Hanson draws nostalgic crowd at Stamford’s Alive@Five

By | July 15, 2016

Stamford Advocate

(Photo Gallery at the source)

STAMFORD — Hanson, the “MMMBop” pop stars of the ’90s, drew a large crowd of nostalgic millennials at Thursday’s Alive@Five concert.

“All of my tweenage dreams are coming true,” said Shannon English, a 31-year-old Redding resident who was a diehard Hanson growing up.

English attended the concert with her childhood best friend Megan Hubertus, a 32-year-old Danbury resident.

“We used to print off Hanson lyrics — that was like right when the Internet became a thing — and we would memorize all of the songs,” Hubertus said.

English even had a Hanson-themed cake for her 12th birthday.

“We’re both seeing them for the first time tonight, so we’re really excited,” she said.

It was the ultimate throwback Thursday event, as the boy band played indie-pop singles from its 1997 debut studio album, “Middle of Nowhere.”

The three-time, Grammy-nominated Hanson brothers also played newer songs and covers, opening the show with Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher.”

A group of professional dancers from Toronto lined up early to get spots in the front row. Diehard Hanson fans, the group has seen more than 100 Hanson concerts among the four of them.

“We just won a video dancing contest for their song ‘In The City’ in May, so we brought signs to let them know who we are,” said Kate Wiltshire, who has seen Hanson more than 60 times

Hanson received some national attention last week when it performed an impressive acoustic version of “MMMBop” on ABC’s Greatest Hits broadcast.

The band, formed in Oklahoma in 1992, features brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac. When they first formed the band, the youngest brother, Zac, was only 6 years old.

Once the babies of the music industry, the Hanson brothers are all grown up now with young children of their own. Taylor, now 33, has five children. Zac, 35, and Isaac, 30, each have three children.

The Hanson brothers are also the masterminds behind the cleverly named MmmHops American Pale Ale.

MmmHops isn’t distributed on the East Coast, but it can be found at a number of retailers in the Hanson brothers’ home state of Oklahoma and at select locations in Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri.

The Alive@Five concert series is operated by the city’s Downtown Special Services District and runs until Aug. 11. For the first time this year, the event is restricted to adults 21 and older.

The headliner next week is Third Eye Blind, a California rock band known best for its hits “Semi-Charmed Life” and “Jumper.”

Tickets for all Alive@Five concerts are $15, with a $5 discount for those who arrive before 6 p.m.

Staff writer Nelson Oliveria contributed to this report

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