First of all, I must admit I joined hanson.net just so I could try and get preferred seating tickets. I wasn't sure that I would be lucky enough to get them through Ticketmaster. So I joined and then filled out the form for 1 ticket for the Phoenix concert. Then 5 days later I got the usual e-mail from Triune.
"congratulations! you have been selected among the many hanson.net members to have the option of purchasing preferred seating @ your requested show. we have received your information and your tickets will be held under the name given in your e-mail. the credit card given will be charged for the tickets whether the tickets are picked up or not. the tickets may be picked up @ the box office the day of the show. there are no refunds or changes. thank you. see you on tour!"
This is the sweetest e-mail I have ever gotten! I didn't get to see the Albertane Tour and I don't know how I got this lucky but THANK GOD I got to see them "This Time Around" (hehe) in concert in Phoenix on 8/10.
I had heard "If Only" at a Phoenix Mercury game 2 weeks before , and listened to RTA the weekend before and TTA the day of the concert so I was ready for seeing Hanson live for the first time!
The day of the concert I had to work 8-5 but we were busy most of the time so the time went by pretty quickly. I usually listen to Channel 3 TV while I get ready for work and I did so this day as well hoping that I would see them. I left for work with out putting a tape in my vcr because I hadn't heard that morning or in the previews the night before that Hanson would be on. I am now regretting it because they were on later that morning. They were also on KZZP radio but I found out about that too late too. After work, I drove about an hour from the suburb of west Phoenix I work in to the Web Theatre downtown. I listened to my TTA cd and ate dinner on my way there. It took me a few minutes but I found a parking place. Then I went to pick up my ticket, went inside to find my seat, and then went back outside to the concession stand and bought a tour book and a t-shirt. I met a lot of nice people. The person sitting next to me on my right was a adult male and came by himself too. I thought that was cool. He said he liked TTA. As usual there were a lot of homemade signs etc.. There were people from everywhere not just Arizona.
Review: The concert started right at 7:30. Michelle Branch opened for them. She played 4 songs. She was very good. The crowd was very supportive of her since she is from Arizona. Shortly afterwards Ashley came out to take pictures of the crowd and we all went nuts! Then Ashley walked up the aisle to my right. He was caring a video camera. He also taped part of the show. After that there was the obligatory chant of "Hanson Hanson Hanson!!!" A little bit after 8:00 the house lights went down, they stopped playing Johnny Lang's Wander This World Cd, and a giant roar from the crowd erupted. We saw flashlights and then the guys. I was about 12 rows up on Taylor's side which was great. I thought I had good seats until the seats in front of me started to fill up and I realized it was going to be hard for me to see and to take pictures since I am only 4'10". And it was but I still had a great view of the guys and I was able to take pictures. People around me offered to take pictures for me but I declined since it wasn't that bad. It was kind of them to offer though. (Thanks Guys!) I could only see them well from the waste up and I could hardly see Zacfrom behind the drums. Taylor wore a white shirt and a black wifebeater underneath. I found out later he was wearing brown pants. I thought Ike was wearing a brown shirt but it turns out it was blue. He was wearing a white wifebeater underneath and when he took his overshirt off the crowd erupted. I found out later he was wearing jeans. Zac was wearing a black t-shirt but I couldn't read what it said. Turns out it was his Led Zeppelin shirt. I found out he was also wearing jeans. They do look better in person.
I had a great time but I went totally deaf! It took me until the afternoon the next day to get all of my hearing back. I could hardly hear what they were saying or singing sometimes. But that's all part of the fun.
They played (in no particular order plus I will probably leave out a few that I have forgotten) Thinking of You, MMMbop (my fav and great live), Speechless, Where's the Love, Look at You, Minute without You, Man from Milwaukee (I couldn't hear Zac's part), River, Gimme Some Lovin, This Time Around, Runaway Run, Can't Stop, Love Song, Sure About It, You Never Know, Hand In Hand, If Only (another fav), In the City, Song to Sing, Dying to be Alive, Magic Carpet Ride, I Don't Know, and I Want You to Want Me. They also played a new song that no one had heard before but I couldn't hear the title of it (I found out later that they didn't have a title for it yet. Some fans named it Beautiful Eyes and the guys liked it so much they kept that title). They didn't play Wish That I Was There which is another one of my favs. They didn't sing any songs acapella at the end of the encore. They just took their bow and left. It didn't take as long as I thought that it would to change from the regular set to the acoustic set and back again.
Taylor, of course, was encouraging us to clap, jump, wave our hands, and scream (NO Taylor! not that, my ears can't take it!). He also asked us how we were doing etc. When they introduced the backup band Taylor did the "We're not worthy" gestures to them. I couldn't hear their names. Ike was all over the stage and even jumped off Zac's drum risers. Tay ran around quite a bit too. At the end (during the encore) Taylor took over the drums and Zac sang I Want You to Want Me. He got on top of his drum set and jumped off. That was cool. Ike shared the mic with Tay several times and once with Zac. We all had fun and so did the guys. They told us we rocked! They also had a lot of energy which kept the crowd going (must have been their protein drinks but Taylor didn't spill any on to the crowd this time). They shook a lot of people's hands. Tay threw his water bottle into the crowd. They gave away other things too. I found out later that they had the same rugs that they used on Leno but I couldn't see them. I took 2 rolls of film (so much for the "no cameras" rule. A lot of people had cameras and security didn't do anything about it. Fine by me.) and wish I had taken 1 more. I also didn't have anything to drink with me. That was a big mistake because it was hot in there because it was over 100 degrees outside, tons of people inside, and they kept on shining the spotlights on the audience. I found out later that Zac and Tay made comments about the heat that afternoon. Come on guys it's Arizona in the summer time. What do you expect?
I wanted to stay after and wait until they left but they did a Meet n Greet afterwards (the person in front of me getting her tickets was talking to someone she knew who worked for Hanson and she got passes to the meet n greet.) and it was a long day for me and I had another early start the next day so I left right afterwards. As I was driving home I was listening to Radio Disney and they played MMMbop. I freaked.
I had a great time and I want to do it again sometime. I hope those of you who want to get to go to a concert one day. I am great full to Hanson, Triune, and God for making it possible for me to be able to see them in Phoenix.
Arizona Republic newspaper's concert review.
Click on the pic of the Web Theatre to see my pics from the the concert. Web Theatre pic taken from hanson.net.
Return to My Concert Experiences