People have a misunderstanding of Hanson. Sure, the three brothers best known for their pop super-smash “Mmm Bop” are prettier than ever, and a result the overwhelming majority of their fans are female, but their music is surprisingly gender-universal. At the heart of what on the outside appears to just be a handful of handsome siblings lies real talent—seamless harmonies, real chemistry on stage, and actual songwriting talent.
That said, when I took my wife to one of the back-to-back Hanson shows at Chicago’s House of Blues last weekend, the patrons were overwhelmingly female. I can’t remember the last concert I attended where I could be five or six rows back and have an absolutely clear eye-line to the performers. At just under six-feet tall, I had to have been one of the three or four tallest people in the room—an advantage I wouldn’t mind having at future concerts, too.
The H.O.B. had lines down the street long before the scheduled 6:00 opening of the doors, but we found out later that The Brothers had led a charge of 500 fans all over the city of Chicago earlier that afternoon, conveniently ending up at the front doors of the venue. Also, that explained why the band’s rep told us their schedule was too full for an interview. But that didn’t stop myself and my wife—a long, looooong-time fan of Hanson—from hitting up the show, anyway. From the moment we stepped out of the car, we were having a wonderful time.
Well, my wife was having a wonderful time. We caught Taylor and Isaac Hanson in the lobby as they ended their tour through the city and bolted through to the dressing rooms. I was able to stop both of them and introduce my wife, which obviously made her ecstatic and maybe even a little drooly. For the majority of her adolescence, she legitimately thought that she’d be marrying Taylor. To shake his hand was a pubescent dream come true—one that left her almost speechless.
From there, the building opens up straight ahead into a pretty solid little restaurant (the red beans and rice were delicious, by the way), flanked on either side by staircases leading up to the concert floor. The place looks like a dark combination of blues Americana and demented circus, which in my experience has proven to be a rock-solid vibe for all sorts of genres of music. I’ve seen concerts there ranging from Talib Kweli to Marc Broussard to… well, Hanson, and every single time the hall seems to mold into what that particular fan base needs.
In this case what it needed was room for a whole lot of female hormone, which actually proved more annoying than gigantic tattooed frat animals moshing through a rock concert. To my left was a high-school-age girl in an orange dress dancing as though possessed by a demon, and her first pumps to the beat of the song hit me (and a couple of her other neighbors) in the face on more than one occasion. Behind me was a larger woman closer to my own age thundering her bountiful bosom against my shoulder blades. It wasn’t pleasant.
But once Wifey and I found a spot in a throng of reasonably fanatic Hanson fans, the show proved the be extremely enjoyable. The House of Blues rarely fails to deliver, and the Hanson brothers actually put on a really solid show. I say that as a man. “Shout It Out,” the group’s newest record has more than a couple memorable tracks, and having seen several of them live I’m sure they’ll now be even more memorable.
The only question now is whether or not they’ll forgo their soiree with 500 lady friends the next time they’re in Chi City and sit down for a chat. We obviously love the guys to brave all that estrogen. I think we deserve it, don’t you, Hanson?
When most of you hear the name Hanson the first thing you think of is three skinny white kids with long hair happily humming along the ramblings of a song we’ve all come to (secretly) love. Many of you may remember their 2004 release Underneath with the hit song “Penny & Me” which was plastered all over MTV for what seemed like years. I, admittedly, thought the song was catchy and since then have gained a new-found respect for the brothers. Not because I never saw them as musicians. It was just hard to imagine the same guys that created the “Mmmbop” craze becoming serious musicians.
After stumbling across their latest release Shout It Out, I’ve come to realize that these guys actually have a style closer to the Gabe Dixon Band or Matt Wertz than the bubble gum pop that got them started. Their latest release is extremely catchy and includes more mature musical instrumentation (which it appears has continually emerged over time.) Make sure to check out “Waiting For This” and “Making It Out Alive” for some of that catchy pop I talked about a sentence ago.
If you’re looking to check Hanson out this summer, they are hitting up the tour scene hard in the U.S. right now. We plan on catching them at the House of Blues in Chicago in August and plan on reminiscing on “Mmmbop” for the rest of our lives. What can I say, it brings back memories.
Check out the video for their new single “Thinkin’ Bout’ Somethin’”:
Oh, and also “Mmmbop” for old time’s sake:
Buy the album:
