Last night, my good buddy Sam Getz was nice enough to let me hang out with him during his gig with Kate Voegele in Allentown. Kate is currently on tour as one of two acts opening for Hanson.
It’s been ten years since Hanson came mmm-bopping onto the music scene. Their music has evolved (that’s an understatement, btw). A few weeks back when I saw Sam last, he mentioned that he would be touring with Hanson and I, of course, snickered. He told me I shouldn’t laugh until I listened to their latest release, called The Walk.
So I did. I listened to it. Then I listened to it again. And again. Before long I found myself singing Hanson tunes to myself. This couldn’t be happening, but it was. The Walk is good. My favorite tune is called Watch Over Me, but close behind that is In A Way, which has very thoughtful lyrics… no, really.
But the moment when I became a for real Hanson fan occurred last night about two thirds of the way through the show.
You can harken back to one of my posts from last night to hear me talking about what was going on during the soundcheck, or listen in as Hanson performs an acoustic version of Mmm-bop. The three brothers are actually singing in that clip, though you can’t tell because of the audience.
Sam and I grabbed dinner and some ESB after Kate’s set and came back about halfway through Hanson’s show, just in time to catch the acoustic set. He and I watched from within the barricade at stage left, right behind the monitor mixer.
Shortly after we arrived, Hanson made me a fan by launching into a smokin’ interpretation of Lennon & McCartney’s Oh Darling. I sang loudly along, much to the confusion of the teeny boppers at the near edge of the stage, who were pointing at me and wondering how I knew the song. Getting old can be fun.
In the brush with fame department, I did get to meet drummer Zach Hanson, who is nothing short of awesome on the skins. When Sam and I walked through their Green Room he was, like everyone on the tour, passing his downtime by surfing the web on his mac. I shook his hand, we said hi, I wished him and his brothers well, he said thank you, and that was it. I make note of this only because, much later, as he left the stage Zach high fived some fans and one particular female Hansonite, looked at her hand as one might if it was on fire, then nearly fainted with delight. Maybe I was doing it wrong.
It was great fun, but I paid for it today. Getting home at 2am when I had to be at the Post Office before 7 was, well, stupid.
Below are few pictures from the evening. No pictures from the show, alas. The Camera Police were out in force.
Walking to Kate Voegele’s tour bus. Notice the Teal Tank in front of the bus. I was briefly pressed into service as a driver for Sam and Kate’s tour manager.
Outside the venue, the line builds. This show was sold out weeks and weeks ago. Yes, Hanson still sells out every show.
Inside Kate’s tour bus, looking toward the “rear lounge”. You can’t see them, but macbooks were laying around all over the place.
After their show, the members of Kate’s band and the venue’s roadies had to pull all of their equipment off the stage and bring it outside where they waited to load it on the bus. One of the bus’s headlights is creating the sunburst in the background.
