Lauren's Fort Wayne, IN Review

Lauren's Ft. Wayne, IN Review
October 10, 2000

know I am writing this a little late, but better late than never right? OK, first of all, I was never a big fan in the begining, yes I saw hanson and thought 'hmm in another few years I may like them' but i wasn't that into them in 97. Then I was listening to the radio one night and heard 'If Only' for the first time. I didn't even know it was them at first, because I hadn't heard their voices since they had changed. You're probably wondering how couldn't I know they were back in the media? I don't have cable, therefore I miss a lot that happens in the music industry. Anyways! I was at my grandma's one afternoon and saw the 'If Only' video, of course what first caught my eye was their looks! But I had already liked the song, and i realized that I liked them. Like the next week (sometime in September) I saw a comercial advertising that they were going to be playing on October 10th in a town that is 10 minutes away from me. I saw it and was surprised, but i didn't think much of it. I saw the advertisement like 10 more times that week, but i wasn't a huge fan, so I didn't do anything about it. I dunno what finally made me do it in the end, but I went to ticketmaster.com and looked up a pair of tickets. The concert was at the Embassy Theatre, which is usually used for small play production so it is a small crowd. The tickets were center stage row AA, so they were for the 27th row but again the place was so small that there were only 29 rows in the whole house. So i figured any seats would be good, so i had my dad buy 2 not knowing who i would take, because non of my friends like Hanson. I started searching the internet for information on Hanson afer buying the tickets. I went to so many sites and saw so many things that I became obsessed (YES I'LL ADMIT IT!! :)

I decided to take my friend Janeen, we had grown up together and she would do anything for me. The night of the concert, I came home from school and started getting ready right away. It didn't start until 7 but I was excited. Since the drive is about 10-15 minutes away we left around 6, so that we would have time to get there and get our seats. When we got there, i felt the excitement. My mom and Janeen's mom were going to make sure we got in and then leave. Being 13 at the time, our parents were kinda worried, so they walked with the crowd and us in, until we got to the doors that lead into the concert. we found our seats and sat down, we still had about 20 minutes until the show and stage people kept coming out checking the instruments. Every time someone would come out the crowd would go wild and scream thinking it was hanson themselves. After a while M2M came out and opened for them, my friend has their CD so i had heard them before and known that i didn't like their music, but it was still neat to see them in concert.

After they were done playing the crowd started chanting 'hanson..hanson.. hanson" After another 10 minutes of stage setup and crap Hanson finally came out! I remember the lights coming up just enough to see them, and i remember seeing all three of them running to their instruments. Janeen and I got caught up in the moment and started screaming our heads off with the crowd! I don't remember what they opened with, but they were well into the third song when i felt someone tapping me I turned around surprised to see my mom and Janeen's mom! They had two ticket stubs in their hands and my mom was trying to tell me something but i couldn't hear over the crowd. We walked out into the hall and she showed us that they were about to leave when a lady handed them two tickets for second row balcony seats!! We quickly ran up the many stairs to the balcony and found the empty seats, there were a couple more so my mom and Janeen's mom stayed, we weren't too happy with it at first but then we figured 'hey if it weren't for them we wouldn't have these good seats' The Embassy had said that there were no cameras aloud so we figured they would check us so we didn't bring any. My mom had her's with her tho, she had just gotten it for christmas the year before and it had rally good zoom on it. She told me that she had taken a couple right when they got their seats, before they decided to get us. She still had a whole row left so i was going to take some more! I had it all zoomed in and i mean I could make out the moles on Taylor's cheek that's how close it was! But when I tried to take the picture it wouldn't work, it said the battery was low and i about started crying! I tried watching through the lenses so that they would be like binoculars (sp) but since the battery was low the camera automatically turned off to save what little battery power was left. It was sad! But I was too excited about the concer to care right then. The whole night I was screaming my head off. To be honost I can't remember the setlist. I hadn't heard any of their songs besides 'If Only' so i was hearing them all for the first time at the concert. All I know is that they sang beautifully and the show was awesome. Some of the little details i remember were watching taylor tapping his foot to the beat while playing the keyboard. And the way he would make his hand vibrate over the bongo drums.

I remember at one point Taylor saying "Are you guys having a good time?!?!" and use yelling back and then he opened a bottle of water and used a little desperate voice to saw "water!" and shook his hair out if his face and took a giant gulp. :) Earlier in the night these people were throwing around a giant clearish green beach ball and it went up on stage and Taylor walked up to it and kicked it back in the crowd and when he turned around to walk back, someone had thrown it again, and it hit him in the back and he turned around laughing and threw it back. At the end of the show they went back stage and then came back out asking if we wanted more and made us scream the word "Kapuna" or somethign along those lines. Nobody knew what it meant but we screamed it with all our heart to get more! October 10th 2000 is now one of the best nights of my life! Since the concert I have bought the CD 'This time around' late i know! but i wasn't a huge fan until that night! And I am constantly on website having to do with Hanson. I am hopeing they go on tour with the new album and come back to the Embassy in Ft. Wayne! It would be awesome because with such a small crowd you get such a better experience!!

And if Hanson ever read this - THANK YOU FOR THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!

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.