October 30 – 31, 2024
I’ve had several Hanson tours over the years where my first show of tour was in my own town, but this year is the first time I personally ended a tour in Nashville. Sitting in my own bed on the other side of 10 shows after a month of travel, it feels weird to not be planning one final trip, but alas, here we are I am. It’s a bittersweet ending to know I’m done with shows for awhile; as much as I love traveling, I’m equally a homebody at heart, and I’m looking forward to a few weeks of just resting on my couch.
Every time Hanson has played in Nashville, I’ve tried to talk my local, non-Hanson fan friends into going to a show with me. Truthfully, I’ve never had success in the past, and I can’t really blame my friends. While Hanson tickets are cheap compared to, say, Taylor Swift (even without the scalpers), it’s still a lot of money to throw at something you don’t care about. But a couple months back, I was sitting in an all-staff meeting at work, and one of my work friends (ironically named Taylor) asked if I would buy him a Hanson ticket if he successfully made a basket with his wad of trash. Knowing this was a good chance to get a local friend to a show, I said yes. He threw the trash, it bounced off the edge of the trash bin, onto the wall, and then into the bin. He and his wife have three littles, so he of course wanted to spend Halloween night with his family, and so I grabbed him a ticket to the acoustic show on night one.
I was up in the ADA section with my Hanson friend for the night, but Taylor was able to squeeze into the back just behind it. If you were there and saw me texting throughout the show, it’s not because I was bored – in fact, this was one of my favorite acoustic nights of the tour – but rather because I was texting back and forth with Taylor, getting his opinion on all the songs while giving him the cliff notes on Strong Enough To Break (the documentary AND the song), etc. This is where I’ll leave you with some of his thoughts – someone who only barely knew “MMMBop” before the show began:
After attending so many Hanson shows both in general and specifically on this tour, it was fun to see it through a fresh perspective. I’m glad my friend enjoyed it, and I hope he decides to go again next time Hanson’s in town.
The electric night in Nashville just happened to fall on Halloween. I had a little hope that they’d put on a simple costume or play something special for the occasion, but that was not the case. Honestly though, I don’t blame them for not trying something new, as this show ended up being their 7th show in 7 days. I know how tired I was even with a week-long break after Atlanta, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse they were feeling. That said, I still had a great time dressing up as a butterfly and dancing with my friends Zelda and Charizard by my side.
Scream And Be Frees 