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carnegie hall This review was submitted by frequent "a hidden life" contributor, the irrepressible, Ann: Thank you, friend!
Hanson fans. Fansons. Hansonmania is not yet dead, folks. And aren't we rather ambivalent about this state of affairs? One minute I'm looking around thinking: How cool is it, for a change, to be surrounded by quite a few people whom you know are Hanson fans? The next minute: Why can't those couple of lunatics stop shrieking in the middle of the songs? A day later, pondering this phenomenon, I turned to my daughter (whose arm didn't have to be twisted - honest - to join me at the concert) and posed the rhetorical question: Do you think Hanson is ever going to be more than a 'cult' band from now on? In some ways, that's what we're offering them now - the Few, the Proud, the Hanson Marines. And I'm guessing that Hanson is just fine with that, tell you the truth, shrieking notwithstanding. It's good to know that 'our band' just doesn't really give a crap if they have another billion-seller, as long as they can be out there doing - being - music. I felt gosh darn proud of those three, seeing them and (almost) hearing them on the stage of Carnegie Hall. And I'll bet that even fans who are closer in age to Hanson felt that same sort of maternal pride Wednesday night. Eleven-plus years ago, serendipity brought me past a plywood outdoor stage, where I heard three cute little Oklahoma 'farm boys' (!) singing something that sounded like the Everly Brothers, so I stopped on my way to and from the Big Splash ladies room, thinking "not bad." I called up that memory a few times, for contrast, over the span of those two hours, which we all spent singing along, giggling at ourselves for doing those dopey motions to Where's the Love, and shush-ing the Lunatics on the off chance that it might actually work. And by the way, I hereby declare Zac "The Winner." There was a period of about, what - one minute? - when you possibly could have heard a pin drop in Carnegie Hall, during his solo. We all 'knew' hyper-Animal-kid Zac, but who knew this amazing musical Zac was lurking . (ahem) . Underneath? That's the revelation . (ahem again) . This Time Around. And he still pulls off a mean head-bang, even without the Big Hair. Isaac, you are a Soul Man. Ain't No Sunshine was just beautiful. And Hand in Hand was surprisingly good with just you and an acoustic guitar. Next time, though, I want you to stand up (ignoring the fact that you would then have no microphone) and Rip It Up for real. You know you want to. And we know you have it in you. When you have center stage - take it! Ahh, then there's Ol' Crazy Legs. Even from way up in the nosebleed balcony section, you could see that the music is just bursting to get out of Taylor - and if it has to burst out partly via his legs, so be it. Elvis would have been proud. And now that I've gone into Elvis territory, I think that Taylor's solo was Love Me, which would be an Elvis cover. Can anyone confirm this? Since the Lunatics always kick it up a notch for Taylor, and since Taylor was working an almost inaudible falsetto at times, all I can really remember was the phrase "treat me like a fool," a general impression of the rhythm of the song, and the feeling that if I could have heard it a little bit better, I would have been impressed. Interesting that only Taylor chose to do a cover song for his solo. Oh heck, I don't know if that fact is 'significant' at all - but that's what fans do - right? Sift through every little note and gesture for something that means something to Us, and must, therefore, mean something to Them. I'd never been inside Carnegie Hall before, and I must say it is just a beautiful venue. If Only . we could have actually heard the reportedly great acoustics of the Hall. I was impressed by how 'big' a sound three guys and their instruments could produce; of course, they were amplified (wait - amplification? I thought this was the Acoustic Tour ::grin::) to overcome the size of the place and the noise of the Lunatics. What a shame that they couldn't have done the show truly acoustically. Also a shame that the microphone set up specially for Teach Your Children was feeding back into the sound system, spoiling an otherwise surreal moment when the supposedly forbidden flashbulbs projected a wonderful shifting silhouette effect onto the back of the stage. The 'programmed' lighting effects paled in comparison. All in all, my impressions could be summed up with pairs of plus-es and minus-es: Beautiful venue, well-deserved by all Hanson's years of practice, practice, practice *** Beautiful acoustics they couldn't take advantage of. Great performance *** No great surprises. Enthusiastic audience *** Annoying minority. While the experience was well worth it, the music is better served by the Acoustic CD. Hope you-all bought one!
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