Hanson Day 2025

The Wordy Intro

Greetings, friends!

If you're like me, you've probably spent the last few months on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what is going on with our favorite band. I know some are more removed from fan chatter and maybe haven't kept up with all the latest reasons to overreact, so just to make sure we're all up to speed, pretend you're back for a new episode of your favorite show, and here's a recap of what you missed last week. Previously, on "Hanson fans have a wide range of perception and reading comprehension": (see my previous blog post about that newsletter if you haven't already.)


The gist is Hanson kind of dropped a bomb on us in March and then went silent, and reactions ranged from totally missing that anything was out of the ordinary to being convinced the band is breaking up. As you can see from my previous post, my initial reaction was pretty serious, but with time and other factors that have popped up since (like heavily hinting that BTTI will return), I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If you think it’s business as usual, your head is probably in the sand, but if you think the band is completely done, I don’t think we’re there yet, either. So this was my headspace as I headed to Tulsa: I got on a plane hoping for the best but also knowing there was a chance that it could be my last visit, at least for a while.

If you’re a regular here, then you’re familiar with my usual Hanson Day review format. First I fake-whine that it’s hard to write about an event that always sounds the same on paper, then I struggle to come up with witty new ways to describe similar experiences while somehow reiterating that it’s a welcome familiarity rather than a chore. Karaoke is karaoke is karaoke, but I still enjoyed it for the 8th time this year, you know?
But my struggle this time isn't with sounding fresh and original with stale content; it's with finding the balance between "Look at this baseball I caught! Don't you love my 80s dress? Everything's fine!!" surface level commentary and not going too melodramatic. I probably leaned a little too hard into my feels, but that's just the kind of trip it was for me.

So I’m not going to give you a neat linear list of facts like “Mac co-hosted Karaoke” or “I’ve never felt older than when I watched Isaac’s adult(?!) son perform an original song” or “a bird pooped on me on our walk to lunch.” Instead, I want to give you my totally biased account of what Hanson Day 2025 felt like to me as a fan showing up with a lot of questions and uncertainties.



The Hanson Day Experience

The setlist for the first show was actually really good, which made it all the more offensive that I kept getting emotional during songs that normally wouldn’t have affected me that way. I had a lump in my throat for most of the night, and “Make It Out Alive” kept punching me in the face with lyrics like “we’re just holding on/ just bracing for the worst” that weren’t supposed to be about the uncertainty of the future of this band, but sure felt like it in the moment. I felt irrationally sad during “Cut Right Through Me.” “Better Days,” of all songs, was the one that finally got me to crack and shed actual tears. And as soon as I started crying, I began hysterically laughing at myself while crying, because who cries over a song like “Better Days” that isn’t even sad?


I couldn’t tell you when the realization hit, but I had a moment of clarity that night when I realized exactly why I was feeling so choked up over every minor detail. For the last 18+ years and 200+ shows, Hanson concerts have been my escape. They’re my safe space and my comfort zone. They’re the place I run to for a guaranteed 90 minutes of stress-free happiness that feels like home, no matter what other challenges are going on in my life. And for the first time ever, my beloved happy place wasn’t a place to hide at all; it was the thing causing me stress and grief. I wasn't crying over "Better Days," not really. I was grieving the sudden loss of something I hadn't expected to lose.

If you're ready to change the channel and escape the downer vibe, don't worry, that's the worst of it. Fortunately, I didn't live the entire weekend in my feelings. They played "I Was Born" shortly after, and I still swear that song is like chocolate after a Dementor visit. After several lengthy talks with friends and a few conversations with members of the band, I managed to find an upswing on the emotional rollercoaster, and those were the only tears I shed all weekend. I didn’t walk away with any solid answers and am still convinced that the ongoing silence is because Hanson doesn’t know what the future looks like themselves, but I did come away with a sense of hope that I didn’t have before. My takeaway from this weekend is that the band has reached a period of necessary transition, and while we may not know what that looks like just yet, I respect the fact that they seem to be putting in the time and effort to figure it out.

The Rumors

As I said above, I didn't walk away from this weekend with any solid answers to share, and Hanson made no official announcements to the class at large. That being said, they did have conversations in smaller settings, and naturally fans asked lots of questions. This information launched an unofficial new Hanson Day event: Fan Club Telephone. To be fair, some people got actual video evidence of their interactions and shared willingly, so bravo to them for not spreading misinformation. I'm not saying that every person sharing information by word of mouth is sharing misinformation. I'm just saying that some people will tell you "Taylor said ____" when what they actually mean is "I struggled to overhear the stranger two people down from me in line saying that Taylor said _____", and from a fact checking standpoint...those two things are not equal.

The bottom line is it can be fun to share our experiences and trade stories, but it's also important to be conscious of how you both share information and consume information shared with you. It's not worth panicking over hearsay that might be completely wrong, and I definitely heard a few details that were laughably incorrect being shared as fact. Use good judgment out there!

Better Days

I may have gone into this trip uncertain and a little bit wrecked during the first show, but I'm coming out of it with hope that we do have better days ahead. Change can be terrifying, especially to a fan like me who has made visits to certain Hanson events as routine as trips to the dentist. If we're being honest, maybe there's something a little bit wrong with the fact that Hanson Day has gotten to that level of routine anyway (if you heard me shout "YES WE DO!" when they sang "Don't want a ticket to the same routine" at the first show, no you didn't). I can remember back when I was the fan club reporter at a show approximately three zillion years ago, The Walk album was new, and one of my questions was "What is the 'it' that you're tearing down?" They told me that "it" isn't the important part; "it" is almost irrelevant, and I remember Taylor in particular saying it's not just about tearing something down and destroying it, it's about tearing it down so that you can reinvent it and figure out how to rebuild it in a stronger way. I think that's where the band is at right now, and maybe that's not such a bad thing. 

To my fellow fans: I hope you are well and that I haven't sounded like too much of a drama queen with this post. Feel free to roll your eyes and continue not crying over "Better Days," but know that if you are in a weird place right now, you're not alone, and there's a song for that and a crowd full of us looking for a blue sky together.

To my favorite band: I'm sure you won't read this, but just in case you do--I'm proud of you for recognizing that you needed a change and for deciding to do something about it, even if it scares some of us to death. Even if it scares you to death, too. I hope you find the right path for your next steps and that whatever that looks like, you'll bring us along for the ride. We may have strong opinions and lofty expectations and big feelings and far more feedback than you could ever want from us, but at the end of the day, we're here for you. And I hope that when you have more figured out, you'll feel comfortable sharing it with us. We're always listening. 💙