411Mania
Oct 17, 2003 |
Posted By Frank Dallas on 10.16.03
A HANSON review on 411mania?!?
To begin this wonderful concert review, I'd like to state that I'm not a hardcore Hanson fan. I went to this concert in Cleveland, OH at a club called "The Odeon" in honor of my girlfriend, whose favorite band is Hanson (God bless her and I love her very much). I took her to a previous Hanson concert during their "This Time Around" tour at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh, PA in September of 2000 and I'll admit, it was a fun concert. Therefore, I didn't need to get dragged to this concert.
I do not listen to Hanson regularly, but I do, however, respect them as a group. They write their own music and they hold up very well live. The trio has been typecasted as a "boy band" for their first hit single, "Mmmbop", to which many music critics, radio stations, and even video stations do not give their other music a chance. The thing about Mmmbop is that many fans purchased "Middle of Nowhere" and found out that Hanson was more than just one catchy song. Then, you have the "This Time Around" album, which in my opinion, is a pretty well produced album that was badly overlooked by music fans. I'd recommend checking out "Save Me", "Love Songs", and "Wish that I Was There" from that album.
Hanson fans are extremely loyal. They bought into Mmmbop and became HUGE fans once they heard the rest of their music. They have a very large fanclub, for at the concert, I saw many of them whip out their membership cards. Right now, they have an acoustic CD called "Underneath", which I believe is selling well with their fans. This concert is an unplugged set to promote their acoustic album and to tour small, intimate clubs, something of which they reportedly desired but their previous record company wouldn't let them do. Among that, their record company, a while ago, didn't give them the freedom they rightfull deserved as a ROCK band, not a POP band, to which Hanson said "screw you" and went independent. They are now doing it their way, and that's to go acoustic now for their fans and make their next big studio release to occur sometime in February or early 2004.
But man, Hanson fans are EXTREMELY loyal. The Cleveland Odeon concert sold out very quickly, and there were many at the door turned down. It was standing room only for the whole club and the building sells out around 900. There was well over 1,000 fans waiting to get in outside, easily. Funny thing was that I was a minority, for females outnumbered males by roughly 30 or 40 to 1! The Odeon is pretty small inside, but the floor was crammed and there wasn't an empty space in the house, leading me to believe that the Odeon was well beyond capacity.
The concert, overall, was pretty good. The Hanson brothers, Isaac, Zac, and Taylor were the ONLY ones on the stage playing. Isaac stuck with the acoustic guitar all night (and he kept alternating between guitars), while Zac played the drums, tamborine, harmonica, piano for a solo, and the bongo drums, and Taylor played acoustic guitar, the harmonica, tamborine, and piano. The three brothers put on a very crisp show and one of the best unplugged performances that I've ever seen, to be honest with you.
They played a good bit of their hits, such as "Mmmbop", "This Time Around", "If Only", and "River", which all sounded good. They would then play several songs off of their new acoustic album, such as "Strong Enough to Break", "Hey" (which was a fun song), "Underneath", and probably a few others. Forgive me, I'm not good with song titles. They also played a few off of This Time Around, such "Wish that I was there", "Sure About It", "You Never Know", and I believe "Runaway Run". I sort of wanted to hear "Save Me" or "Love Songs", but that's ok.
Hanson also played various cover songs, which sounded very good. They did acapella of Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Teach Your Children", which was very good and probably made the parents who were there in attendance feel wanted. Next, they did a fantastic cover of Little Richard's "Rip It Up", which was very nice for the show being in a club. Their true musical talent was clearly shown on that cover.
My favorite moment of the night was a song called "Rock 'N Roll Razorblade", which was pretty kickass. It was the first song of the night that Zac Hanson jumped on the drumset and he played his heart out. It had the whole club jumping and opened my eyes, for sure. Zac is a very talented drummer, a person at which I feel the music industry underrates at that position. I thought he was going to break the freakin' drums with how hard he was playing.
The 411 .::. Am I ashamed that I went to a Hanson concert? Am I scared that 411mania fans will make fun of me for reviewing this? No and no. It was a very good concert, in my mind, for a band that's highly talented and are actual musicians who are often overlooked for their abilities. If Hanson's in the area again, I'll definitely take her again. They are a good live show and they are a band at which people need to look past Mmmbop and see some really great music there. I love my girlfriend and she honestly doesn't have to drag me to a Hanson concert.
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