nothing could be worse than numb

My friends and I got in to Tulsa early on Friday morning, and after checking into our hotel just long enough to dump our bags and freshen up a little, we headed down to 3CG to check in. This was the first of several loooooooooong waits. I'm honestly not entirely sure what was going on with check ins, but whatever it was needs some serious retooling for the future. It took us close to 2 hours to get our wristbands, EPs and movie tickets, and the line wasn't even all that long. It moved painfully slowly. It wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't all stood in direct sunlight the entire time.

Anyway, we passed the time chatting and trying to stay cool, and even though it wasn't exactly the most fun way to start MOE weekend, we were too happy to have the opportunity to be in Tulsa and be with each other again to let it get to us.

After check in we got in line for pictures with the guys at Cain's. It was about 2:20pm at that point, I think, and just as we got to the front of the line, they apparently decided to take a break. I'm not sure what happened, if it was just an unplanned break or if there was drama (I heard there was, and it wouldn't surprise me, but whatever). So we spent another hour standing in the sun, waiting. Again, not the most fun way to spend our afternoon, but once they opened the doors again and we went in to shake hands with the guys and get our picture, we didn't really care anymore.

They were all extremely cheerful and welcoming, and they thanked us for coming, and I ended up stood next to Ike for the picture (I've had 3 group pictures with them over the last 6 years, and I ALWAYS end up next to Ike. lol). My friend got to stand with Taylor, and she's a Tay girl, so that was exciting. And he was freaking gorgeous. I can never get over the way he really looks you right in the eyes when he's talking to you, even when he's just saying hi. It makes you feel like you have 100% of his attention.

The line for the lectures had already started long before we got to Cain's for pictures, but we had no interest in sitting in the sun for another hour, so we went to a little (air conditioned!) coffee shop a couple of blocks away and got some much needed cold water and cookies, and sat down for a while. We got back to Cain's just before doors opened, and when we got inside we found great seats. They weren't anywhere near the front. but we could see everything so it didn't matter.

But then more waiting ensued. :p

Ike was up first and his lecture was about the making of Underneath, and he told us some stories about the process that they hadn't shared before, and let us hear some things that didn't make the album versions of the songs (like an accordion part on SETB). It was really interesting, and we enjoyed hearing different parts of songs isolated, like vocals or drums. But his lecture ran long, and by the end of it I know my group at least was ready for him to be done.

Tay was supposed to be up next, but they tried getting his photography stuff set up and it wasn't working, so they took it all off the stage again and set up Zac's instead. It took them over an hour to get from Ike's lecture to Zac's, which once again was kind of frustrating. But, again, we were still in good spirits and happy to be together, so we made the best of it.

Zac's lecture was more of an experiment than a lecture, I guess. lol Much more interactive than Ike's. At check in we had all been given cards to fill out with a name and a title and a place, etc. We were supposed to hand them in and then he went through them and picked some of them to use to write one of his insane songs in less than a couple of hours. Then he recorded the song on stage with/in front of us. It was pretty hilarious, especially when he kept screwing up the words and having to listen to the voice memo of it he had on his phone so he could remember how it was supposed to go. Or when he was playing it back for us and dancing like a total fool. At one point, Tay came out on stage and brought him some soda and a red bull, I think, because Zac said he needed more sugar. Tay also brought him out a note, which we immediately assumed was to update Zac (and maybe us, too) on how the rest of the day was going to play out since everything was running so behind schedule. It turned out that was exactly what it was. Zac read it aloud to us at the end of his lecture, but who knows how much of what he said was what was actually on the note. If what he said was really what Tay wrote, the note read something along the lines of:

Hey,

So everything is running super late, so we're gonna do my talk tomorrow.

- T-Dawg

P.S. If we don't, all the other events will get pushed even later. Ok. :) xoxo ;)

 (Yes, Zac actually said, "Ok. Period. Smiley face, 'ex-oh-ex-oh', winky face." lol)

Zac mentioned to us at one point that Kate was watching from the side of the stage. He said that he tries not to let her see him when he's hopped up on sugar like that. I think his exact words were "We try to limit the exposure." lol

Anyway the song was pretty damn funny, and the chorus was really touching, I thought. It should be on hnet in a couple of weeks when he's had time to finish it.

We actually got out of Cain's pretty close to on time (the lectures were supposed to end at 8:15 and we left at 8:35). We went to Caz's Chow House to get dinner, and I finally got to try MMMHops. I'm more of a Shock Top or Alaskan Amber girl, but I liked it. It kind of reminded me Red Hook ESB, an IPA that I actually like a lot, but MMMHops is not quite as strong tasting so I like it even more. :)

After dinner we went to movie night, which was a lot of fun. Underneath Acoustic Live is probably my favorite live Hanson DVD, so seeing it on the big screen with my best friends was a treat!

We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 1am, and we were up and out for brunch the next morning by ten, so none of us got much sleep (we didn't sleep much all weekend, tbh). We weren't doing bowling, so we spent the morning shopping. :) We went to Ida Red, the Are You Listening Gallery, Glacier Confectioners (LOVE THAT PLACE), and the I Heart Hanson Store. I loved the pictures in the gallery, especially Zac's headphone paintings and Taylor's photography. I just wish there had been some of his usual prints, too. It's becoming a tradition for me to buy a Taylor print at MOE, I have a little gallery going in our spare bedroom at home. lol But I didn't really want a picture of one of the guys to hang up in there, even though they were great shots. I was also a little sad that the store was already sold out of so many of the new shirts, but it wasn't a big deal. I ended up getting a Hop Jam tank top the next day instead, so I didn't leave empty handed.

After we were done shopping, we headed over to Cain's for Taylor's photography lecture. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I was curious to see what he had in store. I wondered if he was going to be showing us some of his favorite pictures he'd taken and telling us about them, but instead he took portraits of fans on stage, just like the ones of him, Ike and Zac that were in the gallery. It was cool watching him give direction to people as they posed. He said it was something new that he had challenged himself to do for his gallery photos, because normally he doesn't really do posed portrait photography. My husband is a film photographer (not professional). He loves street photography, developing his own pictures, and even repairing old cameras and selling them. And I know from what he's told me, and from watching him, that it can be very difficult to go from taking candid shots out on the street to trying to direct people in a studio.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun watching Taylor work, and he chatted to the audience between shots and made fun of himself when things didn't go right. I know some people were nitpicking how he did things and how he explained things, and I'm sure to photography "buffs" it was annoying. But to the majority of us, who either know nothing about photography at all or who know the basics and just do it for fun, it was an entertaining and interesting experience.

More waiting happened between Tay's lecture and the "State of the Band" talk. Over an hour, I think. At least we got to stay in Cain's, though. They had to let more people in who hadn't bought lecture tickets, but I still think it took longer than necessary. Almost everything did this weekend, which is something I hope they work on in the future.

I think they tried to do too much in too short a space of time. I really appreciate them wanting to do more for us and share more with us, kind of like they do at BTTI. But BTTI is longer than MOE weekend. It probably would have been fine if things had gone more smoothly. I don't know if it was just bad luck on the technical side, bad organization, or something else (or all of the above). I think those of us who attended last year's MOE were spoiled because everything ran so smoothly and was so well organized then, especially compared to the 2012 MOE. The store and gallery were still much better organized this year than 2012, but everything else felt like a big step backwards on that front.

The "State of the Band" talk probably would have run longer and involved a more extensive Q&A session, but they wanted to make sure we got to go to dinner on time before the concert, so they kept it short. They told us about the brand new website design coming this summer. It's not just getting a face lift, it's going to be new from the ground up. It sounds pretty cool. They also told us about Fools Banquet and showed us a short video about this year's FB so we could see what went on there. Listening to the other artists talk about how inspiring FB is, and how it makes them want to go home and write more, and how it's the best thing they've done in a long time just made me so proud of the boys for putting it together and bringing those people together to create and build a community. That was their goal with FB, and it's what they've achieved year after year.

We also got to see a video of them writing and recording each of the new EP songs. My group hadn't listened to the EP at that point, we wanted to stay (mostly) unspoiled until MOE. I'd seen clips on hnet of all the songs except "Panic In The Streets", and I liked what I'd heard. I was a little wary of "White Collar Crime", based on the small amount they shared on the blog, and overall I just had a feeling of "I have NO idea if I'm going to like this EP!" Especially after last year's EP; "Sound Of Light" is a tough act to follow.

Well, we heard the EP in full as soon as the MOE concert started. They played each track in the order they were in on the CD, and I loved them all. I already knew I was going to like "On The Road", I loved "Show Me The Way" so much more than I thought I would, I liked "What's Your Name" a little less than I expected to based on the clip we heard on hnet, and "White Collar Crime" was amazing. Zac killed it. It's such a fast paced song, which must have been a challenge for him to not only play live but also sing, and he nailed it. "Panic in the Streets" was the stand out for me at the MOE, though. It's SUCH a great live song, I hope they play it often even though it's a fanclub song and they generally don't play those at regular shows. It's just so powerful and they sounded so f**king good! I love feisty Hanson! lol

Something I noticed after listening to the EP the next day was that Tay and Zac contributed more vocals to "What's Your Name" when they performed it live than they do on the studio recording. And watching Ike at the MOE reminded me of the scene in SETB when they're recording "Deeper" and he kept shaking his head and saying it wasn't right. He kept shaking his head like he wasn't happy with how he was sounding while singing it, and Tay and Zac kept looking at him and singing along like they were trying to encourage him to keep going or help him out with finding the right note. I honestly didn't hear anything wrong with it, but he definitely didn't seem happy with his performance from where I was standing. :\ 

We also got to hear "Down", which I'd never heard live, and "Stories", which I don't think I'd heard live since Albertane Tour! And they played "Runaway Run", which I'm pretty sure I'd only heard live once, maybe twice, so that was definitely a treat. And "Roller Coaster Love", which was probably my FAVORITE song off of "Sound Of Light" (tied with "On and On").

Speaking of "Sound Of Light", I've seen people saying this EP isn't as good as the previous few. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, obviously, and mine differs from that view. I've enjoyed all the EPs over the last few years, and "Sound of Light" is definitely still my favorite, but I think this one might be my second favorite. There are great songs on all of the EPs, but there are also songs I'm not so big on. For example, I love the song "No Sleep For Banditos", I love the tone of it and the lyrics. But I like "On The Road" more because, IMO, it's more relatable. I see those two songs as similar somehow, I just get a similar "vibe" from them. Maybe it's that "warning" kind of message in both songs. Only the message in OTR is something real, whereas, in my mind NSFB was always more like a story, characters they made up, if that makes sense?

I could compare songs on all of the EPs all day, but I won't. What it comes down to is personal taste. And I know that my little group loved this EP and had it on repeat in the car all day Sunday while we were out exploring Tulsa (mostly "Show Me The Way", which we are all obsessed with, even though only 2 out of the 4 of us are Tay girls).

Back to MOE. There was more waiting between the concert and the after party, which was probably the worst wait for me. It wasn't the longest, but we were freezing cold. The temperature shifted so drastically those first two nights, it was really hard to dress for the daytime heat we were in when the events began and the evening chill we had to deal with once they were over.

The after party was a cool experience, and it was fun to see the boys dancing a little on stage and see fans having fun. But the line for the bar was insane the whole time, so we never got the drinks we'd been wanting all night, and because it started late, it ran late. And I was running on about 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours, so I was basically done and ready to go by 1am, whereas a couple of my friends were still getting their groove on right until the music stopped. lol

Sunday was a much more relaxed day for us because there were no scheduled events. We got a later start, did some Hanson "sightseeing" (Drapp Studios, 77th Street, etc.), got drinks on the deck at Blue Rose Cafe, and then went over to Hop Jam to look around. It was just starting, but it was already pretty busy. We saw Taylor being swarmed by fans, and he was trying to take pictures with people while politely excusing himself because he was trying to deliver some stuff to the MMMHops beer tasting booth.  We got our Hop Jam merch, but then since none of us are big beer drinkers, and the music portion hadn't started, we went off to get dinner at El Guapos. After that we came back to the Hop Jam area and relaxed in our car for a while with the windows down, listening to Butch Walker's set and cooling off.

We didn't realize we were parked right next to the "backstage" area, so it was incredibly strange to see Taylor's family wandering around right in front of us at one point. I happened to glance over and see some boys chasing each other on the grass, and I smiled and thought to myself "aw, look, kids playing in the sun" lol. Then I was like, "wait... is that Ezra?" I'd never seen any of the guy's wives or kids before, really, only their siblings helping out with merch or Walker hanging out at shows.  It was slightly surreal.

We went back to Hop Jam just as Robert Randolf was starting. We weren't really into that band, but we hung out anyway because we knew Hanson was on next and we'd found ourselves a nice spot on the sidewalk by Mexicali. I was curious to see how many non-fans stuck around once Hanson was the only act left to perform. I think I'd kinda prepared myself for half of the crowd to start wandering off once Robert Randolf finished, but I was very pleasantly surprised that no one really did. In fact, I think even more people came over between Robert's set and Hanson's.

Hanson's Hop Jam show was awesome. It was like one of the Anthem tour shows, setlist wise. But they did play a couple of covers at the end ("Never Been To Spain" and "Living On Tulsa Time"), neither of which I'd ever seen them perform live, so that was exciting! :) And watching the crowd reaction to "MMMBop" was highly entertaining. Obviously, some people were goofing around like it was some big joke, but most people were so into it and got really excited to hear it.

Like with Fool's Banquet, I was so proud of them for putting on such a successful event. And it looks like it went smoothly; no drama, no disappointments. Lots of sun, fun, food, beer, and dancing! They did a great job, and I get the feeling it's definitely not going to be the last Hop Jam, and that Tulsa on the whole is happy about that!

So... yeah. That was pretty much my weekend. A lot of insanity, very little sleep. I made a lot of wonderful new memories and revisited a lot of favorite places from past MOE weekends. Yes, there was more waiting around than there should have been, but as I said before, it didn't ruin our time in Tulsa. We chose to let it go. We couldn't control the schedule, but we could control how we reacted to it. Instead of bitching and moaning and letting it bring us down, we talked and laughed and shrugged it off as soon as it was done.