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The Members Only Show: "a really bad night" for Hanson?


Members Only Show


The Members Only Show set is probably the BTTI ‘theme’ that gets the most votes every year because, well, when else do you get to hear those songs? For 2019, the Members Only set would fall on the final show - a momentous but inevitably bittersweet culmination of the event. I had high expectations: I’d loved the String Theory show and earlier in the day, I’d seen Taylor perform the best solo set I’d seen in five years. 

Technical problems crept up two songs into the set. On my phone pad, where I keep a note of the setlist, I’d jotted down ‘sound!!!’ next to “Best of Times”. Shame, because the Isaac lead from the 2013 Sound of Light EP has become a kind of unofficial BTTI anthem and it’s one of those special ‘island moments’ that I always look forward to. Four songs later, the guys came to the front of the stage for “On and On”, one of the most visually striking songs in Hanson’s repertoire, providing a rare opportunity to see the three brothers play guitar together. Only, this time the only Hanson with a guitar was Zac, as Taylor and Isaac waited, to no avail, for someone to bring them their instruments.

Dude, where's my guitar?

Zac started to play and for a few awkward seconds we were reminded that Taylor doesn’t know what to do with himself when he’s not playing an instrument or bouncing around the stage, whacking his thigh with a tambourine. After performing some comedy air guitar, Taylor finally went to fetch a shaker. That solution didn’t keep Taylor happy for very long: he unceremoniously handed over the shaker to Isaac before heading over to the sound tent. The whole situation was frankly bizarre: I don’t know why nobody had brought Isaac and Taylor their guitars - it could be that they were still being tuned, or maybe their tech forgot, although that seems really unlikely as even the Melia’s stray cats would have known that during “On and On” three guitars would be needed - and I’m pretty sure their sound tech could actually stand in for the band by now.

Taylor is very unimpressed

There was one glitch after another, and at one point - I can’t remember exactly when -  Taylor’s keyboard was taken away and replaced with a different one. The show then took a turn for the seriously wrong with “Stop Me in My Tracks” - my notes say ‘forgot most of the lyrics’. Hanson forgetting lyrics is nothing new, but this time it felt different because the guys weren’t making a joke of it. And then, during “Dance Like You Don’t Care”  - another BTTI staple - the whole thing fell apart: Taylor, seemingly unable to recall more than a few lines of the lyrics, looked panic-stricken, and at one point, as he opened his mouth to sing, no sound was coming out. To me, Taylor looked as if his mind had gone completely blank. 

Of the three brothers, Taylor is undeniably the perfectionist and a consummate professional who rarely makes mistakes on stage - if anything, he’s the one who shoots his brothers dirty looks when they mess up - with Isaac usually, and more than justifiably, at the receiving end. Seeing Taylor Hanson freeze onstage is something I was not prepared for, and it almost felt wrong as I watched in utter disbelief as the usually unflappable Hanson brother tried, and failed, to get it together. At one point, a couple of us exchanged worried looks; someone said ‘maybe he’s sick?’. Whatever the reasons for the meltdown, I felt really sorry for Taylor in that moment, and I wished I could have told him that everything was going to be okay - that he was playing to his fans, and that we would always have his back. But my telepathic communication skills are somewhat underdeveloped and, when, a couple of songs later, Taylor sat at the drums for “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, he looked utterly dejected.

Hanson still managed to partly rescue the set towards the end, with some classics from their repertoire - “Thinkin’ Bout Something”, “Give a Little” and “If Only” - songs that, by now, the band could probably perform in their sleep. It was a good save, undone, however, by a frankly terrible performance of the ultimate BTTI final set song, the eponymous “Back to the Island” which Hanson and their musical guests usually sing together. Lewis Watson was on the congas, while Jacob Tovar mysteriously refused to join the band on stage; then the song started and as usual, Isaac forgot some of the lyrics. But Isaac forgetting that song’s lyrics is almost expected: there was something else, but as I’m not a musician, all I can say is that, to me, it sounded really, really ‘off’.

At least it's over!
When it was over, the guys disappeared inside the sound tent and I thought, is that how BTTI 2019 ends? But soon a tech was taping lyrics sheets onto the stage floor, and then the band came out again for a Zac-led cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”. I am not exaggerating when I say that Zac saved the day - or the night - with that performance. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that, in many ways, Zac was the real star of BTTI 2019 but I will save that for my final post. Then, still probably trying to make up for a less-than-perfect show, Hanson treated us to a flawless rendition of “Wish That I Was There”. Hanson harmonies are like unicorn dust, and for a couple of minutes, I was under the spell again, endorphins flooding every available space between my nerve cells. “Ahhhh” - I thought, “That’s what it’s supposed to be like. Here’s my credit card, and as you’re there, have one of my kidneys too, oh- and my soul.”

When Zac said 'this is my rockstar pose!'

Sadly, the rush from that particular Hanson-hit was short-lived, and as the band took their final bow and left the stage for the last time on the island that year, I stood there and wondered, “what the hell did just happen tonight?”

The last bow

And yet, despite the daisychain of errors that had plagued the show, I’d still enjoyed the Members Set, at least in part. The setlist had a good mix of songs from Members Kits and recent EPs and when things were going right, the guys were full of energy. When I was filling the BTTI 2019 feedback form last week, I ranked that almost-disastrous final show higher than the technically successful but somewhat underwhelming Rock All Night set.

Everybody can have a bad night, including Hanson, and the Members Only concert at this year’s BTTI was clearly a case of ‘a really bad night’. There might have been other factors at play; during his solo set, Taylor had openly admitted to being tired, something that an early start for the excursion to Dunn’s River would not have helped. In addition to that, BTTI was taking place on the back of a busy year for Hanson, who were flying to Europe a week after the event for the next leg of the String Theory tour.

So it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to figure out that maybe Hanson let standards slip a bit this year, possibly through the false sense of security afforded by the success of an event that was now in its seventh year - a magnified case of ‘it’ll be alright on the night’. But one only had to see the look on Taylor’s face to know that he knew that it wasn’t alright: and so, perhaps, that disappointing show was a much-needed wake-up call for Hanson, the motivation they need to raise their game for BTTI 2020, to refresh the setlists and above all, to remember that a lot of things can go wrong even in tropical paradise.



Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing such a detailed and honest recap of this set. I feel like I've witnessed a number of sloppy performances and rocky moments in recent years (the epic Roller Coaster Love meltdown of HDay 2015; technical/tuning problems at the RnR tour show they streamed via Yahoo! that same year; I Was Born crashing and burning a little bit at Hop Jam 2017; and last year's BTTI Members' Only set, where I noticed lots of errors and visible frustration on the part of the band but it didn't seem like any other fans shared that observation). Honestly, this is one of the reasons I'm taking a break from fan club stuff.

    There's an understanding at BTTI/HDay that because it's all devoted fans, the guys can loosen up; improvise silly songs onstage, banter off the cuff between songs, experiment with the set list, etc. But I think they might have taken that "casual" vibe a little too far by not rehearsing properly for these gigs, especially recently. It's insulting to me as a (huge!) fan that the band doesn't respect the audience enough to put in the preparation to play a tight set. At an event I'm spending a lot of money on, where I'm specifically expecting to hear rare/special songs, it's disappointing when those songs are done poorly--not to mention highly unprofessional.

    I love when the guys pull out deep cuts/surprise us with set lists, but it definitely takes away from the magic if they play a bunch of bad chords or can't remember the words. Maybe they need to rethink some priorities in order to schedule more rehearsal time (although interestingly, I don't remember seeing D or Andrew screwing up, like ever).

    And last thing: I wonder if maybe "Don't Stop Believin'" was a last-minute addition to try and salvage the night and end BTTI on a high note. That would explain Zac needing the lyrics taped down.

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  2. First of all, thank you for taking the time to comment. Every blogger loves a comment... comments are gold! And yours are platinum ) ;)

    I agree with you really. You know my reasons for going to BTTI (other than for Hanson) but yeah, they do need to pull their socks up. I think the last couple of years have shown signs of standards slipping, but simultaneously, things seem to have gone crazy in terms of new fans wanting to go. But if you ask people who have been going for years, a lot of us have noticed the decline. People might not say it openly but we all talk in private. A lot of 'us' keep going for reasons other than Hanson - because we want to see our friends, it's a vacation and everything else. But that doesn't mean that we are not aware of things.

    I totally assumed that 'Don't Stop Believing' was a last minute thing. Kasey said that there were two other songs in the setlist that had been skipped - one was "Sophia" and I can't remember what the other was but another EP song. So I think they had to quickly switch things around to rescue the situation. Zac saved the day - he saved the whole event, IMHO.... #TeamZac ?

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