Back to the Albertane Tour Reviews

Krista's Meadowlands Review
August 24, 1998

We arrived at Continental Arilines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ at 6:00. As we were pulling into the parking lot, there were scalpers everywhere selling tickets, and tons of cars beeping their horns while dangling posters of Ike, Tay and Zac out the window. I knew then it was going to be a wild night. My mom and I parked and got out of the car, and as I looked around at the slew of twelve-year-olds clad in Hanson apparel, I felt a little out of place. It seemed like I was the only person not sporting a Hanson t-shirt, but I soon forgot about that when I saw the line to get in. You see, they still weren't letting people in, and the line wrapped around in a big U. My mom and I joined the end, and soon were talking with a 12 year-old girl who was insisting that she had heard that Zac (her favorite) had broken his leg while jumping off the stage during practice.Needless to say, it wasn't true.

Well, I had warned my mom that the screams would be loud, but I couldn't prepare her for the girl behind me. First of all, she was carrying a sign that said, "If Taylor has a girlfriend, I will kill her!" Then some poor, unassuming family came along: about three sisters, one of which looked about Tay's age, and their mom. They had taken a limo to the concert and were getting out. Well talk about jumping to conclusions! The loud girl with the Taylor poster says, "Is that Taylor's girlfriend! It must be Her, she came in a limo! I'm going to beat her up!" One of her friends remarked that lots of people arrive in limos. So the loud girl yells over to the girl she assumed to be Taylor's girlfriend, "Are you meeting Hanson backstage?" The girl didn't hear her and the loud one proceeded to get really irritated. She commented, "What a snob! That girl is so snobby!" My mom and I were just standing there, looking at each other, amused at how people take all of this so seriously. I mean, if Tay wants to have a girlfriend, he should be able to without the girl risking bodily harm. Anyway, loud girl obviously got bored with that prospect and began dedicating her time to shouting "Scream if you love Hanson!!" All of the kids around us let out shrieks. My mom covered her ears and looked pained, but I just thought it was funny. Some of the ensembles these kids were wearing were great. Every Hanson t-shirt imaginable. There was even one girl who had taken a velvet top hat, and glued magazine cutouts of all the brothers all over the hat and then covered it with either tape or clear plastic. And of course, for the ubiquitous poster. There was one poster that was totally awesome, I just have to tell you about it. It was larger than most posters, and really carefully done. The girl had glued many different pictures of Hanson as a border, from the milk ad to the first TV guide shoot. Then she had drawn a big Hanson symbol really neatly in the middle and written "I'm crazy about Hanson!" Everyone was complimenting her on it. Then, finally, we reached the gates and were let in. I remember walking up the stairs into the arena thinking how exciting this was going to be. We had about an hour to kill before Admiral Twin came on, so I got a pretzel and my issue of MOE and sat in my seat reading. The lady next to us was really nice, and she had brought her binoculars, which she let us use. Well, after I had gone through MOE for awhile, and the place was beginning to fill up, there was music playing, just a constant mix kind of like the radio except with no advertisements or DJ talk. Everytime a song on the mix ended, the audience assumed this meant the show was beginning, and started screaming. That is, until a new song began, and so on in the vicious cycle. Just when I was starting to get really antsy, Admiral Twin came on. Here's my opinion of them: I think they are very good musicians, but I did not like their material. There was only one song I liked at all. So I was basically bored though that whole part. When they finished it was eight o' clock and they put down a curtain and began setting up for Hanson. The crowd was getting really antsy, partly because in one of the skyboxes there was a family of three brothers and a tall father that kept waving and jumping around. The lady next to me with the binoculars told me it wasn't them and I couldn't tell when I used the binoculars myself but I would like to believe it was and the audience certainly thought so. Then, the light went out in the skybox and a few minutes later, Hanson was on, so I really want to believe it was them waving to us the whole time. If it wasn't, what a bunch of imposters!

Anyway, the audience went nuts when Hanson came on. Their first song was "Gimme some lovin'." I'm not big on their covers; I'd rather hear their material, but they played it very well, and the parents seemed to appreciate it. I was on the Ike side, by the way, but I had a really good view of Tay because he was facing us. Anyway, I borrowed the lady's binoculars to look up close at them. Isaac had on the coolest outfit! He was wearing black dress pants with silver "dots" I guess you'd call them, but they weren't loud polka dots or anything, they were really dressy and nice, with a black t-shirt and a silver shirt over it. His hair was in a ponytail. Zac had on red pants and a black shirt with his hair down. Tay was wearing green cords and a black shirt, and his hair was down but it looked really unkempt, there were flyaways everywhere. It's okay though, he still looked hot! Anyway, "Gimme some lovin' " was a good song. Next they did "Thinking of you." I leapt out of my seat and started singing along and dancing with the rest of the crowd. When Zac did his little solo, the crowd went NUTS!! I figure there were a lot of Zac fans there. Honestly, Zac didn't get to do very much singing by himself, that was really it. On "Man from Milwaukee" they all sang. My guess is that his voice is totally changing and they're trying to hide it as much as they can. I couldn't really hear his solo because of all the screaming so I couldn't judge how good it was. Anyway, the next song was "Where's the love" which I sang along with and danced to again. Tay went wild, jumping up and down. Again, I couldn't hear Zac's short solo "waiting for the bright light to break through" very well because of the screams, but it sounded like his voice has definitely gotten deeper. Ike's solo sounded great! Onto "River." It sounded good, and we all sang along but it wasn't the highlight or anything. I enjoyed it. Next was "Weird." It was sooooo good!!! The crowd went crazy. I really enjoyed that. Taylor's voice sounded so soulful! After "Weird", they went backstage, and the crew setup the garage background. Then came a type of "Hanson unplugged" where they all sat down and looked very comfy while doing another cover, and then "With you in your dreams" which was so beautiful and sad. They sounded especially good on that. Finally they did "Stories" which is my favorite song off of "Three Car Garage" besides Mmmbop of course. It sounded great. Then Isaac did "More than Anything." I thought that that was the best song of the entire night. He sang it so poignantly and his voice was beautiful, besides I had never heard that song before and loved it. It made me somehow like Ike a lot more. Even my mom was totally impressed with his talent. His voice sounded amazing! It was just so gorgeous, I can't get over it. They better release that as a single! After that, "unplugged" was over, they inroduced the backup band. It was cool because they were all running around the stage. Another thing I should mention is sometimes Ike would go around to Tay, Zac and the backup band and confer with them before a song. I noticed a pattern with this; it was usually before a cover that he would talk to them. I don't know what they were saying but it was cool because it was nice to see them talking to each other. Anyway, they did a new song they had written. I thought it was okay, but in my opinion it won't be a number 1 hit or anything. Next they did "I will come to you" which was another highlight. We all sang along and swayed and Tay sounded wonderful! That was definitely one of his best performances of the night. Then they did "Speechless," which isn't one of my favorites but it was better than a cover. Taylor was playing his keyboards like they were congas! It was crazy. They did "Sometimes" and "Soldier" next, followed by "Good Lovin' " before Ike said, "I would like to dedicate this next song to all of you people in the upper section, and the spotlight came right on us! We all went mad, my mom was just sitting there covering her ears. He continued "because we can't live a minute without you!" The crowd went wild and as they started playing the opening the notes we were already dancing. We all sang along and Isaac sounded great, as did Tay and Zac. My favorite part of that song was at the end, where there is no background except for the melody and they're singing, "when the minutes seem like hours and the hours seem like days" It sounded so good. After that song, we were all totally hyper, and we all knew what was to come next when one of the crew brought out Tay's congas. The crowd was going wild before they even announced "Mmmbop." Then even my mom got up and we all sang the entire song, so loud. It was awesome. That was probably the second best part of the night, behind "More than anything." After "Mmmbop" Tay says "And for our last song...." and everybody let out this great big disappointed sigh before he told us about how it was the bonus track and all, you know what I'm talking about......"Man from Milwaukee!!!!" It sounded good, but I couldn't hear Zac's solo very well again, but it sounded like he was going slower than he does on MON. After they finished that song, they of course got out their Super Soakers and doused everyone besides touching the hands of all the girls in the front row (which made me pine wistfully for front row seats!) and went backstage. We went crazy, chanting "Hanson" and screaming really loud until they came back out and said "Well we're just hanging around, would you guys like us to play a couple more songs (Tay said that)" and of course we all screamed. So They played "Look at you" and "Summertime Blues" and then did "Weird" acapella, which was beautiful! Then of course they got out the SuperSoakers some more, and were heading off the stage when we all started screaming again and Tay goes "You mean you guys want more?" so they all came out and bowed. Then they left the stage after thanking us for being such a great audience. I knew it was all over when the lights came back on. I had been standing there, hoping they would come out again, holding onto the moment. Overall, I had a really good time. I kept thinking about how cool it must be to be Hanson and get to perform for capacity crowds that are chanting your name. Besides, I reflected on just how talented they are. I can barely play "Mmmbop" on the piano, and they play, sing, write, produce, and they're all younger than me. It kinda made me yearn to meet them, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. It also made me especially jealous of the girl three rows behind me who got to go backstage and meet them for what merit I don't know. They seem like such dynamic, interesting people, and would be awesome to meet. I'm so glad I got to see them in concert. I've come to a few conclusions: 1) I like Ike a lot better than I thought I did 2)They are all extremely talented 3) Zac needs to sing lead more, unless of course he is still going through his voice change, which I suspect he is right now 4) they really appreciate their fans 5)Zac needs to do more of the talking on stage. It's always Ike ot Tay that introduce songs. Zac should do that more. He certainly has a loyal fan base! 6) They are nice, with touching hands, kicking beach balls into the crowd, giving away drumsticks, and of course the SuperSoakers. They didn't have to do any of that stuff, but they wanted to and it made them seem more human.

This definitely ranks up there as one of the best experiences in my life, and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again!!

Krista, 17
Hessler@warwick.net

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.