Alex and I maneuvered through the snow down 7th Street in the frigid air, our adrenaline keeping us warm. We saw the line around the corner when we got off the bus on Hennepin. Hundreds and hundreds of girls were lined up, huddling in their skanky clothes. (It was clear that none of them knew that First Ave has a coat check. Best kept secret.) After running into a girl I went to middle school with, we walked through the hoards of girls to the other side of the building, where the will-call line wasn't as long, but still longer than we would have liked.


We ended up standing right by the tour bus and began buzzing with excitement and disbelief. A rush of the reality of the situation hit me. We were about to see HANSON. The thirteen year old girl in me was weak in the knees. These were the three coolest guys in the entire world to me for like three years. I knew every word to every song on Middle of Nowhere. I could barely contain myself.


We made small talk about the cold because we were too excited to say anything about the show. Once inside, we found a place off to the right side of the stage and waited. The lights went down and a local band called The Abdomen played. It's got to be a rough gig opening for a band like Hanson, because everyone there just kind of stood politely through their set. We all just wanted Hanson. The Abdomen handled it well.

After waiting for forty minutes after The Abdomen had finished, I was starting to get tired. I'd been standing out in the cold for a long time, and now I had been standing in this packed place for two hours listening to a band that I didn't particularly enjoy. The amount of excitement I'd been feeling had all built up to now, but had been dwindling into annoyance with the amount of time I had been waiting. To make matters worse, the bitch next to me was drunk as fuck and dancing like a mental patient, attacking me left and right. Thinking about that made me angry, and I glared at her stupid back.

As I was glaring at her, I noticed a door just next to the stage open. A boy about my age with his hair pulled into a perfectly tousled ponytail walked in with his head down and headed for the green room. A taller man with a buzzed head followed him quickly. I grabbed Alex's arm and frantically pointed. Her mouth fell open. A few stage hands followed them into the green room.

And then there he was. It was unmistakably him. I'd know him anywhere. I was looking, with my own two eyes, at Taylor Hanson. Alex and I looked at each other and screamed like the thirteen year olds we were. "OH MY GOD I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST SAW HIM!" Alex screeched. My knees buckled and I covered my face. The craziest part was that NOBODY ELSE IN THE FUCKING VENUE EVEN SAW IT. It was one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments that happened in slow motion because I was looking at Taylor fucking Hanson. The excitement of that moment carried us for another fifteen minutes.

The lights went down. An overture blared through the speakers. The screen went up. And FUCKING HANSON walked out of the green room and on to the stage.

The roar was deafening. I have never heard anything like it before. Well, you can imagine, being in First Avenue with nine million other girls my own age and younger and FUCKING HANSON taking the stage. We screamed and screamed and clapped and jumped up and down and hugged each other. It was Beatlemania. It was ridiculous.

Zac looks exactly the same as I thought he would, with his rosy cheeks and mischievous grin. Isaac is unbelievably attractive, which seems odd because he was always the weird looking kid. Sarah Fuller, those braces are off, and he's all man, baby. Buzzed hair, ripped arms... sigh. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm in love with Isaac Hanson. And then Taylor... well, goddamn it, it's Taylor Hanson! Perfect hair, skinny jeans, white-and-black checkerboard shoes, and a scarf. The most beautiful human being I've ever seen in real life. My stomach flip-flopped every time I looked at him. The boy who adorned my walls as a girl was standing straight in front of me at a grand piano, looking better than I've ever seen him. I don't know how I got through it.




They played "Where's The Love" and the place went wild. They played a few more songs from their newer albums and set up an acoustic set. Isaac said that it was the ten year anniversary of the day that Middle of Nowhere was released, and they'd re-recorded a few of the old songs. And then they played "Mmmbop," acoustic. Have you ever heard "Mmmbop" live? Have you ever sung "Mmmbop" WITH HANSON? I have. I have, bitches. You think you can imagine it, but you don't know. You say you can but you don't knooowwwwww-oh-oh, you say you can but you don't know... you don't know-oh, you don't know-ohhh-oooo-ohhhhh.


They played a few more that I didn't know, and then they played YEARBOOK, which transitioned back into a normal set. Stage hands in elf costumes swiped Zac's bongos and switched out Isaac's guitar, and all of a sudden they rocked the fuck out. WHERE DID HE GO -- I WANNA KNOW -- TELL ME WHERE DID JOHNNY GO?? Fuck. Awesome.


Sometimes with concerts that I love and mean something to me (Low, for example), I get through about five songs and then it needs to be over because I just can't take it. I can't wait to tell people about it, I can't wait to re-live it, and for whatever reason, I need it to end. This was not the case with Hanson. I wanted them to play for eight more hours. I could have stood there and listened to them for days, weeks, months.


The thing that really struck me was how good they are. I mean, Taylor is the man on the keyboard. Isaac had some killer solos. Zac's drums were perfect. The songwriting was solid. Their harmonies were tight. They did some a capella songs and they were really great, kind of gospel-y. I like that the draw is to see the Boys-into-Men "Mmmbop" Spectacular, but then you leave and you're impressed with their musical prowess. These dudes are good.

The show was over far too soon. We bundled up and headed outside towards the bus stop, even though it wasn't due for another twenty minutes. We passed a group of girls huddled around the side door across from the tour bus. Alex and I looked at each other and stopped. Neither of us would suggest what we both were thinking, so we just stood there.

And then there they were, walking out as nonchalantly as they walked in. They walked around the stunned and silent crowd. The door of the bus opened, and right before they stepped on to the bus, someone broke the silence and screamed "I LOVE YOU!"

That someone was me.

I ducked behind the building, surprised as anyone else that it had happened. That thirteen-year-old girl had broken free once again and fucking yelled at Hanson that she loved them in the middle of this silent moment. Alex started laughing. "We need to go now," I said, covering my face.

We huddled silently in the bus station, exhausted, drained, and still in shock. Every now we'd catch the other's eye and share an incredulous grin. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

And if they come through Minneapolis again, I'm definitely going again, and you should too, judgers... although, unless you have had a severe passion for the boys at one point or another in your life, I wouldn't suggest accompanying me. Alex and I will be thirteen years old once again.