Montreal: The Other Perspective

Read a non-teenie review of the Hanson show at Montreal on June 20, intended to enlighten and entertain. Find out why one of us melted. Find out what's really UP with Taylor. Find out what happened when the crowd dived for a set of drumsticks, ignoring the safety of its members.

The Gods of Hanson concerts smiled on our efforts in Montreal.

We should have known things would turn out well, after all, the first thing we did upon entering the city was head up to our hotel room and turn on MusicPlus, the Quebecois version of MTV. What was the first thing we saw? The Spice Girls. What did you think we were going to say? The video for River? Nah. That was the second thing. This isn't, after all, fanfic ;)

So, we originally got out tickets over the phone on the first day they were available, and I personally was much chagrined to hear that our seats were barely in Canada. I swear … section 216 red must be about five minutes from the US boarder. But on the day of the show we went looking for the metro station near our hotel and ended up standing in front of the ticket desk for the Molson Centre, which of course prompted a question about the best seats available. We went up and asked and the charming woman behind the computer screen calmly informed us that there were 3 seats in the 7th row that had yet to sell. Jaw, meet floor. Floor, meet jaw.

The Molson employee demonstrated with the nearest wall that we would be "this far from the stage," causing the three of us to exchange glances contorted with disbelief. The thoughts of seeing Hanson without the Hubble telescope was just too much-we are, after all, only human, so of course the shelling out of another 40 dollars (on top of the original 40 for our first tickets) happened so fast I'm sure the cashier's head was spinning. Despite my nagging doubts as to the possibility of something this amazing happening to me, tempered with visions of freak meteor showers ending my brief tenure on this planet just to spite me, all three of us survived until show time. (Although there was a small scare at lunch, involving Amanda B. temporarily misplacing the tickets and Amanda D. and Kim contemplating the most effective form of torture they were willing to resort to had they been officially "lost.")

I and Amanda B. had to stifle a few teenie urges, "what do you mean 7th row? We'll be able to see Taylor drool during Weird! Wohoo!" (Kim, who will not admit to stooping to "teenie" level, did not comment). We hung around at the venue hoping to see Hanson doing an interview for a local radio station. We're pretty sure that one of the security people (after we hung around outside attempting to look interested, yet still nonchalant enough to keep the marauding teenies at bay) tried to allow us entry for the sound check and to get autographs, but he was shot down by what looked to be his boss.

They apparently never did the interview (although being gullible suckers we waited around till 6pm), but from where we were standing we were able to very clearly hear the soundcheck. I thought that this was amazing; we heard them warming up their separate instruments and then doing some singing. They ran through parts of Madeline, Where's The Love, I Will Come To You, Weird, MFM etc. This was almost the coolest part because we were able to really hear their voices; it was bizarre because intellectually you know that this music, which you love so much, is coming from actual people, but to know that it was being made at that exact moment only hundreds of feet away -- there's only one way to describe it: musical brainfreeze. ;) We, as adolescents on the brink of adulthood, melted into the mentality known as "teenie."

When the time to go inside finally rolled around we climbed down about a billion stairs and then kept walking forward and forward and forward (past writhing seas of teenies who would have sold their souls to be in our places) until we found our seats, which were at the most 15 feet from the stage.

The opening band, as Amanda B. was happy to tell anyone who would listen, was amazing. The band is called Admiral Twin and is made up of 4 musicians from Tulsa. They were incredible, to say the least. If you have not checked out this band, go to the website and download the wavs. (www.admiraltwin.com). If you have heard of the band, they played 4 songs from the latest CD "Unlucky" and 2 songs from previous CDs. Kim and Amanda D. were extremely impressed by them, considering the first time they heard AT music was a few hours earlier as we were driving across the Canadian border.

The Hanson show itself was amazing. They totally held their own among the live shows I've seen -- Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler, Jonny Lang, Third Eye Blind, Tragically Hip, etc. etc.-- and kept everyone in the theater on their feet. We noticed a lot of older brother types who had probably agreed to "supervise" their younger sisters at the show bopping along with the music, not to mention this sweet looking Grandmother type who was getting jiggy with an usher. It was an adorable sight to behold, all this togetherness and cheer in one small, confined place.

The stage was originally set up with Taylor and his keyboards on the right, directly in front of us. He was wearing cream colored pants which looked a bit too snug for comfort (hehe, more on this later) and a bizarre, disco ball- esque button down shirt. Not to be mean, but it looked like he had just gotten it from a large sized woman's store… either that or the home shopping network. Yeah, they would definitely carry that little number on that channel.  We understand that it must be rough to go out shopping what with the screaming teenies trying to climb into your dressing room, but come on. The Gap delivers--take advantage, boys.

Ike was on the left with his guitar (which he changed several times throughout the show), with his hair pulled back and dressed in his typical blending-into-the background attire. Zac was behind the two at his sour apple green drums (loved the drums, very cool and shiny with the Albertane symbol on the center), looking both cute and comfortable dressed in a pair of dark blue pants and a bright red shirt, prompting us to note that the boy is growing up incredibly fast.

Watching the crowd was perhaps just about as entertaining as the show--while the attendees were mostly the 15 year-old-just-discovered-the-existence-of-glittery eyeshadow set, there were a lot of guys and quite a few grown ups. We, however, still suspect that we can personally be credited with about a 5-year raise in the average age of the concertgoers.

They started off with Shake Your Tail Feather and Gimme Some Lovin' just like at the 10 Spot, and generally followed the pattern of the show. Perhaps the most horrific moment of the show was when we realized that we were seated directly behind an amazon supermodel in training. If I could pick anyone in the world to have looked like at 15, she would so have been it. We felt incredibly short at five feet eight (yes, all three of us), so she must have been in the neighborhood of six feet tall. On top of this she was really thin, had the whole teenie tank top thing going on, and just generally nauseated us. But the real nightmare began when Taylor started checking her out. It was crazy... the boy must have been attempting to telegraphically transmit his room number to her, and he paused repeatedly while pointing directly at her. He did, however, do a relatively good job playing his keyboard. It seems as though it would have been more challenging, what with his tongue resting on the keys and all.

I had my own horrors, including two teenies standing on their chairs directly in front of me. But really there was nothing to compare to the twelve-year-old with a lighter right beside me. I was having visions of ending up turning into a human pillar of fire, ala Michael Jackson in the Pepsi commercial. Amanda B. next to me had to stand watch as the lighter swayed dangerously close to my frightfully flammable hair. While I would love to meet Hanson--first degree burns and ambulances just aren't an acceptable way to do it. So I spent a good deal of IWCTY leaning to the extreme left in an attempt to maintain some shred of dignity.

The breakdown of songs goes as this: (this may not be the *exact* line-up of songs considering we stayed up much past our bedtimes and cannot remember it all.)

Gimme Some Lovin'/Shake Your Tailfeather- it was good. Sounded much like the Live at the 10 Spot version, very good opener.

Thinking Of You- Good. Nothing much new here.

Where's the Love- It was good but it seemed to be a little slow. Taylor's jumping at the keyboard did not bring anything to the slowed beat of the song. Ike's guitar was a little loud too, you could not hear his little solo. For the first time in many months, Zac was heard sounding great, loud and clear on his part. Yay!

River- Isaac's guitar was way too loud. You couldn't hear Isaac or Taylor singing.

Weird- Good, sounded very much like Live at the 10 Spot; Kim really liked it, however.

Sometimes- We didn't like the added thunder of the drums in this one. We were used to the 3CG version and were thrown off by Zac's added drum parts.

Now there was a set change and the audience was invited into the band's "garage." The following songs were all done acoustically.

Stories- This was the first appearance of what we like to call "the microphone from Hell," which proved to be a constant bane throughout the show. Stories was done well but Taylor's microphone was not on and to compensate it seemed that the technicians turned Isaac's mike up-bad idea. Zac was drowned out by Isaac and poor Taylor played the part of a mime without the white make up. He was doing the gestures and all, wagging those little eyebrows with wild abandon, yet we heard nothing. This was especially traumatizing for Amanda D. and Kim, who list this song amongst their all time favorites and just lost an opportunity to hear it live.

Soldier- the microphone was miraculously repaired for this song, and it was done really well. We liked the feel of it.

With You in Your Dreams- This song was done well and would have been better if the Rosemary's baby of a microphone had not decided to rear its ugly head again, causing Taylor's voice to fade in and out throughout the song. Other than these supposed acts of god the song was done very well.

More Than Anything- This is the Isaac solo for the night. He seemed nervous and made a cute comment to shrug it off, which none of us could quite make out. We, however, theorize that it was something along the lines of "now we're going to get a little bit stupid." The song was done exceptionally well, and we all found cause to wonder why Isaac seemed to be squinting quite pointedly towards one fixed spot in the arena. Amanda D. feels the need to add that this song was something of a religious experience for her. As she melted into a little puddle of appreciation on the floor she was hoping that Isaac has/will get someone special in the near future because this kind of sweetness should not be wasted.

Another set change back to the original stage set-up followed. The guys did a musical interlude to introduce the back-up musicians. This was very cool because not only did we get to finally get the names of the musicians, but the guys also moved around freely on the stage. The audience was given its first glimpse of Taylor's much rumored love of the drums -- he can really wail on them, and this (as if the boy really needs another talent) was a welcomed surprise. Kim spent most of the evening snickering to herself about the "dancing guitarist" who we found out was named Jason. She found this *extremely* funny and we all thought he looked strangely like the "Soy Bomb" dancer from the Grammys. Coincidence? We don't think so. ;0)

Speechless- Same as on Live from the 10 Spot. It was done well.

Good Lovin'- This cover was very cool. The people in the audience who were not standing got up and danced. The three of us greatly appreciated Isaac's new found low voice.

I Will Come To You-There really wasn't a lot of heart in this -- Taylor was too busy checking out the next Cindy Crawford standing directly in front of us. Note to Taylor: keep your eyes on the keys (sure she was pretty, but come on Tay! You've seen girls before, yes? More on this later…hehe) for those difficult chords.

The next song was dedicated to Ash. It has never been recorded before, but we all seriously think it should be. The tune was done well but despite our desperate attempts to memorize the lyrics we have no idea what any of them were. It seemed to be about friendship and there was mention of going through a lot together.

A Minute Without You-This didn't stand out to the Amandas but Kim liked it. The introduction that Zac gave, shockingly enough (ahem. Sarcasm alert), was very cheesy.

Mmmbop-Grrrr....the microphone demon came back in full force, not allowing Taylor to be heard through a huge portion of the song. Granted we all know the words by heart but it would have been nice to have one more opportunity to hear if Taylor knows them as well as we do ;0)

Man From Milwaukee-This was much like the Live from the 10 Spot version but it rocked!! Amanda B. and Kim liked the fact that it was not acoustic, saying that it loses something that. Amanda D. was liking it just as it was, though. Zac sounded very cool with his megaphone part, even though it was only done with his microphone.

They left the stage after that song but came back out for an encore.

Look At You- What can we say? Haven't they read that chapter in Tulsa74132?! None of us liked this song and it did nothing for us--maybe a few laughs at what we still will not be dissuaded from seeing as sexual innuendo throughout the lyrics. ;-) Note to the guys: think Madeline next time.

Summertime Blues- VERY cool cover. There were some microphone problems. It's hard to get audience participation with a microphone that is dead, not even to mention that fifty percent of those present were nary a glint in their parent's eyes when the song was truly popular. Taylor didn't seem to notice the hesitance on the part of much of the audience, though, and kept singing his little heart out.

Weird-acoustic-This would have been really good but Zac's headset gave the audience some bad feedback. He seemed to notice this and tried to keep the two microphones apart. It sounded good from what we could hear though. Just before this song, Zac came over to the corner of the stage nearest us and gave out his drumsticks to a girl in the audience. One poor girl went to reach for them and got them in her hands. Unfortunately there were others around her that tried to grab them from her. Mr. Hanson was filming on the stage near her and saw that she was being trampled; the girl's mother did her best to keep her daughter safe and the child seemed okay. The thing that caught our attention was the fact that Mr. Hanson was concerned enough to stick around after the show to see if she was all right and ask her some questions about herself. We were all impressed by his compassion and thought it was very sweet and kind of him.

Taylor's tight pants at this point became truly a drawback -- as we have been alluding to up to this point he seems to become, how shall we put this delicately, very "worked UP" during live performances and the entire front set of seats was gifted with quite the view. We can now honestly say that Taylor does indeed appear to be quite adequate. (For further explanation see For What It's Worth).

The entire show was filmed by Mr. Hanson and Ash, who we were able to catch a glimpse of before the show. The three of us were positively aching to try and get Mr. Greyson's attention, but it proved to much for us to handle, what with being in teenie mode and all, so we just watched him chat with security guards by the door through which we were checking out the tour buses. This, as one might expect, was followed by at least 4 hours of us kicking ourselves for not opening our normally loud mouths. (If you read this Ash, please spare us the www.chicken.com as our fragile egos might not hold up to such abuse.) The two of them were highly intrepid in their footwork while filming, ranging from behind the scenery (very nice alien motif, I might add) to the sidelines and right down into the roped off section directly in front of some hysterical teenies. They appeared to be taking quite a few shots of some girls at one side who had brought their MOE materials and were proudly displaying the magazine and their cards. The dynamic photo duo were probably able to get some amazing shots for the live video which would showcase Hansonmania.

Some of the signs held up throughout the arena were beyond sweet -- there were the typical "I love (fill in Hanson name here)" but also such charmers as "Hanson rocks the house" and "Hanson should come to Vermont." No… I totally didn't create that puppy, but I'd be willing to extend the invitation ;0)

Speaking of MOE…. Where was that preferred seating? How about those backstage passes? I didn't see anyone being blessed with them, nor did I see anyone even being asked to show their cards. Of course, being the schemers we are, our little crew were more than ready to flash them at a moment's notice; I haven't seen anyone clutching a piece of plastic with quite that hopeful an expression on her face since I got my driver's license.

The only thing I really learned through years of Sunday school was "god helps those who help themselves," so hanging out by the spot we had seen the buses earlier in the day seemed like a ducky good idea. Our bravery/foolhardiness led us to hang out in a sweaty pit of teenies, the majority of them braless and in tanktops (did we expect anything else? Not really. But we're not ashamed to say we hoped). We were able to see Zac run (and we mean run… Flo Jo would be jealous of this kid) up a set of metal stairs from the buses.

He was immediately followed by an adult we didn't recognize holding a terrified looking Mackenzie. The teenies from whom we were doing our best to disassociate ourselves felt the need to scream at the four year old, who cupped his hands over his ears and buried his face in the shoulder of the person who was carrying him. He was a precious child and we feel terrible that he is being put through this by the people who couldn't just respectfully watch Hanson from afar and feel the need to harass their entire family. We also saw a Taylor shaped blur hop into the tour bus, apparently frantic to be away from the clustered masses of fans lurking beyond the opened garage doors. Isaac came out of the bus several times to go upstairs, waving to the much appreciative fans each time. Even though he didn't appear to be enjoying the attention we can't help but be impressed by the dignity and diplomacy of his actions.

When the live video comes out if you're curious what kind of weirdoes wrote this review look for three conspicuously old looking girls standing about 6 rows back from the stage and staring longingly at the mass of teenies who made it past the totalitarian security guards. Llamaesque, also known herein as Amanda D., (not to mention usually the I in this review… as if you need more confusion) is slightly blonde wearing a light orange plaid shirt and desperately trying to bring together whatever shreds of coordination exist in her body to clap in time with the music. Kim is the dark haired, tall girl who looked about ready to kick the teenies' butts at any given moment, yet she was able to groove a bit on Mmmbop and Figi Fandango-don't blink or you'll miss it. Amanda B, another tall, *really* curly haired girl who just could not sit still to save her life. From the time the first note was played til long after the venue kicked her out, she was constantly in motion.

We were really saddened and conflicted by the teenie behavior. There was much unnecessarily screaming, wailing, and weeping, and while we didn't really partake in this, we were near enough to hear a lot of it. This is going to be a long and laborious tour for Hanson, the people who bring us all together, if people don't start behaving responsibly. We have our doubts about the appropriateness of our position by the garage, but we suspect it would not be such a big deal if the onlookers remained calm and collected. We're there to see Hanson, not because we think we can convince them to sign our chests, or whatever it was those teenies were so desirous of. Our least favorite teenie activity involved a ring-leader gathering her buddies into a stunningly bad rendition of MMMBop. As if the boys wanted to hear that then. As if they probably ever want to hear that again, after having sung it a billion and five times. What did the girls expect? I'm surprised Hanson didn't come out like punchy fighters: "Oh look! I have Zac's footprint on my butt!"

This review is largely what stood out to us at the concert; I'm sure that there's a lot of things that we didn't notice or had no idea about, but we've tried to faithfully reproduce the experience of being there for those of you who can't get to a show. As we finally went to bed, hours after the show, I felt the need to mutter "why can't every one be grown ups like us?" Then I took one final look at my brand new, 45 dollar Hanson shirt and turned off the light.