:: string theory :: sydney opera house :: march 5 2019 ::

For some reason I woke up the morning of the second Sydney show two hours earlier than I normally would have. Bit stupid of me really, considering Mum and I were going out shopping at Pitt Street Mall for most of the day and the show that night wasn’t until 9:30pm. At some point that morning I found out that Hanson would be performing on Today, which worked in our favour somewhat – most of the shops at Pitt Street Mall didn’t open until 9:30am, so there was really no point in heading out early. We got ready to go out while we waited for their performance of No Rest For The Weary, which I filmed on my phone to rewatch later. It was the first time during an Australian tour, from what I can remember, that they hadn’t performed MMMBop live on TV, so that was a very nice surprise. As soon as their performance was finished we headed off for our day out at the shops. Picked up new sandals to wear to the show that night, along with a slightly bigger handbag to hold all the things I would need that evening and more jewellery to wear to the show. I’d also hoped to find a dress to wear, but no such luck – I ended up going with my planned outfit. We got back to the hotel just before 3:30 and spent the next couple of hours charging phones and getting ready for the show. I also played the studio version of Siren Call for Mum (the one from the 2016 members’ EP), as that had been her favourite song from the night before.

We got to Circular Quay just before six. After dinner from a fish & chip takeaway and dessert from the Baskin Robbins shop just down from the train station, we headed up to the Opera House. Instead of sitting outside to wait for the doors to open, we went straight inside and hung around in the lounge area until they started letting people go upstairs to the foyer. As soon as the foyer was open I got my ticket scanned and headed straight for the merch table. This time my luck was much better – I not only got a hoodie in the right size, but I also got a tour shirt.

I’d found out before the tour arrived in Sydney that the Australian tour shirt had a little Aussie flag on the left sleeve. A tour shirt is always on my list of merch to buy at Hanson’s shows, but this tour I wanted one more than anything purely because of the flag on it. As far as I’m aware Australia was the only country on the entire String Theory tour to get a flag on the tour shirts, so that was a lovely surprise. With my last bits of merch bought, Mum and I headed around to where the door for our row was to wait for them to start letting us in.

For the second show, I’d managed to get us seats in row K – the first show was auto-allocated, but I was able to pick my own seats when I bought the second lot of tickets. Our seats were eleven rows from the stage, almost directly in front of Zac’s kit.

During the interval, a friend of mine told me via our group chat that the guys’ parents were at the show that night, and shared a photo of their dad that someone had taken a few minutes earlier. I spotted him talking to a small group of fans near the end of my row, but I didn’t go up to say hi – I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, plus having social anxiety disorder makes me extremely anxious about approaching people I don’t know. But that was pretty awesome nonetheless. As it turned out they were sitting a few rows ahead of Mum and I, in the same part of the auditorium as us, which was also awesome.

By necessity that show’s set list was identical to the one from the night before, with one small surprise right at the end – a cover of Too Much Heaven by the Bee Gees as an encore. It was completely a cappella without a microphone in sight – just the three of them and their voices in flawless harmony. And thankfully, everyone in the audience stayed quiet until the very end. You could have heard a pin drop the entire time. It was probably the best part of both shows. For them to do an encore this tour was rare, so I feel incredibly privileged to have witnessed it.

The next morning Mum and I packed up our things to head back home – her to Queensland, and me back down the coast to Wollongong. I gave her the hoodie I’d bought on Monday night before we left the hotel, and we parted ways at Central station so we could catch our respective trains.

Before String Theory Hanson hadn’t been my favourite band for many, many years, for reasons I can’t quite explain. But after my two shows this tour, and especially after the encore at the second show? They’re back at the top of my list again. Thanks to them, I ticked two items off my bucket list this tour – going to a show at the Sydney Opera House, and seeing Hanson play there. It’s an experience I’m never going to forget.

As with the photos for the March 4 show, there’s just too many from the second show to post here. I’ve uploaded those photos to my Google Photos account and posted them to a gallery here. I also took video during You Can’t Stop Us and posted it to Instagram.