The third night, the third show. I had the best spot so far during the week – right in the centre, on the second row behind a wheelchair. Perfect view! And right at the end of the show I ended up on the row right behind that wheelchair, because the girl in front of me stepped aside.
Most of The Story wasn’t really new to me, since I have heard a lot about their record label troubles before, and watched the documentary Strong Enough to Break. Still, they being Hanson, they made it all interesting again and they were joking around with each other as always.
Then it was time for the show. And it was great! All those songs that I love – Dancin’ In The Wind when Taylor plays the guitar and tries to look so cool, Get Up And Go, and Lost Without Each Other which is one of my favourite songs ever. The funny thing is that Underneath in fact is in no way my favourite album as a whole. There are many songs there which can be placed in the lower half of my Hanson song list, songs that I think make the album worse rather than better. But when I hear the songs live it is like listening to a completely different album. It’s such a huge difference! Live is probably always best!
But two of the highlights of this evening were these:
- Broken Angel, with Zac on piano and Taylor on drums. This is one of the most beautiful songs I know, and Zac sings it so well with so much feeling. It was very touching to experience this song live, so up-close. And of course it was great to see Taylor playing the drums up-close too… 😉
- Lulla Belle. Looks like all the Zac solos are highlights? But yes, it’s something special about those times when he gets to be in the centre, the one who all the lights shine on. And especially so during a song like this, when he and only he is on stage. Just Zac and a piano, and a slow song like Lulla Belle. So beautiful!
At the end of the show, Taylor jumped down to the audience and started taking peoples’ hands. But no matter how far I stretched, he didn’t take my hand but only those beside me… Rather disappointed I joined my sister and a friend, and together we hurried outside to the backdoor entrance. The night before, we noticed how some lucky few got autographs and photos there, and now we wanted to take the chance too.
We stood there for almost an hour, until it was like 11:20 pm, and by that time a lot of fans had gathered and there was a lot of pushing and shuffling around… Finally, Taylor and Isaac got out, and the pushing got even worse. As if that was even possible! Me and my sis were lucky to be right in the front, and we were also quick, so we reached Taylor very quickly. Or rather, were pushed towards him very quickly… My sister got Taylor’s autograph pretty much right away – afterwards she told me she had simply put her pen in his hand.
It wasn’t as easy for me. But he finally took my stubbornly lifted autograph notebook and – tried to sign it. Of course my pen didn’t want to function properly, and when he finally managed to sign with it, the autograph was in part hardly visible. But it is his autograph, my first Taylor autograph!
I got my pen and notebook back, and Taylor took a step forward. I tried to get out of there, but the fans behind me pushed so hard that the only thing that happened was me being pushed into Taylor’s chest. For one moment, which seemed like an eternity, I stood there with my nose buried into his jacket, completely shocked about being that close to him. I have a vague memory of lifting my hand to stroking his arm, like in a trance. Then he took another step forward and the pushing right behind me changed so that I managed to step aside and let other fans past me.
The happiness and the shock from that evening remained for a good while, and I can still recall the memories, the feelings, feel his jacket under my fingers. And remember how tall he is! I don’t even reach up to his shoulders…
Anyway. It was a wonderful show, and a wonderful ending of the evening, with equal parts happiness and shock. Just like it should be!
And here are some of my photos.
