By this time we had started feeling that this wonderful week was soon going to end. But I tried to ignore the melancholy feelings and make sure to just enjoy myself instead! Me, my sister and our friend had decided in advance that we wouldn’t stand by the stage during this show, instead we wanted spots in the stairs going up to the balcony. That meant that we didn’t have to wait in line for as long as we had done earlier, so we did some more tourist stuff instead. After about 2.5 hours of waiting outside the venue, we were let inside – and we got exactly the spots we wanted: in the stairs right in the bend, and we had only one row of people behind us (it wasn’t even a complete row), so we had plenty of space during the show!
“The Story” was mostly about how it was that Hanson went to Africa and began their charity project there. I had heard parts of it before, but not all of it, so it was interesting. We also got to know that the song Your Illusion actually was written for Underneath, but that it didn’t fit in the end. Zac pointed out that the albums have been very different, varying between pop sounds and rock sounds, and they started joking about how the next album will be a hardrock album. Someone in the audience shouted a name, but I didn’t hear what band she mentioned, and I think it was Zac who objected and said “no, good hardrock, those don’t make good hardrock”, something like that. Then everyone started shouting different bands and Hanson commented on them, and suddenly Taylor exclaimed something like “wow, you guys are taking this seriously!” Well, of course we do! No really, I guess it was mostly because it was fun, and because of the interacting with the band.
The show itself was great of course, but not without issues. There were quite a lot of issues, actually! That they sang and played wrong sometimes is nothing I really care much about, it’s a live show and those are not album perfect, that’s part of the live experience! But, Isaac broke a string on one of his guitars, Taylor managed to bring down his mic stand again, and in the middle of a song the electric base stopped working. So that guy played the base on a synth for the rest of the show. He received a lot of cheers and applauds later!
The encore made me so happy. They sang Change In My Life. I never thought I’d get to experience that song live! I know, it’s not their own song, but it’s good. And they always sing it a capella – completely without music – standing together at one single microfon at the front of the stage. It’s something really special about their voices and how perfectly they fit together. I’m almost teary-eyed just thinking about it. Perfect, they sound simply perfect.
This show is also the one that made the strongest impression on me regarding passion. Hanson always sing and perform with passion and everyone can see how much they love music, but I noticed it more than usual during this show. And their The Walk story also made the strongest impression on me, when they talked about their journey to Africa, their work there and how important it was for them to make a difference. Here I also noticed the passion, and Isaac held a little mini speech that has been etched into my memory ever since. I don’t remember it word by word, but what he said was something like this: That everyone should do the small things they can do, it doesn’t matter how small a thing you think it is, it can still make a difference. And that he believes that what matters in life is not what you have, but what you do for other people. During the evening they also talked about doing things you’re passionate about. There’s no reason why you should be doing things you’re not passionate about. I often think about these things they said. It’s obvious that Hanson do the things they are passionate about, and they always inspire me to find that thing that I want to do, the thing I’m passionate about, and to help others.
After this show I got Isaac’s autograph, and I took the chance to thank him for this and the other shows. I also got a second autograph from Taylor (this time I had a better pen…). The night ended with me, my sis and our friend taking a walk past Piccadilly Circus on our way back to the hostel.
And here are some photos from this show!
