail of Hanson events. Whether you’re someone who is lucky enough to go to both, someone that has to choose one or the other, or someone that dreams of being able to make one happen one day, you have to stand somewhere on the Hanson Day vs. BTTI debate. Which one is better? If you can only attend one, which one do you pick? Which is the best fit for your situation and your preferences? Here’s a Venn Diagram, because, you know, ex-English teacher and all.

I’m not going to tell you that one is better than the other because I think it all comes down to personal preference, and both offer great experiences that you simply can’t get anywhere else or from any other band. We're pretty spoiled and lucky that way.

Where do you stand on the Hanson Day vs. BTTI debate? Did I miss any great selling points that make these events special to you?

Keep Calm and Carry-On: Packing Cubes

It's Cyber Monday, and I'm celebrating by scouring the internet for great luggage deals. This is going to sound like one giant ad for eBags, but I swear they're not paying me (...yet. Psst...eBags? We can take this relationship to the next level any time).

I've always been a fan of traveling with carry-on luggage and skipping the hassle (and fees) of checked baggage, but it definitely makes efficient packing a challenge. One of my favorite packing tools in recent years has been my discovery of packing cubes.

You can find them online in a variety of colors and brands, but I always stick with eBags because of their variety of size and color options, and they always seem to have a sale or coupon going on.

So what are packing cubes and why bother with them? If you travel a lot, you probably already know the rolling trick to help maximize space. I've done this for years and always found that it helps me keep things more compact. The problem is by night #1, I've dug through my neatly rolled clothes and destroyed half of the work, and I can never seem to remember where I put the one tiny little rolled shirt I'm looking for without having to open the rest of them. This is where packing cubes come in. Think of them as little dresser drawers inside your suitcase.

1. They help compress the rolls you've created and keep them from coming undone and moving around in your bag. You pack the cubes, not your bag, then just toss them all inside.

2. You can keep items organized by type or by when you plan to use them. You can choose to put t-shirts in one and socks and underwear in another, or you can pack days 1-3 in one cube and days 4-6 in another cube and never have to mess up what you're not ready to wear yet. This saves me time on trying to decide what to wear, too, because I'm not opening that Friday cube until Friday.

3. They have little handles, so they can be used as a quick and easy overnight bag. If you're like me and there's always that one night of the trip where you're crashing at someone's house and it doesn't make sense to lug your whole suitcase inside, you can just grab one of these and go.

4. It keeps dirty clothes separate from clean clothes. Early in the trip, my packing cubes serve as a divide between the dirty and the clean by the simple method of clean goes inside, dirty goes outside. As the trip progresses and I've worn half of my clothes, an entire cube becomes designated to dirty. This is super helpful because I can never remember to pack a bag for dirty clothes.

Bottom line, do they magically create extra space where there wasn't any? Of course not; nothing will. But they sure do help keep things tight and organized and where I can find them. Check them out on eBags.com and see what color and size fits you best!

Pro-tip: The Large size is almost the same size as the entire inner compartment of a carry-on suitcase, so I don't find it useful. The small and medium pictured below are my favorites. :-)

Packing before + after with the help of packing cubes.
 (Santa hat is mine; tequila bottle is not. Don't ask questions.)

If you're interested in trying them out for yourself, shoot me an email at holly@travelingfan.net or leave a comment with your email address and I will send you a coupon from eBags' friend referral program for 20% off of your order.

The Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour: Arizona State Fair

Everything about our trip to Phoenix was over-the-top ridiculous. The original plan was to leave straight after the San Francisco show and take turns driving and sleeping. With the extra day off in between shows, were were going to hit Yosemite National Park and Joshua Tree along the way before staying in this fabulous little hideaway called Hicksville Trailer Palace, then head to Phoenix the next morning before the show.

Here's what really happened. I got the second driving shift, a.k.a. the one where we all had to stop and sleep because everyone was too tired to drive. Let me preface this by explaining that I live on the east coast, and my knowledge of California geography is minimal at best. So we stopped, I was given thorough directions on how to use the GPS on my friend's phone, the destination was programmed in for me, and all I had to do when I woke up was literally press "go" and follow the directions. I did it all seamlessly without waking anyone.

About two hours later, the cute little snow-capped mountains in the distance started coming strangely closer than I expected. I had driven us halfway up a Sierra Nevada mountain before my friends woke up enough to question my navigation.

The conversation went something like this.

Friend: This doesn't seem right. Did we go through Sacramento?
Me: Yeah, I think I saw signs for Sacramento.
Friend: Sacramento is north of San Francisco.
Me: Oh.

Google maps were double checked, and we found ourselves at Lake Tahoe. Because why wouldn't we find ourselves at Lake Tahoe?

So we never made it to Yosemite or Joshua Tree National Park. We didn't exactly pack for the 27 degree weather we found ourselves in, and we had to stop twice to put air in the tires because of the low temperature and altitude. But hey, Lake Tahoe is gorgeous.

(To be fair, I followed the directions and my friend programmed the destination correctly. Google maps just gave us a completely different route than it had shown her when she checked it from a computer earlier in the week. It won't stop any of us from making fun of each other for the next decade. #RememberTheTime...)

A number of hours later we went from snowy mountains to a starry desert. The one place we DID make it to, albeit a little late, was our home for the night at Hicksville. I'd love to go back and get to see it with a few more daylight hours to spare. Maybe next time we'll even get to see a national park we meant to be at.

The show at the Phoenix fair was a fun but quick 10 songs, and I wouldn't trade any of it. We got to see Nelson open for Hanson and watched as two Nelson fans bolted for the empty front row center seats during Nelson's last song. They were excitedly waving a piece of paper that turned out to be a picture of them with Nelson back in 1990, 25 years ago. It's always fun to run into another band's brand of crazy and see how similar and different we all are.

I was irrationally excited for "Thinking 'Bout Something" as always, and we mostly butchered the dance as always. One day we'll actually practice and relearn the ending that we've forgotten. After the show we managed to walk out into a crowd of people that looked like they had a purpose, so we joined in and found ourselves at Hanson's bus for a final goodbye. It was the strangest crowd I have ever been in waiting for Hanson to come out. The excitement level was serious, and it felt like a mix of fans that hadn't seen Hanson live in years and maybe some that hadn't realized they were still alive until that morning. Everyone was in a calm and mostly organized line that security set up until Taylor rolled out, and then all bets were off. There was screaming and a literal stampede and tears, and I felt like we somehow wandered through a time machine back into 1997. The best part is there were so few people that the crowd wasn't deeper than 2-3 people at any part, so there was no great competition or risk of not getting your chance to meet them if they came out. I'm almost sad Hanson didn't get to see it happen to appreciate the chaos for themselves.

I was also not kidding when I said Taylor "rolled" out. He showed up to sign autographs and take pictures riding a hoverboard up the driveway incline like it was a normal thing to do, complete with security holding onto him at all times to keep him from breaking his neck. Like I said, strangest bus scene I've ever experienced. Now every time I see the picture my friend and I got with Taylor, I'll know that no matter how normal we all look in the shot, he's secretly standing on a hoverboard. *insert all the bad puns in the world about Taylor putting the "Roll" in the Roots & Rock 'n' Roll tour*

Afterwards, we spent a whole $10 each to ride one ride, but it was worth every penny.

I wish we could have kept up the travels and made it to Disney, but I guess I already got my share of theme parks this tour and there's always next time. I already can't wait for Jamaica in January where I'll have a side of adventure with my Hanson instead of the other way around.

Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour: San Francisco

San Francisco felt more like normal tour since we had to drive several hours before and after and it didn't have the ease of flying in that all of the other cities had for me. It made me realize that I actually do like the craze of driving on a time crunch and battling out who is awake enough to take the wheel and for how long. We showed up with no place to stay and used Hotwire to book a last minute 1.5 star hotel down a crazy steep street. We showered at a YMCA and I gave myself a mild black eye with our car door in the dark parking garage. All of it felt a little bit closer to right than the easier parts of the rest of the tour.

We took a very hilly walk through the sunny streets of San Francisco, and I have to say of all the walks I have ever done, this one had the most colorful array of debris along the sidewalks (I'll spare you the specifics). It was definitely a place to watch your step. Past a homeless community on a pedestrian pass, someone had written "LOVE" in mustard on the sidewalk. There was no time to stop and take a picture for future "Where's the Love" jokes, unfortunately, but I was impressed when we passed it a second time on the way back and it was still there, footprint free. All questionable sidewalk decor aside, it was a gorgeous day for a walk.

You can check out a few more pictures from the walk HERE.

I want to say great things about the shows because it was the end of the tour and we even wound up front row center for Night #1, but something just felt a little off. Maybe it was the crowd or the venue staff or the fact that Hanson was getting sick, or some combination of it all. There was a fight in front of Taylor's piano right before Hanson took the stage, and I think that killed it a little bit. We shouted for security to come and after a million years they did, and they shined flashlights and looked around and seemed confused. After the show was over, I saw the same person I watched throw a punch before the show walking away from the same area I thought security had removed her from, so I'm not sure what happened, but someone somewhere failed. I guess I'll just be thankful my black eye was self-inflicted and not a result of whatever that mess was.

I'll never not enjoy front row center, though, and they put all the energy in the world into their new cover of Ben Folds' "Kate." It's one of the few Ben Folds songs I'm not familiar with, but they nailed it and made it fun even though I didn't know it. For the final encore the last night, Hanson, Paul McDonald, and Carrick & band all came out and sang "The Weight" together. The whole tour they had been introducing the band's drummer, Brijesh, as single. For the last show prank, Hanson came out and handed out fliers with his picture and real phone number on them. It was funny after the fact once we found out what was on the fliers, but as someone that wasn't up front who only saw wads of paper (and a couple of Zac and Andrew crafted airplanes) going out into the crowd, it wasn't this big funny moment that was shared with the whole crowd the way some pranks have been in the past. It felt like we were watching someone else's inside joke that we didn't quite get.

Hanson was too sick to come out after the show, but the weird spectacle of people wandering around afterwards was totally worth the wait anyway. A street vendor set up shop next to us with some questionable looking hot dogs that nobody dared to buy. Carrick, Austin, Brijesh, and Paul came out and talked to the crowd for a while, and a random (homeless?) man at the bus stop came over to Carrick and started singing for him. He had this surprisingly great deep voice and began serenading everyone with "My Girl" which turned into the weirdest crowd sing-along ever featuring this random bus stop guy, Carrick, and a crowd of corralled girls behind a barricade all singing together in harmony. I think it might have been better than if Hanson came out, though I would have loved to see them join in for "My Girl."

I'm always a little hesitant and nervous to write anything less than an amazing review of a Hanson show, but I'd be more hesitant to write some cleaned up, half-truth version just for the sake of appearances. I'd rather give you my semi-jaded, realistic version of the truth than waste your time with fake rainbows, and the truth is if you expect to follow a band or be a fan of anything for longer than a minute, you have to anticipate the lows along with the highs. It's too exhausting to waste your time being upset the minute something isn't perfectly amazing, and you'll wind up constantly angry and hurt if you let every imperfection scare you away. "Amazing" simply doesn't exist without some basis of comparison, and I'll never be upset by those moments because a low-ranking Hanson show still ranks way above whatever else I could've been doing if I wasn't there. The secret to being happy and sticking around is caring exactly the right amount about the right things and being able to truthfully say "whatever" or "maybe next time" to the little disappointments. Because there will be a next time, and you'll be there remembering all of the best of times that came before.

Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour: Los Angeles

One of my favorite parts of this trip had zero to do with Hanson and everything to do with my inner child visiting Disneyland covered in green body paint. With the LA show a day after Halloween and so close to Disneyland, we couldn't NOT come in a day early to do Mickey's Halloween Party. After much deliberation about an appropriate group costume for 3 girls, we finally settled on Wizard of Oz characters. Just not Dorothy and her usual companions.

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed several little girls including a miniature Dorothy stopping us for photos. I'm not normally a fan of repeating Halloween costumes when there are so many options out there, but I would totally do this one again. Halloween MOE 2016, anyone?

Beyond having a favorite band, I'm normally pretty terrible at assigning the term "favorite" to anything else involving Hanson. I can never pick a favorite song, brother, city, or show because my opinions always change and there's always something amazing about each individual option. I can say with a decent amount of confidence though that the LA shows were my favorite of the four cities I did this tour. The crowd energy was great, I loved the setlists (Oh Darling and Underneath the first night were both great surprises), and the second show in particular just felt right, even if a tall girl with hair to rival Andrew's stood in front of us about five minutes before the show started.

I've been loving Isaac's rambled intro to Hand in Hand at every city. I thought it was particularly great in Atlanta when he told us it's kind of an inside joke in the band to see how long Isaac talks when they leave him alone on stage (hate to break it to you, Isaac, but it's not just the band that jokes about this). After that it was obvious he was intentionally rambling just to see how much time he could kill, and he did a superb job with on-the-spot made up teen angst love songs. He took this a step further in Los Angeles and somehow wound up tying in an unexpected solo version of Rain in the middle of this speech. Dear Isaac, please always sneak in extra songs to mess with your brothers.

Before and after the shows there was a random guy on the street selling cheap bootleg t-shirts I can only describe as hideously great and necessary. He told us he had had them since Hanson played LA in 1998, and based on the state of the shirts, I believe it.

Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour: New Orleans

New Orleans was my non-negotiable stop on this tour. It's been a complicated year for me, so when I bought all of my tickets I didn't have a clue which cities I would actually be able to make it to and which ones I might have to sell. New Orleans is the one city in the United States I've always wanted to visit but hadn't had the opportunity yet, so when Zac's 30th birthday fell on those dates, I knew I had to make at least this one work. It ended up being the one stop on the tour where most of my friends went, so we met up from various places and played the role of tourists for a change (can I coin the term TOURist?). We celebrated Zac's 30th by splurging on good food.

There was Crawfish Étouffée

Fried Alligator

Bread Pudding



Beignets with Chocolate Milk



Chocolate Covered Apples



And Pralines I ate so fast I didn't stop to think about pictures.

In addition to the great food, we saw the Garden District, the French Quarter, a cemetery, a Dr. Seuss art gallery, a whole lot of Mardi Gras beads in trees, and apparently Nicholas Cage's old house. Oh yeah, and Hanson.

The show started with a crowd-sized rendition of Happy Birthday to Zac (during which he sang "Happy Birthday to me" with big pointed thumb gestures at himself. The guy will never actually be 30 inside), followed by the first time I have ever heard "Teach Your Children." They brought out a new Leon Russell cover called "Delta Lady" and gave us an Isaac-heavy set the second day with back to back performances of "Deeper" and "Hand in Hand" as well as closing out with "Watch Over Me." The first night closed exactly the way you would expect with a cheesecake in Zac's face and a smile on everyone else's.

Click HERE to check out a few more pictures from the shows.

Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour: Atlanta

The great thing about traveling for this band and being a part of this fan base for an extended period of time is that there comes a point where going to a show "alone" stops existing. You can plan alone, you can float between friend groups, but the feeling of "I don't know anybody here" just ceases to be a thing. Still, Atlanta was my first time in seven years planning a trip on my own without gluing myself to a specific group of friends the entire time. I carpooled with one group of friends, shared a hotel with another, spent time in line with yet another group, and then braved the shows surrounded completely by strangers.

The whole experience brought me back to what it felt like to be the new kid that doesn't know everybody. It's a little unsettling and awkward, but it also holds a lot of potential for new friendships if you let it. While I would have loved to share these shows with the girls I have grown so used to traveling with, I have to say it reminded me of what I miss out on when I do that every other time. I like to think that I'm open to meeting new people and making new fan friends, but the truth is having that core group of best friends can also be a little bit of a crutch. It's not one I use on purpose, but I think when you get a little too comfortable in the space you've carved out for yourself, you wind up letting other opportunities to make new friends suffer for it. So yes, I  missed my usual partners in crime in Atlanta. But I also really enjoyed getting to connect with some newer friends I might not have had the opportunity to spend time with otherwise. High fives to you girls for making my time in Atlanta a fun one. :-)

As for the shows, I was ecstatic about the whole cover song concept from day one. I may or may not have told Zac in Cancun that the Christmas/Cover song set was one of my all-time favorite Hanson shows ever (to which my friend immediately pointed out "You do realize you just told the guy your favorite Hanson show was one where he didn't play any of his own music, right?" Oops. Not what I meant). It didn't disappoint. "God Only Knows" was phenomenal. Zac and Taylor's voices blend together so well it's like the same person singing a duet with themselves sometimes. "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" was an unexpected highlight too, and it has been stuck in my head ever since ("Goodbye to Ro-o-sie, Queen of Corona...").

I've heard "Chain of Fools" before, but never cared much about it. Let Zac sing it though, and it's time to do a double take. Isaac looked really into it too even though he wasn't singing lead. Zac nailed "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" as I knew he would, though I'll never be able to sing along to "touching you, touching me" with a straight face.

There were two big stand-outs to me over the course of these two shows.

1. A Song For You. (video courtesy of Rachel H. from the Dallas show)

I had never heard this Leon Russell song prior to the livestream of Hanson's Chicago show a few weeks ago. I was hooked the moment I heard it on Yahoo, and hearing it in person was even better. People can argue about the quality of Taylor's voice and who should sing lead on what song, but I feel like this song showcased every good thing about it. Tell me Taylor's voice is gone, and I'll point at this song and carry on my happy fan way.

2. How much I actually appreciate Hanson songs.

That probably sounds ridiculous, but what I mean is that hearing the cover songs I was so excited about made me realize how much I really do appreciate Hanson's original songs. Every time they threw in a Hanson tune on covers night, I got this huge involuntary grin and couldn't wait to sing along. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

I try not to give mine too much down-time to find out, though. Can't wait for round two of my Roots & Rock 'n' Roll Tour experience in Los Angeles and San Francisco next week!