Now, you're right - New Year's Eve is 2013...and I said that it was the first concert of 2014. For that, you have to blame the band, and my friend, Kate. Kate pointed out to me that because they accidentally played through midnight, it has to count as both the final concert I attended in 2013 (number 15...), and also the first concert of 2014...so there you have it.
When I heard that Hanson was going to be playing a concert in my town, on New Year's Eve no less, I couldn't believe my ears. I was immediately excited....but then I realized that I had to find friends who would be willing to go with me.
After convincing my husband to come along, as well as finding that 2 other friends who, I was shocked to find out, really wanted to go, a plan was set. We were going to spend a lovely New Year's Eve night, reliving our teen years, and just having a great time.
But of course, there has to be a problem. That problem, in this case, came in the form of geography. I live in Syracuse, NY - and this was to be an outdoor concert. In past years we've had all various forms of weather on New Year's Eve. This year, was sure to be one for the books, however. The weather forecast was somewhere around the 15 degree mark...with a windchill of about 5. Yes, 5. But we were going to brave the cold anyway...we're Syracusans afterall - a little cold can't hurt us.
We packed up the hand warmers...and foot warmers...and coats, and scarves, and long underwear and prepared for a cold, but fun, night.
After a great set by local openers, Rock Bottom Allstars, Hanson took the stage around 10:30pm despite the cold. Isaac was going through nearly 3 guitar tunings a song because of the temperatures which were causing the instrument to have difficulty remaining tuned. The crew, however, made the transitions seamless for him and the crowd was treated to uninterrupted music. Taylor was a master at keeping the crowd going - which was also keeping us warmer - with lots of fast paced songs. Zac, because of the physicality required by drumming, actually took off his coat and was down to long underwear and a long sleeve tee. Taylor joked that we all got to see Zac in his underwear as he pointed out the long underwear.
The show was fantastic. In fingerless gloves, coats, and scarves, the boys were all still able to put on a very entertaining show, When Taylor asked us all to jump along to a song toward the end, however, I didn't trust the feeling in my feet enough to actually jump. It was definitely going to take a while to warm up after the show. At about quarter til midnight, they finished up, and then returned for an encore of a couple of songs. They, and we, were so into it that we missed midnight. At about 12:01 the local DJ's who were emcee-ing the concert came out to do a "countdown" which arbitrarily started at 15....but in the end it was an amazing night with my husband and my good friends. Oh, and Hanson. Hanson was there too - and they were AWESOME!
Didn't hurt that we were super close too:
Next for 2014: Switchfoot and Blue October in a couple of weeks :)
