Back to the Concert Reviews

Andrea's Chicago Review
October 2, 2000

Chicago, IL
Chicago Theatre
October 2, 2000
By: Andrea (you can include a link to my email for people to write me if you want to! :)

I picked my friend Kyra up at 1:00 PM this afternoon and we were on the road to Chicago. I was really really nervous about the drive because I've never been to Chicago and I had no idea what I was getting into so we left really early to allow time to get lost. Plus, it was going to take us 4 hours alone to drive there even if we didn't get lost at all.

Once we got to Chicago the traffic was terrible. We're from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and we weren't used to this kind of traffic. Needless to say, I almost hit a few people and I ran a few red lights! We went around in cirlces before we finally saw a huge group of Hanson fans waiting outside the Chicago Theatre. We got there around 6:10 and they let us in around 6:45. It was so nuts-people we trying to get in all at once. I mean, we were all going to see the concert no matter who got in first!

So we finally made our way to our seats. Since it was only 7:00 I had this brilliant idea that me and Kyra could go to the merchandise area and buy some stuff before the concert started at 7:30. Big mistake! We waited there until 7:30 and it was such a mess! We barely moved the whole time and we couldn't breath at all. It was so unorganized and there were, like, three people there selling the stuff. They needed more like ten! So then we could hear M2M singing "Mirror Mirror" or whatever that one song of theirs is called so we decided to go back to our seats to check them out.

They were actually pretty good but I wasn't too pumped to see them because I was going to see Hanson! After M2M was done playing, the lights came back on and the Counting Crows started playing (Gee, I wonder who picked out the music :). And then, at about 8:30, Hanson came on. I wrote the set list down on a little index card as they played each song. Here goes:

*GIMME SOME LOVIN' (I was really surprised to see them open with this song! And they didn't play 'Shake Your Tail Feather' in the middle of it.)
*RUNAWAY RUN
*RIVER (I was surprised to hear that one, too! Ike said something like, "This is an oldie but a goodie," or something before they played it.)
*WISH THAT I WAS THERE
*THINKING OF YOU (WOW! I really thought the new ending was great! Just when you thought the song was over, Ike jumped up and they started jammin' away again!)
*SMILE (Love that song-it was so good in concert. WOW is all I have to say.)
*PIECE OF MY HEART (Tay sounded so good. I thought it was funny hearing them switch the parts like, "I gave you everything that a woman possibly can," around. LOL.)

**SWITCH TO ACOUSTIC SET**

*LUCY (Zac's mic was really bad and you couldn't hear the first few lines of the song and it was all screwed up and then Tay came in and helped him out. It was really cute.)
*A SONG TO SING (I was so not prepared for the "glassy surface" verse! HOLY WOW it adds so much to the song!)
*MONEY

**SWITCH BACK TO ELECTRIC SET**

*CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT
*A MINUTE WITHOUT YOU
*DYING TO BE ALIVE (This was my favorite part of the show. That song is SO good live!)
*HAND IN HAND (This isn't my favorite song on the album but it was really really good live.)
*SPEECHLESS (This was also when they introduced the back-up band.)
*THIS TIME AROUND
*MMMBOP
*IF ONLY (I love how Tay works the crowd before this song! He makes everyone jump and wave and clap their hands and then he just pulls his harmonica out when no one expects it.)
*MAN FROM MILWAUKEE (Through the WHOLE song Zac was head-banging like a maniac. You couldn't even really hear him during the, "This is mother bird..." part because he was banging his head so much!)

**ENCORE**
*WHERE'S THE LOVE (I was surprised-they didn't do that ending where you think it's over and then they start up again.)
*MAGIC CARPET RIDE
*THIS TIME AROUND (A capella)

The guys put on a GREAT show but the crowd made me rather mad. I'm not sure if I just felt out of place or something because I'm 18 and everyone else there was really young or whatever but I found everyone rather annoying. It's just that, when you like a band and you go to see then in concert, why would you show them your appreciation by throwing things at them? Things were flying at the guys left and right. It just made me really mad. I think they concert was shorter than others (21 songs-aren't there usually around 24?) partially because the crew had to go on stage between sets and clean up junk for, like, 4 minutes. Come on, people, what does Hanson want your glow-stick for? With all the people jumping on stage and stuff at recent concerts, I always promised myself that if I saw people being rude to Hanson at a concert I would say something. So when these girls threw a glow-stick on stage and it missed Tay's head by a few inches (he didn't even see it coming at all) I yelled, "What the hell do you think you doing?!!" I suppose I could have handled it in a more mature way but I was really mad and that's the first thing that came out.

And then, during the acoustic set, someone threw a stuffed monkey right at Zac's drums. People, he doesn't want stuffed monkeys. You know what they probably do with the stuffed animals whipped right at their faces and instruments at concerts? They probably never see then again. Just have some respect for Hanson, please.

OK, I'll stop lecturing now! The concert was so great, though, and it just reminded me once again why I love Hanson so much. One thing I realized during the show is what a GREAT musician Ike is! I always knew he was awesome but he really wowed me! He can really play the guitar!

And, in case people want to know about clothes, I really don't remember what they were wearing too well. I was in the second row of the LODGE so I couldn't see details but Zac was wearing a yellow-ish shirt with something on it and Tay was wearing a blue tank top with jeans. And Ike was wearing a light greenish shirt with some design on it. Yeah, I'm really not too good when it comes to remembering their clothes. LOL.

But the concert was SO good (did I mention that yet?) and I can't wait to see them a week from today in Milwaukee! Look for another reveiw coming from me!

P.S.
Even though some of the fans were disrespectful, it was still a great crowd. I went to an *NSYNC concert on August 1, 2000 in Joliet, IL and the place held about 64,000 people. I'm not sure how many people the Chicago Theatre holds but it couldn't have been more than 3,000. But when I left the Hanson concert, I couldn't hear a thing because the crowd was so loud and after the *NSYNC concert I could hear fine. And that's a big difference in numbers!

This page is in no way associated with Hanson or Island Records. All thoughts and writings are the sole property of me. Please email me with any comments or questions. Thank You.