Through an Okie's Eyes: part6

This is the last post in the 'What Lauren did During the Fall' saga. I apologize in advance because this is going to be the longest tour story post.

At the beginning of November I found myself out West in California. What started off in a group of 2 grew to a group of 5 plus some friends along the way.

I flew out to Sacramento and Kira picked me up from the airport. We stayed in Sacramento that night, and around 7 the next morning we, plus her mom, Terri, (Who is a hanson fan btw, awesome; right?) drove to San Francisco for the show. We got there and we were some of the first people there. (One other person was there before us and she was with our group anyway). All hanson fans know that the first few people there start the number system. So we were 1-6. We even had a list of people's names so that everything would go smoothly and there wouldn't be any drama. We went to the campus where the walk was being held and Terri, held down the fort in front of the venue. I don't remember much about the walk, but I do remember it was a pretty decent sized one. We went back to the venue and somehow Kira and ended up managing the line and making sure everyone was in numerical order and security let us do our thing without trying to step in. Doors opened and I ended up front row on Taylor's side. The show was awesome. I felt like I was bffs with all the openers. (Well, I was pointed out a few times during hellogoodbye's set) Hanson's set was pretty awesome too they did a cover of 'twist and shout' and 'love me' by Elvis Presley. After the show I got lost from the people I was with, but I did make friends with the bass player in Steel Train. He thanked me for knowing the words to their songs. Ha. It made me feel special. After getting our bags and waiting in a restaurant for everyone in the group to come back from the bus we headed to Gen's. Basically as soon as we got there we crashed.

Kira and I were obsessed with bananagram. Or whatever it was called.

He was crazy for dancing during 'twist and shout'

So the next morning Gen picked up the rental car and we just played this game. Then we finally left for LA! I was very excited. We finally got there after a very smooshed ride and checked into the hotel. Somehow we managed to have like 10 people in a room meant for 4. Oops. We managed to get to the front of the line yet again. We went to UCLA for the walk, and let me just say that was seriously the weirdest/craziest walk of all time. Officially. Ever. To get the walk approved we had to have 'groups' and we had to all wear name tags. But they didn't mean anything. Oh, and this was the first part of the 'aLive' session thing hanson did for their fan club members. Basically it just meant cameras would be following us all on the walk. After the walk and managing to get back to the venue lines were insane. Security stepped in and told us that we would be getting wrist bands as soon as we walked in and only like 100 people would be let into the pit first. I don't really know. It was a stressful hour before the doors opened. Once doors opened people took off in a mad frenzy to get to the wrist band line. I never run when doors open, and am often tempted to trip those who do. Anyway so the stage here was really big, and I started out by all my friends, but then realized there was more room on the other side, so I went over there and ended right up front. Awesome. The show was great, and there was an even better encore!!!!!

That's all the bands on tour plus in the red pants Carrick from Everybody Else, the maroon shirt is Weird Al Yankovic, and even though you can't see him all that well the guy behind Weird Al is Robert Schwartzman from Rooney. (or Michael from the Princess Diaries)

Yeah, that's nothing but butter.

Tweet your feet.

At UCLA

Security bracing themselves for hanson fans.

Forrest was the birthday boy!

So after LA we headed straight to San Diego. Some of the girls in our group camped and held numbers for us. The next day we held spots until it was walk time. We went to the walk and lost Kira on the way so Vanessa and I went and searched for her, and ran into (almost literally) hanson. I like to think they didn't start the walk without us because I told Taylor not to. We found Kira and went back to where the walk location was. We head back to the venue and I was left in line with a random girl further down. This is when all hell broke loose. Security came outside and asked us to form another line on the other side of the side walk. So me and that random girl did. The people that were in line with me, behind me and in front of me started to trickle in. Security didn't think it was fair that we held spots for them and tried to send them to the back of the line. One security man was refusing to allow people to go to the restroom or to put things in their cars. (We were clever and figured out ways to out maneuver them.) So it was FINALLY doors. This show was a pretty good/sad one because it was the last show for all 4 bands--it was hellogoodbye and steel train's last show. As far as last shows of tour go most bands pull pranks on each other during the last song of a band's set. Well that is definitely not the case during a hanson show. They pulled pranks during each band's whole set. From a pinata during sherwood's set to taping up the lead singer/guitarist of steel train to silly stringing hellogoodbye. It was highly entertaining. The other bands didn't really retaliate against hanson, which was kind of odd. Since it was our 3rd show in a row I sat on the curb while some of the other girls in my group went to the buses. In the mean time, Evan came over and talked to me quiet a bit, I talked to Will, the bassist for hanson and Vanessa got Muff, hanson's guitar tech, to smile and lighten up a bit about fans.

In between San Diego and Anaheim we had 2 days off. The first day we literally slept the day away and then went and saw 'This is it'. The next day we went to the San Diego zoo and rode on the double decker bus. Then we headed to Anaheim for the for real last show of the tour. We got there and there was line drama, and I'm not going to get into it because everything worked out in the end. We decided to get our faces painted. It was pretty freaking awesome. There isn't really much to say, sherwood came out without shirts on and had the hanson symbol drawn on their stomachs during mmmbop.

After Anaheim, Hanson did an event for members only. It was held at SIR Recording studios on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Since it was a members only event it was going to me a more intimate setting so we didn't wait in line. In fact, we got to see LA (kind of) and ate at Pink's hotdogs. (Mine was vegan) We went to the event and it was great. They did the 'aLive' thing again, which again I hated. They answered questions and then after the cameras were off they played those of us there a few more songs. Including part of 'Breaktown' (which is epic in Hanson fan world.) It was such a fun time. I felt like me, Kira and Vanessa were the only ones having a good time. We were joking around a lot with Zac and Leigh (part of hanson's staff) and laughing a lot. Almost everyone else was so so quiet. We had the best meet and greet picture of all time and I gave Taylor a list of demands (which they have actually listened to) and Vanessa talked to Zac about the legos she had to give to him. Long story short it was discussed that I would bring the legos back with me and I would take them to Hanson's office. Zac signed off on it, so that doesn't make it creepy. (I brought them and took my dad with me.) Afterwards a group of us went to Swingers Diner then we headed back to San Diego. With no sleep we each boarded our planes for home. Until next time.