Here's a continuation of a post from my Livejournal that I wrote a few days after I met Hanson for the first time in 2003!
We went back to our hotel and slept. In the morning, I was still probably saying “He talked to me!” We hopped in the car, and Katie started out driving. This trip went a lot faster for some reason. Erin, Katie, and I wrote down our experiences and shared them with the others, so we could reminisce about the previous night. Katie mentioned that she could see the appreciation in Taylor’s face when they shook hands. I found that super cute.
When we got to Katie’s, we watched the footage and ate things. We also watched The Newlyweds, which was really cute. But anyway, the next morning, Erin, Theresa, and I were all about going back and doing it all again. Theresa hopped online and learned that they would be doing a TV show that morning, so we rushed to get ready and made our way to Chicago. We found the TV station pretty easily, but we saw no tour bus, so we headed to the venue. We also found that pretty easily. As we were looking for a place to park, Theresa saw the tour bus. I spun around and followed it. They parked right in front of the venue, so we continued on to find a spot. We found one not too far away and hurried to the venue. The guys hadn’t come out of the bus yet. We waited a really long time, but no one came out…they weren’t even in the bus. They came in a back way. But they did go to and from the bus a couple times after their sound check. Ike looked kind of cranky still; Taylor looked nice as always; and Zac looked a little like he was scared of the fans. I don’t know—there must be some reason he hardly ever comes out. But anyway, Taylor’s wife Natalie and baby Ezra were there, as was Zac’s girlfriend Kate. Both girls were very pretty, very skinny, and very nice.
Teitur walked right through the crowd to try to get inside. We had our bag of food on the ground, so I told him he could walk right over it. He ignored me and walked around the crowd instead.
At about 6, Erin and I lined up, and Theresa hung out with the big group of people who didn’t get tickets. As we stood around, Micah came by and asked the girl RIGHT BEHIND ME, “Have you ever met Hanson?” She said no, and he whisked her away to meet and greet land. I was livid, so I went back and complained to Theresa about it. At 6:30ish, they let us in, and Erin and I got about the same spot we got in Pontiac. Pretty darn good for getting there at 1ish. It was a really small place, which ruled. There were only a handful of rows behind Erin and me. Teitur came out on 7ish, walking right by the crowd as he walked onto stage. His show was good again. A few people yelled out questions between songs, and one guy behind Erin and me yelled, “Who’s your favorite band?” A fan yelled, “Hanson!” and Teitur was like, “Aside from Hanson?” He never really did answer the question.
Hanson came on at 8ish, looking all good. They opened with “Strong Enough to Break” again, and I could tell right away that Taylor’s voice was the only one I could hear. “River” was next, and no one could hear Ike. He shared Taylor’s mic for the whole song while they fixed the problem. It was pretty cute. I was worried, though, that the mishap would make him cranky. He seemed good-natured, though, when Taylor called to him “Show us your boobies!” before he sang “Love Song” as a solo. Also, Zac said, “Didn’t he say that like five times?” when Ike mentioned the Acoustic CD. Ike clarified that it was twice by holding up two fingers. In a French accent, he also said that it was the screw you sign or something. I don’t really know, but it was funny. They sang mostly the same songs as in Pontiac, just in a different order. Taylor also sang “Crazy/Beautiful” instead of “Never Let Go” for his solo. His version of “Crazy/Beautiful” seemed slower live than it did on the video on the hanson.net CD. Erin told me that Zac kept yawning, which I missed both time he did it. Poor boy. They ended with a very upbeat “Rip It Up,” which I giddily danced along to.
Afterwards, Erin and I linked, and we rang outside. On the way out, I grabbed Teitur’s arm and said, “Awesome show!” I realized I probably should have said something like “You were awesome” because it might have sounded like I was complimenting Hanson, not him. But maybe that’s just my paranoia. We joined Theresa outside. Hanson was already in the bus. They had Pizza delivered to them, which I found amusing. Ike peeked through the curtain that divided the driver from the rest of the bus a couple times. Then, they came out and signed autographs. I was a few girls back, so I tried to stretch my ape arms far enough to reach. Theresa got Taylor and Zac’s autographs, and Erin got Taylor’s, I believe. Ike mocked the little unauthorized book a fan had, saying how he felt sorry for the people who believed those. “I didn’t even know I loved that!” he said.
When the excitement died down, Theresa and I agreed to the fact that we were tired and might as well leave. But we so didn’t. The tour bus started up, so we ran to the van, literally ran, as Amanda called my phone. Theresa and I talked to her, a little out of breath, and followed the tour bus, maybe 4 cars behind it. It was crazy trying to follow the bus in downtown Chicago. They have way too many stoplights there. There was a car from Florida that was literally risking his life to keep up with the bus. He was running red lights, cutting people off; it was crazy. I didn’t go that far. At one point, I thought we had lost it, but luckily that bus goes pretty slow. After a lot of turns, dozens of swears from Theresa and me, and way way too many lights, the bus slowed to a stop at Hotel Monaco. I think that’s what it was called.
We parked and hopped out of the van. There were some fans that were there the other day in Detroit, a quiet girl, and the man from Florida. Eleven of us in all. Ike came out first. I really can’t remember if he signed autographs before or after he went into the hotel. I think it was before. He came right up to us holding a sharpie. Girls held out things for him to sign, but I stood right next to him and asked a couple times, “Ike, can I get a picture with you?” Yeah, he was ignoring me at first, but he finally gave in! I swung my arm around him and grabbed onto his waist. I have no idea where his arm went, but it was so awesome! All the other girls posed for a picture with him, except for the quiet girl who missed her opportunity. After that, I kept lecturing her to be more aggressive.
Taylor came out holding Ezra with Natalie behind him and Kate and Zac behind them, holding hands. We awesomely respectful fans just stood back and watched as they went in. Taylor came back out in a bit, holding Ezra. We asked if we could take some pictures with him, and he put Ezra on his shoulders. I was just thinking, was that safe? He put Ezra in the bus and came back out. He was like, “Hey guys and girls…or girls and girls.” I said, “There was a guy here before, but he left,” I said as Taylor and I MADE EYE CONTACT! Then he said, “it’s a nice night for sitting outside,” or something like that. I agreed and said it was breezy. I stood back and let all the Taylor fans have their fill. Someone asked him if he was tipsy last night, and he said, “No, I wasn’t tipsy.” Haha, ‘cause Ike was. As Taylor was getting ready to leave, Theresa and Erin asked me if I wanted to get a picture with him. I decided I did, so I stood by him and tried to get his attention. “Can you do one more?” I put my arm around him, but I don’t remember his waist like I remember Ike’s.
Let’s see, Zac came out of the hotel and hang out with us the longest. I couldn’t even remember what Zac said the whole time. Some girls were trying to get him to take a picture with them with their thumbs on their foreheads. I don’t know, but Zac didn’t want to do it until he knew what it meant. It was so cute. I was the last one to take a picture with him, and of course he was ignoring me again, like his brothers, so I stood next to him and started squeezing his upper arm a couple times. “Me next, me next.” Theresa scolded me, “Bek!” As Erin was taking our picture, I said, “I’m annoying.” Zac said, “That’s OK.” Haha, I freak out about that the most. Zac said it was OK that I was annoying! He also put his hand on my back in the picture. Zac's hand touched my bare back! Hehe, OK, so Zac went to the van, hooting and yelling on his way. Then we’d yell, then he’d yell, then we’d yell. It was amusing. He’s still hyper like he was back in the day. I’m glad he hasn’t lost that.
So we left, all extremely happy. We left the hotel, following the bus, but this time we weren’t trying to stalk them. We just used them to get back onto the highway. Florida was still following them, though. Haha. Anyway, I drove by them and honked, hoping they would see the “Honk if you like Hanson,” and honk back. We drove back to Wisconsin and unsuccessfully looked for a one-hour photo place. Eventually, at 4:30 AM, Erin and I got back to Whitewater.
Two hours later, I woke up for work. I survived, though, and after work, Theresa came over to show me her pictures and watch my footage. When I got back to the apartment, she was parked there, so I asked how my picture turned out. She said that when she first saw it, she gasped and then started giggling. I thought that was so cute, as was my picture! Holy hotness! Holy yellowness! OK, end of story. Can’t wait to see the other pics.
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