original article

Quiet Hanson has loud fans

Taylor Hanson and his brothers went acoustic at Carnegie.

What's this?
Hanson headlining at Carnegie Hall?

In 2003?

You read that right. The missing-in-action "MMMBop" boys defied shifting trends and a less-than-riveted media Wednesday to play for the last teenage girls still hellbent on screaming their names.

Though the hall was padded with industry ringers and some tickets were given away outside, the teens in attendance earnestly screamed their guts out for the whole hour-and-50-minute performance.

They wouldn't even let up when Hanson brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac - now 22, 20 and 18, respectively - politely tried to shush them into silence.

The group had reason to try and keep things quiet. They were playing an acoustic set, the finale of a nationwide tour to promote an album, "Underneath," that will be released on their own indie imprint next year.

But if a high-profile Carnegie gig seemed out of sync with the group's current underdog status, wasn't Hanson's charm always its out-of-left-field identity?

While every other teen act played ersatz R&B, Hanson revived '70s bubblegum pop and peach-fuzz rock. They played something no one else conceived: classic rock with training wheels.

At Carnegie, the group's acoustic versions of their hits cost them some snap. The folk-rock takes suggested the Archies singing the songs of America. Unsurprisingly, they covered Graham Nash's cornball classic "Teach Your Children." But the candied melodies of their own "Where's the Love" and "Runaway Run" proved as irresistible as ever.

Isaac, in particular, tried to stretch, with a faux soulful take on Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." But Hanson would be wise not to make too strong a bid for seriousness.

They have an asset that's just as valuable: sweetness.