OMG IT'S A PICTURE WITH ME IN IT! I'M FAMOUS!!!!!!!!
Okay, this page is illustrated with a few pictures lovingly stolen from this website: Official Empire Photo Gallery Thingy (Edit 2/10/07 - That link is no longer up. Am I the only place these photos are now available? Hahah)
Seeing as how it did not say "Please do not take professional pictures and display them on your Hanson fansite review", I do not think I am in the wrong, but since I know nothing about websites and HTML (amazing that someone can run a site for seven years and have no clue what they're doing whatsoever, eh?), if this is not allowed someone needs to contact me and I'll take them down. It's not like I'm using their bandwidth, it's here on my Hanson.net webspace.
ON WITH THE SHOW:
Set List:
Yeah, I don't have this. They played some of the songs from the night before plus:
* Get Up And Go
* Deeper
* Being Me
* Dying To Be Alive
* some song they didn't play often that I didn't catch the title of but I loved, and according to the set list that I found and will be near the bottom of this page, most likely it was "Honey Bee"?
* Hey
This probably makes me sound crazy, which hopefully makes for a more palatable read, but I didn't even have tickets to this show when I started my drive to Sacramento that morning. I tried to get them online, hoping there was some kind of Will Call. Only, there wasn't. I had to drive to Sacramento and hope they had tickets. I got internet directions, and I drove a couple of hours to Sacramento, where I had never driven by myself before, so I had no clue where I was going whatsoever.
Eventually, I found my way around, got a ticket, and found this place to park, even though it was really far away from the venue, I didn't want to bother to search for too long, and I went to go hang out in line, alone. It was a few hours before the door was scheduled to open.
Unfortunately, soon after my way out of the Parking Garage a poorly dressed older man with missing teeth who looked to be a bum rode his bike up next to me.
And unfortunately, the shirt I was wearing was too short so he could see my butterfly tattoo and so he was like "Heyyyyy butterfly..." all creepy. And kept talking at me, proceeding to say things like "Yer real purdy."
Uhhhhh.
He also kept asking if I liked math, and also talked about marijuiana. He kept trying to have me do one of those math problems with the multiplying and division that eventually leads you to a certain number, no matter what number you chose to begin with or some shit, as I struggled to walk fast and get away. He asked me what I was doing out on a Sunday, and the whole no-talking thing wasn't working, and then he asked me if I was visiting my boyfriend.
WTF?!
The real answer would have been "I have no clue where the fuck I am. I'm trying to find Hanson, eventually. They are my boyfriends. Imaginary boyfriends, but boyfriends none the less".
But instead I said something like "No." and tried to walk faster, but it didn't work.
Luckily for me, he stopped riding at a park and it was a couple blocks before the venue. So I was left alone and he didn't follow me anymore. He tried to ask me out to lunch with him. WTF?!
Once in line, I chit chatted with the various people I was seated near, and one of them was trying to talk about the Cribs appearance and I still haven't seen it... I tried to download it, and it was having problems. My computer is new and it was pricey and it already hates me.
At some point, a bus pulled up pretty close to where I had been waiting in line, which might have been Hanson's tour bus, so I decided to meander around, and, uh, it was their tour bus. I'd never actually been around for when it arrived before. They didn't get out for a while, and security (this was at a new venue that didn't have much experience) kept trying to make everyone (who had gathered upon realizing that it was Hanson inside their tour bus) move back, even though they weren't being rowdy at all. They all walked out after a bit, and I just stared in awe, because now whenever I see them, instead of freaking out in my old teenybopper ways, it is just surreal. Like it isn't happening. So I just stand there, staring.
I had a camera, and I was like "Hey I could take pictures", then I realized, I'd rather just stand there gawking like an unskilled stalker. If I had pictures, all I would remember from them was standing around and snapping photographs of guys I had never met, and probably didn't want their photographs being taken by strangers as they tried to get into a venue to get ready to play music.
When they did exit the bus, all of a sudden a huge hush came over the crowd of girls. Just before everyone had been talking, and then, bam, silence. Though I'm not sure "bam" is the best word to represent the bringing of silence, it was the best my brain could come up with at midnight while writing this. It's this eerie hush, where the entire reason everyone is there shows up, and nobody can really do anything. I got kind of a creepy vibe, knowing that just about everybody there would like to be doing the guys that were walking out in front of them, but that's not what all of it was about. this was only my first time observing this so I don't have anything else to compare it to, or anything else to say, really. I just like to draw things out that don't need to be drawn out.
I can't remember exactly when, but this girl I knew from LiveJournal.com named Robyn recognized me, and we said "Hello!" and I was still being a loner and making random chit chat with random fansons, and my left ear was still being messed up from last night and plugged, so I kept poking it with my finger, looking like I had a nervous tic, and talking about how I was alone there. WOW I AM SO COOL!
In a little bit, I noticed Axwaddle and his friend S... S.... Shannon? She was pretty cool. Closet Hanson fan though. So we were just hanging around, talking, and I completely lost my earlier place in line and I had no idea where the people I had been talking to earlier went. But Shannon (? ... that will be her name from now on. I don't care if it's incorrect) just came back from a run to the bathroom, and was walking by the gate by the side of the stage door, and I could hear her stopping and talking at it.
It turns out ISAAC HANSON had been there, and she said "Psssst.... Ike! Hello! What's up?"
And he said "Heyy"
And when she told me I then proceeded to yell "OH MY GOD REALLY?!" way too loud. Loud enough for Isaac to be able to hear, I imagine. This had not been my master plan over the last seven years. If I were ever in close proximity to them outside of a concert setting I was supposed to remain calm, and impress them with my rapier-like wit and/or cleavage. Which was non-existant that day. So when he walked from the venue to the bus, he didn't look over, and I just stared in awe. Then the tourbus door closed, and I kept yelling about how whenever I see Hanson I'm just like a deer in the headlights. There was absolutely nothing between me and Isaac. There was no security. There were no girls freaking out and trying to move over there.
Then he walked by again, and Shannon yelled "HEY ISAAC! HAVE A GOOD SHOW!" and he looked over and my body decided to wave, and I tried to smile even though I felt paralyzed, but he just looked kinda annoyed. Must have been biz-zay.
"Pfft, fine, just blow me off." Shannon said. I think only I heard it though.
This meeting really did not go as planned at all. Duhh, he was supposed to be like "HELLO UR HOT HELLO PLZ JOIN ME ON BUS 4 EVAR OMG!!!!!1!"
I don't know why I thought Isaac's thoughts would be transcribed similarly to the way 12 year old girls chat online. Maybe this was part of my problem.
So I'm pretty sure Ike saw me for a split second, and hopefully he didn't file my face under the "EW ANNOYING fAN WTF?" section in his brain, which upon seeing me at a later date would cause him to runaway without giving any explanation.
It would be annoying to not even be able to run to a bus back and forth without people being all admiring. Wait. It would?
I called Kiley and had to talk at her about how I was close to Isaac but somehow couldn't make my body do what it was supposed to. Which would have been running at, and jumping on him.
Unfortunately, I told the entire story to her mother, who then put Kiley on the phone, since she had just gotten out of the bathroom.
But yeah. As I was on the phone Jessica Hanson had to keep getting by with stuff she was carrying inside, and I felt really bad. I wanted to offer to help, but I knew that was scary so I didn't annoy her.
Also as I was talking, Hanson was doing a sound check and I could hear them. And the gate was open during part of it, and I said "I soooo want to run through there right now!" since it was a completely straight shot into the OPEN doors where Hanson was.
Unfortunately, saying this made security come and close the gate.
"Way to go, Lauren."
The doors opened late so we were standing around, nearish the bus. At one point Taylor came out to it, and said "Are you guys waiting to see a show or something??"
Eventually we got inside, and opening act played (later than scheduled) then Hanson came on.
Still in shock. Still don't believe it happened.
Again.
I still love how they started Optimistic with just Isaac on stage first. *drowns in drool*
They could have done the entire show with only Isaac on stage, and I would have been really happy.
But eventually the other boys came on and I started standard "Lauren Rocking Out", which is dancing, awkwardly. But I always rock out, and Isaac rocks out, and we rock out. Several feet and several people away from each other. I kept getting pushed up/back and so I fluxuated between 5th and 3rd row throughout the show, and was near the middle of the stage by the end, even though I'd started at the speaker, near Ike.
OMG IT'S A PICTURE WITH ME IN IT! I'M FAMOUS!!!!!!!!
Dancing In The Wind. I LOVE Tay playing guitar. No, wait. I'd probably love Taylor playing anything. He could bring a foozeball table on stage and pretend it was an instrument and I'd still cheer. And continuously yell "GOOOOOOOOAL!" throughout the show.
OMG, they apparently got a request for "Get Up And Go" and PLAYED IT. AHHH!!!!!!!1!1 1jhkgdf
I love that song. Even though everytime I hear it, to me it sounds like Tay sings "just a guy like you, and maybe just a, just a guy like me / maybe we can take a walk on the wild-side."
Which I personally think would make it an even cooler song, though the first verse wouldn't make sense with it anymore.
Somewhere, Isaac sang "Deeper", and I died.
Mmm sexual undertones that I'm not sure are supposedto be there. Deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper......... in love. Pushing Isaac over the edge. *passes out several times*
Zac sang Lullabelle again and I loved it because I like that song but some other girls were complaining since he soloed it at every California show. It's HIS show, it's his solo, he can do whatever the hell he wants. He could end up juggling fruit and you couldn't do too much about it. Well, I guess you could boo and mob, but it wouldn't change what he does, since it's his time.
OH MY GOD. THEN ISAAC CAME OUT FOR A SOLO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE ISAAC!!!!!!!!!
He started off introducing his solo as a bittersweet love song, and being about when you still love someone and should't, then gave up and said "Ah, screw it. This is a song called Being Me".
And if I had been able to compute that it was really Isaac singing that sad of a song about self-loathing, I would have been bawling my eyes out, and died several more times
HOW CAN SOMEONE MAKE ISAAC FEEL THAT BAD?! HE IS SUCH A WONDERFUL PERSON EVEN THOUGH I DO NOT KNOW HIM WTF!
"... as you walk away / all that I can say / is sorry, for being me"
WTF. NO. EVERYONE SHOULD PRAISE ISAAC ALWAYS EVEN THOUGH THEN HIS MUSIC WOULD SUCK. I DON’T CARE. HE IS TOO WONDERFUL.
I hate when people talk through the solos. Or talk through amazing music in general. Why do you go to a concert to stand close to the stage and TALK?!
No Tay solo... what happened to all three of them each doing a solo? Why only two? Why am I asking this question now, when this was the last show of the tour in the States?
I'm not sure about the setlist exactly at this point. It gets hazy and meshed together. I know it included Gimmie Some Loving, and Isaac and Taylor got away from their instruments and DANCED and I went "AWWWWWW". In between people fighting near me, and some random girls thinking that moshing was a good idea, in a crowd where everyone is already crunched together like sardines. At least, I assume sardines are crunched, even though the expression is usually "packed". I've never eaten a sardine, nor opened a sardine canister. MY WEBSITE IS FULL OF LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my God, they played a new song (or cover??) that I didn't catch the title of. Taylor said it, but I couldn't hear. But it rocked. And Isaac kept singing about "giving him some sugar", which I would not mind doing. I would gladly give him sexual favors, or do his grocery shopping for him. Either way, score for me!
Strong Enough to Break... was a lot earlier in the set, oops.
Underneath... good song, but I wish I could hear them sing "Down" someday.
MMMBop. :)
Man From Milwaukee. Ehehehe.
Dying To Be Alive. I LOVE THAT SONG SO MUCH. I've been in such the mood of that song lately......... if that made any sense whatsoever.
I'M IN THIS PIC TOO!!!!!112!
Ended with Lost Without Each Other. The fake ending. The one before the encore.
Taylor wanted us to spread out so we could shake our asses, and he likes to use that word. And, personally, I think he has a bit of an obsession with his own ass, if you have ever seen any of the numerous pictures of him feeling his own derriere.
Not that I wouldn't be doing it if I was Taylor... I attempted to shake my ass in the limited space I had to do so, probably annoying people. And elbowing them in the head, even though that is not a part of "ass", which is what Taylor instructed me to shake. I TOOK IT TOO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Encore was "Hey"! And it made me happy when Isaac made the crowd yell "HEY!" at various parts and then we rocked and I kept throwing up the rock sign, with my hand. But not rock-paper-scissors, I meant the "YOU ROCK!" hand symbol. They went into the crowd grabbed hands, but not mine. I mean, I was squished in the line of girls, but not that lucky.
