\\v// ~ Concert Review: My 2000 Hanson Concert Experience ~ \\v//

Sometime in early/mid-August, when I first found out that Hanson would be performing a show in New York City on their concert tour, I was thinking, "Okay, I just have to go to this concert. I really want to go!" But unfortunately, I did not start looking for tickets to this show early enough, and by the time I tried to find available tickets to the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, the concert tickets were already sold out for this show. I was really disappointed and sad, but then I told myself, "Okay, there is nothing you can do about that. Things like that just happen sometimes. Now just put that behind you, and go look for tickets to the next nearest show." The next closest venue Hanson would be performing at would be at the F. M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA on Monday, September 18, 2000. So I found out the date and time the tickets would go up for sale, which was Friday, August 18, 2000 at 10:00AM, and vowed that I would purchase these tickets as soon as they went up for sale. The night before August 18, I set my alarm clock for 9:00AM, and tried to go to sleep, but I was so nervous and anxious to buy these tickets, and very determined to get good seats for once, that I had trouble falling asleep! Luckily, somehow I managed to finally drift off into a deep slumber. I think my body could tell that I was so anxious, because I woke up at 8:00AM, and I am not a morning person! I tried to kill time by watching some TV as I waited somewhat impatiently for the time to fly. Finally, at around 9:30AM, I signed onto AOL, and surfed the web a little; just trying to make the time to go by faster. At 9:55AM, I went to Ticketmaster.com, and just waited right until the little "on sale" button flashed up next to the Hanson Kirby Center show information, and I immediately clicked on it and went to purchase my tickets. My original intent was to buy only 2 tickets, but I ended up buying 4 tickets altogether, since after I bought the first 2 tickets, I found even better seats on sale, and went and bought those as well. I would have cancelled my ticket order for the first 2 tickets or asked them if I could return them, but Ticketmaster does not do any returns or refunds, unless the show gets cancelled or something. So, I was stuck with 4 tickets, and knew that I needed to sell the first 2, since I knew that I only needed 2. At first, I tried asking around, asking a few people if they were interested in buying them, but no one really gave me the impression that they definitely wanted to buy them for sure. So, my options were getting more limited, but I still had a few left, and would take full advantage of this opportunity. I put my 2 tickets up for sale at eBay.com, and had my auction have a duration of one week. I was delighted to discover that on the second day of my auction, I had already received a bid from someone who was interested! I felt happy and relieved that I would be able to sell my tickets after all. But this happy feeling proved to be ephemeral, when I found out about 2 days later that this bidder cancelled their bid! I was angry and annoyed, since I was pretty desperate to sell these 2 tickets and really needed to find a serious bidder who was interested, and I really was not in the mood to tolerate bidders who were not serious. From then on, I kept watching my auction, trying to see if any other bidders would come along. But, no one had bid for them since the last one who cancelled their bid. Finally, on the last day of my auction, I started finally accepting the unfortunate fact that I was unable to sell my tickets. But, little did I know that a bidder would soon come along and bid for my tickets! The bidder made a bid for my tickets just 4 minutes before my auction closed...pretty close! When I discovered that I had gotten a bidder after my auction ended, I just started freaking out and going crazy with relief and happiness! That just really had made my day! It all worked out very well; I contacted the bidder, and made the payment and shipping arrangements, and received my payment about 4 days after my auction closed. I sent out the tickets immediately after I had received the payment, and everything seemed to have gone smoothly. Now that I had sold my other 2 tickets, I thought I was home free, and that all I had to do now was just wait for September 18 to come around, and I would get to attend my second Hanson concert in 2 years!

But then, I started thinking. I remembered while I was selling my 2 tickets on eBay that surprisingly, I had discovered that there were quite a few tickets on sale for the sold out concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. I was very tempted to buy them off of a seller at eBay, because I had really, really wanted to go to this show, since it is the closest show they are doing to where I live; that and the fact that I had never attended a concert in New York City before, so I thought it would be a cool, first-time experience sort of thing. My sister urged me to do this idea; she really wanted me to sell all of my Wilkes-Barre tickets, and buy New York City tickets off of eBay instead. I was reluctant to go with this idea at first, but then my conscience started kicking in, and I felt guilty that if I went to the Wilkes-Barre show, it would be a 3 hour drive to the show, whereas the New York City concert would only take about 30 minutes to get there. 3 hours is a lot of driving, and I kept on going over that in my mind over and over again. I also kept thinking back and remembering that I did really want to go to the New York City concert in the first place. Finally, I decided: I wanted to go to the New York City concert, and it was much closer to where I lived than Wilkes-Barre. So I bought 2 tickets to this show off of a seller on eBay. Thankfully, I found a very good, reliable seller who sold me 2 tickets to the New York City concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Right after I made a bid for those tickets, I immediately put my other 2 tickets to the Wilkes-Barre show up for sale at eBay as well. Since I made my bid less than a week before the show date, I paid extra money for my seller to send my tickets out by FedEx overnight shipping. After I sent out my payment, three days later, my seller e-mailed me and informed me that he shipped out my tickets that day (Friday, September 8), and sent it out FedEx Priority overnight shipping. I was happy that everything seemed to be going smoothly and working out well, and figured that since the tickets were shipped out by FedEx Overnight shipping, I would get the tickets the next day, Saturday. But on Saturday, I did not receive the tickets. I started to panic; I kept on wondering, "Why haven’t the tickets arrived yet?? It was sent out by overnight shipping, so...well, shouldn’t they have arrived by now??!?" Even though I could not hide the fact that I was getting worried, I tried my best to stay calm, and told myself that the tickets might arrive the next day (Sunday). But on Sunday, they did not arrive, either. So I was thinking, "Okay, now is the time to start freaking out!" But before I did that, I managed to restrain myself long enough to call the FedEx customer service, and asked about the whereabouts of my tickets and when they would be delivered. I also explained that I needed them by tomorrow morning, since tomorrow evening would be the concert. The customer service guy I talked to on the phone assured me that the tickets would be delivered to my house no later than 10:30AM the next day (Monday, a.k.a. the day of the New York City concert!!). After I hung up, all I could do was hope that the guy would be right; otherwise, everything would get all screwed up. I told my dad to be on the look out for a FedEx delivery guy the next morning, since I would be at school during that time. While I was at school, when I had lunch 6th period, I called home and asked my dad if the tickets were delivered. My dad said they were!! Yes!! He also told me they were delivered at around 9:30AM, and I asked him to read me some of the print on the tickets, to make sure that they were right. I had bought floor tickets, which is a standing room (no seats, you just stand during the whole show), and unassigned, meaning you can stand anywhere you want, as long as it’s available and no one else is standing there yet. That also meant that if you get there early enough, and got to be at the front of the line, you could stand right in front of the stage as close as you want...a.k.a. front row! I was just glad and very relieved that the tickets had finally arrived, and now, I guess you could say I really was home free!

Monday, September 11, 2000
New York City, New York -- Hammerstein Ballroom

Right after I got out of school at 2:12PM, my dad picked me up, and I went home and started getting ready for the concert! I stuffed a lot of things into my backpack; stuff like binoculars (I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need them, but just in case!), money, my school books (so that I could do some of my homework before the concert), and other stuff like that. I shoved my MOE card into my pants pocket (if you brought it with you, it gave you the chance to possibly get a backstage pass to the Meet & Greet thing), and put my tickets into a safe place inside my backpack. We finally left my house at about 3:15PM, which was a little later than I had wanted to leave at (I had originally planned to leave at about 2:40PM); my dad and I went to pick my sister up at school, since she would drive my dad and I to the train station, drop us off, and we would take a train to the city. Before we went to the train station, we stopped at CVS to buy a disposable camera (cameras were supposedly not allowed, but I was going to bring one anyway!).

Then, my sister dropped my dad and I off at the train station in Van Cortlandt, and my dad bought a Metro card pass that you slide through in order to pass through to the waiting area for the trains/subways. My dad had no idea how to slide the card through; it was pretty embarrassing! He tried it over and over again about twenty times, until finally, a man came over and slid it through for us, since my dad couldn’t figure out how to do it. We only waited for about less than 5 minutes, when the number 1 train pulled up, and we all got on board. My dad planned that we take the number 1 train, then get off early and switch to the A train, since my dad said the A train had less stops and went faster, but since I was starting my homework, my dad changed his mind, and we just stayed on the number 1 train the whole way. When we first boarded the train, it was pretty empty, but a few stops before the stop where my dad and I got off at, it got pretty crowded and the seats were getting limited. I attempted to start my Chemistry homework while we were on the train, but it was hard to concentrate with all these other people staring at me watching me do my homework, since they had nothing else better to do (think about it -- you can only do so much while riding on a train).

About twenty minutes after we had gotten on the train, my dad and I got off at the stop at 32nd Street, and we started walking over to West 34th Street, since that is the street where the Hammerstein Ballroom is located on. While we were walking, I realized I had to go to the bathroom; it was because I had drunk a bottle of spring water before I had left my house...now I quote Homer Simpson when I say "D’OH!!" My dad was sort of annoyed when he found out I had to go to the bathroom; he said, "Why didn’t you go before we left??" And I answered, "I did, but now I have to go again." So my dad asked me, "Can you hang on and wait a little longer?" and I replied, "I’ll try."

So, we walked over to West 34th Street; it was not hard to miss the Hammerstein Ballroom, because we saw this REALLY LONG line of people just standing there, and the line wasn’t moving up or anything. Plus, these three girls were walking by (they were fans and on their way to the concert, too) and passed us; one of them looked over at the line and exclaimed, "Yay, Hanson fans!" So I muttered, "Um, I think this is the place." Sure enough, it was, but it was crazy how long the line was already, and it was only 4:40PM! We got on at the end of the LONG line, behind those three girls. I guess my dad still wasn't fully convinced this was the line for the concert, or he just wanted to make sure or something, so he tapped one of the girls and said, "Excuse me, is this the line to the Hanson concert?" and she said "Yep!" And my dad stared at the long line of people ahead of us and was like, "Oh, brother," and the girls let out a small laugh. After waiting for sometime, I was like, "Ugh, I knew we should have left earlier," and my dad said, "Do you really think we could have been that much further up on line if we had left an hour earlier?" and gave me a doubtful look. I guess he made a good point; it probably wouldn’t have made that drastic of a difference or an improvement, but it definitely would have been a little bit better, at least. We weren’t late, obviously, considering the time, but apparently we weren’t early enough, either. My dad believes that some people, like the people toward the front of the line, had come and camped out overnight the night before. And I guess I didn't find that so hard to believe, knowing how some fans are. I don't know if I would have done that; after all, it was a school night, but even if it wasn't, I guess I wouldn't have done anything like camping out over there, but I definitely would have left earlier if I didn't have school that same day.

More people kept coming after we had gotten on line; I turned around a few times to see this big, gigantic long line behind us! So, I guess we weren’t the last people to arrive, at least. We stood on line and waited for about an hour and a half before the line finally started moving and letting people inside the ballroom. And the weird thing was, after we got in line, I didn’t have to go to the bathroom anymore, for some reason. Waiting in line wasn’t such a fun experience, though; the crewmembers or security people at the Hammerstein Ballroom were really strict and kept on yelling at everyone to move back a few times while we were standing on line. Plus, there were some obnoxious fans standing behind me, and they kept on randomly yelling out stuff like, "Ohmigosh, it’s Hanson!" or "Ohmigaw, I see Taylor!" and other random, stupid things like that, which were, of course, not true. They were just yelling those things out for the heck of it, to try to trick the other fans into thinking that they really spotted Hanson at that very moment. I thought what they were doing was pretty stupid, and that they were acting lame. I spent the time waiting on line by staring up at the Empire State building, which was only a little further down the street, and I had a good view of the tall building from where I was standing in line. I also remember while I was waiting in line, I saw one of the Hammerstein Ballroom crewmember people (all of the crewmember people were wearing these red t-shirts that said "Manhattan Center Crew," or something like that) walking by the line, and he stared at the incredibly long line, and muttered, "Damn." Also, while I was standing on line, I overheard some fans who were a few feet behind me, talking about Chelsea, the girl who appears in the audience a lot in Tulsa, Tokyo and the Middle of Nowhere, especially at the Beacon Theatre in New York. They were saying bad things about her, and were saying how she always goes to every single Hanson concert and show whenever Hanson comes to New York; they were saying how they hate her or whatever. I didn't really know what to think; it's kind of weird how this Chelsea girl is so well-known just because she has appeared so many times at several Hanson concerts and shows. But whatever.

While we were waiting on line, all of a sudden, a lot of people whipped out their MOE cards and began holding them up in the air. I believe it was an attempt to get backstage passes to the meet & greet. I took my MOE card out of my pocket as well, but didn’t bother holding it up, since everyone else around me who were holding theirs up didn’t get backstage passes, so I figured I wouldn’t get any, either, and that they were all already given out to the people toward the front of the line, I bet. It was too bad I didn't get any backstage passes, but it was okay; for me, just going to the concert was cool enough. It would have been so awesome and really cool to have gotten backstage passes to the meet & greet and gotten to meet them, shake their hands, get autographs, and stuff like that, but it's fine. Getting to go to the concert was more than enough for me, although I definitely would have been thrilled to have gotten backstage passes. Just being able to go to the concert was so great; getting backstage passes to the meet & greet just would have been the icing on the cake.

When the line was finally moving about an hour and a half after we got there, it was like, "Finally! It’s about time!" The crew people at the Hammerstein Ballroom were extremely strict. Whenever they started letting the line move forward into the ballroom, they kept threatening that if anyone started running, screaming, or going crazy or anything like that, they wouldn't let you inside the ballroom. So their threats got everyone to just walk quickly, but not running, since everyone wanted to go inside. I think by then, it was about 6:35PM when we finally got inside the Hammerstein Ballroom. As soon as we got inside and got part of our ticket stubs torn off by the people who were collecting them, I rushed over to the room where the floor seat people get to stand during the show. Despite the long line that was in front of us, there weren’t too many people there already standing at the floor! Of course, there were already a fair number of people standing there already, but it wasn’t that bad. So my dad and I didn’t get such a bad place to stand at all! It wasn’t bad at all really, come to think of it. Maybe the only sort of bad thing I can think of was that I had to try to see over other people’s heads, but that’s about it, as far as bad things were concerned. I think we were standing exactly in the middle, halfway from the stage to the back exits. And it wasn’t a bad place to stand at all; I think we were only about maybe 20 or 25 feet away from the stage. I wanted to go buy tour merchandise, but I didn’t want to lose my standing spot, so I decided to wait until after the concert was over to buy stuff. The Hammerstein Ballroom is pretty small, I must say. So I guess there wasn’t really a "bad" place to watch the concert from, I don’t think; basically every spot would have been okay. But mine was all right.

A few times before the concert started, everyone started screaming. I thought that meant they saw Hanson or something, but I don’t think that was so, since I looked around and didn’t see anything; I guess they were just screaming for the heck of it. My dad actually suggested that he stand at the back of the ballroom and watch the concert from there, while I would stay where I already was, and at the end of the concert, I would go meet him there, but I said no; I didn't want to get separated from him. I didn't think that was such a good idea, because knowing how concerts can get pretty crazy and chaotic, I was afraid I would lose my dad and that I wouldn't be able to find him after the concert, so I just wanted him to stay and stand with me during the show. I felt more comfortable knowing he was right by me during the concert.

Finally, at 7:00PM (actually, it was more like 6:54PM according to my watch, but then again, my watch is a little off), Hanson’s opening act, Neve (rhymes with "sleeve"), came on stage and started performing. The fans seemed to be pretty into it and were supportive, and I thought they were okay, too, but I was more looking forward to seeing Hanson perform, obviously. Neve played some songs for about a half an hour before they left the stage. Then, it was another long half an hour to wait while the stage crew people began setting up the stage equipment and instruments to prepare for Hanson to perform. Finally, at 8:00PM, Hanson came on stage! All the fans started screaming, shrieking, and going crazy, obviously. It was a different way for them to start their show; at the concert I went to 2 years ago, they were behind this huge curtain and started playing the opening notes to the song, "Gimme Some Lovin'" while behind the curtain, and then the curtain was released, and it was dropped, revealing Hanson. But this time, it wasn’t something creative like that; they just ran out onto the stage, and that was all. I didn’t really get to see them run on stage, since there were too many heads in the way, but I tried my best to see as much as I could. I figured out that I was able to see better when I stood on my tiptoes, but it’s hard to stand like that for the whole time, so I had to do it on and off.

I had gotten my disposable camera ready, and began snapping away! I started taking pictures like crazy! That’s the thing; cameras were technically not allowed, according to the Hammerstein Ballroom rules, but me and just about every other fan broke that rule and brought a camera, anyway! Plus, the cool thing was that no one checked to see if we had cameras at the door, and didn’t confiscate them or anything, unlike the concert 2 years ago, where they were much more strict about the whole camera rule. I noticed that I had the best view of Taylor out of the three of them; I wasn’t on the right side of the stage (I was smack in the middle center), but I just saw Taylor the most clearly for some reason; I had the best view of him out of the three of them. Isaac was pretty hard to see, since there were heads in the way, and since Zac is behind the drums, it is also a little hard to get a good, clear view of him as well. But I tried taking the best shots I could with my camera, and tried very hard to get as good of a view as I could of them. Since I had the best view of Taylor, I think most of the pictures I took are of him, but I took a few of Isaac and Zac, too. It was still hard to take good pictures, though, since there were heads in the way, arms up in the air waving frantically, and people jumping up and down all over the place. Throughout the first part of the concert, I kept on taking as many pictures as I could whenever I had a good view of them. My dad even lifted me up a few times so that I could see over everyone else’s heads and take better pictures of all three of them in one shot! I was surprised my dad was able to lift me up; I didn't even ask him to do it, but he decided to do it on his own.

Another cool thing that happened was that this nice woman who was standing near me (but a little more up-front than I was) noticed that I was trying to take pictures of Hanson while they were performing. So she tapped me on my arm, and despite the loud music and the screaming fans, I still managed to hear her say, "Do you want to move over here?" and she gestured to the spot where she was standing at. I was like, "Are you sure? Can I?" and she said, "Sure, go ahead." That was really nice of her. You know, so many people had cameras, but I even saw someone who was tape recording the whole concert! And the person who was taping it wasn’t like a crewmember or something; it was a fan taping it, and she was standing only about 2 feet away in front of me toward the left. I’m pretty sure she was actually taping the concert; I wish I did that! But my camcorder is too big, since we have an old one, and I never would have thought of bringing it. Plus, I don't think it even works so well anymore. This girl was using one of those small digital camcorders that are compact and fit right in your hand, like the one they used in the movie, American Beauty.

A few times during the concert, this fan who was about maybe 6 feet away in front of me, would hold up this large sign that she made, so that Hanson could see or read it or whatever. However, whenever she held up the sign, it was preventing fans who were behind her (including me) from seeing the stage and Hanson, thus blocking our views as a result, which was kind of annoying. There were a lot of fans who got angry, and started yelling and screaming at that fan, "Put the sign down!" But since the atmosphere was so loud, with all the fans shrieking and screaming, and Hanson singing their hearts out, I don't think that fan who held up the sign was able to hear people yelling at her to put the sign down. But oh well, she eventually did put it down, since I think she figured that her arms would get tired from holding a sign up in the air for the whole concert, so she did put it down, but she would hold it back up every now and then.

Everyone was going crazy; people were having such a great time, including me! Of course, I’m not the "screaming, going crazy" type of fan; I’m more on the calm side, and I just smile and clap or sing along with them, but I was definitely not going berserk like some of the other fans were. I guess I can’t blame them or anything, but I just kept control of myself; that and the fact that I’m not really a loud, hyper type of person to begin with, either.

The first song Hanson played was "Look At You," from their first album, Middle Of Nowhere. It was a very loud, all-out rock song, which really got the fans excited. They played a couple more songs, before they switched over to the acoustic set of the show. There, they played (not listed in order) "Sure About It," "Lucy," "Love Song," and "A Song To Sing." I was so happy they performed "Lucy," I was really excited about that! It’s one of my favorite songs off of Middle Of Nowhere, and I had heard they were performing it at some of their shows, so I was so glad that they performed it at this one, too! And during "Love Song," about halfway through the song, I guess, Zac got up from where he was sitting, walked over to his drum set, and started playing the percussion part of the song.

After the acoustic set was over, they switched back to the regular set, and performed all these great songs. The cool thing about this concert was that they played EVERY song off of their album, This Time Around! It was cool, because at some of their other concerts before, I don’t think they always play all the songs from this album; they sometimes left one off or something, but here in New York City, they played ALL OF THEM!! How cool was that?! So, all the songs off of This Time Around that they played are "You Never Know," "If Only," "This Time Around," "Runaway Run," "Save Me," "Dying To Be Alive," "Can’t Stop," "Wish That I Was There," "Love Song," "Sure About It," "Hand In Hand," "In The City," and "A Song To Sing." Some other songs they played included songs off of Middle Of Nowhere like "Thinking Of You," "Speechless," "Where’s the Love," "A Minute Without You," "Man From Milwaukee," and "River" off of 3 Car Garage, as well as other songs like Chuck Berry’s "Johnny B. Goode," Janis Joplin’s "Piece Of My Heart," The Rolling Stones’ "You Can’t Always Get What You Want," Cheap Trick’s "I Want You To Want Me," and a few others. The encore songs at the end were "MMMBop," "In The City," "I Want You To Want Me," and a shorter, a cappella version of "This Time Around." Also, Jonny Lang, the guy who played some guitar riffs on some of their songs on This Time Around when they were recording the album, came out and performed with them, too! I only remember seeing him play 1 song with Hanson at the concert, but people say he played 3 songs with them, which were "Hand In Hand," "You Never Know," and "Johnny B. Goode," so I’ll take their word for it, since I could have easily missed seeing him the other two times, as a result of people’s heads in the way, arms up in the air, people jumping around all over the place, etc.

Throughout the show, Hanson took about 2 or 3 breaks, and left the stage for a few minutes, before they would come back out again...the show must go on! Throughout the entire time Hanson was performing, there was this large screen behind them on stage, and it kept on displaying these colorful design images. And during one of their breaks (I think it was one of their last breaks toward the last half of the show), all of a sudden, the screen displayed the tour symbol for Hanson's This Time Around Tour 2000. When that appeared on the overhead screen, all the fans started going crazy and screaming in delight. Three symbols came on the overhead screen; all three were different sizes. Also, about halfway during the show, Taylor had us all start singing "happy birthday" to someone. I couldn’t hear who that person was, since Taylor’s voice was sort of drowned out by the shrieks and screams from the fans, but I’m guessing it was probably one of their supporting band member’s birthday, I guess; Scott's, I think. But oh well. It was kind of ironic, since getting to go to this concert was actually MY birthday present from my parents, since I really wanted to go to the concert, and there really wasn't anything else that I wanted. So it was like my belated sweet 16 birthday gift, since I already turned 16 on September 7. Wouldn't that have been something if Taylor had everyone sing "happy birthday" to me, haha; not like that would have ever happened or anything.

Also, during "In The City," just like I heard at the other shows, Taylor did not stay behind the keyboards during this song. The whole time, he was just running across the stage and jumping up and down, trying to get the crowd hyped up (as if they weren’t already!), and stuff like that. Plus, during the song, "I Want You To Want Me," Zac got up from behind the drum set, and Taylor walked over and started playing the drums while Zac was just sauntering around the stage, clapping and stuff, and at the end of the song, Zac climbed up on the drum platform and stood on the bass drum, started waving his arms wildly in the air, and pretended to lose his balance and fell (or jumped) off the bass drum onto the stage.

About halfway through the concert, Taylor took off his blue button-down shirt, revealing a white tank top. And later, sort of toward the end of the show, Isaac also took off his beige/peach-colored blouse/button-down shirt, and had a black tank top on underneath. Zac was just wearing a black short-sleeve Zeppelin t-shirt with white print on the front and back. And since I struggled to see over people’s heads at several points during the show, I could not get a good look at what kind of pants they were wearing, but Taylor had dark patchwork pants on, I think they were black and had some kind of design on them or something. Zac was wearing these beige/khaki-colored wide-leg pants with a stripe going down the sides of it; I think the stripes were blue. And as for, Isaac, I didn’t get a very good look, but I have heard somewhere he was wearing oxblood leather pants. I also remember toward the end of the concert, Taylor jumped off the stage and into the very front; I have heard he has done that at some of their concerts, but I’m sort of surprised, because I would think the fans would start attacking him if he did that, but I guess that wasn’t the case here. As a result of people’s heads in the way, I didn’t see Taylor climb back onto the stage, but I saw him back up on the stage shortly after he jumped off, so I figured he wasn’t harmed or mobbed by the fans in the very front.

Let's see...some other interesting, noteworthy things I noticed that are worth mentioning...during two songs, while they were playing them, Zac quickly lifted his right hand to tuck some loose hair behind his right ear. I’m pretty sure he did that during "Wish That I Was There," but I can’t remember the other song he did that on, but he definitely did that twice. And he kept his hair pulled back throughout most of the show, but toward the close of the show, he let his hair loose, and started doing this head-banging thing during a song (I think it was "In The City"), so his hair was flying all over the place. After the concert ended, they thanked us, waved good-bye, and exited the stage through a back door. The concert ended at around 10:25PM; it had lasted for about 3 and a half hours altogether, although 30 minutes of it was Neve performing, and another 30 minutes was spent for the crew people to set up the stage for Hanson, so I guess Hanson only performed for about 2 and a half hours.

My dad and I tried to get to the booth where the tour merchandise was being sold as fast as we could, but there were already a huge number of people crowded around it. So in that sense, I sort of wished that I had gone to buy stuff before the show had started, since there were only maybe 2 or 3 people buying stuff then, but now, we’re talking like 70 people all pushed up against each other, trying to get to the front to buy stuff. That was kind of the weird thing; no one was really pushing that much during the show, but now everyone was pushing against each other to buy merchandise! It was getting pretty out of hand; it was so disorderly. No one there has ever heard of a "line," I don’t think, by the way they were pushing and crowding around. It was not fun waiting to buy stuff; I waited for about 15 minutes to get to the front, and during that time, I was sandwiched between people and just totally squished. I thought that I would suffocate or something if I had to stand in that position any longer. As a result to the people getting out of hand while trying to buy merchandise, the security guards/crewmember people were getting angry, and they started yelling at everyone to move over to the left, and people on the other side to move over to the right, because no one could get through. But no one moved over; whether they tried to or not, I don’t think they could have. It was basically impossible, since there were just way too many people there, and no room to move over to. I guess the crew guy didn’t understand or realize this, though, because he got even more pissed off when no one moved over, so he thrust his hands forward, and pushed people to the left! I am so serious; it was not even funny! He started roughly shoving people to one side, since they couldn’t move over! That got pretty scary; everyone started screaming in fear when he did that...well, not everyone, but basically all the people who got pushed. It was really starting to get out of hand at that point. Luckily, I finally managed to get to the front, with the help of my dad, who kind of grabbed my arm and helped pull me up to the front. I got a tour program, 3 color photos, and a tour poster. My dad asked for 2 posters, and I was like, "No, I only need one," but my dad said, "No, it’s okay." I was confused at first, but then I figured it out. I didn’t realize it at the time, but some girl behind my dad had asked him to get her a poster since it seemed hard for people to get to the front to buy stuff, so she just asked him to get her one. She gave him the money and stuff, I guess, according to my dad.

After I got my stuff, everyone (the crowd), was just swelling, so we just had to get out of there at that point. We hurried out of the ballroom, and there was this person at the door who was saying, "Once you leave, you can’t come back in," and I was just thinking, "Well, we kind of want to get out of here!" When we stepped outside, there was this woman there handing out this small CD thing that if you pop into your computer, you can participate in this 3D Hanson World chat thingy, and she was also handing out promotional fliers for the album, This Time Around. I didn’t get one, but my dad got them from her, so that’s how. We hurried over to the train station and waited a little until the A train arrived, and boarded. Then, a little later, we got off and switched to the number 1 train. After we finally arrived back at the train station in Van Cortlandt, my dad went to a payphone to call my sister to come pick us up. But the first phone he used was kind of broken and screwed up and not working or something, so we found another payphone, and was able to reach my sister. While we waited for her to come pick us up, there was a Burger King nearby, and I wanted to go there because my urge to go to the bathroom finally came back to haunt me. So we walked over, but it was now 12:05AM, and we saw through the doors that the people there were already cleaning up, so it was closed. I managed to wait until I got home, though, thankfully. My sister arrived about 15 minutes later, and my dad drove the rest of the way home. And that was my concert experience.