Untitled Document

:: anthem world tour :: enmore theatre :: august 8 2014 ::

This was written up from notes I took between August 7 and 9, and originally posted in my LiveJournal on August 9 2014. I have left this entry unlocked and enabled anonymous commenting, so please feel free to leave your thoughts.

HOLY FUCK.

Last night’s Hanson concert has to be the best show I’ve been to for any band. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at a concert, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Friday night.

The fun started before last night, though – it started Thursday afternoon. I went to my hotel straight from uni – walked all the way down Broadway from the UTS Tower to Pitt Street and met up with my friend Donna at the Hotel Ibis World Square. We went to the Hi-Fi together last tour and decided to split a hotel room for a couple of nights this tour. Soon as I got to my room I had a quick shower (because let’s face it, it’s a fair hike from UTS to Pitt Street and the hoodie I was wearing turns into a sauna if it’s warm enough) before doing my nails for the next evening. We had dinner from room service and because I was heading out to Channel 9 in the morning I turned in early – it was 9:30pm when we turned the lights out.

Friday morning I woke up at 5:00am, got dressed and headed out to Town Hall station via the 7-Eleven on Bathurst Street, and caught a train out to Artarmon. The Channel 9 studios are in Willoughby so I had to walk there – took me a good twenty minutes. There was already a small contingent of fans there when I rocked up – a few of my friends and fellow Street Teamers included. In the end there were around fifteen of us who turned up in the hopes of being allowed in the studio for either Today or Mornings. At first we were told we wouldn’t be allowed inside because it’s a closed set, but at around ten to 10am a couple of people from one of the shows’ social media teams came out and took a photo of all of us – twenty minutes later one of the security guys said we could go inside after all, provided we put our phones on silent and didn’t use the flash on our cameras. We waited for a good half hour after that before we were told that they’d done a risk assessment (whatever the fuck that is) and decided we weren’t allowed to come in after all. Cue fifteen very disappointed Hanson fans, and fuck Channel 9 for getting everyones’ hopes up. Still, it wasn’t a total waste of time – Hanson left Channel 9 at around 11am, and they stopped their van in the driveway so that Taylor could roll his window down and say hi to us all, and shake our hands. He asked if we were going to the Enmore show, which all of us were (stupid question really), after which they left to head back into Sydney. Those of us who had been waiting dispersed, and I began the mostly-uphill trek back into Artarmon so I could catch my train back into the city.

Back at my hotel, I put my phone on to charge so that I had three full batteries for that night and hopped in the shower (again, because of my hoodie turning into a sauna), changed into my concert outfit and did my nails again because the polish had started chipping. I’d originally planned to paint gold lightning bolts on my nails, but I couldn’t find a thin enough brush so I just put a clear top coat on to keep my nails from chipping again. Donna and I headed over to World Square after that and ducked into Coles to try and get some glowsticks for that night (the Street Team had something planned, which I’ll get to in a little bit) and also to grab something for lunch. No luck with the glowsticks, but I got a very nice sausage roll from Pie Face so that made me happy. Went back to the hotel and I hopped on Facebook for a little while before packing my handbag with everything I needed for that night. We left for the Enmore at around twenty to/quarter to 5pm, got there just after 5pm (as Donna had a M&G pass and needed to be there an hour and a half before doors), I checked in on Foursquare, and we met up with our friends Desiree and Angela. At about 5:30pm Donna left to go to the M&G, and I went out to dinner with Desiree and her friends Jen and Kat. Had Thai for dinner (a very hot massaman curry that I couldn’t finish), and headed back to the Enmore at about a quarter to seven. Got to meet my friend Zoe in the lineup as well – we’ve been friends for ages on Twitter and Facebook, but we’d never met before last night. Doors opened at seven, and the first thing I did as soon as I’d had my ticket scanned was buy my merchandise – I got an Anthem World Tour shirt with the Australian and New Zealand tour dates on the back, a hoodie, and a copy of the Anthem Live In New York DVD. Cost me $135 all up but it was worth it.

Hanson’s opener for the tour, Adam Martin, came onstage bang on eight o’clock. I was expecting him to be absolute shit, because he was on The Voice a few years ago and I have an automatic and intense disdain for anyone who goes on The Voice or The X-Factor. But he actually wasn’t that bad. Definitely won me over with his cover of Oasis’ Wonderwall – it’s one of my two favourite Oasis songs (the other one being Champagne Supernova), and I would have been very upset if he’d muffed it. People kept trickling into the auditorium during his set (which I probably would have done myself if I’d gone on my own) – there were a LOT of guys in the audience last night, more than I expected, and even though it was all-ages I only saw one kid. Adam finished his set at 8:30pm, and there was a half-hour intermission while the stagehands got the stage set up for Hanson’s set.

Hanson hit the stage nearly ten minutes late (running on Hanson Standard Time as per usual), but more than made up for it with what may well be the longest set list for any Hanson concert I’ve ever attended.

1. Fired Up

2. I’ve Got Soul

3. Where’s The Love

4. Scream And Be Free

5. Thinking Of You

6. You Can’t Stop Us

Acoustic set:

7. On And On

8. Weird

9. Too Much Heaven (Bee Gees cover) – a capella

10. Hand In Hand (Isaac solo)

11. Get So Low (Zac solo)

12. A Song To Sing (Taylor solo)

13. Juliet

14. You Never Know

15. Tragic Symphony

16. Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin’

17. Waiting For This

18. A Minute Without You

19. Penny And Me

20. Give A Little

21. MMMBop

22. Get The Girl Back

23. Something Going ‘Round

Encore:

24. This Time Around

25. In The City

I mentioned that the Australian Street Team had something planned for during the show that involved glowsticks – basically, during the NSW branch meetup in May we discussed the possibility of bringing glowsticks to the show and clapping them together during one of the songs. We decided to do it during Get The Girl Back, to be specific during the bridge. We all kept it under our hats for weeks and last night we pulled it off perfectly. It looked amazing from where I was sitting. During MMMBop Taylor knocked his mic stand over, which cracked me up – though to be honest it had nothing on his mic stand continually swinging down toward the stage during the 2005 Enmore show. Still pretty funny though.

My highlights? Finally getting to hear Weird and Thinking Of You live. Before last night I’d never heard either song performed live (and no, 5 of 5 doesn’t count). Waited 17 years and it was worth every second. Not only that, but Taylor made the same promise he did during the last Australian tour – and I quote, “If you come back, we’ll come back.”

I have another concert next Friday night, in Fremantle – not only is there a MOE before the show, but it’s one of the shows with a fan-voted setlist. So that’ll be exciting. I’m hoping to hear Cried and Yearbook at that show. *crosses fingers* Spending the entire weekend in Perth because I’ve never been and let’s face it, there’s no point going home after two days when I have an entire city to explore. ;)

I took almost three hundred photos prior to and during the show, but the balcony was rattling so much that less than a hundred are in any way usable. :/ Cameras used are my phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) with Instagram, and my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1 compact.

Taken on arrival at Channel 9.

The group of fans that turned up at Channel 9 in the hopes of being allowed into the Today or Mornings studios.

My glowsticks for the show – bendy ones for making bracelets, and two to use as part of the surprise the Australian Street Team had planned for during Get The Girl Back.