Lost bet lands editor at 9:30 Club for Hanson concert
Jeremy Pevner, assistant news editor
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I'll admit, in hindsight, it was a rather stupid bet I made at the end of the year with my friend John Mowry. It seemed simple and harmless: read some sheet music, listen to a song, and determine whether or not the instrumental music fit certain criteria our orchestra class had come up with for "legitimate" music.

If I was willing to admit that the music was legitimate, I had to go with him to a concert if they ever toured again, and cover it for whichever newspaper I was working for at the time.

It was Hanson. Damn it.

So that no one dares to tell me I go back on my bets, on October 31, Hanson performed in front of a sold out crowd at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. along with the Pat McGee Band and local band Honor by August, and I was there.

The tour, entitled the Live and Electric Tour, is a tour to promote their latest indie CD release, The Best of Hanson Live and Electric. The band is also screening Strong Enough to Break on select college campuses, a documentary of their break from Island Def Jam Records and their move to their own independent label.

Perhaps the strangest thing about this concert was the make-up of the crowd. While there were the requisite teenage girls with "We Want To Have Your Children!" signs, and cars driven by aggravated parents which had signs emblazoned on the back, proclaiming "You Had Us At MMMBop!," you also had older fans with more piercings than I cared to count, some of whom had to have been in their early to mid-30's. I also felt a little outnumbered, being one of perhaps 15 people there with a Y chromosome, but, almost paradoxically, some of them were the loudest ones in the venue.

Hanson came out to a tumultuous noise that can only be described as the sound of the screaming of about 900 young women and men being sacrificed to a particularly bloodthirsty god.

Unlike some other bands I could name (some of them even from Maryland...), it was easy to notice that they had mastery over the music they played and over their voices. The drumming was a little sloppy, with a few missed beats, but the vocals, guitar, and piano seemed spot on. It appears that I wasn't wrong in deeming it "legitimate".

The band involved the audience heavily in the show (although not nearly as much as the Pat McGee Band) until about halfway through. At this point, the guitarist yelled at the crowd for shoving the front few rows up against the barriers, and they did not start the next song until everyone took a step back. From then on, they appeared slightly miffed, although it didn't seem to affect the music.

I was surprised at how rabid some of the fans were. One of those responsible for the guitarist's anger was a young woman determined to get up to the front, and who didn't care who got in her way. In her attempts (eventually thwarted by a few rather painful looking shoves backwards), she managed to kick me hard in the leg from behind, and then later in the knee from the side. I was limping around campus for about a week afterwards.

Injuries aside, for someone who wasn't a fan, it was actually an enjoyable enough time. I've come to respect any band that can perform live and actually know how to play the music they sell (again, that un-named band from Maryland...).

The crowd was vibrant, and the musicians were very much into the music. While I probably won't be going to another concert if they tour again, I can understand why there was another car in the lot with a St. Mary's sticker on it. They put on a good show. Thus, my debt is fulfilled.