SHOW #4, 11/17/06: CHICAGO (DEJA VU):

I awoke the next morning to the radio. Stephanie, being the early bird she is, had awakened and was scanning through the Chicago stations, listening for Hanson. We’d heard that the guys were going to be doing a morning show interview with the radio station that had been doing promo at the show the night before. The station in question had three different numbers – I guess depending on what part of Chicago you were in, you used a specific one. However, none of us could remember the call letters or any of the station numbers, so Stephanie attempted to find it with luck. She spent about an hour listening, tuning, and listening in before we all gave up. We never heard Hanson, and still don’t know whether they actually did an interview that day or not.

We got up and started getting ready. I took a shower and primped, and upon leaving the bathroom, I was informed that Chelsea and Taylor had apparently become engaged overnight. And they were getting married at 3 o’clock that day, so we were all invited. Chelsea pointed at me when I walked back into the main part of the suite. “You’re buying us a microwave,” she said.

“Wow,” I said. “Taylor sure moves fast, doesn’t he?”

Chelsea also declared that I was her sister at one point, and thus, that would make Taylor and I in-laws. Damn. I had Krystal take a picture of us together right before we left:


Sisters: the resemblance is uncanny.

Before I move on, I would like to point out that Chelsea’s bra strap came unsnapped and popped out of her shirt. You can see it hanging there. Hahaha. She didn’t even notice until after we’d taken the picture.

Our plans for the 17th, we decided, would be similar to the previous day. Head over to the HOB and hang around in the warmth of the hotel and Bin 36. Eat at the HOB restaurant and do “Pass the Line” again. Get the same spot in the venue. Having heard that the weather was 18 degrees that morning, I wised up and got out my super-thick Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man coat and decided to wear it. Along with, of course, the omnipresent UK scarf.

Before leaving, it hit Krystal that her darling girl would be flying the nest that day at 3:00, and she was traumatized and emotional. Clearly.


”My baby’s getting married!”

Once she had sufficiently collected herself, we set out to find some breakfast on the way to HOB.


CHAI MAKES ME HAPPY:





Trolling the freezing streets of Chicago in search of breakfast.

On the way to the HOB, we came across a quaint local bakery, with sweet smells wafting from within. We decided to stop there for breakfast. The food there looked delicious – I would have liked to have ordered one of everything on display, but instead I settled for a BLT panini sandwich and a big slice of marble bread (chocolate and yellow bread, swirled together). Once we’d gotten our food, we stopped at the Starbucks just down the street for drinks. Their special that day was hot pumpkin pie chai, in honor of Thanksgiving, so Stephanie and I both ordered grandes.

We took our breakfast to the HOB hotel, where we planned to go up to Jennifer’s room and eat. Walking into the lobby, we had our second up-close Taylor sighting of the trip – standing over by the elevators, as casual as could be, was Taylor himself, chatting away with two guys. Jennifer had come down and was speaking to someone at the front desk, and so we had to wait on her before heading up. We stood awkwardly in the middle of the lobby, trying not to look at the back of Taylor’s head. Which is more difficult than you can imagine.

When Jennifer was finished at the desk, we all calmly walked over to the elevators, deciding not to bother him. Which, again, is more difficult than you can imagine. I spent the ten short seconds walking past him praying that I wouldn’t trip or drop my chai on the chic HOB carpet. We got on the elevator moments later, congratulating ourselves on resisting temptation and leaving the poor boy alone.

Once in Jennifer’s room, I tore into my panini and bread, devouring it with gusto. The bread, in particular, was heavenly – perfectly moist and savory. I topped it off with the chai, which made me very happy, as you can see.


CHAI ROCKS.

The rest of the day was pretty much a reincarnation of the previous one – after eating, we went to the HOB gift shop, where I bought a few souvenirs, including a long-sleeve shirt for myself. We went back to our own hotel at one point, where I fell asleep on the bed while the others talked about famous serial killers (I can’t quite recall how that conversation got started). We went back to the HOB restaurant around 2:30 or so for a late lunch/early dinner, so that we could get our Pass the Line vouchers.

We were seated at the same table as the day before, ironically enough. Only this time, someone looked up and noticed the part of the ceiling we were under: a small bust of Joe Cocker, known for – what else? – making Feelin’ Alright a hit.


I’m feelin’ alright…

Chelsea continued to take pictures of everyone.


Me and Amy, ready to eat.


Stephanie debates her choices.


When 3:00PM came, I was given the camera to record Chelsea’s side of the vows. Taylor, apparently, was going to call his in. You can see Chelsea agreeing to marry Taylor in this very brief video, if you're interested:

Chelsea says "I DO!"

For dinner, I had the HOB cheeseburger slathered in mayonnaise, which was heavenly. Things weren’t so rushed this time, since we’d gone to eat so early – the previous night, we’d finished eating at almost the exact time the doors were opening, so we’d hurried and harassed our waiter to get our PtL receipts ASAP. The second night, though, we took our time.

The front of the HOB restaurant has a small stage, complete with drum kit. The waitress had mentioned at the beginning of dinner that people sometimes had their picture taken on that stage, and so after dinner, we asked her to take one of us.


ROCK STARS.

Side note: during dinner, we noticed the drummer for Pat McGee a few tables away, eating dinner with some girls. He was occasionally approached by fans, and I was tempted to go ask for a picture with him (not because I particularly love Pat McGee or any of his bandmates, but because I was extremely picture-happy in general). I ended up not doing that. But his presence there just before the show is an interesting point that comes up again later.


POST-DINNER, PRE-SHOW:

We ended up going back to Bin 36 again, to wait around until showtime. We were seated in the same spot, with the same waiter, which was amusing. Chelsea and I set our stuff down and went to the bathroom (and on a side note, she left me there when she was done and I almost got stuck in the stall because the stupid lock was fucked up).

I had taken an Ale8 with me during this whole trek, with the intent of drinking it before the concert. A little pre-show jolt of energy. However, when I came back to the table, many minutes later, I was informed by the others that the hostess had noticed my Ale8 sitting on the table and had gotten all excited. Apparently, the hostess had just been to – where else? – Lexington, KY, and had experienced Ale8s there and loved them. How ironic – to be in Chicago, and have someone recognize the drink. So, I decided to give it to her.

But first, I decided to get a picture of me (and the Ale8) sitting in the Taylor Chair from the day before, since I hadn’t done it when Chelsea had gotten hers.


Basking in the Taylor germs of the table.


After taking the picture, I took my Ale8 over to the hostess, who was on the other side of the shop behind a counter.

“Excuse me,” I said. “But my friends told me that you saw this bottle and mentioned that you’d just been to Kentucky and liked Ale8…” I set the bottle on the counter, and her eyes widened.

“Oh, yeah! I was just there!” she said.

“Well, if you want this, you can have it… I thought I was going to drink it but I don’t need it now, and we’re about to go to the concert… and I have a whole case back at the hotel, anyway…”

I had actually expected her to politely decline, but her eyes lit up with excitement. “OH!” she exclaimed. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Go ahead and take it!”

“Omigod, thank you so much!”

She was really, truly ecstatic. It made me smile – aah, the power of Ale8. I chatted with her for another minute before rejoining the others at the table. When it drew nearer to six o’clock, the time the doors would be opening, we made our way back over to the HOB.
 

Random bits, notes, and highlights from the show:

• We got in line a little earlier this time – since we’d all brought our jackets with us, we decided we could brave the cold for a few minutes, rather than wait until the tail end of the line came through as we’d done the night before. The most amusing part of waiting in line was the security guards. Those poor, hapless men. Rather than waiting for fans to come to them at the door to be checked, the guards were taking their wands down the line and scanning people. One man in particular was coming towards me, when he was approached by another guard.
  
  “Hey, what are you doing about cameras?” the new guard asked. The guy who’d been walking towards me got this blank, frazzled look on his face.
  
  “I’m not even asking tonight,” he said, his voice filled with exasperation, as if he was at the end of his rope. Apparently his experience in dealing with frantic Hanson fans during the previous night had completely broken his spirit.
  
  And so, that’s how our cameras made it safely into the House of Blues the second night. I simply held mine in my hand as he scanned me and he didn’t even notice it. He pointed to Chelsea’s (which was around her neck) and she just said, “Oh, we’ll do the camera check,” and that was that. Their apathy was almost funny – they’d really just had enough of us fans and had totally given up on any hope of maintaining order or rules.
  
  
• We managed to snag the same vantage point the second night – huddled up against the back of the sound booth. Mullet actually recognized us when he came in, and he smiled and talked briefly to Amy.
  
  The first opening act was What Four, and they were so over-the-top and nerdy that it was almost cool. Kind of campy. Stephanie said at one point that they reminded her of a band formed by a bunch of college kids in their garage. Which probably wasn’t that far from the truth. The lead singer, who also banged on a keyboard throughout their songs, did this weird sort of stomp-dance during most of their set. Overall, not bad, although there were several girls to our left who were shrieking at the top of their lungs – not just cheering, not just screaming, but true nails-down-a-chalkboard shrieks. The kind that curdle your blood and curl your toes. They were so bad, in fact, that at one point I snapped and screamed, “WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!” However, the venue was too loud, and they were too far away, I guess, to hear me.
  
  
• Pat McGee played an acoustic set. I’m not sure if this was intentional, or whether this was because the drummer was conspicuously absent. I mentioned seeing the PMB drummer chowing down at the HOB restaurant just a few hours before the show. Pat McGee mentioned at some point that the drummer was “ill”, but that’s as specific as he got. I was suspicious, haha. Was he really sick? From food poisoning? Or from perhaps having a few too many before the show? Heh. Regardless, PMB’s set was very low-key. Rather than the American Girl/I Want You to Want Me medley they’d done at every other show, they did a cover of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s Southern Cross.
  
  
• We had thought that the HOB was packed the night of the 16th, even wondering where more people could possibly fit in the venue. Oh, how naïve we were. The 17th was sold out, and we quickly discovered, while waiting for Hanson to take the stage, exactly where a couple of hundred more fans could fit – crammed in every nook, cranny, and aisle of the venue. I had to go to the restroom once during Pat McGee’s set, and it was like fighting my way through giant, immobile stalks of corn. To keep people from stealing my place, I took off my scarf and laid it against the soundbooth where I’d been standing, and asked Stephanie and Krystal to squish over and attempt to salvage my space. I got a lot of glares as I wiggled my way to the rear of the venue, and then back to my spot. But eh, so what? I got my spot back. Ha.
  
  
• The crowd was crazy. Absolutely insane. At one point, I can’t remember which song (maybe If Only, because that’s when Taylor tells everyone to jump), but I stopped moving and just watched the chaos around me. The walls of the soundbooth were shaking with each undulation of the crowd. All you could see were heads bobbing in unison and the plexiglass screens thumping and wobbling with the beat. I can only imagine what the people in the restaurant below must have thought – they probably ran for their lives, convinced that a wild, feral herd of elephants had escaped from the zoo and taken control of the venue; mere moments from stomping down the stairs and wreaking havoc on the rest of the city.
  
  
• The setlist: wow. Several pleasant surprises this time. Mullet and Otto came out once again, and when they brought out their little slips of paper, Krystal and Amy immediately put in their requests, and thus we got both copies of the setlist the second night. Score!
  
  
  Setlist for Chicago, November 17, 2005.
  
  Opening with Optimistic, which didn’t excite me a lot. I love the song but I’d heard it enough, you know? However, the unexpected songs – Madeline in particular – made up for it. Ain’t No Sunshine was great (hadn’t heard it in a while) as was Every Word I Say and Lost Without Each Other. The real treat of the evening came in the encore – instead of the Feelin’ Alright cover we’d heard at all three shows, we were treated to a fun, unexpected rendition of Sweet Home Chicago, performed by Hanson with the guys from PMB. An appropriate song, obviously. I don’t know who gets credit for originating Sweet Home Chicago, but I know that The Blues Brothers movie made it famous. This, of course, is not the first time Hanson has taken a cue from Jake and Elwood Blues – they’ve also performed Gimme Some Lovin’ and Shake a Tailfeather, which also appeared in The Blues Brothers. Hmmm. Is that a favorite movie of theirs, perhaps? I can totally see that.
  
  
• At some point relatively early in the set, a dark-haired girl cut through the crowd and entered the sound booth, standing right in front of Krystal and me. She stayed only for a moment, and when she left, I turned to Krystal, and like an idiot, asked, “Who was that?”
  
  “That was Natalie,” Krystal said, giving me an odd look.
  
  “OOOH!” I have no idea why that didn’t occur to me, even though all I’d seen was the back of her head. Maybe it was because I assumed that family members always watched from the side of the stage or the balcony. Or, maybe I’m just a moron. After all, I’d done the same thing the night before with Walker Hanson. “Oh, that makes sense,” I said. Haha.
  
  Natalie came in and out of the booth throughout their set, squeezing past us and politely asking me to move out of her way each time (I was standing right in front of the soundbooth door, haha). She stood directly in front of Krystal, Jennifer, and me. And, as we saw for ourselves, she is still very much a fan of the music. She sang, danced along to Mmm Bop, and enthusiastically said, “Wasn’t that great?" to Otto a time or two. What a cute little thing.
  
  Of course, I remarked that our view of the show was once again blocked by a Hanson family member, but Krystal was just relieved that Mr. Hanson didn’t show up again. “At least she’s not 6’10”,” she pointed out. Haha. True.
  
  At one point, during Change in My Life, I really wanted to get a picture of the guys huddled around the mic. However, when I lifted the camera, Natalie kept swaying into the shot. I’d move, she’d move. I actually considered tapping her on the shoulder and asking her to take it for me, since she had a perfect view. Like, “Excuse me, I don’t think they’ll throw you out for doing this, but would you take a picture for me?” haha. But then I decided she would probably construe that as rude, not funny. Even though I thought it would have been funny. Heh.
  
  
• There were plenty of amusing moments that night – during the acoustic set, while performing MMM Bop, after Zac did his ‘hold-out-the-mic-so-the-crowd-can-sing-the-first-verse’ thing, he set it back down and suddenly let out this hilarious, ear-splitting, “WIKKA-WIKKA-WAAAAH!!” shriek in the pause between verses. It was so unexpected that it caught everyone off guard – including Natalie and Otto in the soundbooth, who both visibly jerked and then began laughing out loud.
  
  Since Stephanie and I had seen the setlist and were anticipating each song to come, you can imagine our surprise when Taylor grabbed his harmonica and began messing around… when the list said that Runaway Run was next. He sort of turned, looked confused, and got some what the fuck, dude? looks from his brothers before I guess he realized he was on the wrong song.
  
  The encore – the song itself was great. Fun and upbeat, with a hint of real soul. Although there were so many band members on the stage that not all of them seemed to know what to do with themselves. Taylor himself wandered around all over the stage, particularly during the instrumental part, appearing as if he was looking for someone else’s instrument to muck around on. There was a lot of bad dancing and laughing all around. And if I recall correctly, I think Pat McGee brought a slip of paper with him, which I’m assuming was the lyrics, in case he forgot them? Haha. Overall, though, the awkwardness only added to the charm, and it was a fun performance. Plus, it was sexy and funky to hear the guys singing, “C’mon, oh, baby don’t you wanna go? Back to that same old place, sweet hooooooooome Chicago!”
  
  It goes without saying that the cake incident, which everyone knows about by now, was hysterical. We knew it was Isaac’s birthday, so we were expecting some sort of mention or acknowledgement of it. Once Sweet Home Chicago was over, I noticed a guy walking onstage from the wings, holding a giant cake, candles already lit and ready. Everyone cheered. The crowd began a horrendous, off-key rendition of Happy Birthday. Towards the end of the song, I turned my camera to ‘video’ mode, hoping to get Isaac blowing out his candles. And luck was on my side for once.
  
  
• When the song ended, Isaac did lean down, blowing out his candles. Zac popped a champagne bottle and began spraying the audience. Then, Taylor suddenly grabbed the cake, first shoving it in Isaac’s face, then spreading the mess all up and down his front. Head to knees. I’m surprised he didn’t try to stuff some of the icing down his shirt, as well. Isaac just stood there and took it like a man – he even lifted his arms up so Taylor had a better opportunity to smear his chest. Just sort of like, “Oh, well! Haha, good one, Taylor! Here, you missed a spot! Don’t forget the crotch!”
  
  Then, apparently not content with attacking his brother, Taylor bent down and grabbed a gigantic chunk of unsmashed cake that had fallen to the floor and flung it out at the crowd. It sprayed across the room in an arc, covering the fans down in the pit. So of course everyone cheered harder, and he threw several more chunks out before he was satisfied. It was great, but as Krystal said later, “I bet the House of Blues cleaning crew hates them right now.”
  
  
• Now, as I mentioned, I’d gotten the camera inside no problem, thanks to the lax security outside, but I was still wary of whipping it out and snapping pictures. I knew it could still get taken away, or that some mean-spirited security guy might actually delete all the pictures. And if that happened, I would have had to have killed someone, seeing how my camera was holding The Best Picture of Taylor Hanson EVER. So I was careful and judicious in my camera use – I kept it tucked into my bra and only took it out when I wanted to snap something in particular. I kept the flash off so as not to attract attention, which made my pictures blurry, but I figured it was better than nothing. I also attempted to hide the lit-up display screen on the back of the camera with my hand as I took pictures, so that people behind me couldn’t see it. Which meant I couldn’t always see exactly where I was aiming it, and made for a few interesting shots. There aren’t all that I’ve had, but they’re the best (which isn’t saying much). Again, I apologize for them being relatively small and fuzzy, but considering the situation, I did the best I could do.

Taylor on guitar during Dancin’ in the Wind.

Poor Isaac. Ignored even by the lighting guy.
 

The tiniest Change in My Life picture ever.
 

Blurrier, but a little closer up.
 

A perfect example of one of those pictures I took where I couldn’t see where I was aiming. Haha.
 

A great shot of Taylor’s sexy ‘I’m-so-cool-I’ll-prop-my-leg-on-the-piano-bench’ pose during Long Train Running.
 

“Without loooooooove, where would you be now?”
 

A lovely shot of some random dude’s hands.
 

Rockin’ on again.
 

Enticing more band members to come onstage for the encore.
 

Taylor: “Okay, this is a piano, see? And you press on the keys to make sounds!"
 

Taylor: “Dude, stop trying to steal my thunder.”
 

Taylor Hanson, the human windmill: America’s new energy source.
 

Taylor, getting in everyone’s way.
 

Pat McGee: “I’m front and center, therefore, I must be awesome.”
 

Taylor: “Give it up for Pat McGee, the world’s most baby-faced thirtysomething-year old!”
 

Isaac: “Cake? For moi?”
 

Isaac: “I’m a quarter-century old today!”
 

Everyone taking a bow with a cake-covered Isaac.
 

“You guys have been great! Thanks for coming out, blah blah blah.”
 

After the show:

Exhaustion be thy name. Krystal and Chelsea had to go retrieve their coats from coat check, so we walked out to the lobby to wait. People were milling about everywhere, and the electricity and excitement in the room was practically tangible. Everyone was on such a high. We saw Diana come in, holding another cake box – I guess Taylor’s smash-up job was a pre-planned thing, and they’d ordered a back-up to actually eat. Pete, the bassist, came out at one point, quietly walking through the crowd, carrying his instrument case. Krystal saw him and piped up, “Hey, great show!” as he walked past. He looked up, almost shy, and mumbled a “Thank you,” without slowing down.

We decided not to take a cab back this time, despite the cold – we were all so overheated and worked up from the show (read: hot and bothered) that we braved the cold for six blocks. It actually wasn’t bad – a nice way to unwind. And we made it back safely.

We sat in the lobby for a moment when we got to the hotel. A hilarious moment ensued when Krystal and Chelsea spent ten minutes struggling to get the camera unhooked from something:


The challenge.

And then I demonstrated my eerie likeness to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbusters movies. All I need is a little bib and a hat.


The resemblance is uncanny.


Back in the room, I found that I had a missed call: Melanie, the other member of our party who had disappeared the day before, and thus missed all the Hanson goodness of the trip. She left a voicemail for me, saying that she and her friends were going to see Harry Potter at midnight and we were welcome to come and join. As exhausted as we were, and since it was probably already too late to actually make the showing, we declined.

Going to bed that night was bittersweet – necessary, of course, but it also signaled that our Hanson fun had come to an end. Amy would be getting up early to catch a flight back, Jennifer was flying back as well, and the rest of us would be loading up to head back to Kentucky.

But before we crossed back into the Bluegrass, we had one more stop to make.

Next -- Conclusion (back to the Bluegrass State)
Back -- Chicago (the very windy city)
L&E home
 

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