Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I got to see Hanson live and in person I finally got to go to another of their concerts and I got to go for a walk with them. Don't get me wrong there was a lot of annoying and boring, but it was freaking awesome.
Yesterday Saturday October 10 2009 started off slowly I woke up at my friend Laurie's house shockingly rested for having spent most of the night having to pee and sleeping on the floor. For a few minutes I lay there wondering if Laurie and my other friend Jennifer were awake and listening to Laurie's mother talking out in the main part of the house. My question was quickly answered when Laurie got up to talk to her mom. I sat up and chatted with Jennifer who at the point had also sat up to see what was going on and was ready to start the day. Laurie came back into the room and layed back down in her bed, Jennifer and I exchanged a look assuming that it was now time to get up and do things. Yes is was only about 11:00 am and we weren't supposed to be anywhere until 2 pm but still there was plenty out there for us to do, Laurie told us that she was going to go back to sleep and that we could leave without her and just come back and pick her up before the concert needless to say Jennifer and I were a bit shocked as we had been planning this since July and here Laurie was blowing us off. Our fears were short lived however, after maybe thirty seconds of Laurie trying to go back to sleep she started talking about how she needed to start getting up so that we could go. This brings us to our first boring bit, it took Jennifer and me about 10 minutes combined to get ready to go so we sat around and really didn't do much of anything while we waited for Laurie to get ready, she started at about 11:30 and we managed to walk out of the house by 1:15.
So we all got in the car and drove downtown to the Fillmore theater where there was already a fair amount of people. I don't know how much anyone really knows about this so let me take a second to explain exactly why we had to show up at 1:45 for a concert. For about the past year or so before every show Hanson and whoever is on tour with them will walk one mile for charity. Hanson does it barefoot for reasons that I don't exatly agree with but for everyone who shows up to walk with them and registers Hanson will donate a dollar to assorted things in Africa, they do let you pick where your dollar is going to go from a list of five or six different causes I can't remember all of them right now I know I asked them to put my dollar to AIDS reasearch and I was thinking of putting it to education but a lot of people had already put that I figured that was being covered and only one person before me on the sheet I was signing had put the AIDS thing so I put that with the thought that yes education is very important but how can you learn if you're dead? So anyway we got there and registered and were just sort of standing around taking pictures and whatnot when some bouncer dude started yelling at everyone to go and get back in line and he couldn't figure out why we had all moved up in front of the building and that we really needed to get back in line because nothing was going to heppen until we got back in line. So even though we were mildly annoyed that this dude was yelling at us (not just the three of us he was yelling at the few hundred people hanging out in front of the building.) we went and got in the line along the side of the building. Then after standing there for a bit the guy told us that the people in the front line were the ones that hadn't registered yet and that if we had already registered we needed to move back to the back line, so that's what a few of us did. Then we stood for what felt like forever at that time. On the bright side one of the opening acts happened to pull up right next to where we were standing so the bassist from Sherwood came and talked to the twenty or so of us from the back line so that was pretty cool. I've decided that that guy looks just like toddly00 from youtube. The walk was originally scheduled to start at 2 so at about 3 we noticed that they were letting people move back around to the front of the building where Hanson was standing in front of the group we couldn't see them from where we were at the back of the line because of that jerk bouncer telling us to move he put us in the worst spot ever but still we were closer to Hanson then we had ever been before and there was Taylor Hanson no more then 50 Yards from where we stood talking into a megaphone thanking everyone for coming out and saying the normal things a person would say before this sort of thing. While he was saying all of this I was standing right next to the same guy from Sherwood who talked to us earlier when he moved to get slightly out of the street of brushed up against my arm. (I know this sounds like something that a starstuck teenager would say but really I have loved Hanson since I was ten years old and really I may be from Detroit but that doesn't mean I see famous people like ever so this is huge for me.) After Taylor's speech we were off walking a circle around Comerica Park. Of course immediately we were almost dead last stuck behind a lady with a stroller. Normally I don't mind taking my time and waiting for people with stollers but when it comes to walking with a group they always tend to walk a lot faster then I do and I'm tired of always being last and losing the group so as soon as we could Laurie was off around the landy and several other people and we were making out way towards the front of the line. She was dead set on finding Taylor. When we managed to get about halfway up through the group Laurie was ahead of me by about ten feet or so, Jennifer was somwhere in between there. Not wanting to totally miss the walk just because of tunnel vision for a person that we probably would never get anywhere near I was trying to walk a bit slower while still keeping up with Laurie. This is what led to me noticing Isaac. I was walking and looking at the people around me and then I noticed this tighter circle just to my right, a girl stepped out of the way and walking about one person length from me was Isaac Hanson internally I was squealing like a little girl but outside I didn't want to come off as just another crazed fan and I was quickly losing Laurie so I sort of whisper yelled for Laurie. when she finally noticed that I was trying to get her attention she looked back and I was trying to subtlely point out that Isaac was about a foot and a half from me without actually yelling "Hey Laurie oh my god it's Isaac holy shit!" because something tells me that would have sounded a little crazy. So we walked next to Isaac for a bit. I wanted to get a picture with him but I couldn't get any closer to him then that foot and a half and any time I would try someone would step in a ask for a picture before I had the chance. Yes I probably could have managed to get that picture if I had tried harder but I'm not really the sort to push people out of the way I'm more wait until they aren't being bombarded with girls type which wasn't going to happen but still it was cool. After that we were back off to moving up in the group we almost caught up with Taylor we were about 30 feet away but then he turned the corner and disappeared again. That was about when they stopped in a fountain to talk a bit more about why there were doing this and everything which as I mentioned I don't exactly agree with. Here is the video that I got I missed a bit of it because my batteries died and then my camera will only record for a couple minutes at a time but I think you get the gist of it:
After that we started walking back to the Fillmore, There was a puddle on one corner which Isaac was thoughtfully standing in front of blocking off so people wouldn't step in it which is what caused me to be about six inches or less away from him I must say that he has grown into his looks and is a now a really good looking dude. The walk ended shortly after that and thus began the most boring and slightly annoying part of the day. It was about 3:30 when the walk ended and that meant we had to go line up to get into the show which the doors didn't even open until 6. Sure I suppose that we could have not waited in line but that would have meant that first we would have had to move the car which would have sucked because it cost ten dollars for parking and I really didn't want to have to pay that again and if we just wanted to walk somewhere there wasn't really anyplace to go we could have gone to subway but for one Jennifer really doesn't like subway and two the people around us were all coming back and telling us that they didn't have any actual bread just flat breat or pizza and none of us really wanted that so we sat in line and this time we had a relatively decent spot. All that sitting though did get old because it was sitting on the cement in downtown Detroit with homeless people coming up and asking for money every few minutes before being chased away by security guys also it was cold and the longer we sat there the colder it got and finally it was really annoying because we were stuck in line behind these girls who were still in high school and thought that they were smarter then everyone and better then everyone and kept spouting off idiotic things. They did have one friend that was nice though. The idiot girls at one point went off to get food while the other one waited in line to save their spot and that girl was pretty cool she was crazy outgoing and would talk to anyone, she was constantly flirting with pretty much any boy who walked past and she was sort of exactly like what I would picture a real manic pixie dream girl would be like. She didn't seem to really be friends with the idiot girls but more of an aquaintance and she was there with a girl that was a bit older then me and was also really cool who we chatted with for a bit after the idiot girls came back the older one was a hardcore Hanson fan. I thought I was bad she was worse. The manic pixie dream girl had never seen Hanson before as she was only three during their first tour which made me feel incredibly old because at that time I was 11. So anyway we sat and waited and waited and waited and stood up because our butts were getting sore and waited and waited and waited and chatted a bit and waited and finally they opened the doors at about 6:15 we walked in and there was sort of a multi tier floor and a balcony. The first tier of course was already starting to get crowded so we went to the second tier and managed to get a spot at the very front there which put us higher then everyone on the main part of the floor but still only about 100 yards away from the stage. We were standing to a group of girls who were really cool and again were bigger fans then I thought I was they had been following Hanson around on tour which I so wish I had the money to do because I would do it in a heartbeat but they told us that they would watch out for us if we would watch of for them meaning that if someone had to go to the bathroom or to the merch table we would work together to save their spot and we wouldn't start trying to edge the other ones out. They also apologized in advance in case they got obnoxious during the concert because they were also big fans of the first two opening acts. For the record they didn't get obnoxious I thought they were awesome they sang and cheered but not in an annoying way and they even had dances for some on the songs which I found to be adorable. By 6:30 Sherwood was onstage and they were awesome they all came out in a line and put on their instruments and before playing the first notes they quickly threw blow up black and white beach balls into the crowd and started it was much cooler then I make that part sound really I think you just had to be there for that part but it was cool. At first I thought maybe I just liked them because I had met the one guy and thought he was really cool but byt the end of the first song I knew that wasn't the case they were just really good. After Sherwood was Steel Train which was okay but got a little eh after awhile and totally lost me after they played Mama Mia because the fastest way to loose me is to force me to listen to Abba. After that was Hello Goodbye which I knew I had heard of before but I just wasn't sure where and the more they played the more I had no idea how I knew them. Then they played Here in your arms and I knew, I had never heard Hello Goodbye before what I knew was the song Here in your Car by Ministry of Magic thus solidifying my position in Harry Potter nerdiness, the Hello Goodbye version isn't bad but I think I like the MoM verson better. Then finally after the three opening acts and a half hour wait until 9:30 Hanson came out and proved why I love them. They were freaking amazing they did old stuff and new stuff they had some acoustic things and had Zac sing a song while playing Piano which was so cute because they had just finished doing their acoustic stuff and Taylor said "Okay we're going to go offstage for a bit because Zac Hanson needs to get up" Then Zac looks so nervous and walked over to the piano and took a second to start with an adorable and embarassed "thank you" after a couple girls yelled for him but he started and got into it and was awesome. Then the other guys came back out and they played some more. They managed to cover almost all of my favorite songs (by cover I mean play not that they spent all night doing covers although they did play two) They had a good My Girl cover and after leaving the stage like they were done for the night while obviosly not being done they came back out Isaac picked up his guitar and Taylor went in back and got beind Zac's drum kit and Zac came up front and grabbed a mic saying that the next song they were going to play because it meant something to Detroit or something like that alhtough I think that they play this song every night and really it's not so much a Detroit song but they started playing Don't Stop Believing and it was amazing Zac is the perfect person to sing this song they had heart and soul and energy for this song. At one point some guy started crowd surfing and Zac motioned for the crowd to send him to the stage but he sort of stalled a foot away and had no way to get down so Zac waded into the crowd with girls grabbing at him and while still trying to sing (and succeeding fabulously) and wrapped one arm around the guy's chest and pulled him on stage while still managing to keep time and sing. I have to say that Zac has fabulous arms normally I don't care about arms of muscles but I love Zac and that performance solidified my fan love for him. After that the concert ended and my whole experience was amazing and was truly one of the best night's of my life and I will absolutly being going to see Hanson any and every chance I get.
p.s. I forgot to explain why I don't agree with Taylor entirely. The shortish version is really I have shoes so why should I walk a mile without them if I don't have to? How is my taking my shoes off helping anyone really? It would hlf more maybe if I took the shoes off and then sent them to a kid in Africa that may help. It's like if I were starving I wouldn't want people to starve themselves to show solidarity I would prefer that they get me food or if they really wanted to give up food then they could give it to me so I could eat. I think that actions are better then symbols. That's not to day that Hanson isn't doing their part because they really are everyone who walked they donated a dollar for and they're getting the word out about how people can make a change. It's just the shoe thing I don't get. Oh yeah that reminded about my other issue. Walking with my shoes off in downtown Detroit is stupid. That is just asking to get tetnus or hep c or something and I can't afford those medical bills and I don't think that Hanson is going to pay for them so it's just safer to keep the shoes on and then donate the money I save by not getting an infection.
p.p.s. Since I'm so behind on getting this up it gave me a chance to go through all the pictures I took while on the walk so here are a couple of my Hanson pictures:
This is just a picture I liked of me Jennifer and Laurie before the whole thing. Laurie is the on with her tounge out and Jennifer is the one in back.
Taylor Hanson live and in the flesh. 
This is the best picture I could get of Isaac but it doesn't show how close I really was to him.
