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Katie's Washington DC Review
July 2, 1998

Yes, I went to the July 02 Hanson concert at the Nissan Pavilion in Manassas, VA. First of all, I would like to say that this review includes alot of my personal experiences there. I'd say, "Yeah, man, it ROCKED!!!!" but everyone says that. So I'm gonna simply say I had a great time, and that it was 'DA BOMB, baby :)!!!

I had a couple friends that were there earlier than I was and they saw "THE VAN," the white van, that is. The awesome, kickin', real cool van that contained Hanson and/or their equipment. My friend Missy and I got to the Pavilion around 5pm. It was amazing! I was within a few feet of Diana Hanson herself! Everyone began shrieking (and I mean shrieking) and one girl even exclaimed, "Thank you for having beautiful children!" Diana just kept walking, pretending as if the screams were not even in the air. I imagine she becomes pretty tired of that.

The gates were supposed to open at 6:30. As that time drew near, people began to crowd around the entrance. Missy and I went to buy some Hanson/Albertane tour merchandise and as we tried to make our way back to where my parents were standing, the crowd began pushing and shoving. It was practically swelling. After Diana Hanson walked back up the path leading to the inside of the Pavilion, many other people- Hanson's manager- Christopher Sabec, and several Nissan Pavilion workers, rode these golf carts back and forth from the Pavilion to the entrance gates. At one point, someone inquired, "Are you guys bringing Hanson down here on those?" (referring to the golf carts). I don't know about anyone else, but I seriously doubt that Hanson would interrrupt their sound check to ride golf carts down in front a bunch of wild girls that became hysteric at just so much as a red-shirted Nissan Pavilion worker.

I assume a great deal of girls did not realize that not everyone with long hair IS Hanson. Finally, they opened the gates and that was when the real craziness began. I had an angry mother in front of me, a pushing kid behind me, and two large women on either side of me, one who was jamming her red Jansport backpack (she must be a Taylor fan) into my side.

Well, miraculously, we finally got in. Admiral Twin played first, of course. They were a bit repetitive and definitely not as catchy as Hanson. Since I'm doing a review of Hanson, I'll try to stick with them, though. Admiral Twin wasn't actually all that bad, despite the above comments. I felt sorry for the guys because they asked if the audience wanted to hear one more song and everyone just started chanting, "HANSON! HANSON! HANSON!" But the guys tried to smile and played one more anyway. Perhaps, the part of the concert that was quite annoying occured after the opening band left the stage and while the workers were setting up Hanson's equipment. About every five minutes, some girl would start screaming that she saw Zac, Tay, or Isaac (probably a stage hand) and soon 25,000 other girls began screaming. After about the 22nd time this happened, I just stopped springing out of my seat and demanding, "Who? What? Where? What's going on?" I had 300 level seats whch was better than lawn seats, but definitely not the best seat in the house, so I couldn't see everything. Taylor looked to be about 2 feet tall. It was humorous.

They opened the show with "Gimme Some Lovin'/ Shake Your Tailfeather". It was AWESOME! And believe me, I shook my tailfeather! Missy and I did not stay still once. "Where's the Love?" (during which we held up our fluorescent yellow poster that read "TAYLOR: RIGHT HERE'S THE LOVE!!"), "Stories"-by the way, Hanson sat down during their 3-Car Garage set, breaking Hanson concert rule #1----You cannot sit down at a Hanson concert----as cited by Taylor, "Madeline", "River", "Thinking of You", "Speechless", "Man From Milwaukee". "Mmmbop" (what would a Hanson performance be without this song???), "A Minute Without You", "With You In Your Dreams" were all performed VERY well. Taylor and Isaac harmonized excellantly. Zac was pretty quiet during the show except for when he took a Super Soaker to the audience. Taylor did great keeping the beat on the drums while Zac moistened everybody. Isaac, alone on stage, performed "More Than Anything". He is INCREDIBLY talented! My favorite part of the show, however was when Ike walked over to Taylor with his guitar during "Summertime Blues" and they sang together into the same microphone. It was beautiful. At end of that song, the concert-closer, Taylor had everyone singing and screaming, "Well there ain't no cure for the summertime blues!"

In summary, the show was even better than I had imagined-and I'm a pretty big fan! You haven't really seen how great Hanson is until you see them live in concert. Well there ain't no cure for Hanson Mania!

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.