on the concert that should have been the highlight of my year (but totally wasn't)...

To make an incredibly long story short, the Hanson concert was seriously disappointing. Had certain things ended up a different way, I'm sure I would have felt better about the whole situation, but as it was, my sister and I left feeling very let down. Once we were finally sitting in my little nubbin of a car at 12:30AM (after standing for a good seven hours), we attempted to make light of the situation by ranting somewhat sarcastically with eachother.

"I feel seriously taken advantage of."
"No, really. I feel abused!"
"Used and abused."
"It's like they just had their way with us."
"I KNOW!"
"Seriously. I'm literally pissed at Hanson. And I can't believe I'm even saying that."

To make a long story, well, long, here you go:

The concert was at the House of Blues, and because it is all general admission/standing room only, we got there two hours before the doors opened, a little after 5:00PM. The shenanigans began with us standing in what we figured was the only line (but was actually the prefered admission line) for a solid hour. Once we discovered we were in the wrong line, I had to wander around asking random people, "WHERE THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO STAND IN LINE AT, NANCY", before actually discovering a somewhat hidden line around the corner. Nice.

We then stood in line until about 7:30, and finally were let into the building. On the way in, I had a moment of rebellion when I looked the security officer straight in the eye when he asked me if I had a camera with me, and calmly said, "No." He blinked, and for a minute I was afraid he was going to pat me on the bottom and discover the camera in my back pocket, but I was in luck.

(It was awesome, by the way. I felt so defiant.)

Anyway, we get into the venue and fell in love with some t-shirts that said, "I took the walk" - or something to that effect. (Their current tour is the Walk Around the World tour. Fitting, I suppose.) But it's a good thing that we didn't have the cash to get the shirts because I'm pretty sure we would have scratched out the writing with a Sharpie and replaced it with, "I stood around for seven hours and ended up being seriously pissed at Hanson". That is, if it would have fit on there. Maybe not. We'll never know.

Here's a timeline for the next five hours:

7:30-8:15 - Find a place to stand. Decide we're happy with standing right above ground level, behind a group of drunk married girls. Buy a bottle of water for $4.00.

8:15-9:00 - Opening band was Everybody Else. They were absolutely adorable and fabulous. I wanted to hug them. (Listen to their song "Makeup" because it will make you incredibly happy.)

9:00-9:10 - Wonder if Hanson is next. Hope Hanson is next. Fluff hair and straighten cute outfit.

9:10-9:45 - See two guys come on stage with guitars. Think for two seconds that one of them is Taylor, then realize that there is another opening act. And, gah. He sang, like, every song he'd ever written in his entire life. He was good, I'll give him that, but I'd like to echo the sentiments of the girl texting her friend in front of me, in saying: OMG. Shoot me. I'm so bored. LOL.

9:45-10:30 - ARE YOU SERIOUS? We were thinking, "It's 10:30 and they haven't even come OUT YET? Do they realize the stage has been set for them since 7:30?" We're not talking about setting up an arena, folks. It shouldn't take 45 minutes. People around us starting murmering about how Hanson may not even be there yet, or something like that. My poor pregnant sister's puffy little turtle feet were hurting like nobody's business. At that point, we'd already been standing in the exact same spot for three hours. (And that's not counting the two hours outside.) And I understand that it is standing room only, and perhaps we should have known what we were getting ourselves into, but I've been to a House of Blues show before. It was NOWHERE NEAR this long before the main act came out. I'd like to echo the sentiments of the girl standing behind us who said to her friend: I'm so not even here right now. What the hell. And I think I have an ear infection.

10:30-12:30 - Hanson takes the stage. And here's the thing: at this point, both my sister and I were really, really over it. We had been waiting so long, the atmosphere was terrible, the opening acts took entirely too long, the drunk girls in front of us were getting drunker, my sister's puffy feet were getting puffier, and nobody ever said anything about the fourty-five minutes it apparently took them to set up two microphones and a keyboard. I didn't feel like they connected at all with the audience, and they only sang one song from Middle of Nowhere - the CD that all of the twenty-something females surrounding me knew every single word to. They sang a few other good songs that I adore, but alot of it was a serious letdown. The concert seemed really unorganized and they didn't seem all there, if that makes sense.

They sang MMMBop as a last song, and we were able to rock out as much as we could at that point. But, really, in the end, we were really quite sad about the whole thing. I know it's terrible of me to say, but I honestly feel less enthused about Hanson now. My bubble has been burst. I feel a bit like a child who just found out that the tooth fairy isn't real, and that it's just been their mom sticking dollar bills under their pillow while they sleep. (Of course, I could just be seriously dramatic, too.)

So, that's my story. It was probably just an off day for them or something, or perhaps there was some sort of technical problem. But, you know? We spent a pretty penny on those tickets, and I really don't think we got our money's worth at all.

I'm still a fan, but perhaps slightly more jaded.

Okay, that's enough whining for one day. I promise that tomorrow's post about the baby shower will be quite more uplifting. Scout's honor.