If you’re new to Hanson, don’t listen to “MMMBop” first, two fans said as they and hundreds others gathered outside Cain’s Ballroom Sunday to celebrate the trio’s 20th anniversary.
“I love ‘Cried,’ I love ‘Two Tears,’ I love ‘Give A Little,'” said Jill Tschetter, 24, of Chicago, considering where to begin. These are among her favorites.
But they’re not looking for a list, said her cousin Charlotte Cloyd, 28. Just one song.
“I’m going to have to go with ‘Give A Little,’ Cloyd finally said. “Because I like to rock out some time.”
“No, no – ‘On the Rocks,’ ” said Tschetter, after silently whittling down her list.
“Aw! I love ‘On The Rocks,'” Tschetter said with a smile. “Definitely.”
The cousins, like many in town this weekend to celebrate the Motown-inspired group, had come a distance to see the band because it’s been one with which they’ve grown up and one with whom they could relate.
Before the band’s members-only concert, die-hard fans gathered outside Cain’s Ballroom Sunday afternoon at a Hanson.net Block Party, which featured local food vendors and mini shops as well as a Hanson merchandise booth.
There, Beth Landgraf, 27, and Morgen Culler, 18, both dressed in vintage fashion from head to toe, stood with a gaggle of young women snapping pictures in front of a tall piece of art thought to be created by one of the Hanson brothers.
Culler said she first heard the group when she was 3 years old. MTV’s TRL was still on then – it was where she had seen the group perform – and she’s been a fan ever since.
The concert put Culler at her 21st or so Hanson performance – events at which she’s made many new friends, all from different places, who’ve stayed in touch via social media and telephone and share a passion for the band made up of three brothers rooted in Tulsa. And it was at a Hanson concert where Culler met her future sister. The family of a friend whom she had met at a concert three years ago adopted her, she said. Culler, originally from St. Louis, now lives in Tulsa.
“We met because of Hanson, and I know that’s how it was meant to be,” she said.
It’s the type of thing any of the women in this group – in their late teens and 20-somethings – would do for one another, said Michelle Gaeta, 24, of Los Angeles. What has drawn them all together to celebrate and enjoy the band’s work is what Gaeta calls “feel-good music.”
“Whenever I’m having a bad day, Hanson is the answer,” Gaeta said.
Isaac, Zac and Taylor Hanson are the type of guys that would go out of their way for a fan or to help someone in need, the women said.
Cloyd said the Hansons’ humanitarian work is among the reasons she loves the band. She remembers when Isaac and Taylor took a few moments at a concert to talk about their trip to Africa and the devastation HIV/AIDS has wreaked, not only on adults but children as well. The band made Cloyd and her peers think about a world outside of themselves.
“And I think that that’s important, and something worth following,” Cloyd said. “I feel like supporting them is worth it. (Hanson) is something good to follow.”