Underneath: Experience Tour Nashville

 

While Hanson are no strangers to Nashville, this was their first time playing Cannery Hall. With any luck, I hope it's their last. I don't regret going and I had a good enough time, but I truly do not recommend visiting this venue unless you are 1. Over 6 feet tall, or 2. Cool with standing in line to get a close up view of other people who are over 6 feet tall (and no, I don't mean Taylor). I was lucky enough to get a good spot both nights, but the venue space in general was just weirdly small and not right for a Hanson show in my opinion. The staff was also strangely territorial about their property and you could pay to park on it, but the line wasn't allowed on the premises. Consider this the second venue on my “not going back there if I can help it” list.
 

P.S. Dear Tall People, I don't blame you. Stages should be better.

Night One

Our first sign that the venue was not what we're used to came when we walked in to find a moving wave backdrop behind the stage that felt like we were in an aquarium. It wasn't bad, just totally foreign from your standard House of Blues setup and a little distracting. When John Calvin Abney took the stage, the waves changed to a galaxy scene. He told us that the staff asked if he had a logo to display on their digital background, and his response was something to the effect of "nah, but I think it'd be cool to be in space." I totally would have asked for a Windows 2000 screensaver with some popping bubbles or a brick wall maze, because that's basically what this felt like.

When Hanson came out for the first show, Zac was wearing his glasses with the built in camera. I never noticed the light on and am not sure if he recorded anything during the show, but he kept them on all night and was giving off extreme Clark Kent vibes. Wrong night, sir, but not a bad look. Someone should've found him a Superman tee for the easiest costume ever on night two.

The acoustic setlist was mostly a textbook replica of all the other acoustic nights with the exception of no "Annalie" and the addition of one very unexpected Taylor solo. The moment I had my phone out ready to record just in case he finally broke out "The Luckiest" and felt my heart sink when I recognized the first notes of "Lost Without You" was the moment I knew that Hanson completely ruined me by leaking that setlist. There is absolutely no reason I should ever feel disappointment over "Lost Without You," but here we are. This is what happens when you leak epic setlist spoilers and then don't follow through. Please, please play "The Luckiest" at BTTI so I can relax and move on, most likely after writing seven paragraphs about how amazing it was to finally hear it. In all seriousness, though, round of applause for switching things up with "Lost Without You" because yes, that was still greatly appreciated!

The "Me and Julio/Cecelia" mashup continues to be a favorite for me, and I had a great time attempting to follow Zac's clapping rhythm but mostly butchering it immediately after three-second increments of getting it right. (As far as I can tell, the pattern is knees, one clap, knees, two claps, knees, one clap, sudden onset rhythm amnesia, hand flailing, repeat).

Night Two

The Pre-Show Gag Reel

Before I get into Halloween and the specifics of the second show, I want to share with you a new fear that was unlocked for me on this night. Imagine being at a crummy venue with approximately negative five spots you can actually see from. You wait in line ALLLL day (*cough*andnight) to secure one of them, you spend eight hours in a very involved, not entirely comfortable Halloween costume, and you get rained on for a good portion of that time. You've somehow crammed a wig and fake ears under an uncomfortably tight poncho hood that isn't built for elves, and you're prepared to sacrifice your favorite Hanson symbol umbrella at the door in hopes of retaining some dry space on your body. You deal with all the normal pre-show chaos and uncertainty of what line is going where and who is actually going to be let in first. You finally make it to the front row where you can stow your umbrella and breathe a breath of relief that you actually made it to a decent spot and your hard work, anxiety, and exhaustion have all paid off. The crowd fills in. The show is about to start.

AND THEN THE FREAKING FIRE ALARM GOES OFF.

The panic that I felt thinking I might have to evacuate that spot was probably on par with the panic I would have felt if I'd seen actual flames. The whole front of the room was exchanging "Guess we're going to die in this spot" looks of solidarity, and I honest to God think a police officer would have had to walk in and threaten to arrest me to get me to leave that barricade. Thankfully, it only lasted for a minute or two before it got shut off and we didn't actually have to evacuate. But like I said, new fear forever unlocked.


The Show

I know I’ve skipped mentioning them in my tour posts so far, but I’d like to take a moment to say how much I’ve loved having Phantom Planet on tour with Hanson. I’m not a hardcore fan, but they’re a band I genuinely liked prior to Hanson bringing them out. I actually saw them live for the first time way back in 2008 when they played a show at my college on Valentine’s Day and I helped sell their merch. I took home an EP that day and fell in love with every song on it. “Leader” became my favorite, and I finally got to hear it before the show in Nashville. 

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Shoutout to their matching skeleton attire and my pal Charizard making a cameo up front. I really hope these guys make a reappearance as special guests at BTTI.



This is where I’m going to veer into unusually whiny territory, and I’m sorry in advance. Nashville was the tour stop I was most looking forward to since the second show fell on Halloween. I try to have realistic expectations when it comes to Hanson, and while mine were probably a bit higher than what I expect from an average show, I thought they were still realistic based on years of already established Halloween memories. The Make It Out Alive Halloween MOE in Tulsa in 2010 was one of my favorite trips. There was a costume contest, Hanson dressed as the three musketeers (two carrying swords, one wearing a giant candy bar wrapper), and they ended the show with the Ghostbusters song. I wasn’t there, but I know in 2009 they dressed up and performed “Thriller.” My other Halloween experience was at Epcot in 2011, which is arguably too short to play a special song, but they dressed as storm troopers and Dimitrius and Taylor swapped places until they pulled off their masks for a funny reveal.

I know they’ve tapered off on doing much for Halloween the past few years at Disney, but Nashville was the first actual tour stop on Halloween in years, so I still held out hope for something festive. A costume, a cover song, idk, throw some candy into the crowd? Just any little extra nod that says thanks for joining us on this particular night when you probably had a lot of other social options and/or skipped trick-or-treating with your kids to be here. As I answered someone on the hnet forums who asked what Hanson ended up wearing for Halloween: This year they went as three tired members of a band on show seven in a row.


I went about 700x more festive than that, and I have no regrets.

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I still had a good time dressing up with my friends and seeing other fun costumes in the crowd, but something felt a little bit lackluster about this one even beyond the band ignoring Halloween. It felt like they were powering through song after song without stopping, and maybe in an alternate universe where I had more sleep and less rain and half a dozen other improved variables, I’d be spinning that as an energized band who never slowed down and kept up an electric pace. In reality, it felt more to me like they were rushing through each one desperately trying to get to the end. To quote the title track of this tour, the phrase that comes to mind is “There is nothing gone, but there’s something missing,” and I suspect the thing that’s missing is sleep. 

I can’t blame Hanson for being tired/sick humans after seven shows in seven days including 12 Disney sets and a random RT flight to NYC. I’m cranky if I have to work seven days in a row in my own hometown with 8 hours of sleep in my own bed each night, so I know we're lucky we even got a show and I can’t imagine how they’re feeling. But somewhere along the line, someone approved that many shows in a row, and I’d like to mom them just a little bit and remind them that that pace isn’t sustainable, self care is important, we're all older and more tired, and whoever planned that string of exhaustion should probably make better choices next time. At least I hope it's a case of being too tired to do bonus content and not that we're getting too old for all the childish bits of tours past like cake smashing, costumes, and finale show pranks. I vote we keep embracing some of that child-like joy in whatever format we can, maybe starting with naps.