How fitting, isn’t it, that I’m posting my final concert report on Hanson Day, on Hanson’s 15th anniversary? Congratulations to Hanson, and I hope that all the fans who are in Tulsa right now to celebrate it with them are having/have had a great time!
So, here’s my report from the final day in London last year:
This was the day that I felt the most like a crazy fangirl! I won’t go into details about how early me, my sis and our friend got to the line at the venue – but it was early in the morning, and we weren’t alone. There were more fans who had the same idea – to queue the longest time on the last day to get as good spots as possible, we didn’t get any more chances this time… The waiting in line was okay most of the day. Of course it got really cold during sunrise (yeah, I did say we got there early…) but other than that the weather was pretty good most of the day. Except, of course, during the Walk… Then it was pouring down!
The Walk? Oh yes, London got an official Walk! It was the first official Walk (= together with Hanson themselves) outside of North America, so it felt really special to be a part of it. During the walk in Stockholm a few years ago I think I supported health care. This time I chose HIV/AIDS research.
Soon after noon the guys came outside, but even though they stood at the top of the stairs we could hardly see them because of all the umbrellas… But we still did the Walk – who chickens out because of some rain? Me and my friends joined Taylor in the front. In the middle of the Walk we stopped under a bridge where Taylor held his Walk speech (I’ll add a video in the next post). That was one of the few moments when Taylor removed his sunglasses. I was pondering about that, I remember – why did he wear sunglasses when the rain was pouring down?? Well, he is Taylor after all… After the Walk they talked a bit more with us from the top of the stairs, even Isaac – who didn’t seem to get it that he had to use the megaphone to be heard… (Photo evidence of that further down in this post…)
Sadly I don’t remember much of The Story – I didn’t even directly after I was there. Nothing really stood out, they just simply told about the recording process. Which in itself was interesting at that time. Shout It Out is a very different album compared to earlier ones. Me and my friends were lucky and got really good spots, second row right in front of Taylor. I couldn’t have wished for a better spot (because I realized early during the week that it was no use in hoping for a spot in front row…).
The show was amazing, and that’s not just because it was the final one. The songs on this album are really good live songs. Around me there was a big group of girls who had practiced the TBS dance earlier during the week, and of course we danced as best as we could during the show! That was the only chance we got to show it (except for when Isaac saw us dancing on the street in the beginning of the week, but that doesn’t really count). Apparently there were fans in other places of the audience who also danced, and even on the balcony. But our group danced the most, haha! There are videos on YouTube, I’ll try to find one of them again and show it here…
Apart from the favourites Thinking ‘Bout Something and Give A Little, I think Voice in the Chorus and Me, Myself And I were the most special songs to me. They are also two of my favourite songs on the album. Voice in the Chorus has such a special rhythm and Me, Myself And I is simply beautiful. And then I rejoiced about the last encore – Rock ‘n’ Roll Razorblade. That song is special to me – it was one of my favourites back in 2005 and they performed it in Stockholm, and now I got to hear it live again. I hadn’t counted on that!
We hurried to the back door this night as well and ended up in the front line again. But this time the security crew had put up riot barriers… I understand them, because the chaos had gotten worse each night, and I found that to be very sad. It’s sad that the fans can’t behave better than that, so that barriers are necessary in such a small place… Anyway, of course it started raining again while we stood there waiting, and of course the guys didn’t come out for a long time. We waited for two hours and by that time I think only half of the fans remained. My group was also close to leaving, but I was stubborn enough for us to stay… But the guys did join us eventually, and this time even Zac signed stuff! I was so happy about that, because that means that I now have all of their autographs!
I also have photos with all three of them – but do you think they turned out great? Not really… Not after two hours in pouring rain and darkness, and everyone being tired and grumpy… The photos with Isaac and Zac turned out okay (the pic of me and Zac is at the bottom of this post). The photo of me, my friend and Taylor is something that I can laugh about now, but at the time I was very disappointed. Because right when my sister took the photo, someone called out to Taylor and he looked away… And this was after we had tried to make him look into the camera for about a minute and he was on his way away from us… But as I said, I can laugh about it now.
As usual the most hype was surrounding Taylor, which could be why he was so easily distracted. It was much calmer around Zac and Isaac, they payed a lot of attention to each fan and still made their way fast forward. They smiled, took photos without hurrying, and so on. They had plenty of patience. Sadly, the same can’t be said about the fans, or rather – many of the fans, not all of them. And those impatient fans are the ones who make me feel ashamed of being a fan myself. There were some girls beside me who were shouting for Taylor all the time, even when he still was on the other side. And when he was some metres away from us, heading our way, one girl tried to make me and my friend pass her object on to Taylor to make sure it got signed. Finally there was a group of fans – beside her and behind her – who shouted at her to calm down and wait for her turn. Those impatient fans annoy me so much, for having so little patience and not caring about other fans around them!
Anyway, when I recall this week it still feels so unreal that I have experienced it all. I got to go to one concert in 14 years, and then suddenly I have been part of 5 concerts, 5 VIP sessions and 1 Walk during just one week! I got good spots during all concerts without waiting outside the venue for hours and hours every day. I have so many wonderful – and less wonderful – memories: Isaac’s comment about him still being blonde, Taylor’s frustration when he thought the others had talked too long (according to him) during a Story session, getting all wet during the Walk, the happiness of getting all the autographs, the disappointment of the Taylor photo when other fans had so nice photos with him, the happiness of having been a part of all this, the feeling of all this being so unreal. Memories that I will remember for the rest of my life!
