March 19 – 23, 2026

Back in February, Taylor Hanson announced two solo shows at the famed Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, California; one on February 20th, and one on March 20th. I already had everything booked for my Puerto Rico birthday trip that same weekend in February, but with no plans for March yet, and friends clamoring to go, I booked a flight right away. My mom and I flew out to L.A. back in 2009 to visit a cousin who lives in the area, but I hadn’t been since and had been meaning to go back at some point.

Tourism, Part 1

My friends and I all flew in on Thursday and had just enough time to get into a taping of the Jennifer Hudson show. Full disclosure: I didn’t even know she had a talk show until a friend suggested trying for tickets. Her guest for the taping was Nikki Glaser, and the episode will air on April 27th. Even as someone who doesn’t know much about the host or the guest, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and now I’m interested in seeing Nikki’s Hulu special coming out next month.

After JHud, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Barney’s Beanery and then made our way to the Remix Room for their “Boyband Bar” popup. It was a cute, cozy little bar on its own, but being there with my Hanson friends while they had the whole place decked out in ’90s boyband nostalgia, it was quite the treat. We of course found several posters of baby Hanson up on the walls, and we all joined in as soon as “I Will Come To You” started playing. There were two guys running the event trying to get us to sign up for karaoke, and he did finally convince one friend to do it (“I Wanna Dance With Somebody”), but after that we all called it a night on account of jet lag.

Two of us had to work on Friday, so we all just lounged by the pool until late afternoon. One friend wanted to see *NSYNC’s star and to go to the BTS Line Friend’s store, so we made our way out to Hollywood a couple hours before the show. While we were out and about, we happened upon Chuck Norris’s star where someone had set up a little memorial as he had just passed the night before. We had an early dinner at Running Goose, just across the street from the Hotel Cafe, and my only complaint is that I wasn’t hungry enough to finish the salmon risotto, it was so good.

the show

Back in February, a fan named Lux flew from Australia to L.A. for Taylor’s solo show. Unfortunately, she passed in her hotel room before the show. I never met her, but she was friends with a lovely group of women I’ve gotten to know a little over the years. Her friends told Taylor what had happened, and he started this March show off by speaking a bit about her and playing what I assume was her favorite song, “Dream Girl”. It was such a tender moment, and a reminder to all of us to book the flight, take the trip, and do the thing while we still can.

I’ll let Hansonstage do the setlist tracking for me rather than name off every song he played, but the highlights for me were “Believe”, “Rambling Heart”, “Be My Own”, and the elusive “This Is Criminal” – an unreleased song that he played one time seven years ago, and said he’d never play again. This is, in fact, criminal, and if there is a world in which he releases a solo album anytime soon, I sure hope it’s the lead single. About two years ago, Taylor helped release an Iranian protest song (which you can read more about here). He played this song with his friend Hamid Saeidi, which was an especially beautiful moment.

Over all, the show started out a little mellow, and with the crowd completely silent, it felt like such a unique, special moment that I’ll treasure for a long, long time. By the end, he moved on to some Hanson staples and got the crowd singing along loudly, and while that’s half the fun of a Hanson concert, for me it kind of ruined what made this particular show so special. I still had fun, but the first half was definitely more the vibe I was hoping to get out of such an intimate performance. All in all, the best way I’ve been able to sum up the show is that it was better than any of the BTTI Taylor solo sets I’ve seen, but not as good as my favorite Hanson concert, but also, I don’t know what my favorite Hanson concert is.

Tourism, part 2

Our hotel was in Beverly Hills, and we spent Saturday morning walking through the neighborhood to a coffee shop. On our way, we walked by a sushi restaurant named Seabutter. We had been talking about finding sushi on the trip, and after reading reviews, we popped in after coffee. We split some gyoza, shishito peppers, oysters, crispy rice with salmon, and the 911, Mr. Crab, and Dragon rolls, and the Mr. Crab was by far my favorite, and the most unique.

After years of joking about going to Costco together, one friend’s favorite place in the world, we finally made it happen. Unfortunately, none of us found what we were looking for, they were sold out of cookies, and the ice cream machine was down, so the trip was a bust. But, it killed some time on a chilly, foggy afternoon, and then we finally made our way over to Santa Monica Pier.

If you’ve never been before, it’s worth going just to say you did, and to reach the iconic end of Route 66. However, the pier itself is a tourist trap. We signed ourselves up for a ghost tour up and down the main road near the pier, and we had a great time no thanks to the tour guide. I’ve been on a few ghost tours here in Nashville and they were both pretty great, but this one just wasn’t it, but we made plenty of jokes along the way to make up for it.

Sunday morning, we had reservations for a studio tour of WB which was one of the few touristy things I didn’t get to do back in 2009. It was so fun getting to see all the exterior lots that have been in so many different movies and TV shows over the years. The most recognizable were the gazebo and church used in both Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars (and many other shows), and we got to see the front of Lorelai’s house which turns into the front of Sookie’s house. Having just finished watching Big Bang Theory for the first time right before the trip, it was fun getting to see their living room, but as an elder millennial, the highlight of the tour for me was, naturally, getting to see the Central Perk set from Friends. The tour ends at a little Friends-themed cafe, and while overpriced, it was a convenient time and place to grab some treats to hold us over until dinner.

To celebrate a friend’s birthday, we went to Il Pastaio, a Beverly Hills Italian restaurant, which even has a dish named after Justin Bieber because he supposedly goes there so much. We had an early bird dinner since it was the only reservation open, so there were no celebrity sightings for us, but that wasn’t why we chose it anyway. We split the prosciutto with burrata and arancini, had a few drinks, and each ordered our own pasta entrees, and it was all so delicious. It was a beautiful meal to end the trip, and the cool evening walk back to our hotel was just as lovely.

Over all, I had a great trip with my friends, and if Taylor keeps up the solo shows in L.A. without touring, I’m sure I’ll be back at some point. Until then, I have new rainbows to chase…