Underneath & The Walk: ATW + Concert Series

While I love being a “traveling fan” and all of the fun and memorable things that go along with following a band, I’d be lying if I said it was always easy. I’m no stranger to sacrificing sleep and downtime in order to chase another show, and as a result, out of the past 26 days of August, I have spent exactly one resting at home. I’m on day eight of eight work days in a row, and I’ve been ready for a nap far more times than I’ve been ready to write this blog. Spoiler: I’ve had time for neither. I don’t usually like to wait this long before writing a show review because I start to forget things, but sometimes life and Uncle Jesse get in the way. Thank God this post has been far more delayed than any of my recent flights, at least.

I knew when the ATW + Concert Series was announced that I should try to reign myself in and not go to every show. I skipped July, but I knew that if I made it to just one set, it would have to be August because Underneath and The Walk are my two favorite albums. I’ll spare you the story I’ve already told of how I rediscovered Hanson, but the main point is that Underneath has sentimental value to me as the album that drew me back in, and The Walk feels important because it was the first album since MON that I was around for in its entirety. I got to pre-order it, listen to it the day it dropped, and experience my first tour with it. Both played significant roles in me becoming a life-long fan.

Since it has already been a few weeks since these shows and it’s always hard to summarize every detail even if they happened yesterday, I thought a list format might be best for this one. Here are a few of my takeaways:

1) When you're sleep deprived and laying at a certain spot on the sidewalk in front of Cain's, and the sun is at just the right angle, the building being constructed across the street totally resembles the building on the Against the World cover. Kind of.

2) HOLY CHAIRS. Did we get old, or did back to back shows in the same city just make bringing chairs easier than usual? Whether they were rented or brought from home by those who drove, almost every single person in line had a chair. I really mean this, and it was bizarre. I’ve waited in plenty of Hanson lines and there are always a few chairs, but they are usually in the minority. This time I was in the minority sitting on the ground. I’m okay being the outlier because I know I can’t bring a chair with me to any other shows, so I might as well not get too comfortable (also, I may or may not have packed a small cot, so can I really talk about excess camping luxuries?) #whenyougetoldandstartusingachair

3) Speaking of camping, if you are a light sleeper, you will not sleep here. This was my first time attempting it in Tulsa, and OMG, it was SO LOUD! There’s an overpass right next to the venue, and it stays busy and full of big trucks all night long. The second night I intentionally moved further away from it, but was instead accosted by—I kid you not—a small tornado of empty pizza boxes rotating loudly against the sidewalk for what felt like hours. Earplugs and ZZZQuil weren’t enough to get me more than a combined two hours of sleep either night. Not sure I’ll ever do that again, but those are famous last words, so no promises.

4) I was happy to hear “Dancing In The Wind” for the first time in what felt like forever, but I definitely missed Taylor on electric guitar. (thankfully those pizza boxes waited until the following night to traumatize me, so I wasn’t stuck thinking about them dancing in the wind during this song)

5) “Broken Angel” and “Believe” were absolutely flawless, and I will continue to be a sucker for a piano ballad for the rest of forever.

6) The first chords of “Great Divide” opening up a show might be the single most nostalgic sound in the Hanson catalog for me. The only thing missing was this throwback that will make no sense to you if you didn’t attend the first leg of the original Walk Tour.

7) Isaac’s solo of “A Minute Without You” on the second night is probably my new favorite performance of AMWY ever. This one requires an actual longer story. When it was time for solos, Isaac came out and started “Deeper,” which was confusing for two reasons: 1. “Deeper” is not on The Walk, and 2. “Deeper” IS on Underneath, and as such, was already played the night before. He didn't make it very far before he stopped, laughed, and admitted that he was playing the wrong song. (It felt like a great throwback to the very first BTTI where Isaac did the opposite and accidentally started playing "Wish That I Was There" instead of “Deeper.” Something about this song calls for entertaining mishaps.)

He switched to AMWY instead, which still wasn’t on “The Walk” and only made slightly more sense, but I’m just here for a good time and not to make setlists, so what do I know? The thing about AMWY, though, is we all know every piece of it by heart and have been singing along for decades. If you take Taylor out of the equation, we don’t stop knowing where to sing the “Oh, yeahs!” And if you take out the drums, the electric guitars, the piano, and just strip it down to an acoustic guitar with a single voice—apparently we don’t change the volume we’re used to singing at, either. So when Isaac asked us to join in some crowd participation to back him up, we did. We sang one particular “oh yeah” back so enthusiastically that he stopped playing and said we were so loud that it made him forget the words. It made for a good laugh and I think set us all on an unspoken goal to continue to sing even louder for the rest of the song. Challenge accepted.

8) It felt like Hanson had really practiced and prepared to bring their best for both of these shows. I watched the livestreams in July and noticed several missed lyrics and chords, particularly on the new songs, but they were MUCH more polished this time. These were solid A+ shows to be proud of.

9) I know I can't keep acting like every show after a year's worth of seated tables is the closest thing I've had to normal, but being back in a GA crowd in Cain's did feel a little more like a normal Hanson show than the seated show in Virginia. The moment that really sealed it for me was dancing elbow to elbow during "Lost Without Each Other" and not being able to let loose with an awkwardly excessive amount of room to spare. I was able to disappear back into the comfort and "safety" of a crowd without 6 feet of dancing space on all sides (ironic, huh?), and there was something nice about that even if I loved the spaced out tables for other reasons. Totally missed that space for TBS, though.

10) Cheesecake factory closes at 10pm. I'm putting this here in hopes that one day, we will remember this fact well before 9:45pm, which in my experience is the peak time to recognize a sudden need for Cheesecake Factory.

11) I can always count on Hanson to make my face light up. 💚💙❤️

Hanson Day 2021

I don’t know about you guys, but I was really impressed with all of the digital content that Hanson created for Hanson Day 2021. Hanson.net members got exclusive live streams every day for a full week, and much like “real” Hanson Day, there were so many side events going on that I could barely keep up. It was a nice compromise for all of the fans that normally would have traveled to Tulsa for the event and couldn’t come this year, but it also felt pretty groundbreaking for an even larger number of fans who have never been able to visit Oklahoma to finally be able to celebrate from home. I’m anxiously awaiting the day I show up to a packed Cain’s and an overly-full in-person HDay schedule, but I also hope that this year’s forced virtual ingenuity will carry over to a more inclusive Hanson Day for all hnet members in the future. If you haven't seen all of the content, it is still available to view at the link above, and trust me, the TTA Acoustic show alone is worth this year's membership fee if you haven't joined yet.

TTA Acoustic Concert

I want to start by sharing that I completely missed the original TTA era as a fan. I didn't hear this album at all until 2006, and by then, the record scratches and the late 90s/early 2000s sounding bells and whistles sounded dated and borderline cheesy to adult me. Getting to hear TTA acoustically removed all of those things and allowed me to appreciate the foundation of music that has always been under those added layers. I’m grateful that I got to hear the songs in this stripped down format, and I can honestly say that I appreciate TTA more now.

Spoiler: this is my second attempt at writing this review. I name dropped so many songs in a row in my first try that it was starting to get confusing. Every time I tried to label a song as a “highlight for me,” I’d remember another and then another. They piled on top of each other and vied for rankings. Instead, I’m going to give you a list of my favorite TTA moments, with the added disclaimer that seriously every last song was great.

1. Runaway Run. I thought this song peaked for me when I heard it stripped down as a Taylor solo, but then they had to go and play it full band with a slowed down tempo that turned it into a ballad. It was absolutely phenomenal, and dare I say, a total “game changer.” Excuse me while I further spiral into a heap of Masked Singer judge praises like “AMAZING!!” and “End game material!!” while gushing about my goosebumps, but I mean every single one of them.

2. In The City. Even without the electric guitars, I couldn’t not jump to this one. This song was acoustic rock, pure and simple. It was so fun getting to hear it this way, even if I do still love the electric version best.

3. Hand In Hand. They reworked the intro, and it really, really works. I might even like it more than the original, but I'm not making that claim on one listen. I had to laugh watching the stream afterwards because you can totally see me and my friend in the background scrambling to switch our light up masks to green in support of the magic happening on stage.

4. If Only. It’s better in its original state, but it sounded like a completely different song with an acoustic guitar replacing the harmonica parts. Unlike “In The City,” jumping didn’t feel quite right here, but it was really fun getting to hear it in a new way.

5. The encores. The show might have been short at just 15 songs, but it already felt perfect before they added two TTA era B-sides, “Lonely Again,” and “Smile.” It was a great way to end an already killer set.

6. The songs I was looking forward to before the trip: “Sure About It,” “Dying To Be Alive,” “Wish That I Was There.” With live shows, sometimes the songs you walk away loving the most aren’t the ones that you showed up to see; they’re the ones that sneak up on you and demand your attention, the ones that you don’t think twice about until their undeniable greatness is hitting you in the face. I showed up ready to swoon over “Sure About It” and “Wish That I Was There,” but I left completely blown away by “Run Away Run,” “In The City,” and “Hand In Hand.” Thank you, Hanson, for blowing up my expectations in the best way.

7. Can’t Stop. This one is probably the biggest culprit for the cringey bells and whistles I was talking about before. It’s always better live, but they got rid of the “tick tock, tick tock” for the first time. It might have sounded less cheesy that way, but it felt like something was missing.

In conclusion, TTA acoustic was the album I never knew I needed to hear. I did need to hear it. In fact, I kind of need to hear it again, preferably as a live album release from this exact show as soon as possible. Please?

Hanson Day Concert

I have a lot less to say about this one, but I’ve already written enough for a full post on TTA alone, so I’m giving myself a pass. The HDay show was not groundbreaking or full of new arrangements. It didn’t make me gasp or stand in awe or feel the need to give you a song-by-song breakdown like I did above. It did, however, make me cry, dance, sing, and hug my friends. It was the perfect upbeat counterpart to a mellow first show, and unpopular as the opinion may be, I am always happiest to hear jump-worthy singles over rare ballads. I’ll forgive Taylor for making me sob during WYIYD, but only because he immediately went into a super random country version after it ended, and then Zac ran with it in what I can only describe as the worst country rendition of WYIYD I could ever imagine. I can count on these guys to make me cry once in a while, but I can also count on them to put the smile right back on my face again, so thanks for that little bit of nonsense that broke up my pity party. I will say that for all the effort I was putting into ignoring WYIYD while it was happening, I can't deny that it was gorgeous and that I was not the only person affected.

It was fun getting to hear all the new songs from Crossroads, and the live setting helped me to appreciate “Muscle Shoals” more. I still stand by “Come Over” as my favorite of the bunch so far, even if I’m not 100% sure what it means yet (I’m developing a theory, but I’ll save that for a future post). I don't think Hanson prompted us to clap and fans don't always collectively have the best rhythm, but somehow we all got on board with a double clap and it just worked. I'm considering this song move canon from here on out like the Where's The Love arm spin. I don't know who pioneered it; I just know it's right.

They wrapped things up with a short acapella chorus of "Man in the Mirror" and even had five little Russian Doll figurines lined up on the piano as a cute nod to their time on The Masked Singer. I hope this won't be the last we ever hear of those covers, but I get that they would have to learn to play the full songs in addition to the abbreviated vocal parts they learned for the TV show.

Hop Jam Iron Man

We might not have had Hop Jam this time, but the Iron Man triathlon ending right outside of our hotel filled in some of the missing festival and "how are we supposed to drive anywhere with all the streets shut down?" vibes that I'm used to.

I am the least sporty person you can imagine and know nothing whatsoever about triathlons and races, but it was fascinating to be able to see people come from all over to compete. We stood near the finish line and cheered people on, and it was amazing getting to see these people who had trained incredibly hard accomplish something that meant so much to them. I even teared up the first time I saw one man round the corner towards the finish line, and his family spotted him and took off running alongside him just outside of the barricade, all the way to the end. The love and support was so obvious on their faces, and it felt like witnessing an intimate moment even though we were in a crowd. It reminded me that we might not all have the same goals and accomplishments—his finish line with his family is my front row with my friends—but it’s a powerful feeling to be surrounded by people that care about you while doing the thing you love.

On a much lighter note, spending the night next to an Iron Man event also meant that we couldn't leave to get food, and it took three failed orders and a solid two hours to successfully retrieve a Doordash order. I had to meet our dasher two blocks away and fend off a group of teenage boys in the elevator who saw the giant Chipotle bag and thought I was delivering it to them. I guarded our hard-earned burritos and wished them luck in their own food journey. Note to future self or anyone in the same city as Iron Man: stockpile food.

And We Keep Coming Back

It might not have felt like a “real” Hanson Day, but it sure beats last year’s “I didn’t go to Hanson Day 2020” theme. It’s a sign that things are looking up, and while I’m having to adjust my comfort zone and relearn how to be in larger groups of people even with my own big group of friends, I’m excited at the prospect and happy to be in a time and place where that seems possible in the near future. I’ve had a fun run in my light-up mask, but I can’t wait to see the light on everyone’s faces again soon.

And The Winner Is...: Listener's Choice

Confession #1: I don't like setlist voting. This is probably old news if you know me personally or have kept up with this blog, but I feel like it's an admission that needs to happen before I can talk openly about a series of shows with a "Listener's Choice" theme.

Confession #2: The "Listener's Choice" setlists were my favorite of all four themes (if we can look past my wildly festive love for all things Christmas). I know, I know, this feels kind of incongruous with confession #1. In my defense, all of my favorite parts of these shows were the surprise songs HANSON threw in, not necessarily the songs fans voted on, so I still stick by my dislike of voting in general. However, if voting on half of the setlist is how we motivate Hanson into one-upping our votes with killer picks of their own, sign me up. Direct me to voter registration. Send me the campaign materials and the unsolicited texts and consider me a supporter of this party. 

The energy at these shows was high from the beginning I think partly because the setlists were amazing and partly because they were the last shows for the foreseeable future. The first night, people lost it at "Georgia." People lost it again at "Save Me." But the moment we collectively lost it and COULD. NOT. GET. IT. BACK?

"Kind of a Girl."

First off, as someone who hates setlist voting mostly due to ruining the element of surprise, consider me surprised. Delighted. Fired up. Dead, buried, and brought back to life because this random left-field performance was THAT GOOD. Everything about it was tight--the drums, Isaac's guitar solo, and Taylor seemed very much in his element throughout the song.

While I never had the pleasure of seeing it performed by the original band, I'd say Hanson's "cover" did it justice and I was thrilled to see it played at all three shows. I fully regret not taking the one opportunity I had to see Tinted Windows live, and it makes me sad to think that the talented group behind this song has suffered the loss of one of their own. I'm glad Taylor chose to play it, and I think it was a nice way to honor his bandmate and friend.

At the first two shows, "Kind of a Girl" was followed by "Voice in the Chorus." This one seems to be under the radar of most fans and feels all but forgotten by even the band, but I like it. Everything about this song screams SIO tour to me. Maybe my appreciation for it is biased and based more on memories than music, but "Voice in the Chorus" works for me the way a certain scent might bright you back to a specific place or moment. Hearing it live puts me right back into a crammed front row of some hole in the wall venue with Isaac headbanging and that one piece of otherwise perfectly styled hair that would fly free while the whole room is losing it because there is so much energy on stage. It's definitely one of those songs that thrived in a specific moment of time, and I think maybe that time is over unless Hanson chooses to revive it, but even then it wouldn't be the same. It's still nice to hear it once in a while and remember how fun it can be.

I thought that nothing could top "Kind of a Girl," but then the second show made a "Kind of a Girl" sandwich on "Troublemaker" and "Don't Stop Believing" bread with a side of "Stories" and then "Dream Girl" for dessert. You can stop reading right here and just imagine mindblown emojis for the rest of the post, if you want.

So let's talk about "Troublemaker." Back in 2011, Hanson did a proper recorded version of it for Billboard's Mashup Mondays. You can add Weezer to the list of bands I loved before I rediscovered Hanson, so I was excited for this cover and remember watching that video over and over. About a month later I got to see it performed live at the Boston HOB and I remember being ecstatic and thinking "YES! Now it's going to be a tour staple at the rest of the shows and I'll get to hear it more!" Naturally, they never played it again. Fast forward almost 10 years, and they finally broke it out of the vault only for the 2nd show of the Listener's Choice series. It was kind of great getting to hear Taylor sing the line "Having seven kids" now that it's true, and I'm not even sad that he didn't get all the lyrics right because he practically had a novel in 20pt font taped to the floor, and I sure didn't know all the ones I used to know either. It was still an epic surprise and one I really did not mind being front row for. I won't drag you down "Don't Stop Believing" memory lane too, but it's a great crowd song that lets Zac roam the stage, and it made an already great setlist combination even better.

The final show had a similar setlist to the first two with the added bonus of "Sunny Day" at the end, though I was a little too distracted to fully enjoy it watching security try to contain a very happy drunk girl to her increasingly distant table as well as some guy who wandered up to sip his beer and head nod front row Isaac. This definitely fell into the category of "not my table, not my problem," but it was just close enough that I couldn't entirely ignore it, either.  Predictably, my favorite part of the third show was "Thinking Bout Something" because luck dealt my friends and I three side by side tables in the center, and it felt like a giant line dance going on. Over the years it seems like less and less people participate in the dance, but after hearing TBS six times over the course of these streaming shows, it feels like it's making a little comeback. Feel free to join us next time! The best part is laughing when you trip over your own feet, or in some cases, your friend's.

One of my favorite parts of writing these reviews is often retelling the random outtakes that happen along the way, but there's really not much to tell when the only places I went were Cain's and my hotel room. The most exciting thing I did outside of the shows this time was spend more money on Cheesecake Factory delivery than the hotel, and that awkward moment I got literally stuck in an elevator because my backpack strap got caught on the handrail. One moment I was walking out behind my friends, and the next they turned around and I had disappeared to ride back down to the first floor while crying laughing. At least one of the three stayed behind to free me. You're the real MVP. 😂

It's hard to believe this series of livestreamed shows has come to an end, but here we are in January 2021 with one heck of a year behind us and still plenty of obstacles to get through before we can enjoy "real" concerts again. While I know there was a certain amount of risk involved in choosing to go to any of these shows, I am confident in my own safety precautions, and I am so very grateful to have had the opportunity to be in the room with these songs, these musicians, and a few of my friends. Even in the months between when I was stuck at home, planning table decorations, having mild panic attacks about buying tickets, talking about the best (and occasionally worst) parts of the shows, and just generally having something to be excited about again lifted my spirits in a way I don't think anything else could have.

Thank you to Hanson, to Cain's, and to the fans who made this experience not only possible, but relatively safe and incredibly enjoyable during a time when we all needed some good days (and no thanks to the lady in seat 13D, who provided me neither safety nor enjoyment, just ranty blog post material). I'm going to miss this like crazy and look forward to "seeing" you all on the island, even if that island is digital and it takes us another year to trade the stream for the ocean in real life. It'll be worth the wait.

Credit to Yelena for the photo on the right side of the title graphic. Thanks!

Fight or Flight: Traveling Fan Problems

Last week I flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the final installment of Hanson's monthly livestream series. I had every intention of making this anecdote just an introductory paragraph, then moving onto reviewing the show. Then I started writing and found out I had a lot more to say and really didn't want half of the review to be an angry rant about someone that had absolutely nothing to do with Hanson. Consider this one a #travelingfanproblems outtake and keep an eye out for the actual review over the next few days.

I've made a lot of conscious choices throughout the course of the pandemic not to police other people's safety behaviors outside of my own and to instead try to keep myself out of situations that are beyond my control and my comfort level. Turns out I finally found my breaking point on an airplane. My initial flight out of my hometown ended up being half empty, and I had a window seat with an empty middle seat and a lady sitting at the aisle. I was a little surprised she didn't get up and move to give us both more distance when it became clear that there were empty rows around us, but figured it wasn't worth the hassle of making her get up and moving my bags so I could have my own row for such a short flight.

Right before we took off, she started eating a candy bar. I told myself it's fine, she's totally allowed to eat, and if she eats the whole time to prolong her time without a mask, I'll just get up and move after it's safe to get out of my seat once we're airborne. We taxied for a while. She put the small remainder of her candy bar in the seatback pocket (ew?) and started working a crossword puzzle with her mask under her nose and barely over her mouth. I gave her a few minutes before I said anything, because yeah, eating is allowed and her candy bar was still out. After a solid five minutes or more when she hadn't touched her food, I decided to speak up. I leaned forward and politely asked, "Could you please put your mask over your nose?"

Her reaction was to stare at me and immediately pull the mask not over her nose, but entirely under her chin. For what it's worth, I work in retail and have seen a wide range of anger, confusion, and some people who don't get out much and are just plain unaccustomed to mask etiquette. I've had several older customers who have trouble hearing pull their masks down in an attempt to hear me better as if that will somehow help (I suppose it might be a subconscious cue to get me to pull my own mask down so they can hear me better.) I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and kindly repeat my question thinking maybe she just didn't hear me and wasn't thinking when she pulled it down. So I repeated: "I'd be happy to move to a new seat once we take off, but for now I'd feel a lot better if you would put your mask over your nose."

She immediately leaned closer to me and shouted (mask still entirely under her chin leaning over the empty seat between us) "I'M EATING!!!" Then continued to rant loudly about how she has "the antibodies" and therefore can't possibly make me sick, and oh, by the way, she's going to take it off again later to take some pills so I better be prepared to deal with it, and also, as it turns out, I need to chill. 

There was a lot packed into this rant and so, so many things I wanted to argue back as there was something wrong with literally everything that came out of her mouth (and I'm not talking about the germs). In the end I knew that saying anything at all would just prolong the time I would spend with her maskless yelling and I didn't actually want to be part of one of those viral news videos, so instead I waved over the closest FA and interrupted the safety demonstration, asked her to please let me move, and got myself the heck out of that row. I felt a little crazy interrupting, but as a friend later pointed out, I interrupted a safety demonstration to actually demonstrate real safety.

Since I never got to tell her any of the things I wanted to say, I decided to write her an open letter:

To the lady in seat 13D, 

I hope you and your antibodies are doing well. A close friend of mine has contracted covid twice in the last two months, so I was unaware that you have a superior kind of defense that means neither of us can get sick in your presence. This is rather impressive and I sincerely hope you have alerted someone in the medical field to do testing on your singular immunity. 

You seemed a little confused during our brief interaction, so I thought you might be interested to know that I'm very familiar with dictionaries, basic functions of the digestive tract, and have an aptitude for following directions. I've double checked with Webster just to be sure and have confirmed my previous understanding that eating is the act of "putting food into the mouth, chewing, and swallowing it." I've done a bit of further research and can find no source that includes the act of sitting adjacent to a piece of chocolate under the term "eating." (I know some people claim they can gain 10 lbs just by looking at a cupcake, but I'm fairly certain that this is just a figure of speech and not an actual mode of digestion recognized by American Airlines.) Urban Dictionary provided some less common and more colorful definitions, but mere proximity to a food item was still not listed. I hope this helps.

Your confusion is nothing to be ashamed of. I, too, was confused by something you said. I know you tried to explain to me how you would need to remove your mask again to take your medications later in the flight, but I'm not following the process of removal for something you haven't put on in the first place. I'm a visual learner and can't quite picture this scenario based on the information provided, so I would love to hear your insight into how that works. 

I realize my last point may be a bit sensitive, but you seemed pretty comfortable getting close to me during our brief encounter, so I hope you won't find this overstepping. I've heard rumors of some women going years without taking the time to get to know their own bodies and certain parts going largely ignored due to lack of proper education. I know it must be embarrassing to ask especially at your age having gone so long without proper awareness, so I thought I might spare you the trouble by providing a brief educational video on the topic for your benefit (you may find the :12-18 second mark most useful). 

Best of luck,

13F

P.S. I hope that your super antibodies protect against more than just Covid if you trust eating opened food out of seatback pockets. 

 

Sequins, Sweaters, And String Lights: The Christmas Ball

Every year around this time, I see fan stories about how Snowed In has been a staple in their Christmas traditions for decades. Some decorate their trees with family while playing the album, some remember playing it while baking cookies and wrapping presents, and plenty have now made it part of the next generation’s traditions. For me, Snowed In is a reminder of family road trips where one person being happy with the music selection inevitably meant that two others were not. It never stopped me from begging and insisting that we listen to Snowed In at least once per four hour drive to visit my grandparents. Every trip, I would “sneak” my Snowed In and A Chipmunk Christmas cassette tapes into the car. Mom would ask if it was over yet, Dad would tell me to “take those chipmunks out already” (even when the three brothers singing weren’t Alvin, Simon, and Theodore), but they always let me listen to it anyway. It’s been more than 20 years, and now there are only two of us in the car. These days the destination is a nursing home instead of my parents’ childhood homes. Mom still lets me listen to all of Finally It’s Christmas and complains every few songs. Sometimes I wonder if she thinks about my Dad when she does, even though Hanson doesn’t sound like chipmunks anymore. It’s a bittersweet feeling, and I’m thankful to share it with her and to have music that reminds me of all the great Christmases that came before.

But this isn’t a nostalgic blog post about Snowed In or about holiday memories. It’s about an exciting new event that gave me something to look forward to this holiday season instead of looking back. It’s about feeling festive, enjoying good music, and looking for the silver lining. Or in this case, the sparkly, shiny, dripping-with-sequins-and-disco-balls silver lining.



As soon as we found out about the themed streams, I was hopeful that December would be all about Christmas. I’ll be spending a quiet Christmas at home with just my mom, and a Christmas theme for these shows gave me something positive to look forward to during a season where I’ll be skipping all the best extended family traditions that I'm used to. I’m grateful for the opportunity and truly enjoyed getting to hear these songs and see all of the festive outfits and decorations. From ballgowns to onesies, Christmas trees to train sets (tiny fireplace ftw), and from living room selfies to front row tables—everyone really brought the cheer I've been missing.

Of course, I can't write about The Christmas Ball without first mentioning its namesake. The song "The Christmas Ball" is a truly deep cut in the Hanson catalog that had never been played live prior to these shows. It was released on a fan club EP called "Super Digital Pants" back in 2016, and I'm pretty sure I listened to it once and never looked back. Some songs take time to grow on me and need a very specific moment to reveal their potential. This was definitely one of those moments, and two weeks later I'm still catching myself singing "ho ho ho, mistletoe, now we're on a roll," which tbh is about a 250% increase in the number of lyrics I knew to this song prior to these shows. Consider me impressed that Zac knew them all, too.

"Joy To The Mountain" was every glorious note I remembered it being from the Finally It's Christmas Tour in 2017, and I'm giving extreme bonus points for the lack of catcalling. I can't wait for the moment it's safe to have regular concerts back, but on the bright side, a 10% venue capacity where most people are fan club members sure helps keep things respectfully quiet for acapella performances. "Wonderful Christmastime" with Hanson's "Come on It's Christmas" addition will also always be a favorite of mine; it's fully danceable no matter where you are and demands you to move even if it's awkward car dancing at a red light while the people next to you probably envision Mariah Carey on your radio. They don't know what they're missing. 

My absolute favorite, though, was "My Favorite Christmas Sweater." It's in my top five favorite Hanson songs of all time, maybe even top three material. I love it that much. It checks all my favorite boxes- it's catchy, it's sentimental, and it's one giant pun. I tried to tell Hanson that it’s one of my all-time favorites once and they seemed mildly confused, but I stand by it and wish it had made it onto the Finally It's Christmas album instead of remaining one of Hanson's best kept secrets. I’ll just be over here spilling it to anyone who will listen.

The setlists for these shows were very similar, but that's to be expected when they only have two full-length Christmas albums to pull from. During the first show I kept wondering if they were going to play any "regular" songs from non-Christmas albums since previous newsletters suggested it would be a heavy mix of Christmas with some other Hanson hits sprinkled in, but it never happened. Every last song was a Christmas song. I was thrilled, and I think stopping a wall of Christmas cheer to play "Where's the Love" wouldn't have felt like the right flow for the atmosphere they were creating. I also genuinely love their Christmas albums and haven't had the privilege of hearing live performances of them very often, so I was pleased with the song choices. 

The shows weren't error free. There were lyric flubs, keyboard malfunctions, a few guitar chord mishaps, and one moment they abandoned a song entirely and didn't play it until the following show. Taylor has since revealed on Instagram that he had a minor surgery not long before these shows and welcomed his 7th child the day after the last one. It’s probably a Christmas miracle that things went as smoothly as they did with all of that going on behind the scenes. If we were grading them on performance accuracy, they wouldn't get a perfect score on this one. But I'm not here to grade them, and while I might be literally here to review a performance, I'd rather do it holding a cup of hot chocolate than a sharp red pen. I'm not looking for perfection; I'm looking for a good time, and that’s exactly what I got.

"Everything is different, but nothing's changed" feels like a pretty accurate statement for how I feel about The Christmas Ball event. It can probably be applied and interpreted in many ways, but for me, it means being grateful for good music and for all the usual warm fuzzy feelings it gave me when so many things aren’t usual at all right now. I've made plenty of cheesy past references to feeling at home at Hanson shows (I might be just shy of a "home is where the hanson show is" doormat), and I think it's so true for many of us. So for everyone who might be missing out on in person shows or missing out on family gatherings this holiday season, I think it's fair to say-- "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my streams." Thanks, Hanson, for bringing us your brand of Christmas cheer. 💗

Coming Back For More: Perennial Live

 I wanted to get a jump start on this blog post while everything is still fresh in my mind, but as I'm writing this, it's T-minus 2 hours until tickets for the December shows go on sale, and let's be honest: I feel like I may vomit. If you don't get that way when you buy tickets, you're a calmer human than I am. If you do feel sick when buying tickets or rushing into a GA venue and were hoping it goes away eventually...I'm here to tell you it doesn't. And if you're trying for tickets for any of the upcoming shows, best of luck, and may the odds be ever in my favor. (jk, good luck to you too!)

Perennial Live felt a lot like a warped Hanson Day with extended concerts and less events. The location, the setlists, and the people in the room all felt reminiscent of HDays past. The masks, lack of lines, and 10% capacity--not so much. I thought a series full of members only songs might be a bit more mellow and not allow for as much dancing and jumping around, but I had a really good time and found plenty of opportunities to enjoy the music and the space to move. Bonus points for mouth coverage during a set where you know less lyrics than usual. Who cares if you don't know the words if nobody can see you singing the wrong ones?

Instead of trying to do a chronological recap of everything that could get repetitive with three similar sets, I thought it might be more fun to do a countdown of some of my favorite moments from this trip:

10. Not show related, but that awkward moment when we pulled up to do curbside pickup at a restaurant, turned on the radio, and Spotify chose that exact moment to blast an ad at earsplitting volume that said "EXTREME NAUSEA" instead of music. Nothing says support your local pizzeria like damaging their employees' eardrums with ads for stomach medicine. (tbh I probably should've taken note of the brand for future ticket buying stress.)

9. Getting to hear new songs. It was my first time hearing both "Nothing Like a Love Song" and "Good Days." I knew we'd hear the first one since it's the new single from Perennial, but "Good Days" was a nice surprise. I know we're all struggling right now and the year as a whole sucks, but there are definitely some good days to celebrate, and I'm grateful for the two I had in Tulsa this month.

8. "The Ballad of Seymour Better Times" during the first show. When Zac got to the line "My journey may be long before I'm done, so won't you play the drums," the whole room broke out into an unplanned stomping session to add to the fake drum effect. I thought it was so clever right up until everyone did the exact same thing for "play the horns" despite the fact that stomping on a wooden floor sounds nothing like horns, so I feel like something was lost in translation there. The initial idea was a good one, at least. Just in case I haven't already fangirled hard enough about this song in previous blogs, let me remind you it's in my top three all-time favorite Hanson songs and I will never stop being impressed by the clever ending.

7. Hearing "Georgia" as we waited for presidential votes to be counted felt historically appropriate. No political statements were made, but you can't deny that Georgia HAS been a little back and forth lately.

6. That great moment when a really stupid dance move for "Get The Girl Back" finally makes sense about seven years later. For years we've always jokingly pushed our hands out during "Get the Girl Back" in an exaggerated "back up" motion (inspired by elbow throwers and crowd pushers of tours past), so it felt more relevant than ever to mime literally getting girls back on their side during a pandemic requiring social distance. It's about tiiime that you get the girl back to her table.

5. Learning that "Be My Own" started out as "Be My Home." Before Taylor started singing it, he explained that those were the original lyrics to the song. I can definitely hear how they'd work interchangeably, and the idea of asking someone "Do you want to be the one I know, to be the place I go, to be my home?" is incredibly sweet. I'm glad he shared that with us and I'm curious what made them ultimately choose "own" over "home," but it's a beautiful song either way.

4. Taylor soloing "A Song To Sing" with the extra verse. I've heard this song performed live with that verse a handful of times now, but I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've heard Taylor pull it out during a solo. In general I try not to read too much into things that are ambiguous at best, but it was hard not to hear "Don't wander through this glassy surface expecting to find more than me" without thinking about it as a reminder to fans to stop looking for Hanson to be anything other than themselves. It may not have been his intention, but that's what I got out of it. "Compromise" hit pretty hard as true for the same reasons.

3. Isaac's "Grace Unknown" solo on the third night. He put so much emotion into it, and when he got to the line that says "Any time the silence starts to feel like home/ I can hear my heartbeat," he stopped playing entirely, closed his eyes, and thumped his hand on the wood of his guitar to the rhythm of a heart. The whole room was quiet while he did it, and it gave the perfect erie effect of a heartbeat echoing in silence. He also blew us away with further flawless performances of "Watch Over Me" and "Something Loud." We don't get a lot of Isaac leads and solos, but when we do, Isaac usually nails them and leaves you wondering why he doesn't do it more often. Cue the most interesting man in the world: 

2. "Thinking Bout Something." I didn't have any hopes that this would be played, so having it pulled out during a fan club set really surprised me. If you read this blog with any regularity or even just stand near me at shows when it gets played, then you already know I love this song and am a big cheesy dork when it comes to doing the dance. As I mentioned back in February, it has officially been 10 years since I learned it or practiced for any sort of accuracy, so we just get progressively worse each time. I always say I'm going to go back and relearn it, but then I never do. When they played it at the first show and I was at a 2nd row center table with room to dance and spotlights and cameras around, we made the executive decision: time to actually follow through on that much-needed practice.

We went back to our hotel room and played the youtube tutorial on the giant TV, and surprisingly, it only took about two runs through it to get it right. My absolute favorite moment of the whole weekend was the moment it got played at the final show. I was front row center with another table of friends right next to me and one adjacently behind. During one of the moves that requires spinning around, I took stock of the room and realized virtually everyone within my line of sight was also attempting the dance. I think it was the most people I've seen doing it in one place since I was on the set for the music video, and it was fun to actually know what I was doing for a change and not have to stop to spiral into a fit of laughter because we lost our place or stomped on each other's feet.

1A. Drumsticks. For the last show, we had a few extra friends coming meaning we needed two tables instead of one. There was definitely that nervous moment before buying tickets of what if we only get one table, what if we get one amazing table and one terrible one, how do we figure out who sits where, etc. By some miracle, we got two side by side tables front row center and it became a non-issue (which definitely falls in to the Sydney Opera House category of how is this even happening?). I was with one friend in particular who is a Tulsa local and has been such a gracious host chauffeuring us around and being generally awesome, and she's the only one of us who had never been given drumsticks. Once we knew we had those tables, one thing led to another and suddenly we were buying programmable light up masks and planning operation get Morgen sticks. Morgen's mask said something along the lines of "sticks, please," and the rest of us had "sticks" with arrows pointing towards her.

I knew they weren't guaranteed, but I was mostly mentally prepared for her to get them at the end of the show when Zac stepped forward with sticks in hand. What I was NOT prepared for, however, was when I saw someone rush past me from behind to claim them first. Everything happened so fast and things got confusing after that. The stage rusher got sticks, then someone else got sticks, then Morgen got a third pair, and I was so annoyed by people rushing but also so relieved that she still got sticks that gratitude won out in my mix of emotions. I put my hands together 🙏 and mouthed "thank you" to Zac (which he couldn’t see, because #masklife) while my friend Rachel did a very similar gesture right next to me. Then suddenly he’s going back for a final pair of sticks and aiming them towards our table, and the three of us just froze and stared at him and each other for a moment. I finally stepped forward and took them when I realized that if I didn’t, a second stampede was likely to start. The whole thing was super unexpected, though very much appreciated, and it occurred to me that maybe our “thank you” gestures looked a lot more like “please" and he gave them to us because he was confused. Or maybe he was just already in the Oprah zone and figured why not one more? ("You get sticks!" "You get sticks!" "Everybody's getting sticks!") Who knows. 



1B. My favorite part of the whole encounter though is what happened next. It felt selfish to keep a second pair when my whole table already had some, and 2 sticks + 3 people is bad math, so I immediately turned and looked for someone to give them to. I noticed a boy and his mother behind us who were slowly stepping forward but also politely keeping distance, so that sold me on giving them to him. It wasn't until my friends and I were talking in the hotel room later that I realized my brain skipped a few of the details of how that actually went down. I left fully thinking I handed the sticks to the boy. What actually happened is I had been aiming to give the sticks to the boy's mother (on his behalf, she was just closer), and Rachel took them out of my hand and gave them directly to the kid. This was all so seamless and exactly what I had intended to do that I didn't realize I didn't do it myself. The best part is there was zero communication between us when this happened. From an outside perspective, Zac gave me sticks and my friend literally stole them out of my hands and gave them away to a stranger. I'm pretty sure friendships have been canceled over less. The fact that she knew exactly what I was trying to do without either of us speaking and then carried it out so well that I didn't even realize it wasn't ME doing it...that's friendship goals.

And for a bit of relevant balance, here's a list of my #1 least favorite moment:

1. Maskless stage rushing. I don't care who gave you permission or what invitation you think you received, under no circumstances should you be leaving your table without your mask and going into someone else's space. It's against Cain's policy, and it's against common decency. I need you to feel a little less "Hakuna Matata" and a little more "Be Prepared." TL;DR: Do what you want at your own table, but stay there. #GetTheGirlBackToHerTable2020

Soapboxes and mask rants aside, I had a really good time and feel incredibly lucky to be able to go to these in-person shows and spend some time with friends even if I can't do it as often or in as large of a group as I would like. I don't want to be too harsh here and I know we all have lapses in judgment sometimes, but I do believe it's our responsibility to take care of each other and do our best to follow basic guidelines so that we can slow the spread and continue having the privilege of attending these shows. I'm thoroughly excited for next month's Christmas Ball, and I can't wait to see the room full of whatever range of ugly sweaters and ballgowns people choose to wear. (Those of you watching from home...I'm counting on those cheesy Christmas pajama photos!)

P.S. All I want for Christmas is to hear "My Favorite Christmas Sweater." 🙏 <-- P.P.S. Just to be clear, THOSE are please hands 😂