Knoxville Review

On October 1, 2008 Hanson performed at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. This was my first concert for The Walk Around The World Tour. I had also won a meet and greet for this show and I was super excited about getting the meet and greet even though I didn’t really show it. I honestly had no plans of what to say other than I knew I wanted to ask Zac how he felt about llams because that’s an inside joke between my friends and I and we had been trying to find out how he felt about them for a long time. Anyways, I’m getting off track here. Although the Bijou Theatre is only about ten minutes from my house, I really didn’t want to drive there because I hate driving down town alone as my sense of direction is not the greatest and one way streets do not help me any. Well, my mom wasn’t home so I decided to just drive myself, until I went downstairs and saw my step dad was getting ready to go to the post office. Since he was getting out anyways, I asked if he would take me to the venue and he said he would. Long story short, we drove around looking for the venue for about ten minutes before we finally found it (I am not sure why we had so much trouble finding it, but we did). I finally saw a sign that announced Hanson performing at the venue so I told my step dad to let me out of the car and I could find my way from there, so he pulled over to the side of the street and let me out. I went and got in line with everyone else waiting for the walk to start (by the time I got to the venue it was about ten minutes before the walk was scheduled to start). The first thing I noticed was Morgen’s long blonde hair. I remember thinking to myself “I wonder if that’s Morgen.” Then, I noticed Trish’s sign, and I was like “hey I remember that sign from Asheville!” and after a few minutes it finally clicked in my head that Trish was the one that had the sign in Asheville so I yelled “Trish!” and she turned around and then we hugged and talked for a bit and she introduced me to Cassie, Morgen, and Cassie’s mom. A few minutes later, Valerie showed up with Beth, Rachel (CA), and Erin. Trish and I waved them over to us and they ran for us because it was almost time for the walk and they didn’t want to miss it. The walk started out at a nice and relaxed pace. For whatever reason, Hanson took a different route this year than they did last year. Well, at some point during the walk the pace picked up quickly and it felt like taking the run rather than taking the walk. Haha, I’m kidding, it wasn’t that fast, but it definitely felt as if everyone was trying to keep up with Taylor and not just the people near him lol. Anyways, after the walk ended I mainly stuck close to Trish cuz neither of us can stand the smell of smoke (I'm also allergic, not sure about her though) and someone was smoking towards the back of the crowd where the others were. A little later, Trish and I joined the others and we went back to the hotel Trish, Morgen, Cassie, and Cassie's mom were staying at. Erin decided it would be a good time to mention "taylor's pants" but Valerie told her not to talk about it lol. Well as we were walking, we came to a cross walk that was taking forever so we all just decided to sing "Great Divide" and eventually the thing told us we could cross the street so we crossed the street and continued singing. Eventually we got back to the hotel and just kinda hung out lol. After awhile though we all headed back towards the venue cuz the others wanted to get something to eat before the show and it was getting close to the time I needed to be back at the venue for my meet and greet. The whole time though Rachel (CA) kept trying to get me to talk but I still didnt really talk much other than to Valerie and Trish. I sat at the venue for a bit and just talked to the other girls that had a meet and greet and the cool thing was one of the girls in my meet and greet group was a girl I had been talking to about wanting to plan a walk in knoxville. She told me she is trying to get one organized to take place sometime in January. I told her I don't know for sure if I will be living in Knoxville at that time but she said it would be on a weekend so I told her I would try to make it to the walk. Eventually, it was time for my meet and greet. The tour manager came out and called out our names and each of us walked into the venue as our name was called (there were only four of us including the reporter). The funny thing is, two of the girls wore the same outfit (the grey hanson t-shirt they started selling in '07 and jeans) but they totally didn't plan it or anything. Once we were all inside the tour manager introduced himself and asked who the reporter was and we told him. He then told us he was gonna go get the guys and for us not to go anywhere cuz if we wandered off someone might kick us out of the venue not knowing we were in there for a meet and greet and if we got kicked out there was nothing he could do. So anyways we waited there for a little bit and the two girls that were matching had me take a picture of them real quick before the guys came out and we weren't allowed to have our cameras out any more. A few minutes later, the guys came out and Ike had this big cheesy grin on his face and he saw none of us were holding anything to be signed so he asked if we wanted anything signed and we were all like "oh yea!" and we all got out what we wanted signed and he signed my tour journal and then signed stuff for the other meet and greet girls. Zac and Tay started on the opposite end of me. Zac eventually made his way to me and Tay was kind of hanging out with Ike but then he saw me and came over. While Tay was signing my journal I asked Zac how he felt about llamas and he said they were great for riding and companionship. I wanted to die laughing but I didn't cuz everyone would have thought I was insane and I really wasn't looking to have the guys scared of me, though Zac did kind of find it weird I was asking that, but he never asked why I wanted to know so it was all good. I'm not sure what I would have said if he had asked why. Anyways, after the meet and greet was over it was not too much longer until the show started. I hung out in the venue until Valerie, Erin, Trish, and Morgen came into the venue. Once they got in I went over to them and started talking with them and then we all decided to go get merch before the show started. I bought the hoodie (which runs big..I got a medium and I normally buy larger or XL in my hoodies), tour t-shirt, MONA, and The Walk DVD. The guy that was getting the merch for me couldnt figure out how much money I owed him so I got my cell out of my pocket and calculated it and then told him how much it was and showed him the total on my phone and he said "ok works for me" so I gave him the money and then waited for Valerie to get done buying her stuff and then we went back to our seats. Once the show started I texted Breanna to let her know EBE was on stage (I was texting the set list that night and she was posting it on hnet). Since it was the first time I heard EBE I wasn't really dancing and singing along cuz before the show I hadn't heard any of their songs, but I was standing and clapping. Then came time for The Veronicas..I texted Breanna and told her they were on stage and after a bit I texted Rachel (WI) and told her she was right, I didn't really care for The Veronicas. By this time I had started talking to Rachel (CA) a little more, but once The Veronicas came on stage she mysteriously disappeared (I found out later she went to go hang out at the merch booth) but Beth showed up and started talking to me so I started talking to her. Even though her seat was in the balcony, no one really paid attention lol she stayed at Rachel's seat during The Veronicas and after they went off stage she stayed there and as well since Rachel wasn't there. Anyways...when it was finally time for Hanson to come on stage the two girls sitting by Valerie rushed to the stage and Beth and I took over their seats real quick so we didnt get run over by the crowd trying to rush the stage. Rachel stayed where she was at but moved closer to the center of the stage. The show was awesome and I texted the set list to Breanna and Beth's mom was following the set list and told Beth she wanted to hear the song that was being played at that time (I think it was Soul Shine but I don't remember for sure). After the show, we all went out by the bus to hang out and we got bored so we started singing some Hanson songs, and even had a guy fan join us at one point. Before the guy fan joined us though one of the security gaurds near the bus came up to us and told us we had good harmony, and a little later Carrick from EBE came up to us and started dancing while we were singing lol and then he got a phone call and I guess whoever it was asked what he was doing and he goes "dancing with some fans by the bus" lol. Anyways, Zac and Tay came out and we waited for awhile to see if Ike would come out but he never did so we all piled in Valerie's car and left to go to her house so Beth could get her car. On the way though we stopped at sonic. Once we got to Valerie's house, Beth and Rachel (CA) got in Beth's car and then I told Valerie the back roads to get to my house and Beth and Rachel (CA) followed us. Finally, we got to my house and I told Valerie how to get back to her house without taking back roads and then she left and me, Erin, Beth, and Rachel (CA) all hung out at my house for a bit before going to bed. Overall, I had a lot of fun and I was looking forward to the Nashville concert.