Hanson Shows and Minnesota Trip

Tank Top: Target; Cardigan: Old Navy; Cords: Gap; Boots: Mr. Shoe; Guitar Necklace: Forever 21; Long Necklace: ?

Wednesday, two of my friends and I drove down to Chicago after work to catch Hanson at the House of Blues. Historically, we’ve kind of dreaded going to HOB shows. In the past, we’ve had to deal with Chicago traffic getting down there, inconsistent security, bitchy fans, and not being able to meet Hanson because the buses are underground. Over the years, though, HOB has kind of begun to feel like home away from home, we’ve been to so many shows there. Plus, Hanson loves Chicago, so they’re in good spirits, and they tend to do something exciting at their second HOB show (they always do two nights there per tour).

On E - Boots and Top: Kohls; Jeans: Gap; Cardigan: Old Navy
On T - Tights and Dress: Express; Shoes: Candies; Blazer: borrowed for me

We arrived 10 minutes before Hanson went on and found a decent spot behind the sound system. This tour, Hanson has been featuring one of their five albums at each show, with songs from other albums sprinkled in. They started the show with “Musical Ride” (also the title of the tour) and a few other random songs before they went into Underneath, the featured album and also probably my favorite one. The surprise number of the night was when Meiko, the opener, joined them on stage and sang “Super Freak” plus Isaac did the rap from “U Can’t Touch This.” It was awesome. Often, when they end the show, they jump off the drum platform, which they did again and then started doing push ups on the floor. Hi-larious. And impressive actually, haha.

My next adventure began on Saturday, when a friend, her boyfriend, and I left for Minnesota for the weekend. We dropped the bf off at a friend’s house where we would be sleeping and then headed to my friend, Mrs. T’s house. We got to meet her adorable new puppy, Indiana Firefox, and he immediately became my best friend for the night, probably because he could smell my dog.

We got a tour of their gorgeous new house and then headed to Burger Jones for dinner. I ordered the White Trash burger, which was topped with cheese, chicken fried bacon, and cheese curds!! The cheese curds were a perfect add, but I picked off most of the bacon. I also had a very delish s’mores shake. The most random part of dinner was spotting a big group of Hanson fans at a table outside.

After dinner, we headed back to the house for an amusing game of Taboo. The teams were my friend and me versus Mr. and Mrs. T, and we ended up winning by a little bit. I’m trying to remember all the jokes of the night, but now I’m blanking...girls? They were all probably “you had to be there” type jokes anyway. I know we used graffiti and criminals for a lot of the clues.

At about 11, the two of us fans headed to the venue to stake out a spot in line. Turns out, there wasn’t a line yet because there was a dance party at First Ave until 2:00. We did find a group of four fans, so we kept each other company for the night. The second group of fans didn’t show up until 6 AM, so it was a little disheartening that we could’ve gone and slept for five hours instead of getting three interrupted hours of sleep in the car and on the sidewalk, but whatevs. Since there were two doors, we split up, and the two of us were first in line at the left door. So it was worth it in the end!

Camping out

The day dragged a little at times, and fans didn’t really start showing up en masse until late in the afternoon. We kept ourselves amused by going to Starbucks a couple times, reading magazines, snacking, getting ready in a parking garage bathroom, chatting a little with fans, and eating dinner brought to us by the guys, who had gone skydiving earlier in the day (crazy fools)!

I wore this studded guitar print square top that I made by referencing this tutorial on Cotton & Curls.

Top: self-made; Jeans: New York & Company; Necklace: Target; Shoes: TOMS

At 5:30 we began to get really anxious and impatient for the doors to open a half hour later. We reviewed the plan to get a good spot and kept an eye on the staff getting everything ready inside. When it was time, we hurried inside and scored a spot right in front of Isaac. The cocktail waitress came by, and we each ordered vodka cranberries right off the bat. Time to get the party started!

The show itself was surprisingly prompt. The opener, Charlie Mars, played for about 45 minutes, and we only had to wait another 15 minutes until Hanson came on stage. In the past, it was always a half hour between the two, so I was very pleased not to have to wait that long.

Charlie Mars

The featured album of the night was Middle of Nowhere, which is their first album. I wasn’t terribly excited about hearing all the old school stuff, but it definitely helped that we were front row. I liked that they played some stuff from each album, though, which they didn’t do at the Chicago show. That’s the nice thing about this tour--the setlists are more varied than usual. They still play all their singles, it seems, but you’re guaranteed to hear stuff they don’t play that often. I wouldn’t mind if they did a Musical Ride Tour part 2 next year.  You can check out the rest of my pictures in my Facebook album.

After the show, we headed outside to see if Hanson was going to come out to take pictures or sign autographs. Normally at First Ave, they park the bus on the street and come out to mingle with the fans for awhile before they leave. This time, they parked in a garage with a fence on the side. At least we could see through the fence, but it definitely was not as satisfying. Each of the guys came out by the fence for a few minutes to sign things fans could poke through the small openings. I was exhausted and bitter at that point, so I just hung back. We waited around for an hour or so, but the bus was not showing any signs of budging, so eventually we called it a night and headed back to sleep.

Then Monday, we drove home, stopping at Perkins on the way to have lunch with the friend whose house we crashed at. That ham and cheese omelet definitely hit the spot. I slept most of the way back, and my friend read me excerpts from her tour journal. Needless to say, her boyfriend was more than ready to get back into his car and not be surrounded by Hanson talk and music for awhile after that.

In retrospect, I did have a good time at both concerts, but I’m definitely getting older and feeling less hardcore. I think in the future, I’ll continue to just go to local shows and maybe not try so hard to actually meet Hanson. If it happens, awesome, but if not, I’ll be happy to go home, see the husband and baby, and sleep. Ah sleep, so lovely. I feel like I say this every tour, though, so we’ll see.