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Angie's Toronto Review
September 30, 2000

I went to the Toronto show on Sept. 30th, and it was the best show I have ever been to! The concert was at Massey Hall, which is extremely small... it holds under 3,000 people, which basically ment you could see from anywhere which was a major plus.

BEFORE THE CONCERT: My friend Crystal and I took the train into Toronto and we got there at about 1:00pm and headed to the Eaton Centre to do some last minute shopping and eat some lunch. After we bought numourous glow stix and a lollipop which glows in the dark. We decided to go and find the venue since I wasn't positive as to it's location since I'm an out-of-towner. We got there at about 3pm and saw quite a few ppl waiting by two blue tour buses, now of course I knew that Hanson's tour bus is Maroon so that ment that they hadn't arrived yet. We waited around for awhile and talked to some scalpers who were actually very nice and honest... they told us that there wasn't anything available which was better than 12th row. Thanks guys! hehe... we got really tired of waiting and our feet were killin us (plus my pant leg and sock was all wet since some chick kicked a cup of ice at me, don't worry I know you didn't mean to =) so we decided to go read magazines in Tower records which was just around the corner and down the street. We were only gone for about half an hour but sadly when we returned we realized that Hanson had arrived when we were gone... since now there were two maroon buses parked outside the venue... ahh well live and learn. We stayed there for awhile, bought head bands that said "I love Taylor" and Crystal took a pic of me beside their bus. Then we retreated back to the mall to have a good sit and rest for the big show ahead. We went back at about 6:30 and as we approached we could hear screams coming from the back where the buses were so we went around to see what was going on. Everyone was gathered back there watching the windows and open door of a room in the back of the theatre very intently. We could make out people walking around but they wouldn't go in front of the open door or window.. someone kept peering through the blinds tho. Many ppl were singing various Hanson songs and screaming at the top of their lungs, trying to get Hanson to come outside and say hello. The funniest thing was when this old man was standing up on a railing in a business suit (teehee he prolly just got off work) and yelling things like "I love you Hanson" I don't know if he was mocking us or what but his yelling really helped us out. Suddenly out of this black door which no one was really paying attention to... Zac came running out and the man yelled something which made as notice him, he then proceeded to wave at the man.. and then he was gone! It was so funny*LOL* Then a few minutes later Isaac came out of the same door with a camcorder and taped the audience with it. Then when he left ppl were cheering and trying to get Taylor to come outside and everytime that door would open again they would go crazy but it usually ended up being their dad or something! Then Mackenzie came running out of the open door and waved to everyone. He was soo cute! Then he came out again cause some girls were cheering for him and did this adorable little dance, everyone went nuts!!! I was thinking to myself, wow this kid really loves attention.. hehe. He came out about three times in total. The crowd was starting to leave because nothing more was happening and the doors were about to open, I was getting cold and it was getting dark so we where about to leave. When after much coaxing out came Taylor! Just the sight of him up there made my already aching knees go weak. He waved to all of us and then he was gone.

DURING THE CONCERT: Crystal and I made our way in and found our seats on our own. They were 20th row in the center aisle on Taylors side, which was the last row of seats on the floor. They were much better than I imagined they would be! I bought my mercandise b4 the concert started in fear of what I wanted selling out. I got a program and a lightstick on a Hanson rope that went around your neck, Crystal just bought the venue poster. M2M was the opening act, they were pretty good... although I don't know many of their songs except "dont say you love me" Well they played untill about 8:30, the concert started at 8:00 by the way. Then at about 10 to 9, out came.... .... HANSON!!! They were so good, and looked even better. Taylor was wearing black dressy pants with a black belt which had gold studs on it and a grey dress shirt, which of course he took off after a few songs and had on a black beater. Isaac had on beige actually almost yellowish leather pants and a blue demin shirt which he also removed to reveal a dark grey t-shirt. Zac had on a tight red t-shirt with yellow writing on it and khaki pants. The songs in which they played were: (in no particular order) Thinking of you, MMMBop, Speechless, Look at you, Lucy, A minute Without You, Man From Milwaukee, River, Money, TTA, Runaway Run, Can't Stop, Love Song, Wish that I was there, Sure About it, Hand in Hand, If Only, Dyin to be Alive, In The City, A Song To Sing, Can;'t Always Get what You want and Beautiful Eyes. Songs I wish they had played: Weird, Bridges of Stone (never heard a good version of this song) Never let go, Save Me, Smile and a few more covers. But hey I'm not complainin it was still an amazing show!!!

HIGHLIGHTS: Since we were in the back we could stand on our seats with out obstructing anyones view so thats where we were for most of the night. Right before If Only, I got this urge to run down the aisle so I told Crystal to go, even though we weren't goin to untill the encore. We got down to about 6th row and of course Taylor was running around going nuts on the harmonica, it made me so happy to see him play it up close! I went wild snapping pics of Taylor since he was right there. hehe. We stayed there for maybe three or four songs until sercurtiy came through to clear everyone out of the aisle. Then after being in our seats for awhile we went back down in time to see the intro of the back up musicians... I guess Taylor's been doing this in almost every show from what I've heard, but it was so cute to see him getting everyone to bow down to them in person. During In the City Taylor did something completly crazy, I'd heard of him doing it b4 but didn't believe it untill I witnessed it myself. He ran over to the huge speakers at the side of the stage and climbed up on them then he jumped up into the side balcony, when he climbed back down he jumped off and slid across the stage on his stomach! I'm not sure if he fell or what but it was a pretty far jump, prolly about 6 or 7 feet!!! Then the funniest thing was when he was on the stage floor he sang a line in the song... too cute! At one point Taylor was over shaking hands with ppl near me, I was this close ------- to touching him but I didnt want to jump on the ppl in front of me, I do have respect and I care about my fellow Hanson fans! When they left and came back on for the encore they threatened not to play if some ppl didn't go back to they're seats, but Crystal and I really wanted to be up close and there was lots of room where we were, so we just kinda stepped into a row to make it look like they were our seats. I felt bad disobeying Hanson but this is something I've waited for for so many years! Then they started back up but only played one song, I think they were gonna play more but Isaac came over and said something to Taylor and then they only did "TTA" acappella. I'm not complaining tho cause the show was really long, a full 2 hours! Although I wouldn't have minded if it had gone on all night! hehe. Well thats my review, I hope you enjoyed it cause I spent a lot of time typing it up. IF anyone was at this show and would like to email me, or you if you just have a question/comment to make, my email addy is ablignaut@home.com I hope everyone else experiences such a great joy as I did when they go see Hanson on their "This Time Around Tour"

Thank you
~Angie~

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