Hanson Day 2022

May 11 – 16, 2022

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d guess that if you are reading this, you remember clearly the day in April 2020 when that year’s Hanson Day celebration was “rescheduled to 2021”. (If not, you probably gave birth to me.) And if you’re reading this and not my mom, you probably also remember that Hanson Day 2021 wasn’t a normal Hanson Day with all the add-on events. So here we are, a full three years after the last real HDay, finally getting back to normal.

I flew in late Wednesday night, but with the extreme heat and loss of will power, my friends and I opted to skip waiting in the typically forever-long registration line this year. We all agreed that the only reason to register ASAP was to get into the store ASAP, and that there wasn’t anything we needed to buy that badly. I don’t regret this decision at all, although it does mean that in the end I missed out on that little green crossbody bag.

Instead, we spent Thursday sleeping in and grabbing brunch from Chimera. We finally made our way over to registration just in time to get signed up before the volunteers shut it down for a lunch break. Since the Hanson store line was still long, we spent the afternoon wandering around some of the local Tulsa shops. I bought a few books from Magic City Books and some stickers and a coffee mug from Ida Red. And then the real fun got started.

HTP Live

They added a new in-person event to this year’s lineup by offering a live version of the Hanson Time Podcast. When they announced this, we weren’t sure how exactly this would play out. But then about a week ahead of Hanson Day, my friend got an email saying she and one of her other friends had been chosen as tag-team reporters, and that their theme would be the new Fan Club EP White Rabbit. I might be biased, but I thought they both did an excellent job coming up with questions, especially considering we had only had the EP for two days by the time HTP Live rolled around.

If you’ve ever listened to Hanson talk then you’ll know they have a knack for getting off topic. One thing that was brought up, but not asked by the reporters, that I found very interesting was because you cannot evenly divide dollars by three people, Isaac earns an extra penny to every dollar the band makes. My accountant brain immediately started trying to add up how much extra he has earned over the past 30 years and while I obviously don’t know Hanson’s finances, I think they might want to consider switching that up soon.

They also opened up by talking a bit about how the past five years have been hard for them as a band. While I don’t think that’s any secret to anyone who has been paying attention, I found it refreshing to hear them acknowledge it. We now know they almost broke up back in 2012, and I think one of the main differences is that now they’ve stopped trying to pretend that everything is okay. At the risk of digging into pure speculations, I’ll probably talk about this a bit more when I write my review of Red Green Blue (because spoiler: have you read the lyrics?).

Karaoke

Night one of Hanson Day (really why aren’t we just calling it Hanson Week at this point?) typically is karaoke, and this year they added a ’90s theme, with some more current Hanson songs mixed in. While I have no interest in singing (and no one else wants that either, I promise), I always look forward to being a spectator, having a drink, and dancing around, especially because you never know when Isaac is going to start singing along with some fans. Highlights of the night included Isaac singing “Sweet Child of Mine” and “River of Dreams”, a fan singing the ’90s staple “My Heart Will Go On”, and a friend ending the night by absolutely killing “I Will Always Love You”.

Hanson Day Gallery

Friday morning was rainy, which meant we spent a good portion of the day lying around our hotel room. I did pop into the store real quick to buy way more shirts than the zero I told myself I would buy. But then once the skies cleared out, my friends and I popped into the gallery. This year, Zac opted for more drawings than paintings. It was fun to see a different take on things this year. There was only one painting: a red tree growing on green grass with a blue starry sky in the background. I absolutely loved it and would have bought a print of it if I actually had somewhere to hang it, but my walls are getting full.

For that same reason, I did not buy any of Taylor’s photos this year. They were all a play on Red Green Blue, with each brother playing around with colored lights in a dark room. They also had a stage set up with some of the props from the “Don’t Let Me Down” music video. It reminded me of the little museum they had in 2017, and I’d still love for them to do a bigger, more full museum with fewer video props and more awards, instruments, and things of that nature.

RGB Listening Party

Just a few weeks before Hanson Day started, they added another new event to the lineup: a listening party for RGB. My friends and I signed up for the last time slot, since one of our friends was flying in that day and wouldn’t be able to make the earlier times. As someone who tries to avoid spoilers, this meant I had to stay off social media for the first part of the day. My intention was to take notes on my phone during the listening party of my first impressions, much like I did for White Rabbit. However, I immediately realized that was going to be too much work to keep up with, so I simplified my notes down to a single hand gesture emoji for each of the non-single songs. I’ll leave you with these notes for now until I get to the review blog for RGB.

Storytellers

Normally we’re given a theme for the Storytellers show, but this year we were just told “we’d find out when we get there.” I prefer being surprised by set lists, so this was good news to me! Looking back though, I’m still not sure what the theme was supposed to be (and we were specifically told there was one that was “too hard to explain”). They pulled out songs from almost every album; Middle of Nowhere and Shout It Out being the only exceptions.

The absolute highlight of the show was when they started telling us the story of how “MMMBop” came to be. It wasn’t any new information as they explained this way back in 1997, but if you happen to be reading this and didn’t already know: a few years before they became famous, they were writing another song (“Boomerang”) and started singing “mmmbop ba duba dop ba du bop ba duba dop ba du bop…” as a background vocal. But they decided they liked the way that sounded too much for it to not be its own song, and thus “MMMBop” was born.

When they started telling this story, they actually sang the chorus of “Boomerang” in the process, which is something they had never done before. Then they stopped and continued on with the story, and I thought for sure that little tease was all we were getting. But, no! They actually sang the entire song! I never thought we would actually ever get to hear it, and I’m so glad I got to be there when we did. They also played “Watershed”, a very short song from the 2007 fan club EP, which had only ever been played at Back To The Island in 2014. The moral of the story is: you never know what you’re going to get at a Hanson show so you might as well do your best to never miss one.

Dance Party: Part One

After Storytellers, we had some time to go get changed for the Dance Party. They’ve added themes to the Dance Party at the last couple BTTIs, but I think this is the first time they had a theme for Hanson Day: dress as your favorite era. I honestly don’t have a favorite and at one point in time was considering just wearing my pajamas and joking that 2020 lockdown was my favorite era, as I’m not big on costumes. But I recently acquired my first jumpsuit, and I was talking to a friend here in Nashville and realized I could easily (and lazily) dress it up to be the ’70s by adding a gold chain belt and a scarf around my head. I think we got about five or so intermittent songs in to the dance party before Taylor announced he wanted to punch his computer in the face as something was clearly not working. He ended up calling it a night and said we could try again the next night. I usually look forward to the dance party and was way too tired to be into it, so I was honestly glad we were getting a do-over.

I Heart To Bowl

Bowling has been a consistent event at Hanson Day, but one that I had never signed up for before. I’ve never been great at bowling; my all time high score is 83, and the last time I went I won a trophy for most gutter balls. But one of my good friends loves to bowl and I figured it’s time I give it a go at HDay since I never had before. My one goal was to not be the worst on my team and sadly, I did not meet that goal; I scored a whopping 40 points. But we all had fun and that’s the most important part. I’d happily sign up again in the future, but if you’re wanting to be on my team, you’ve been warned.

After bowling, I had thought about scootering around Main street to see if Hanson was out and about talking to fans, but it was too hot outside and I was still feeling tired from the late nights (going to bed at 2am vs my usual 9pm), plus I had been doing a lot of extra exercise over the week. My roommates were all working their volunteer shifts, so I decided to take advantage of the quiet room to myself and took a long, much-needed nap to gear up for the concert and dance party do-over.

Hanson Day Concert

Typically, the Hanson Day concert is full of fan favorites, members’ only songs we don’t get to hear anywhere else, and that year’s fan club EP in full. However, a few weeks before Hanson Day, they announced in their newsletter that this year would be a preview of the RGB Tour. I’m sure they had been practicing hard for the tour and didn’t want to be sidetracked by rehearsing a bunch of unique songs for a one-off members’ show. While I’m disappointed that this means we didn’t get to hear White Rabbit (and I’m still waiting to hear 3/7 of CBIB), we still got a really good show and it certainly whet my appetite for my shows this summer. “Against The World” makes for a great show opener (possibly my favorite since “Great Divide”), and when “If Only” popped up only three songs in, I had no idea where the rest of the show was going (which again, I love). The show continued to be full of surprises when they went from solo to full band and back a few times. “Cold As Ice” was a great choice to introduce Dimitrius and Andrew during, and they managed to cover every studio album.

Dance Party: Part Two

After the show, we grabbed dinner then headed back into Cain’s for another attempt at the Dance Party. I was feeling rested and ready to go this time, but opted out of getting back into my costume (if you can even call it that) from the night before. Strange things tend to happen at Hanson events and this time that included a pirate in spandex and someone dressed as Pikachu all dancing to Taylor Hanson’s DJ set. And if you’re wondering, yes, Taylor did play the obligatory “Another One Bites The Dust”. It was a great way to wrap up the week.

The Rest

While I’ve missed a few events here and there, I’ve been going to Tulsa for Hanson events since 2009. In that time, I’ve gotten to experience so many fun local restaurants, breweries, shops, and museums. On this trip, I somehow ended up going to Nothings Left Brewery twice. The did not have a Hanson Brothers Beer this time around (pun absolutely intended), but they did have a collaboration with another brewery to have Red (strawberry), Green (kiwi), and Blue (blackberry) sours to celebrate the week. I typically prefer stouts to sours, but I liked all three of these, especially the blue. They also had their pineapple dole whip beer slush and I’m so mad I can’t get it in Nashville.

A new museum recently opened called Greenwood Rising, and I had time to pop in during my last day in Tulsa. Just blocks from the Art District where all the Hanson activities happen is a corner of tragic history in Tulsa and in our nation. In 1921, the Greenwood neighborhood was a thriving Black community in Tulsa. Racial tensions were high, a white woman falsely accused a black man of assault, and it all led to hundreds of murders, leaving over 10,000 Black residents homeless with 1,256 homes burned. Due to continued systemic issues, the neighborhood has still not been fully restored even 100 years later. If you ever make it to Tulsa, I highly recommend visiting the museum. It was very well done and quite powerful.

Tulsa is a great little city and it feels more and more like a second (or third) home each time I visit. I was lucky enough to attend most of the shows in Tulsa throughout the past couple years, so it’s weird to know that now I’ll be going back to only having annual trips. (As far as I know anyway.) I’m surprised every year by how many fans say it’s their first trip. If you’ve never been, I hope you get the chance!