So, yesterday, myself and Brittany Dyer drove up to Portland, ME to see HANSON.
Brittany, Maria and I were BFF in high school and then semi-lost touch after we all went in different directions for college. :(
(from L to R: Maria, Julie, Brittany)That's us at Friendly's after the alumni chorus concert, haha. We look so young!
Anyways - it was SO GOOD to see Brittany! I don't know if you all remember, but I had dinner with her and Maria back in the winter and haven't seen her since.
But we were meeting up on Tuesday afternoon and going to see HANSON together! They were playing a show at the newly renovated State Theater in Portland, ME.
I hadn't seen Brittany in like, 10 months and I hadn't seen Hanson in like, 15 months, SO - it was a pretty special night.
I drove to Britt's new apartment (super cute!) and picked her up!! SO FREAKING GOOD TO SEE HER!!! And - we were dressed almost exactly alike, which was super weird and totally awesome. It was like we went right back to being BFF.
We had a great drive up, lots of catching up about life, jobs, boys, etc... GOOD talks :)
Found the parking garage with no problem. We were going to get dinner first and ended up at this Thai restaurant almost right across from the garage and right down the street from the venue. Britt had never had Thai before! Um, it was delish. Like, really good Thai food. And I got a Thai iced tea, which was also delish.
Right at the end of our meal, these two girls at the next table over heard us talking about heading over to the State Theater and made some comment like, "we're headed there too!" or something, so I said, "are you guys going to Hanson?!" and they were like, "YEAH!!!!" So then we all had a mini-Hanson freak out moment. And they were like, our age, which was cool.
Then we headed over to the theater. When we first pulled into Portland, there were people already lining up outside the doors. Crazy.
We finally got in line probably just before 6:30. The doors didn't open until 7pm. So, we had some waiting to do. Lucky for us, we ended up in line in front of these SUPER Hanson fans. They were from Canada and had seen Hanson like, 15 times or something.
(I've seen Crash Kings 19 times... soooo.... not to brag, but whatevs... haha)
And also lucky for us, this girl had like the loudest voice ever. And she was literally talking nonstop about all the different Hanson shows, their different album covers, photo shoots, music videos, songs, concerts, like, literally everything Hanson related. :/ it was pretty obnoxious.
So we finally get into the theater and immediately find spots in the crowd. There's like a section in front of the stage for people to stand, and then there's the huge theater with seats and also a balcony. We got a standing spot in the center, probably like, 7ish people back from the stage. AWESOME.
The Hanson concerts I have been to before all had like, assigned seats, which definitely makes for a different concert vibe. Standing concerts are so much better.
Also cool - the Hanson shows I've been to before, I've felt like a senior citizen. Like, I can remember Kerianne and I commenting on all the high school girls when we saw them in Northampton and same thing when Kara and I saw on Cape Cod last year. But this time it really felt like everyone was right around our age. Like, mid-twenties. All people who have been fans RIGHT from the very beginning. :) That made us happy.
We took pictures of us in the crowd:
HOTTIES AT HANSON! Right? That last pic is so good. Also: please note how we are almost wearing the same thing. We both wore royal purple tops with grey cardigans. And I wore a denim skirt and Britt wore jeans. We totally matched. It rocked.
The opening guy was called Charlie Mars. Relation to Veronica? IDK. Should've asked him after the show.
He was really good! And super cute and kind of awkward!
He was like, "This next song is called, "Listen to the Dark Side," and I wrote it while I was high and listening to Pink Floyd." And then he was like, "I wrote this song for this girl who had just broken up with me... I wrote it because I wanted to get back together with her... and I played her the song and she said, "that's a great song... but we're not getting back together."" It was just all very cute.
AND THENNN!!!!!!!!
HANSON CAME OUT!!!!!!
ZAC!
TAYLOR!
ISSAC!
Brittany and I were talking about how when they first became popular everyone was crazy over Taylor and Zac, and thought that Issac was like the older, creepy one. But now - Issac has turned into a SUPER HOTTIE.
Britt was saying that Taylor looked like a Frenchman and Zac looked like a member of the Foo Fighters. haha. He kinda did.
After every song they would have like, a 15 second band meeting at the drum set. It was weird. And then after the third song, they were like,
HANSON: We'll be right back!
And they all ran off stage and took like a five minute break... it was really weird. I assumed something was wrong with the sound on stage.... or something....
They came back on, played one song and then Taylor went to the microphone and said,
TAYLOR: So, we took a little break a few minutes ago because I've got a really bad cold... and we always want you guys to have the best Hanson show possible. We always want to give you 175% - all the time. And, we're not feeling that way right now.. So, this show is going to be shorter. And we're going to come back and play you a better show.
At first everyone was kind of like, "whaaatttt???" And then they just kept playing music... so it was a little confusing...
But you could definitely tell Taylor was sick... he could barely talk and his cheeks were bright red and he was sweating really bad :( Poor guy.
After their break, they switched to songs where either Zac or Issac had lead vocals. Songs such as Deeper, A Minute Without You, and Man From Milwaukee, which rocked. They played Mmmbop, of course, but Taylor really counted on the crowd to sing for him. Which, of course, we did.
Here are some rocking shots that Brittany took with her iPhone. I stole these off her Facebook. All the ones of Issac are soo cool. It's like he's got this glowing outline. We were looking at them in the car on the ride home and she was like,
BRITTANY: Haha, it kinda looks like he's just a cardboard cutout!
JULIE: Yeah, haha, they were so sick that they just brought out cardboard cutouts of themselves!
It does look like that, though...
Mmm Taylor Hanson.... thank God for those skinny jeans..
(we also made comments like that the whole ride home...haha)
ALL IN ALL - it was such an awesome time. The crowd was totally pumped up, singing and dancing and doing all the right hand motions at all the right times.
♡♡♡
So fun.
And! They said that if we saved our tickets we wouldn't have to pay to see the show again. SO - guess who's going to see Hanson again?!?! Um, me and Brittany are. I'M SO EXCITED. haha.
I mean, they played for an hour last night, that's a pretty good show. It's like getting two shows for the price of one, kinda. Which rocks.
It feels so good to be at a Hanson show. It's like, I've loved them for SO MANY years, it kind of feels like a 'full circle' kind of thing. There have been only two things I have made scrap books for in my entire life:
1. Titanic
2. Hanson
Yep. I have both of those things. Clearly those have been the two most important things in my life so far.
I got some videos... they're pretty short and very jumpy... but the sound quality is good...
"Waiting for This" - As I was taking this video, a State Theater employee tapped me on the shoulder and said, "still photos only!!!" I nodded my head and stopped the recording...
But that didn't stop me from taking these videos too:
"A Minute Without You" - TOTALLY ROCKED
"Mmmbop"
Yeah, guy, I'm actually going to listen to you. I'm at a HANSON concert, COME ON!!
OHHHHH it was such a great night. Too bad it ended early, but we have another whole show to look forward too!!!
OTHER GREAT LIFE UPDATES:
1. My dad is coming to visit!! At the beginning of November!! I haven't seen him since the beginning of February! AHHH SO EXCITED!
2. Robert Schwartzman is doing a solo tour and he's coming to The Space! I'm really super excited about this, because if you've been to The Space, you know that it's like the smallest most coolest venue ever. And the rockstars practically just walk around mingling with the crowd. This could be my chance to finally make my move!
ANYWAYS... I think that's all. Hope you enjoyed coming to the Hanson show with me and Brittany! I CERTAINLY did.
Hope you guys are having as great a week as me!
Talk to you all soon :)!
lovelove!
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