HANSON HULLABALLOO 2008!
Tour 2008
7 Shows, 7 Walks
Albany, NY 4/22/08
Mileage: 181.14
And so it begins! I picked Taylor up in the early afternoon from the train station, after discovering the fun stuff my camera is capable of.
And from there we were off to Albany to check in at the hotel before heading the the venue for the walk. So we got to the hotel after about a 3 and a half hour drive, unpacked a bit, and decided to head over to Northern Lights... and here is where our first snafu of the day happened. Turns out, Northern Lights in Albany, NY is actually a smokeshop. The venue is in Clifton Park, not Albany. Funny story. We were certainly thanking my dad for suggesting I get the GPS system that Verizon offers on my phone.
But never fear, we made it safe and sound.
I love venues right next to dollar stores...
We wanted to get this for Hanson.
getting ready to take our first walk of the tour!
SO the walk began... Taylor commented on Taylor's feed bag. I don't think very much interesting happened during this walk, to be honest.
but Taylor did find a podium. we learned how essential that is.
One thing that did happen was our feet were absolutely SLAUGHTERED. The combination of the heat that day and the rough pavement just completely tore up our poor feet. That was when we had the brilliant idea to go back to the dollar store and get baby wipes and band-aids galore, which would prove most useful for the rest of tour.
After the walk, we took a drive down the street and had dinner at TGI Friday's. Our waitress must have thought we were insane because we limped in and to our table. She actually brought us a bag of ice and we sat with our feet on it under the table. That's how bad it was. Ridiculous.
But the food was excellent.
Here we are documenting our adventures at Fridays and our immense love for Hanson fans...
As we were leaving to go back to the venue, we decided to call and make sure that our tickets were there. I had never received them in the mail from ticketmaster, so they told me they'd be at will call. Well. Sure enough, Northern Lights doesn't have our names on their list. So the next hour and a half was spent back and forth on the phone with ticketmaster and the venue trying to get that sorted out, running up and down the line trying to find a venue employee who could help us, and.. yeah. It was not fun. We decided to have an angry photoshoot to demonstrate.
We did get in eventually though. No worries.
Our feet were still killing us, so we sat in a booth over near the bar for most of Kate Voegele and The SK6ers sets. We didn't actually get to really experience them at all until the next night. Before Hanson came out we went and stood at the back of the crowd, pretty close to the bar. We found we had plenty of room to dance like fools as is our tradition, and that was awesome.
Setlist for Albany, 4/22/08
1. Great Divide
2. Been There Before
3. Minute Without You
4. Can't Stop
5. Crazy Beautiful
6. Hole in My life
Acoustic
7. Penny and Me
8. Ain't No Sunshine
9. MMMbop
10. The Walk
11. Got a Hold On Me
12. Blue Sky
13. If Only
14. Wheres the love
15. Oh Darling
16. Watch Over me
17. Hey
18. Rock N Roll Razorblade
19. Something Going Round
Encore
20. Joy To the World
21. Lost Without Each Other
Hanson was fantastic, it was our first show of the tour so we were obviously really pumped about everything. Hearing them break out Ain't No Sunshine was awesome, and Taylor died a little bit during Oh Darlin'. We headed out of the venue towards the end of Joy To The World, dancing the whole way. Unfortunately, where the bus was was pretty dark and sketchy, so Tim told us all that the guys weren't coming out that night. That was disappointing, but we got over it, headed back to the hotel with the help of our trusty GPS, who we decided to name Blithe, and went to bed.
Burlington, VT 4/23/08
Mileage: 135.02
On the way to Vermont from Albany, we stopped at this gas station, and I thought it was really funny that they spelled sub with two b's.
this was pretty much the view the entire drive.
So we finally got to the venue probably around 1 or so, and there was already a pretty huge line.
We started walking around just to check the place out, see where the bus was and stuff, and apparently people started thinking we were trying to cut the line, because they kept informing us that the line "starts back there." Um, hi, we have eyes, k thanks. SO we retreated to the car and to kill time before the walk we had a photo shoot which we've deemed "Avoiding Hanson Fans."
There were a lot more, but I'm figuring we're the only ones who really find them amusing.
So anyway, it was about time for the walk, so we headed out to the front of the venue to wait for the ever present megaphones.
This is probably my favorite 4 second video of all time:
We walked with Ike a bit, he was limping pretty terribly. =(
Zac on the phone with a local radio station.
Hanson? Really?
Our only "pictures with Ike"
Everyone cut across this parking lot to try to catch Taylor. Not us though!
I TOOK THE WALK!
This was around when I told Ike that I liked his shirt and he thought I was weird.
Taylor Hanson feet.
Our feet being really nasty.
Best moment of the walk: Zac came up behind Tay who had her shoes on due to her huge blisters and goes "those Toms look pretty comfy, eh?" She proceeded to pull them off and show him the bottoms of her feet and chastise him for making her feel guilty.
After the walk we went down the street to Starbucks and ate a dinner of champions on the sidewalk.
When we headed back to the venue, we sat in the car for awhile and then got out and hung around outside. We weren't getting in line because we didn't really care where we ended up, just figured we'd go in after everyone else got in. However, turns out the power on the entire block went out due to some huge accident or something down the street. So doors didn't even open until after 8 when it finally came back on - the security kept telling us Hanson was going to play an acoustic set in the parking lot or something.
We ended up getting in the walkers line and somehow landed a spot in the second row on Tay's side. It was pretty awesome, but the venue didn't allow cameras so no pictures from the show. We got to enjoy Kate and the Sixers for the first time though, and we really liked both of them. We also made some friends around us in the crowd. The crowd was really great, no pushing or anything. I was shocked.
Setlist for Burlington, 4/23/08
1. great divide
2. can't stop
3. everybody needs somebody to love
4. been there before
5. where's the love
6. crazy beautiful
7. hole in my life
8. change in my life - first time Hanson made me cry this tour
9. this time around
10. mmmbop
11. the walk
12. Never Been To Spain - Ike came out by himself and I thought he was doing it as a solo for a few minutes. Which would be pretty badass, but it didn't happen.
13. Blue Sky
14. If Only
15. Running Man
16. let love rule
17. Got a Hold On Me
18. Hey
19. Something Going Round
Encore
20. The Ugly Truth
We headed out sometime during the encore to grab a spot by the buses, which actually turned out to be one of the only times we actually got to talk to the guys after the show.
I asked Zac for a picture and the security guard was saying they didn't have time, but he's pretty awesome and wanted to take pictures with us anyway.
Signing Tay's harmonica necklace. He was pretty disappointed that she didn't know what tune it was in.
When Taylor came out, Tay said "Can we get a picture with you? On a scale of one to ten." He laughed and was like "What are the chances?" And he loved it. So...
There's Tim, my hero.
It was around this point that I told Ike that Hampton Beach would be my 21st birthday and asked if he could make the show extra special. ... Turns out I can't really say anything intelligent to Isaac Hanson ever. Awesome.
Well. I got my tote bag signed by all three guys and Taylor got her Toms feed bag signed. And we headed back home. We got into Mass around 6am and I dropped Taylor off at a T station... we were so tired, I don't remember what we were hysterical about but this happened and I think its pretty great:
This also happened, I like to call it "Infinity Reasons to Love Hanson."
I made it home around 7am, and had to be in class at 930. That was pretty awesome. But we had a day to recuperate before the next show. =)
Mileage home: 271.33
Northampton, MA, 4/25/08
Mileage: 97.78
We left for Northampton sometime in the late morning, probably around 11, so that we would be there by 1 or so. We totally fell in love with the city as soon as we got there, its just so adorable, almost like Provincetown but better, I think.
We spent a little time before the walk just exploring the city a bit, which was cool.
This was sitting at the little cafe we ate at...Blue Sky soda. I smell an advertising campaign!
When we headed back to the venue to get ready for the walk, we were seriously shocked at how many people had shown up. It was really awesome. We were assuming that there wouldn't be very many since it was a seated show, but we were totally wrong.
Zac feet.
So, thus began the "mile long" walk that actually turned out to be more like 3 miles. Someone says that they clocked it and it was 4.5, but I don't know about that. But basically, Taylor Hanson apparently has no sense of direction and got us lost. It was pretty chaotic, Taylor didn't even get a chance to do his mid-walk speech! The horrors. He tried really hard to keep everyone together, but it wasn't very successful.
We didn't really get to walk with any Hansons this time because it was just so crazy, but we did have my ipod and our little mini-speaker that we tried to pump the jams with. We weren't all that successful though.
We did, however, make a video during our journey:
My fave. Ike's so cute lately.
Short clip of Taylor's post-walk speech:
After the walk, Taylor was trying desperately to give a Hanson the ad that she created for Toms for a big project she did. Zac basically had his back to us for infinity so she was unsuccessful, but as we were walking past the bus, lo and behold..
So we were pretty big creepers and watched him talk to these girls for a bit, and then Taylor was finally able to give the picture to a security guard who gave it to Rebecca, Hanson's personal assistant. She came over to ask her about it, and then gave it to Taylor who said "that's really awesome." SUCCESS!
After the walk we had to take a drive to Worcester to pick up Taylor's roommate Carly, so we didn't really make it back to Northampton until just about showtime. We ended up about 6 rows back on Taylor's side, which was awesome and way better than we expected. We met up with Jess and Stef and basically all danced like fools, except that security was really lame and adamant that we stand EXACTLY in front of our seats. Like, seriously?
Kate was slowly beginning to grow on us a lot at this point.
I don't have many good pictures of the SK6ers, I couldn't get my camera to work right for some reason.
We did however have a mini-photoshoot in between the Sixers and Hanson's sets.
Then it was time for our boys.
Setlist for Northampton, 4/25/08
1. Great Divide
2. Been There Before
3. A Minute Without You
4. Can't Stop
5. Georgia
6. Crazy Beautiful
7. Hole In My Life
8. Strong Enough to Break
9. Go
10. MMMBop
11. Everyday
12. Your Illusion
13. Blue Sky
14. If Only
15. Where's The Love
16. Running Man
17. Oh Darling
18. Got A Hold On Me
19. Watch Over Me
20. Hey
21. Lost Without Each Other
22. Something Going Around
23. Long Way to the Top with sk and patmcgee
So nothing really new except for Ike's solo which we hadn't heard before and Taylor got on video. I'll certainly be posting that asap. =)
I pretty much love his tambourine.
blue sky oohoh =)
oh hey zac. jesus.
encore with the sk6ers.
this is a terrible picture but he just looks so scary that i had to post it.
SO. That wrapped that up. After the show we headed to the buses, and the crowd was INSANE. There were so many people out there, we really didn't think the guys were coming out. But Tim was really good about trying to get people off the street and onto the grass, and eventually a good probably half of the crowd left. It took about an hour for Zac and Tay to finally come out. Taylor and Carly had gone to get the car and move it closer (they didn't believe me when I said I had a feeling the guys were coming out) so they pretty much hauled ass to make it back before the guys left.
Taylor and Carly took infinity pictures like this. Good times.
LOOK at that face.
Then they decided they wanted awkward pictures with Zac. I think he enjoyed it.
I, on the other hand, was still in normal picture mode.
Except that I am apparently incapable of looking human next to Taylor Hanson.
Zac Hanson stamp of approval.
On that note, we headed back to Boston to drop Carly off.
Mileage: 99.97
And from there, headed back up to Hampton Beach to crash at our fancy pants hotel courtesy of Mom and Dad for my 21st Birthday. =)
Mileage: 52.54
Hampton Beach, NH 4/26/08
So we arrived in Hampton Beach sometime around 5am. Our hotel was on the same street as the venue, so we decided to take a drive by and see what it looked like:
Oh Hanson fans.
My parents payed for us to stay in a nice place because this show was on my 21st birthday. This was our view when we were getting to the hotel.
So since we got there at 5, we slept until probably almost noon or so, and then got up and drove over to the venue. We decided we wanted to get lunch and have our first birthday drinks, so we went to a little pub right across the street from the venue, thinking the walk was at 3 so we'd have plenty of time.
First birthday drinks. =)
So we're sitting in the restaurant and we can see the front of the venue, and all of a sudden it gets to be 2'o clock and oh hey... we see swarms of girls... and there are some megaphones... crap. The walk is totally starting early. So we darted off on our poor waitress after literally swarming her for the check and promising we'd be back later (she loved us). Taylor ran to the car to get her camera and then caught up with us as we walked on the beach.
My legs were cramping really badly so I only did about half a walk and then waited by the venue for the group to make their way back around... along with a bunch of pretty angry Hanson fans who thought the walk was starting at 3... damn hnet. This made us paranoid for all the rest of the shows, too.
So. Yeah.
After the walk we headed back to the hotel and napped forever. We probably slept until like, almost 6, if I remember correctly. Then we got up and got ready and headed back to our little bar to have dinner and another drink or two before the show. Don't judge us, it was my 21st birthday.
When we pulled into the venue, we were driving down one of the lanes looking for a parking spot and lo and behold, there's Zac Hanson just walking around. Taylor rolled down the window and was like "Fancy meeting you here!" And he said a bunch of stuff but she started driving away, then realized she was driving away from Zac Hanson and yelled "I'm still listening!" out the window. He was like "I'm listening too!" It was weird but funny.
The boys love those air-soft guns.
We were walking into the venue as the Sixers were on, which was really awesome and totally chill - just, no waiting in line or dealing with any of that. It was nice.
We finally met the SK6ers after their set. Although we were both pretty drunk and I don't really remember saying anything except "Hi, its my 21st birthday," and Stephen Kellogg being like "Nice, I love it." I'm pretty sure that was the extent of our conversation.
I think Hanson came on around 10 or so...
Setlist for Hampton Beach, 4/26/08
1. great divide
2. cant stop
3. everybody needs somebody to love
4. a minute without you
5. been there before
6. crazy beautiful
7. hole in my life
-acoustic set-
8. penny and me
9. mmmbop
10. one more
11. you're enough
12. got a hold on me
13. blue sky
14. if only
15. running man
16. let love rule
17. watch over me
18. your illusion
19. hey
20. rock n roll razorblade
21. something going round
22. the ugly truth
We completely took over the entire back of the venue in front of the merch tables - in fact, you probably saw us. We just literally threw our bags on the floor and danced across the entire room. It was really, really awesome. We went to get a drink during the acoustic set, and once they started playing One More, literally chucked our beers in the trash and ran out onto the floor. I cried a little. That song... falksjf. That's one of those songs that when I listened to it on the album I would think "I would freaking kill to hear this live and they're NEVER going to play it." It was amazing.
pretending to be drunk during the show. note the disgustingly gross nachos behind us because I had just started eating meat again and therefore decided that I should order absolutely anything that was meat-related.
AND THEN. Zac Hanson. You're Enough. Do I need any more words? We were sitting on the floor for some reason when he first came out to start his solo, and as soon as we realized what it was we were like rolling around on the floor kicking our feet in the air and crying. It was pretty ridiculous but awesome at the same time. We had made a deal beforehand that we would stop drinking once Blue Sky came on because we didn't want to be the obnoxious drunk girls out by the buses, so we did. And we weren't.
We ran out sometime during Ugly Truth and got a spot against the barricades. When the guys came out they were pretty much flying through the line, but it was still a really nice experience, except for the incredibly obnoxious drunk girls next to me who kept asking the staff for drugs and were literally grabbing Taylor and making him take pictures with them. It was kind of disgusting. I got The Walk signed for the girl I babysit for, and it was actually pretty awesome, I had a conversation with Zac that went like this:
Me: Oh wait Zac, can I ask you a favor? I'm getting this signed for the little girl I babysit for and I was wondering if you could write her name on it?
Zac: Of course! What's her name?
Me: Elizabeth
Zac: Erm... how do you spell that?
Me: *spells*
Zac: *writes To: Elizabeth and then continues writing All The Best*
Me: She's a little too young to go to shows but she really loves you guys.
Zac: That's AWESOME.
There was also a point when the girls next to us were being really obnoxious and Zac just kind of looked at me and was like "What?! What?!" It was really funny. I think you had to be there.
I told Taylor good job for "being a hard ass" and not letting drunk girls take pictures with him after he already said no.
And thanked Ike for the setlist being amazing, and told him I considered it a personal birthday gift. I don't think Isaac Hanson will ever be amused by me, I should probably stop trying.
post-Hanson tiredness.
I'm the best babysitter ever.
Postcard I'm going to frame.
We stayed in Hampton Beach at the hotel that night and then headed back out the next day, I dropped Taylor off in Boston and then headed home. It wasn't until the following Friday that we'd be seeing Hanson again, and it was pretty much the longest week of my entire life.
Mileage: 101.90
7 Shows, 7 Walks
Albany, NY 4/22/08
Mileage: 181.14
And so it begins! I picked Taylor up in the early afternoon from the train station, after discovering the fun stuff my camera is capable of.
And from there we were off to Albany to check in at the hotel before heading the the venue for the walk. So we got to the hotel after about a 3 and a half hour drive, unpacked a bit, and decided to head over to Northern Lights... and here is where our first snafu of the day happened. Turns out, Northern Lights in Albany, NY is actually a smokeshop. The venue is in Clifton Park, not Albany. Funny story. We were certainly thanking my dad for suggesting I get the GPS system that Verizon offers on my phone.
But never fear, we made it safe and sound.
I love venues right next to dollar stores...
We wanted to get this for Hanson.
getting ready to take our first walk of the tour!
SO the walk began... Taylor commented on Taylor's feed bag. I don't think very much interesting happened during this walk, to be honest.
but Taylor did find a podium. we learned how essential that is.
One thing that did happen was our feet were absolutely SLAUGHTERED. The combination of the heat that day and the rough pavement just completely tore up our poor feet. That was when we had the brilliant idea to go back to the dollar store and get baby wipes and band-aids galore, which would prove most useful for the rest of tour.
After the walk, we took a drive down the street and had dinner at TGI Friday's. Our waitress must have thought we were insane because we limped in and to our table. She actually brought us a bag of ice and we sat with our feet on it under the table. That's how bad it was. Ridiculous.
But the food was excellent.
Here we are documenting our adventures at Fridays and our immense love for Hanson fans...
Click to viewAs we were leaving to go back to the venue, we decided to call and make sure that our tickets were there. I had never received them in the mail from ticketmaster, so they told me they'd be at will call. Well. Sure enough, Northern Lights doesn't have our names on their list. So the next hour and a half was spent back and forth on the phone with ticketmaster and the venue trying to get that sorted out, running up and down the line trying to find a venue employee who could help us, and.. yeah. It was not fun. We decided to have an angry photoshoot to demonstrate.
We did get in eventually though. No worries.
Our feet were still killing us, so we sat in a booth over near the bar for most of Kate Voegele and The SK6ers sets. We didn't actually get to really experience them at all until the next night. Before Hanson came out we went and stood at the back of the crowd, pretty close to the bar. We found we had plenty of room to dance like fools as is our tradition, and that was awesome.
Setlist for Albany, 4/22/08
1. Great Divide
2. Been There Before
3. Minute Without You
4. Can't Stop
5. Crazy Beautiful
6. Hole in My life
Acoustic
7. Penny and Me
8. Ain't No Sunshine
9. MMMbop
10. The Walk
11. Got a Hold On Me
12. Blue Sky
13. If Only
14. Wheres the love
15. Oh Darling
16. Watch Over me
17. Hey
18. Rock N Roll Razorblade
19. Something Going Round
Encore
20. Joy To the World
21. Lost Without Each Other
Hanson was fantastic, it was our first show of the tour so we were obviously really pumped about everything. Hearing them break out Ain't No Sunshine was awesome, and Taylor died a little bit during Oh Darlin'. We headed out of the venue towards the end of Joy To The World, dancing the whole way. Unfortunately, where the bus was was pretty dark and sketchy, so Tim told us all that the guys weren't coming out that night. That was disappointing, but we got over it, headed back to the hotel with the help of our trusty GPS, who we decided to name Blithe, and went to bed.
Burlington, VT 4/23/08
Mileage: 135.02
On the way to Vermont from Albany, we stopped at this gas station, and I thought it was really funny that they spelled sub with two b's.
this was pretty much the view the entire drive.
So we finally got to the venue probably around 1 or so, and there was already a pretty huge line.
We started walking around just to check the place out, see where the bus was and stuff, and apparently people started thinking we were trying to cut the line, because they kept informing us that the line "starts back there." Um, hi, we have eyes, k thanks. SO we retreated to the car and to kill time before the walk we had a photo shoot which we've deemed "Avoiding Hanson Fans."
There were a lot more, but I'm figuring we're the only ones who really find them amusing.
So anyway, it was about time for the walk, so we headed out to the front of the venue to wait for the ever present megaphones.
This is probably my favorite 4 second video of all time:
We walked with Ike a bit, he was limping pretty terribly. =(
Zac on the phone with a local radio station.
Hanson? Really?
Our only "pictures with Ike"
Everyone cut across this parking lot to try to catch Taylor. Not us though!
I TOOK THE WALK!
This was around when I told Ike that I liked his shirt and he thought I was weird.
Taylor Hanson feet.
Our feet being really nasty.
Best moment of the walk: Zac came up behind Tay who had her shoes on due to her huge blisters and goes "those Toms look pretty comfy, eh?" She proceeded to pull them off and show him the bottoms of her feet and chastise him for making her feel guilty.
After the walk we went down the street to Starbucks and ate a dinner of champions on the sidewalk.
When we headed back to the venue, we sat in the car for awhile and then got out and hung around outside. We weren't getting in line because we didn't really care where we ended up, just figured we'd go in after everyone else got in. However, turns out the power on the entire block went out due to some huge accident or something down the street. So doors didn't even open until after 8 when it finally came back on - the security kept telling us Hanson was going to play an acoustic set in the parking lot or something.
We ended up getting in the walkers line and somehow landed a spot in the second row on Tay's side. It was pretty awesome, but the venue didn't allow cameras so no pictures from the show. We got to enjoy Kate and the Sixers for the first time though, and we really liked both of them. We also made some friends around us in the crowd. The crowd was really great, no pushing or anything. I was shocked.
Setlist for Burlington, 4/23/08
1. great divide
2. can't stop
3. everybody needs somebody to love
4. been there before
5. where's the love
6. crazy beautiful
7. hole in my life
8. change in my life - first time Hanson made me cry this tour
9. this time around
10. mmmbop
11. the walk
12. Never Been To Spain - Ike came out by himself and I thought he was doing it as a solo for a few minutes. Which would be pretty badass, but it didn't happen.
13. Blue Sky
14. If Only
15. Running Man
16. let love rule
17. Got a Hold On Me
18. Hey
19. Something Going Round
Encore
20. The Ugly Truth
We headed out sometime during the encore to grab a spot by the buses, which actually turned out to be one of the only times we actually got to talk to the guys after the show.
I asked Zac for a picture and the security guard was saying they didn't have time, but he's pretty awesome and wanted to take pictures with us anyway.
Signing Tay's harmonica necklace. He was pretty disappointed that she didn't know what tune it was in.
When Taylor came out, Tay said "Can we get a picture with you? On a scale of one to ten." He laughed and was like "What are the chances?" And he loved it. So...
There's Tim, my hero.
It was around this point that I told Ike that Hampton Beach would be my 21st birthday and asked if he could make the show extra special. ... Turns out I can't really say anything intelligent to Isaac Hanson ever. Awesome.
Well. I got my tote bag signed by all three guys and Taylor got her Toms feed bag signed. And we headed back home. We got into Mass around 6am and I dropped Taylor off at a T station... we were so tired, I don't remember what we were hysterical about but this happened and I think its pretty great:
This also happened, I like to call it "Infinity Reasons to Love Hanson."
I made it home around 7am, and had to be in class at 930. That was pretty awesome. But we had a day to recuperate before the next show. =)
Mileage home: 271.33
Northampton, MA, 4/25/08
Mileage: 97.78
We left for Northampton sometime in the late morning, probably around 11, so that we would be there by 1 or so. We totally fell in love with the city as soon as we got there, its just so adorable, almost like Provincetown but better, I think.
We spent a little time before the walk just exploring the city a bit, which was cool.
This was sitting at the little cafe we ate at...Blue Sky soda. I smell an advertising campaign!
When we headed back to the venue to get ready for the walk, we were seriously shocked at how many people had shown up. It was really awesome. We were assuming that there wouldn't be very many since it was a seated show, but we were totally wrong.
Zac feet.
So, thus began the "mile long" walk that actually turned out to be more like 3 miles. Someone says that they clocked it and it was 4.5, but I don't know about that. But basically, Taylor Hanson apparently has no sense of direction and got us lost. It was pretty chaotic, Taylor didn't even get a chance to do his mid-walk speech! The horrors. He tried really hard to keep everyone together, but it wasn't very successful.
We didn't really get to walk with any Hansons this time because it was just so crazy, but we did have my ipod and our little mini-speaker that we tried to pump the jams with. We weren't all that successful though.
We did, however, make a video during our journey:
My fave. Ike's so cute lately.
Short clip of Taylor's post-walk speech:
After the walk, Taylor was trying desperately to give a Hanson the ad that she created for Toms for a big project she did. Zac basically had his back to us for infinity so she was unsuccessful, but as we were walking past the bus, lo and behold..
So we were pretty big creepers and watched him talk to these girls for a bit, and then Taylor was finally able to give the picture to a security guard who gave it to Rebecca, Hanson's personal assistant. She came over to ask her about it, and then gave it to Taylor who said "that's really awesome." SUCCESS!
After the walk we had to take a drive to Worcester to pick up Taylor's roommate Carly, so we didn't really make it back to Northampton until just about showtime. We ended up about 6 rows back on Taylor's side, which was awesome and way better than we expected. We met up with Jess and Stef and basically all danced like fools, except that security was really lame and adamant that we stand EXACTLY in front of our seats. Like, seriously?
Kate was slowly beginning to grow on us a lot at this point.
I don't have many good pictures of the SK6ers, I couldn't get my camera to work right for some reason.
We did however have a mini-photoshoot in between the Sixers and Hanson's sets.
Then it was time for our boys.
Setlist for Northampton, 4/25/08
1. Great Divide
2. Been There Before
3. A Minute Without You
4. Can't Stop
5. Georgia
6. Crazy Beautiful
7. Hole In My Life
8. Strong Enough to Break
9. Go
10. MMMBop
11. Everyday
12. Your Illusion
13. Blue Sky
14. If Only
15. Where's The Love
16. Running Man
17. Oh Darling
18. Got A Hold On Me
19. Watch Over Me
20. Hey
21. Lost Without Each Other
22. Something Going Around
23. Long Way to the Top with sk and patmcgee
So nothing really new except for Ike's solo which we hadn't heard before and Taylor got on video. I'll certainly be posting that asap. =)
I pretty much love his tambourine.
blue sky oohoh =)
oh hey zac. jesus.
encore with the sk6ers.
this is a terrible picture but he just looks so scary that i had to post it.
SO. That wrapped that up. After the show we headed to the buses, and the crowd was INSANE. There were so many people out there, we really didn't think the guys were coming out. But Tim was really good about trying to get people off the street and onto the grass, and eventually a good probably half of the crowd left. It took about an hour for Zac and Tay to finally come out. Taylor and Carly had gone to get the car and move it closer (they didn't believe me when I said I had a feeling the guys were coming out) so they pretty much hauled ass to make it back before the guys left.
Taylor and Carly took infinity pictures like this. Good times.
LOOK at that face.
Then they decided they wanted awkward pictures with Zac. I think he enjoyed it.
I, on the other hand, was still in normal picture mode.
Except that I am apparently incapable of looking human next to Taylor Hanson.
Zac Hanson stamp of approval.
On that note, we headed back to Boston to drop Carly off.
Mileage: 99.97
And from there, headed back up to Hampton Beach to crash at our fancy pants hotel courtesy of Mom and Dad for my 21st Birthday. =)
Mileage: 52.54
Hampton Beach, NH 4/26/08
So we arrived in Hampton Beach sometime around 5am. Our hotel was on the same street as the venue, so we decided to take a drive by and see what it looked like:
Oh Hanson fans.
My parents payed for us to stay in a nice place because this show was on my 21st birthday. This was our view when we were getting to the hotel.
So since we got there at 5, we slept until probably almost noon or so, and then got up and drove over to the venue. We decided we wanted to get lunch and have our first birthday drinks, so we went to a little pub right across the street from the venue, thinking the walk was at 3 so we'd have plenty of time.
First birthday drinks. =)
So we're sitting in the restaurant and we can see the front of the venue, and all of a sudden it gets to be 2'o clock and oh hey... we see swarms of girls... and there are some megaphones... crap. The walk is totally starting early. So we darted off on our poor waitress after literally swarming her for the check and promising we'd be back later (she loved us). Taylor ran to the car to get her camera and then caught up with us as we walked on the beach.
My legs were cramping really badly so I only did about half a walk and then waited by the venue for the group to make their way back around... along with a bunch of pretty angry Hanson fans who thought the walk was starting at 3... damn hnet. This made us paranoid for all the rest of the shows, too.
So. Yeah.
After the walk we headed back to the hotel and napped forever. We probably slept until like, almost 6, if I remember correctly. Then we got up and got ready and headed back to our little bar to have dinner and another drink or two before the show. Don't judge us, it was my 21st birthday.
When we pulled into the venue, we were driving down one of the lanes looking for a parking spot and lo and behold, there's Zac Hanson just walking around. Taylor rolled down the window and was like "Fancy meeting you here!" And he said a bunch of stuff but she started driving away, then realized she was driving away from Zac Hanson and yelled "I'm still listening!" out the window. He was like "I'm listening too!" It was weird but funny.
The boys love those air-soft guns.
We were walking into the venue as the Sixers were on, which was really awesome and totally chill - just, no waiting in line or dealing with any of that. It was nice.
We finally met the SK6ers after their set. Although we were both pretty drunk and I don't really remember saying anything except "Hi, its my 21st birthday," and Stephen Kellogg being like "Nice, I love it." I'm pretty sure that was the extent of our conversation.
I think Hanson came on around 10 or so...
Setlist for Hampton Beach, 4/26/08
1. great divide
2. cant stop
3. everybody needs somebody to love
4. a minute without you
5. been there before
6. crazy beautiful
7. hole in my life
-acoustic set-
8. penny and me
9. mmmbop
10. one more
11. you're enough
12. got a hold on me
13. blue sky
14. if only
15. running man
16. let love rule
17. watch over me
18. your illusion
19. hey
20. rock n roll razorblade
21. something going round
22. the ugly truth
We completely took over the entire back of the venue in front of the merch tables - in fact, you probably saw us. We just literally threw our bags on the floor and danced across the entire room. It was really, really awesome. We went to get a drink during the acoustic set, and once they started playing One More, literally chucked our beers in the trash and ran out onto the floor. I cried a little. That song... falksjf. That's one of those songs that when I listened to it on the album I would think "I would freaking kill to hear this live and they're NEVER going to play it." It was amazing.
pretending to be drunk during the show. note the disgustingly gross nachos behind us because I had just started eating meat again and therefore decided that I should order absolutely anything that was meat-related.
AND THEN. Zac Hanson. You're Enough. Do I need any more words? We were sitting on the floor for some reason when he first came out to start his solo, and as soon as we realized what it was we were like rolling around on the floor kicking our feet in the air and crying. It was pretty ridiculous but awesome at the same time. We had made a deal beforehand that we would stop drinking once Blue Sky came on because we didn't want to be the obnoxious drunk girls out by the buses, so we did. And we weren't.
We ran out sometime during Ugly Truth and got a spot against the barricades. When the guys came out they were pretty much flying through the line, but it was still a really nice experience, except for the incredibly obnoxious drunk girls next to me who kept asking the staff for drugs and were literally grabbing Taylor and making him take pictures with them. It was kind of disgusting. I got The Walk signed for the girl I babysit for, and it was actually pretty awesome, I had a conversation with Zac that went like this:
Me: Oh wait Zac, can I ask you a favor? I'm getting this signed for the little girl I babysit for and I was wondering if you could write her name on it?
Zac: Of course! What's her name?
Me: Elizabeth
Zac: Erm... how do you spell that?
Me: *spells*
Zac: *writes To: Elizabeth and then continues writing All The Best*
Me: She's a little too young to go to shows but she really loves you guys.
Zac: That's AWESOME.
There was also a point when the girls next to us were being really obnoxious and Zac just kind of looked at me and was like "What?! What?!" It was really funny. I think you had to be there.
I told Taylor good job for "being a hard ass" and not letting drunk girls take pictures with him after he already said no.
And thanked Ike for the setlist being amazing, and told him I considered it a personal birthday gift. I don't think Isaac Hanson will ever be amused by me, I should probably stop trying.
post-Hanson tiredness.
I'm the best babysitter ever.
Postcard I'm going to frame.
We stayed in Hampton Beach at the hotel that night and then headed back out the next day, I dropped Taylor off in Boston and then headed home. It wasn't until the following Friday that we'd be seeing Hanson again, and it was pretty much the longest week of my entire life.
Mileage: 101.90