January 2 – 9, 2024
The Travel
There is always, always a travel story, right? This year was the perfect example of why I will always and forever submit feedback asking for later dates for Back To The Island. To be fair, it was my choice to go two days before it started, but this meant traveling on Tuesday, January 2nd – the same time everyone else in the world was ending their Christmas travel and trying to get back home. Despite being a big tourist destination, I’ve never had any major problems with the Nashville airport, until now. For starters, the Nashville airport has three economy lots; one close to the airport without a shuttle, two a little further away with a shuttle. They’re the same price, but I wanted to park at one with a shuttle just because I didn’t want to walk the 15 minutes when it was only 20Ā° outside. However… BNA is undergoing a lot of construction, and despite driving by the other two lots – TWICE – and seeing them full of cars, for the life of me, I could not figure out how to actually get to the lots as all the signage and my GPS directed me to closed ramps. I gave up and parked in the closer lot and froze on my way in, no big deal.
So then I went to the American Airlines counter to check my bag and saw that the line was wrapped around the corner. After one whole hour of waiting in that line, I finally turned the corner… at which point I learned the line I had been in was people waiting for actual agents, but the kiosks had no line. So I jumped out of line, printed a tag from the kiosk, and dropped my bag. I overheard a lady asking the bag drop agent if they had any employees who could communicate to the long line that they didn’t need to be wasting their time standing there, but the agent said no. This lovely woman then took it upon herself to deliver the message to as many people as she could on her way to security. On the flip side, it only took me 5 minutes to get through TSA (with pre-check) and another 5 to get to my gate. So in this case, getting to the airport 2 hours before my flight meant getting to my gate with 5 minutes to spare.
Because of this mishap, I accidentally did the opposite in Jamaica on my way back home: I skipped straight to the kiosk thinking the line was for human agents, until another customer yelled at me for cutting. At that point, it was too late, but either way this just goes to show AA might need a few extra employees around the world, or at the very least, better communication. But, I digress, onto the good stuff:
Hanson Show #1
After a few restful extra days, the first Hanson show of 2024 kicked off on Thursday night. Before the show started, I had made a comment to my friend that my one hope for this BTTI was to get a fun new cover. However, I went in expecting a singles-heavy set list, as a lot of years it seems they try to get them out of the way on night one. So imagine my surprise when Hanson pulled out “Island In The Sun” by Weezer AND “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys for the first time ever… plus “Islands In The Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers for only the second (in person) time, and “Feelin’ Alright” by Joe Cocker for the first time in 15 years, making it a new-to-me cover. Add “Musical Ride” and “Give A Little” to the list, and I was completely blown away by this set list. Well done.
Hanson Show #2
The second full band show was everything I ever wanted from a fan club members’ show: album deep cuts, members’ only songs, and good vibes. Starting the set off with “Dream Girl” was completely unexpected, and I will never be mad about hearing “Somebody Who Wants To Love You”. “Trembling” and “Working” both came out of the list of songs I assumed Hanson had forgotten existed. This was my first time hearing “So Lovely” full band, and literally every other song on this set list is a gem.
Hanson Show #3
After the first night’s show, Taylor was talking to some fans behind me and I overheard him say the “the last night will be rockin'”.āHe wasn’t wrong, and this set list included way more deep cuts than a normal tour or one-off show. Highlights included “Dancing In The Wind” as an opener (although I need to know whatever happened to Taylor playing electric guitar on this one), “Ooh La La La”, “Tearin’ It Down”, easily the best version of “Speechless” I’ve ever heard, and the ever illusive “Cried”. My only complaint about this set list is these highlights were in the beginning, which left the second half of the last show feeling a bit more basic than the rest of the trip had been. I hope they keep up the deep cuts, but in the future I wish they’d spread them out a little more to keep us on our toes. This is such a minor problem it feels silly to even bring it up, but it is what it is.
Zac’s Solo Show
Zac won points for playing “The Weight Of Emotion”, “Call Out My Name”, “Chasing Down My Dreams”, and “Where You Come From”, but he lost points for playing “The Ballad Of Seymour Better Times” – a song he has played at all of his BTTI solo sets since 2018, the year before its release. Zac got neutral points (yes thats a thing; I just made it up) for having the distraction of both palm branches slapping my friend and I in the face and having the side speaker go out, which resulted in Jewel/Island Gigs staff climbing the rafters in the middle of the set. Obviously, this wasn’t Zac’s fault, but I wish they had made the decision to postpone his set until they figured it out.
Isaac’s Solo Show
Isaac won points for playing “Ordinary Words”, “Mother of Exiles” (a brand new song he co-wrote with Stephen Kellogg), “Begin Again”, “The Gift of Tears”, “Smile”, and “Lonely Again”. Isaac lost all the points he won for playing “River” and “Hand In Hand”. (And then Hanson lost even more points for playing “Hand In Hand”, again, during the last full band show.)
Taylor’s Solo Show
Taylor won points for playing “Out Of My Head”, “Dying To Be Alive”, “Semi Hollow” (SEMI HOLLOW! SEMI “this song will never be played live” HOLLOW!!!!), “We Belong Together” (WE BELONG TOGETHER! Never played before WE BELONG TOGETHER!!!), and “Every Word I Say”. Taylor lost points for playing “With You In Your Dreams” and making my friends cry. Overall, Taylor wins the BTTI 2024 Solo Challenge because, if I didn’t already mention it, he played “SEMI HOLLOW” and “WE BELONG TOGETHER” and “SEMI HOLLOW”. Also, to top it off, TAYLOR HANSON PLAYED “SEMI HOLLOW”.
AMMM
Every year, Hanson brings a guest artist to Back To The Island, and this year (and last year), it was Allen Mack Myers Moore. I enjoyed AMMM this year, I enjoyed AMMM last year, and I enjoyed AMMM on the RGB Tour, and I will say they are the best tour opener/BTTI guest artist Hanson has had in awhile. However, I wish they would mix it up a bit and while I wouldn’t mind having them back for a future BTTI or tour, I hope it’s not as soon as 2025. But, the tunes were fun, the vibes were great, and I enjoyed the bonus bonfire set like we had last year. Maybe one of these years Hanson will be brave enough to play a bonus bonfire set themselves.
The Games
My group had Mario Kart with Zac on Friday night and Family Feud with Isaac and Taylor on Saturday night. I signed up for both, but didn’t get picked to play this year. I’ve gotten to play both (badly) in the past, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I’m glad Taylor opted in on the games this year, but I wish they hadn’t been happening simultaneously because that just caused too much FOMO. And if we’re sticking with Family Feud, I will forever be campaigning for Hanson-themed Family Feud (poll H.net for answers ahead of time), putting one Hanson on each team of 3 or 4 fans, and the third Hanson hosting. Please feel free to join me in this campaign. Just imagine it: “What song is Taylor most likely to forget the lyrics to? Survey says… “Dance Like You Don’t Care””.
The Vibes
I saw a lot of people commenting that this was their favorite Back To The Island, but that title still goes to 2023 for me. But this year was definitely one for the books. The set lists were everything I would hope for, the weather was almost perfect (one rainy breakfast and one rainy dinner, both cleared up in time for fun), and the friend vibes were chill. Hanson was able to mingle with fans and not get mobbed for selfies, and I hope this trend continues.
Last year, my friend and I tended to stick to only drinking Jamaican Smiles and rum and Cokes. So this year, she challenged me to join her in trying every drink on the menu, (plus a Dirty Banana which wasn’t on the menu). Her rule was we didn’t have to finish every drink, but we did have to try at least two sips. I came up with a rating system, and here were my results:
Rating System:
š¹: Gross
š¹š¹: Okay, wouldn’t get again
š¹š¹š¹: Okay, would get again
š¹š¹š¹š¹: Good, would recommend
š¹š¹š¹š¹š¹: Good, I’d be okay if it was the only drink
Turns out, Jamaican Smile was my favorite after all.
If you remember my fish incident of 2023, I was hesitant to get in the ocean this year. But, I put on a brave face, covered my chest (literally, I held my had over my swimsuit as I waded in), and followed my friends out to one of the rafts. We only lasted about 30 minutes before it started sinking (apparently 4 people is too many), but it was all without any new fish trauma.
I stayed a day later this year for the first time, and while it was weird and sad to see my friends replaced by old hippies, it was great having a day to unwind and not to have to pack between shows and a dance party. If you can swing it, I definitely recommend the extra night at the end (and at least one extra day before). As every trip to Jamaica should be, this year everything was “feelin’ alright”.
Scream And Be Frees 