Lauren Rocks Out to Hanson At the Fillmore!

the key to the door of the best night of my life

Let's start at the begning. That is usually a good place to start.

I thought I would never get to a Hanson concert. There had always been something in my way.

Now, as the radio was telling me, this "special filmed concert at the Fillmore" was only able to be attended by people who had won tickets off the radio. Liars! I had seen stuff about MOE and Hanson.net members and all being able to attend on hansonline... and the Hanson Hotline said if you left a message, you could get tickets. Guess who left a message and was never contacted? I entered tons of online contests, made a desperate plea for tickets on this verey website, I had just tried everything to get tickets. I had gone almost sleepless for nights. Nothing was working. I was on the line with the local radio station to answer a question I knew the answer to, but the person in front of me (or so) got it... But hey, never give up hope, right? So I was still driving over an hour south to the Fillmore in a hopeless attempt to try to get in whatever way I could. I picked up my best friend, and off we were!

We arrived in San Francisco, saw the theatre... and then took a wrong turn, getting us almost lost. Then we found it.... we saw a massive line, and took a parking space. A very, very small parking space. It took us about 5 minutes to park. We must have backed in and out 20 times to fit into it, but we did it. We got over to the box office ticket window, and were ready to be rejected by the cashier guy when we asked about tickets. But... he gave us a sly look and slipped the tickets though. I was really excited... but still wasn't sure if I would get in, for as the ticket says, "Ticket does not garentee admission". I had no idea what the Fillmore was like inside. We waited. And waited. And waited in line in front of the KFC. It was such a new expeirnce for me.... being the Hanson-Concert-virgin that I was. My best friend (not a fan...) observed "Hey Lauren! It's people like you!". "I know... I know."

You see, I've never really known any Hanson fans. I took the Hanson-fan-path alone. :) Someone taking a survey (for God only knows what reason) came up to and asked "Do you prefer Ike, Tay, or Zac?" I just knew I was in the right place.

"Taylor" I quickly answered.

"and you?" the girl directed at my best friend.

"Uh.... I don't really like Hanson" she replied, then reconsidered and said "I like Ike." in despiration to give the girl an answer.

The line started moving! And then stopped. It moved! And then stopped again. And so it went until it was 8 p.m., the time the cocnert was supposed to start, and we got up to the front of the Fillmore to be "searched"...

We got through, and I lead the way in. I had no idea where the Hell I was going. I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be... in fact, I still don't know where I was supposed to be... :)

At first, I was running toward stairs... then realized there was a door to a room right next to the stairs, which I walked into and was shocked. There on the stage were Hanson's insruments. I was so happy. At first I was just mesmirized... the instruments played by the guys I had practically WORSHIPPED... for the last three years! RIGHT THERE! I ran over as quick as I could, and situated myself standing near a platform on (my) left side of the stage. I probably wasn't supposed to be standing there, but hey. I was so excited. This was like nothing I'd ever done before.

The technical folk started playing around with lights, cameras and such. In our dewwby-ness, my best friend and I started shouting things like "Lights rule!" and, as people on stage appeared moving around instruments, "Guys fixing instruments rule!" as we bugged the Hell out of everyone and made them stare at us. No exaggeration. To make it worse, as I was getting all sqealy and excited because Hanson was coming out soon (which I have never done at any other concert,or for any other reason in my life), my best friend, started screaming along, but no.... not a shrill teenybopper scream, a "sreaming in pain"-type scream... which made me laugh really hard, and just annoyed everyone else around us even more. YES, THERE WERE PEOPLE TURNING AROUND GIVING US "YOU'RE PSYCHO" LOOKS.

We waited. and waited. and waited.

A DJ (Webster? maybe? I forget) from Z95.7 walked out and gave an introduction. "No gropeing the performers!" I'm sure everyone follows that rule... "No jumping up on stage!"

Screams. Screams everywhere. And then the big moment finally arrived.

Hanson walked out! Right there in front of me.

I was in such disbelief.

"Wha?!? Huh?!? Ruthie!!! Hanson!!!!!" I screamed, unable to express my emotions in complete sentances, grabbing my best friend, shaking her, scareing the living crap out of her.

"Yeah, Hanson." she calmly stated.

Then they started singing "You Never Know". I was right near a platform where Isaac would occasionally step out everyonce in a while. It was so unreal for me.

A girl was holding a sign reading "Everybody mosh", only with a smiley face in the O of mosh! :) "Hey, I like that sign" my best friend shouted at me, while I was barely able to hear her over the music. The astounding music. The incredible music.

I was screaming. I couldn't believe it. I had never understood the whole screaming-at-your-favorite-musicians until I was there. I mean, I still don't comprehend it, I just.... did it... and I don't know why!

Then they next went into "Where's the Love", and I was still acting nuts. Jumping. Waving my arms frantically. Trying to attract Hanson's attention to me which wasn't working.

I thought of flashing them. But I wasn't up high enough for them to notice if I had done it. :) I think that's a good thing...

Isaac was again occasionally coming over to the platform, sometimes extending his hands to grab fans'. Of course, everytime I tried to get through to be there in the front of the cluster of people... some guy kept blocking me. "You can't stand here!!!!". I made him pretty pissed. Which in retrospect, makes me laugh. I guess he was a camera guy? Hopefully not some friend of Hanson's...

More songs. I am not going to remember everything all in a row. This is randomly pieced together, now.

Runaway Run- my favorate song.... I was going frantic during this. I, again, grabbed Ruthie, shaking her, and screaming things I don't think she heard at all. It was too great.

Sure About It- it was acoustic... I liked it. :)

A Song to Sing- it was too beautiful.... Ohhh man.... I was about to start crying right there...

Love Song- I was looking right at Isaac the whole time, right there just about below him... that was really quite an expeirnce! I was just falling in love with him while he was singing... I felt all warm and fuzzy inside...

I Wish That I Was There- I love Zac's voice now.... but when Taylor starts singing near the end he just kinda dominates over Zac. :(

Hand in Hand- Ahh.... very "rockin'"! Very awesome!

MMMBop- Hey, I hadn't seen it done in concert before, so it was all new and nice to me!

In the City- Now this was FABULOUS! Taylor made the best dramatic faces during this. He made it even more dramatic by running and jumping around. He... he was coming toward my side! I started to lose it. Honestly. As soon as I saw him approaching, for the one time he did it during the whole show, I just forced my way through all the people to the front of the platform he was walking out onto and he grabbed my hand (among others, of course. but I don't like to talk about that part...). But I was so happy. It was just like a dream. Then, came the real jumping. Taylor jumped off the stage, onto the platform area (you know, he jumped over where there was no stage... eek) and landed. Then I guess he lost his balance and kinda... jumped/fell off the stage. But he rebounded right away, so there wasn't much time for me to freak out in terror and start crying or something like I would have done in my fragile, quickly changing rollarcoaster of emotions that night.

Then they left.

Then came the usual "we want an encore" dealie.

So, they came out and did a cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of my Heart". Taylor kinda.... forgot the words a little... but hey.

They left again.

And on came someone on the stage that said Hanson would be backout in about 20 minutes, to do a couple more songs... yeah, alright.

I went to visit my mother. Yes, my mother was with me! I didn't have my car yet, but I do now. Besides, it's fun with the family, right? RIIIIGHT. Although she was staying far back from the stage, in a bar-drinkish kind of area. She came up once to visit me during the show during "Hand in Hand", and she talked about how Isaac was "sooooo handome"! Which he definetely IS.

Anyway, I was still in some weird, "I touched Taylor" daze. My mother had been talking to someone from the town next to us during most of the concert.

The woman started to ask me questions.

"So, how old are you?"

"Uhhhh" I really had to think. No words were coming to my mouth. I struggled for something to say, I seriously couldn't get my brian to work. "Si.... six... sixteen!" I finally mumbled out.

"Where to do you go to school?"

"Taylor....."

And everybody started laughing and I had no idea why. I didn't notice.

Ruthie then congratulated me, saying "good job!" and I still had no idea what was going on.

Then it hit me.

"Oh! I go to Ursuline!"

Then her daughter came frantically running over, really excited. She touched Taylor too... she had been on his side during the concert. And from what I hear, it was the crazy-side.

More small talk, etc.

Ruthie and I went "exploreing" around the Fillmore, wandering the halls with the pictures of performers while we were waiting for Hanson to come back out and do "a couple more songs".

We found a phone booth.

She tried to call her dad. But the phone wouldn't work. Then the operator came on. Just a machine, right?
"Hello? hello? is anyone there? Hello?!?" the "machine" screamed.
Oh-kaaay, maybe it wasn't just a machine.

Now we wandered into the crowd. I wanted to be near the "Taylor-side" this time, so that's where I joined a big group of people. I figured I could just drive and force my way right up through to the front this time... but no! Now there were barriors up! And they were letting in a few, select Hanson fans inside the area. I really wanted to be in there.... I think all the fans did... how mean. I was watching the security/camera people... whatever they were pace around, looking at people. I saw people with their MOE cards, so what the heck, I pulled out mine too. I think I was making a sad, puppy-dog-face, holding up my MOE card. I didn't get in. I was disappointed, but I was in a Hanson concert, and I had just been near them, I HAD JUST BEEN RIGHT NEAR THEM, I HAD JUST BEEN TOUCHING TAYLOR... so I was able to deal with it just fine, and I was soooooo happy I had finally gotten to one of their concerts period. And been so close.... and grabbed my beloved Taylor... see? I still can't get over it!

You're probably curious as to what they did here. Well, this was the concert filmed for Direct TV. They pretty much did it twice to get some more footage. Although I was really far away compared to how close I had been before, they still had so much energy the second time around! Taylor was now in my view. It was cool. I was on camera.

On the ride home, Ruthie said "Hey, what was that song they did before the Janis Joplin song?"

"In the City"!

"I liked that song."

And so the evening magically ended, with dropping Ruthie off at home and my jumping up and down hysterically in her driveway screaming "I touched Taylor!".

Just a note- I consider that hanson concert the best night of my life! thank you for everything, hanson!

Just another note... We also saw them at the Warfield on August 4. :) I didn't scream so much that time.

Ooops, I'm leaving another note- I'm suprised Direct TV took out a couple songs. :(

And this is the last note-

The TV Special

Hey! I made it into the TV special..... almost. My hand did, dammit! During "In The City", it's probably hard for anyone but me to tell, but the first (I think) time Taylor is over at a platform on the left side of the stage (Yeah, the one I wrote about earlier) Taylor is about to grab my hand and they cut to Isaac.... and then they cut back and he's leaving the vicinity of grabbing fans' hands. But I know it's me... because of what I was wearing on my wrists.... I have a bunch of bracelets & stuff I wear. During "This Time Around" (and Runaway Run) when Isaac comes out onto the platform I am kinda... trying to get near him/grab him. How embarassing. Actually, during This Time Around I'm kind of... smiling at him. I wasn't screaming and trying to grab him then. That's hard to look for, too. If I were you and you wanted to see me for some reason I can not figure out, it's.... just.... too.... hard.... unless I am there with you to point it out!