Louisville Show:  Albertane Revisited

This has been the Hansonest summer I’ve ever had!  More than last summer, more than TTA, more than Albertane!!!

Speaking of Albertane, I think this is as close as we’re ever gonna come again.  It was hot, it was crowded, security was all that, no beer sales because it was a “youth event”.  WTF?  I didn’t want beer, but my friend did.  How goofy is that?  It just goes to show you that even when Hanson are 45, 47, and 50, they’ll still be “those MMMBop Boys”.  *sigh*  And, what’s just as stupid, the otherwise intelligent music editor of the Courier Journal wrote in the review that the fans were all aged 10-13 years of age.  WTF?  Did he get lost on the way to Cardinal Stadium and end up on the KidStage in the South Wing?  NOWHERE around me were any people in that age group.  College age?  You bet.  High school?  A few.  Elementary?  Only if they were drug there by parents wanting to get off their feet from the insanity that is the Kentucky State Fair. 

Speaking of the insanity that is the Kentucky State Fair—have you been?  It’s a feast in every way.  All the food you can eat.  All the rides you can ride.  All the people watching you can stand.  All you idiots out there calling Zac’s hair a “mullet”—come to the fair, I’ll point out one, seventy, oh hell, five hundred.  Get a clue. 

I vowed not to get there early.  I’d been to six shows since July 24^th.  I’m not a front-row girl—this is not my life right now.  But, of course, once my phone started ringing and people were saying, “where are you?”  I had to just go.  I felt like I was missing out!  It’s so funny—Hanson Heads are into the whole scene.  I look forward to seeing my buds there, almost as much as the show itself.  People I’ve met in Cincinnati, or Indianapolis or who I was smashed up against in Columbus.  We constantly find ourselves looking at each other and saying, hey, where do we know her from?  And then we go, “oh yeah, she was behind us in the line in Toledo—she had the Meet n Greet, remember?”  And it all comes back and we wave and she puts two and two together as well.  My non-Hanson friends think we’re “freaky”.  David says, “Y’all are a trip.”  And we are.

My Louisville Day started out, strangely enough in CVS Drugstore—looking for an umbrella.  You line people will understand that.  It was bright sunshine that day, and the lady at the register wanted to know why I needed one so bad.  I told her I’m going to a concert.  She still doesn’t get it.  “Don’t they start at like, 8?  The free ones?”  I replied, “Yes, but I’m going now to get in line.”  Hahahahahahahaah, then you know how it goes after that.   I’m sure you’ve all been there.

So, I put my backpack, my small cooler with 4 frozen bottles of water (smartest thing I’ve done in a decade) and a candy bar and an apple in it, my camera and my umbrella in my suitcase—you know, the kind with wheels you can pull behind you?  And a folding chair.  And I’m off to the fair!

What a kooky place!  I can’t believe there haven’t been more posts at Hanson.net talking about the Fair in general.  I’ll bet it’s hard to find places these days that have pig races, pipe smoking contests, fried Snickers, Quilts to Die For, the Hellavator and a free Hanson show all in one spot!  So, I pull in, pay my $12 for Fair Admission and Parking, pull up two feet and hand two girls my tickets.  One tears them and hands them back to me, and another gives me a program.  I know it sounds silly, but it gives a lot of young people summer jobs.  So, it’s all good.

Then comes the fun part:  finding a place to park.  Ew.  At least it wasn’t as bad as the other day when it was Senior Citizens Day.  No offense to any seniors reading this, but, wow.  “D” is for drive.  Go on and drive!  And get out of my way, please.  That was a fun day—the Street Team (well, three of us, anyway) went there to give out LWEO singles and fliers for the show.  Well, seniors not only don’t drive fast enough for me, they don’t know and don’t care about Hanson.  Neither do toddlers.  And that was all that was at the fair on a Tuesday when school has already started.  We gave out three.  But, we made up for it on Friday (show day) when we gave out 80.  Much better.  Darn, I rambled.  Sorry.

So, I park in the north forty, like I knew I’d have to.  But, that’s why I brought the suitcase.  In no time, I was marching up the ramp to Entrance 3, pulling my rations behind me.  Lots of laughs, but they were envious later when their butt started burning on that hot concrete and mine was in it’s little folding chair, icy water tucked in the cup holder.  I’m becoming a seasoned line person. 

People came and went and for a while, the line didn’t get much longer.  It was hot as hades, but we were close to the air conditioned areas, just having to cross a horse path to get there.  Two gentlemen were in charge of keeping us from being run down by beautiful show horses and their equally lovely riders.  I hope some out of state fans got to experience some things in Kentucky besides mullets and pig races, because it really is a lovely, cultured place.  Just nobody knows it.  So, we traded off going inside to use the bathroom and wipe our faces with cool paper towels (thanks fairgrounds!) and grab a bite to eat.  I got caramel apples and nachos—but once you get out in that heat, you really can’t eat.  Just looking at it was yukky.  So, we just drank water and Dr. Pepper all day and the occasional bite of something just to keep from keeling over.

True to Hanson fan fashion, the line made a big shift around 3 or 4’oclock.  I guess some people were getting out of school and thinking they deserved to be up front, regardless of whether or not they’d waited in line.  I know, I know, it’s hard to believe a fan of Hanson would try something like that…

The gates were to open at 6:30 and by 5:45, we were packed in like sardines.  Sweaty, tired, stinky, cranky sardines.  David had come by a few times and took my stuff back to the car for me.  He’s a peach.  At one point, I called him on my cell phone and said, “It’s crazy up here, do you think I ought to just go to the back of the line with you?”  But he was having none of it.  So, I toughed it out.  He brought me a hotdog just in time, I thought I was gonna die!   

At one point a security guard came out and told us to make a single file line, hehe.  Those guys—such kidders!  Finally, it was time to open the gate, which unfortunately opened out, towards the line.  So, naturally, when it opened a crack, people started pouring in like water.  It had to be scary for the guys who were supposed to keep control of everything.  They kept yelling “Walk!” as people ran past them (and me, by the way).  I am not a fast runner by any means.  Still, I got the front row of the first raised spot, which was pretty much what I’d had in mind.  That way, stand in front of me all you want, I’m still a foot higher than you.  It was like being 6’2” for a while!!!  I’d like to try that out for a year or two.  I sort of like it. 

The venue is very very large.  It was once the baseball stadium for the Louisville Redbirds and the football stadium for the University of Louisville.  Now, it gets used for free shows during the fair, and such things as that.  It felt very Albertane-ish sitting in those stands and watching people mill about.  Hanson’s bus was parked on the field and now and then one of them would come out and the crowd would go nuts for a few moments.  I was actually expecting a lower turnout than we had.  I have no idea, and don’t quote me in any way on this—since there were no tickets, no one knows for sure anyway—but I’d say there were between 2500 and 3000 people there, which I think is fantastic!  Go Hanson!

Security came along and told people they couldn’t use professional cameras.  We were accosted twice, but it’s not a long lens, it’s a shade, to keep the sun off the lens.  Once we took that off, no problem.  The sun went down a little and Michael Tolcher took the stage.  I really like his music.  I waited for the girls to come along after his set selling his CD, and for the first time in seven shows, it didn’t happen.  Story of my life.  Ah well, I’ll have to go buy it at the store. 

Between the sets, the radio DJ came out to pump up the crowd.  Yeah.  Like he could get a Hanson crowd going.  I listened to that fricking station for two weeks straight trying to win the VIP Tickets they were giving away.  I heard Usher.  I heard JoJo.  I heard Hoobastank and Linkin Park.  I heard everyone but Hanson, whose show they were “sponsoring”.  Free Ticket Friday, woo-hoo.  I got close once—caller 5, but they were looking for caller 9.  Oh well.  Cell phone Olympics—you had 30 seconds to empty ice from a tray into the sink, turn on the television real loud, and get this—go outside and turn on your lawn mower.  Um, ok.  I can’t get that stupid thing started in 30 minutes, let alone 30 seconds.  Oh well.  Anyway, to make a long story short (hey, it could happen!) I didn’t win tickets, they didn’t play Hanson, and the DJ was surprised when he got mostly grumbles instead of cheers.  Get a clue.  Oh and by the way, those VIP tickets—there was a section set aside for that—and it was mostly empty.  So, you know, they don’t have time to actually give out those VIP Tickets, they just talk about them a lot to get hanson suckers to listen to their crappy radio station.  Imagine that.

Hanson took the stage.  All was right with the world. 

Isaac came out in his long sleeved white button down shirt, cords, and a jacket.  Um, 95 degrees in the shade.  The next time I hear anyone call Taylor a fashion victim, I’m gonna bring this up.  But, he looked lovely.  Zac had on…let me think…a t-shirt and some sort of baggy pants.  Taylor had on jeans and a t-shirt.  Those guys are getting so predictable!  Remember back when there was NO telling what one of them might wear?  Well, those days are gone. 

They went straight for “Dancin’ In the Wind” and it kicked, as always.  My least favorite song on Underneath, it’s got a certain charm live (that would be Taylor on guitar…).  By the time the first song was over, if I remember correctly, Ike’s jacket was history, and Taylor was wet.  He must have a wonderful cooling system.  He sweats better than anyone I’ve ever seen.  And I mean that in the healthy kind of way.

As it got dark, they started selling light up lei’s.  No beer, but light up necklaces.  I’m shaking my head here just thinking about it.  But, I gotta say, once the place got dark, it was very cool seeing all those lights flickering across the stadium.  There were no fights to speak of, no shoving, no rushing the front—all because there wasn’t a front row to fight over.  While I wouldn’t want it that way for every show, it was sort of refreshing and old school.  I almost expected them to drag out the super soakers and drench us.

“Long Way to the Top” was killer—I’d like to have that on tape.  That’s always an eye-opener for the Hanson Doubter.  Zac’s solo was “Broken Angel”—perfectly lovely.  Isaac did “Being Me” which prompted the converts to say later that they felt sorry for him.  Haha!  Ike—write some songs for yourself that are as punchy as the covers you choose!  Don’t have people feeling sorry for you!  I know you’ve got it in you—just let it out.  For instance, “Rip It Up”, which they did amazingly—even though there was no audience participation this time.  Hmmm…maybe Taylor was feeling woozy from the heat.

Speaking of Taylor and heat—“In the City” rocked.  I was a little frightened though.  The stage was way up in the air.  Like 10 feet up.  The reporter was taking shots from the ground and I was thinking, well, those pics are going to be different!  Anyway, we all know Taylor takes the occasional slip off the stage (it’s part of his charm) but, this time, it would have been a very bad thing.  Like, emergency room kind of stuff.  So, when he did his final leap off the piano and landed on his knees and slid back to lay on the floor panting—I was elated.  Great performance, no bodily harm.  What more can you ask for!!??

Well, maybe an encore of “Ain’t No Sunshine” with Michael Tolcher’s band joining Hanson.  Love it.  And it gives Zac a chance to get out from behind those dang drums.  Is it just me, or do they have him way back and sort of in the dark this tour?  I think we were lucky there though, this stage wasn’t really set up that way, so we got to see more of him than usual.  In any event, it was great to see him front and center, banging away on that tambourine and harmonizing with Michael Tolcher.  I do have to say this though—I think Hanson’s acoustic version of this song is better than electric.  It has some sort of smoky groove that’s missing from the electric / other band version.  I’m not complaining, just musing over the acoustic hansony goodness…

Alright, I guess that’s it.  My summer is over, school’s back in, and the deck is covered with yellow leaves already.  To anyone involved in the Praying Mantis/SnoCone incident, my deepest apologies!  I did my best.  Someday, you’ll understand. 

That’s all, krystal signing out (and heading off to write some more of OMWF which has been sorely neglected for months).  Here’s the set list—Talk to ya soon!

1. Dancin' in the Wind

2. Where's the Love

3. A Minute Without You

4. Strong Enough to Break

5. Look at You

6. Long Way to the Top

7. Lost Without Each Other

8. Broken Angel (Zac solo)

9. Being Me (Ike solo)

10. Underneath

11. Weird

12. Hand in Hand

13. Rock 'n' Roll Razorblade

14. If Only

15. Man From Milwaukee

16. Gimme Some Lovin'

17. Crazy Beautiful

18. Penny & Me

19. MMMBop

20. Rip It Up

21. In The City

Encore:

22. Ain't No Sunshine (with Michael Tolcher and his band)