November 22, 2010

Make it Out Alive (a Hare raising event)

As soon as I heard that Hanson was going to have a member event in October, I secretly wished it would be on Halloween and I could somehow go to it. As soon as I found out it was true, I started plotting. When I realized tour started the next day, things got dangerous.

Long story short--my desire to go to this one show somehow spawned into me hitting 9 shows and being on the road for over 2 weeks. I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm glad it did.

For this show, I ended up going with 6 other awesome girls, and we came up with what I still hold as the best group costume idea ever. And okay, so nobody else seems to get it, but I still think it's genius. Are you ready for this? 80s Hare Band. Basically we were an 80s Hair Band, only we substituted "Hare" for "Hair" and added bunny ears and tails to the ridiculous 80s attire. If you want to add another complicated layer, you might call us a "hare band air band" because we also carried inflatable instruments, but we left that part off of the contest card. We'd like to think that we didn't win (or even rank, sadly enough) based on the fact that 1) whoever did the judging didn't get the genius idea, or 2) nobody wanted to shell out 7 prizes if we won. The truth is it probably just wasn't as awesome as we all thought, but like I said, I still think it was an amazing idea.

Anyway, it was a blast. How often do you get to scout out ridiculous clothes at thrift stores and glue glitter and sequins to anything they'll stick to? Maybe once a year for Halloween enthusiasts, but my Halloween experience as an adult started and ended with my tiny Alice in Wonderland costume from freshman year of college. Lesson learned. This was a lot like prom--most of the fun was in buying and wearing the dress. There's just some kind of inner joy that only a girl can comprehend in walking into a thrift store, finding the perfect pair of $1.50 80s heels, and then bedazzling the heck out of them with multi-colored glitter. Try it some time.

We didn't line up until 6, but of course there were already a bunch of people in line. We got a big kick out of the poor tour manager soldering locks off of the trailer hitched to the tour bus. I'll never know what went wrong, but it was entertaining to watch. The costumes were really interesting, and I was impressed that I didn't see a single person in line not wearing a costume. I was also impressed with the obvious lack of 1) slutty outfits, and 2) people dressed as Hanson. I guess I should have a little more faith.

As we walked in the venue, I stepped on a knife, and it just didn't quite register in my mind that it was fake at first. I stopped and had a bit of a "Did I just step on a knife?" moment, and then a random guy carrying a box of merch inside stooped down, picked it up, handed it to me, and said "Here, this is for you!" then walked away smiling. So of course I did what any 80s clad girl with bunny ears would do; I gave him a WTF look, tucked the knife into the waistband of my skirt, and kept walking to scout out a good spot. The whole thing was weird and I'm still not sure what exactly happened or why. What I do know is there's a rubber knife somewhere in the trunk of my car and some person out there without one.

We ended up with a good spot on Taylor's side, technically front row just behind a speaker. It ended up being the best spot possible for us. Earlier I debated whether to take an inflatable keyboard or an inflatable guitar. The piano player in me wanted to take the keyboard, but the practical part of me (is there such a thing anymore?) knew it would be easier to fake rock out on a guitar than on a keyboard in the middle of the crowd. The pianist in me won out, so I took the keyboard and hoped for the best. With the speaker directly in front of us, we were able to stack the keyboards on top of it and create our own mock piano right in front of the real one. We were ridiculous rocking out on the keyboards and guitars the whole show, and one of us even had an inflatable microphone to sing into. The show wouldn't have been nearly as good without the amazing girls I was with.

Of course Hanson was awesome too. They managed to play both songs that have been at the top of my "must hear live" list for the past three years: Dancing in the Wind and In the City. It was also really neat getting to hear the Ghostbusters theme song, and I had never heard Hand in Hand either, so overall the setlist was pretty killer. We were slightly disappointed that they didn't play Evening at the Big Top, but I decided that they probably didn't even remember that it existed, and I'd rather hear Ghostbusters anyway. Their costumes were cute and clever with Zac as the 3 musketeers candy bar, and the expected sword jokes just kept coming.

It was a blast, we took awesome pictures, we rocked out on inflatable instruments, we ate great mexican food and pizza, and we left the crown plaza (and the back seat of my car) with about a pound of glitter.

2 comments:

Carebear said...

the Inflatable Keyboards are a total stitch == so glad Taylor signed them for you. Ive always wanted him to sign my tambourine , but its always too bulky to carry around all day and night at the concert .
Carrie

Holly said...

That would be a neat thing to have signed, Carrie! And yeah thankfully the keyboards were easy to deflate and fold up small, but I think we just left them in the car and went back for them anyway.