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Allison's Hershey Park Review
August 15, 1998

Okay, I am going to *attempt* to do a review of the Hanson concert I went to in Hershey PA August 15th. This is probably going to end up being really long, so bear with me! I'm going to write about the whole day, not just the concert....by the way, my name's Allison and I'm 15....okay, here goes!!

Well, when I found out Hanson was finally coming to Pennsylvania, I was so excited! I HAD to get tickets so when they went on pre-sale over the internet, I bought two tickets to the Hershey concert. I still couldn't believe that I was going to see Hanson! I thought for sure that I wouldn't be able to see them during this tour and so when I got tickets, I was really excited!! It would be my first time EVER seeing Hanson, my favorite band in this entire world, LIVE!! It still didn't seem like a reality, but pretty soon, the day came!!!

I got up at 6 and we left at 8 for Hershey Park. I went with my friend Liz and her family. We were going to spend the day at the park, and it was cool because if you were going to the Hanson concert and you showed your ticket at the door, you got in half price! Well, I was in HANSON HEAVEN when I got to the park! There were signs everywhere about the concert and there were fans all over the place!! I have never seen so many Hanson fans in my whole life, so it was so awesome!! I started counting down the hours till the concert...

Well I was hoping that maybe I'd run into some Hansons at the park, but I didn't. They would have been mobbed in seconds if they had come! FAns were all over the place! Me and Liz went on this one rollercoaster, the Wildcat, and from the very top of the hill you could see Hershey stadium and the stage that was set up there!! It was about 3:00 so we were like "let's see if we can see Hanson doing the soundcheck!!!!" cause that's around the time they do it. So we were looking and stuff, but we didn't see anything. All of a sudden we realize we're at the top of the hill and we are about to go down! We were like "ahhh! hold on!!!" That was pretty funny.

Well FINALLY the time came to get ready for the concert! It was 5:30 and me and Liz started walking to the car to get our stuff and change. (we would have taken the tram to the car, but because of all the fans, the trams couldn't get through!!! Isn't that awesome?! So we changed, and I wore my MOE card around my neck too, with the hope that I might see Ash or Walker and get backstage! (I didn't, by the way)...so we started to walk back to the stadium and got there around 6:15. Well there was this HUGE line to get into the stadium cause they weren't letting people in yet. So at about 6:30 they let us in! The guy who was working at the line we were in was checking backpacks so I was like "oh no!" cause I was hiding 2 disposable cameras in there! So Liz kind of nudged me into the other line (yes, that's called cutting) and they just took my ticket and didn't even check my backpack!! So I snuck 2 cameras in!

Well we had a lot of time so the first thing we did was go to the place to buy stuff, and I bought a tourbook ($15) and the new 1999 calendar ($15 too). I wanted one of those awesome keychain things you can wear around your neck, that say "hanson" on them, but they were $20 so I was like "no way!!" Alright, then we went to find our seats.

We had to walk across the feild to get to our seats and there were tons of chairs there for people who had floor seats. We had seats in the bleachers. They were about halfway back, so they weren't very good, but we were at a Hanson concert so WHO CARED??!! I was like in Heaven the whole time. I mean, where I'm from, nobody likes Hanson and it's very rare to see anyone with a Hanson shirt on. So looking around seeing thousands of Hanson fans, well, I was just in awe. Okay, I'm gonna try and cut to the chase a little....

Oh, one other thing that was cool. We were in our seats before the concert and like every 5 minutes everyone would just start SCREAMING and running like mad over to this fence cause they thought Hanson was there. It was the place where the trucks were so every time someone would get out of a truck, everyone went CRAZY and thought it was Hanson. I found it to be pretty darn funny, cause I swear, like every 5 minutes (I could have timed it), all the people on the feild would just SWARM over to that fence! It was so funny. Well about the gazillionth time they did that HANSON ACTUALLY WAS THERE!!! I looked over and I saw three pairs of feet (probably wearing Doc Martins--it looked like it) walking behind the trucks!! I was like "oh my gosh, it is really them this time!!!!"

I was so excited! Oh man, everyone just went NUTS!! It was so cool.

Well, pretty soon, it got darker, and Admiral Twin (in case you don't know, that's Hanson's opening act) took the stage!! I have to admit I wasn't really paying attention because I was so excited to see Hanson.

I did take a couple pictures of them, and I picked out Jarrod Gollihare, who is a good friend of Hanson. Well then...see there were like four really hyper teenybopper girls sitting behind us and I mean, they were really nice so we were talking to them and stuff. Well anyway, we heard them say "look! There's Avery!!" and I was like "where??" and they showed me. Sure enough, there was Avie, wearing a light blue t-shirt, standing down by the fence that I mentioned before. I was like "wow, it IS Avie!" and so that was cool...It turned out that she was the only Hanson family member that I saw besides the obvious, Ike Tay and Zac.

Admiral Twin finished up and we had to wait 25 mins till Hanson! *groan*. At this time, I thought I was going to pee my pants I was so excited. hehe, j/k, I wasn't going to pee my pants, but I WAS really happy!!! Well we listened to my walkman (of course, Hanson music) for a while, then we talked to the teenie girls sitting behind us. They were so funny, but they were really nice. *Note: they screamed louder than I have EVER, and I repeat, EVER heard anyone scream in my entire life.*

Okay, here comes the exciting part!! *Drumroll please, Zac!!!* IT WAS TIME TO SEE HANSON!!!

The lights went dim and everyone started screaming their lungs out (yes, even me, and I am not usually the extremely hyper type). I mean, I screamed like I've never screamed before! And of course I couldn't hear myself, because the teenies behind us were so LOUD! And then.....I heard the opening notes, the sign that Hanson was finally there: the first few notes of Gimme Some Lovin'!!!!! Ahh, I went crazy, I was so excited!! I didn't waste any time, I started singing and jumping along as soon as it started!!

****Now I have to add something that took me by surprise. I was kind of afraid that as soon as I saw Hanson, I would have this weird reaction and start sobbing or something. Well I am so proud to say I DIDN'T!! woo hoo! I didn't act strange at all, my stomache didn't get weak and I didn't cry at all! Because it was just THEM, just HANSON, and that's all. I mean, they were no different than ever before. It was just THEM, the guys. So I was surprised cause I kind of thought I'd have a teenybopper reaction. Which proves one thing: I AM NOT A TEENYBOPPER!!! WOOOHOOO!! I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd rather not be one. Okay I just had to add that****

Well I started going crazy, doing everything I had ever wanted to do: sing my lungs out at a Hanson concert, jump with Tay, scream as loud as I could, and clap so hard it hurt. So that's what I did. I let all that energy out that I had kept inside for so long!! (well, two years).

I couldn't beleive it was finally happening!!!

Gimme Some Lovin was over quick, and I absolutely love that song, so I was disappointed...that is, until they started Thinking of You!! I love that song so much, so I just sang and sang and clapped and clapped. (got the idea?!) Basically I was going crazy, singing and clapping to my favorite songs in this entire world!! Then they did Where's the Love which was so awesome because I loved doing that "round and round" thing with my arms. That was soooo much fun!! And then of course they did their usual little...uh, encore? of where's the Love. (it that what it's called?)...oh my gosh....THEN THEY DID RIVER!!! I love that song so much!!! (Are you seeing a pattern here? I love every single Hanson song so much!!) That was awesome. Okay,now I couldn't tell you the exact order of the songs after that because I was in complete Heaven and I wasn't totally sane at this point. But they changed the set sometime around then, played Stories (sounded AWESOME!!!), Soldier (AWESOME!!!), Madeline (ahhh, I love that song, and it was 10X better live!!), With you in Your dreams, maybe a couple others (like I said, it was a blur...) and then....one of the parts I had been waiting for. Tay and Zac left and Ike did his solo on More than Anything. I have only heard peices of this song off the internet so I was so excited to hear it live. Let me just say: that is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, and I can't wait till the tour video and live album so I can own that song. It is so beautiful, and Ike's voice....*sigh*...oh, it's incredible. Now I personally love Ike (I don't have a favorite Hanson) so I knew he was awesome. But some people never liked Ike as much and so when he played that song, I heard a lot of people say how they'd gotten "a new appreciation for Ike". I mean, he even blew ME away with his incredible voice! That was definitely one of the highlights of the show.

Okay, moving right along...(sorry, I know this is really long, but I warned you! hehe...). I'm not sure when but they changed the set back to how it was in the beginning (the way it is on Live from the 10 Spot). Here are the other songs (well, at least the ones I can REMEMBER) that they played sometime during the concert:

*Weird--that was incredible. Actually, I was crying during that song, cause I love it so much. The lyrics are my favorite of any of their songs.
*Weird acapella--the song they end with.
*I Will Come to You--need I say more? That was the only other song I cried in, because I love it!!
*A Minute Without You--definitely one of the highlights...I love that song "more than anything" hehe!!!
*MMMBOP!!!! What can I say? You gotta love it and I certainly do!! That was probably the song that I clapped and jumped the most. I jumped every time Tay did (which, as you can imagine, was a lot!)
*Speechless--very cool
*Look at You--also very cool!
*Man from Milwaukee--I love that song, it's so cool!! And all the Zac-lovers went crazy during his "baby bird" part.
*Covers: Gimme Some Lovin/Shake your Tailfeather, Summertime Blues (which is so AWESOME live when they play it!!!, Good Lovin' (oh man, I loved that), maybe Money but I'm not sure.
*They played a song that I don't remember the name of but it was the first time they've EVER played it live!!! I was one of the first ones to ever hear it which is so cool!
*I think they played Ever Lonely, but it's so hard to remember.

Well there's probably a couple more that I can't think of. Okay on to the *highlights* of the show!!!! (it's hard to choose cause the whole thing was awesome)...

*More Than Anything, Weird, A Minute Without You, River, Mmmbop, Gimme Some Lovin', Thinking of You, Madeline....(oh heck, I loved them all!!!!)
*Zac's light-up drum sticks. They were so cool, they changed from yellow to red, to green.
*Doing the round and round thing during WTL!
*I think at one point Taylor actually stage-dove but I can't be sure!
*The waterguns were a cool touch!!
*Zac throwing this ENORMOUS beach ball into the audience...
*just BEING there!!!

Well, before long the concert was over...they left the stage and everyone was screaming and they got into their big blue van and left!!

I was so happy, but I didn't want it to ever end!!! So me and Liz walked out of the stadium (and got yet another free king sized Pay Day bar) and left. I kept looking back at the stadium. Needless to say, the tram things still could not get through cause all the HANSON FANS!!!!! so we walked to the car, and got in to wait for Liz's parents. I was like "that was the best night of my whole life". And it was.

It was so cool cause while we were waiting in the parking lot (listening to MON), we were watching fans running all over the parking lot with signs and t-shirts and all kinds of stuff. There was this group of girls running around with a megaphone yelling "honk if you love Hanson!!!" and of course we honked! Everywhere there were cars with "Going to see Hanson", "I love Zac", "Honk if You love Hanson", and "Hanson Rocks Hershey" painted all over the car! Wow, my parents wouldn't let me do that! hehe...but it was cool to see. You would not beleive the traffic getting out of that place! The park and the concert ended at the same time. In fact, before we got into the park, they handed out a paper that said something like "due to a hanson concert that will take place tonight, there will be a lot of difficulty exiting the park because of all the fans expected to attend the concert. We hope you understand." Well, me and Liz thought that was hilarious.=) Her parents said that once the concert started and all the fans were out of the park, the lines got so short!!

Basically the concert was like the best night of my life so far, and if you ever get a chance to see Hanson in concert LIVE...GO!!! They are incredible live! I had such a blast at the concert. Well let me know what you thought. Sorry this is so long! I knew it would be. Thanks for reading it (if you've managed to get to this part and haven't fallen asleep in the process!)

I know that a lot of people like Hanson less after seeing them live, but I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!!! I like them a thousand times more now!(which is hard to believe). I mean, I am without a doubt, a fan for life. HANSON ROCKS!!!! Okay that's all!

~Allison

This page is in no way associated with Hanson or Island Records. All thoughts and writings are the sole property of me. Please email me with any comments or questions. Thank You.