or: How I Got My Foot Blisters
It was an odd thing, to wake up on the morning of a Hanson show and think “I’m going to a Walk with Hanson today!” and not “HANSON SHOW TONIGHT!!! *squeeeeeeallllll!!!!!”. But I told myself, even back when I first saw the tour dates, that I may not go to it. The last show I went to drove home how difficult it is to go to a Hanson show anymore. Jennie and I were on our feet for hours without reprieve, and during that time I developed pronounced pain in my feet, knees, back, neck and head, more than at any show previous. The House is almost unbearably dry, perhaps to encourage the purchase of over-priced beverages, and hot and claustrophobic when crowded with Fansons (this is not so bad at a Great Big Sea show). Finally, while I adore the publicity-spreading-for-relatively-unknown-bands idea behind the boys’ opening acts, after standing for several hours already in a hot, dry, crowded room, every single time I find myself wishing sudden death on anything and anyone that stands between the Hanson brothers and the stage.
At first my plan was to become intentionally ignorant of the date of the show, to lessen the odds that I would be bouncing off the walls in anxiety, like a dog watching a meat truck drive by, when the big day came. Later on, however, after I determined definitely that I wouldn’t be going, and came to terms with it as much as could be expected, I realized that I could just go to The Walk before the show, then hit up the swag table, without actually going to the show itself. This was also an extremely unusual feeling, one that permeated my thoughts throughout the day described herein.
I logged onto hanson.net in the morning to make absolutely sure the time of The Walk hadn’t been changed (I didn’t want a repeat of last year!) and found that not only was it still scheduled for 5, but that my boys were set to do a morning show spot on the Robin Swoboda Show at 10am. I checked my cell and saw that the time was 10:32 am. I tuned in just in time to see David Moss making pulled pork for a Midwest-themed meal in honor of the band, and, to my amusement, heard the boys making noises off-camera in response to the food (seriously, they way they eat they should each weigh at least 300 pounds). They may have done three songs, but I only caught two after I tuned in. They did “Waiting For This” and “Carry You There” while I kept my thumb poised over the rewind button (how did I ever live without DVR?!?!). I found myself disappointed that there weren’t more fans in the audience to do the “Shout it out!” refrain.
I left early to check out the Oberlin College bookstore, planning to ask someone there if they hire non-residents so that I know whether or not I have a shot at getting a second job there when I go back home for winter break. The campus is so spread out, city street-wise, that I got easily confused. By the time I'd found what could have been the admissions building, I’d already had plenty of time to chicken out.
Not wanting to go back home and face the screaming children that now dwell in my house, I headed for North Ridgeville and got to Kristin’s early.
We took the spare time to stop at Half-Price Books. Even though I knew better, I let myself fancy that I wasn’t a poor college student who shouldn’t be buying things she doesn’t need. Although I exercised great restraint in the area of Purchasing Books About the Science Behind Jurassic Park, I did come away with a hardcover copy of “Letters to Jenny” by Piers Anthony and Rush Hour 2 on DVD. I know, all you people out there who know me are probably wondering how I lived for so long without having that movie on DVD. I do have it on VHS, mind you. I was just slow in upgrading, and also had a surprising amount of trouble finding it.
When we got to the venue there was a small crowd gathered. We walked several hundred feet past them until we came to a point where I feared we would be solicited by strangers if we went any further. So we changed course and wandered down the East 4th St. alley where the entrance to the House of Blues Restaurant is. On the corner at the opposite end of the street is Flannery’s Pub (where Gaelic Storm had their after-party last March). We stopped in to use their bathroom, which smelled quite ripe despite the “19 Action News Clean Plate Award” declaration stickered to the door at the entrance. I noticed immediately that I had never seen the pub so empty – there were perhaps 8 or 9 people there. Also, the place looked smaller when empty – it had taken me more than ten minutes to weasel my way up to the bar to get a glass of water after the Great Big Sea show two years ago.
After satisfying our bladders we moseyed back to the front of the House shortly before someone called for all Walkers to register before The Walk (last time I walked we did it after). I explained the process to Kristin, who throughout the day had many questions about the event (“Oh, we are taking off our shoes? Why is that?”) and the cause. Some of her questions, such as the aforementioned one, I knew Taylor would answer in all his megaphone-d glory once things got underway.
The boys came out at 5:14 pm – which is about 4:55 or so Hanson Time, so I suppose they were early by their own standards of punctuality – to a roaring and quickly congealing crowd. They were dressed exactly as I had seen them that morning – Taylor was in a yellow plaid flannel shirt with that ugly little orange-ish hat that he likes to wear:
Isaac was in the ever-present white dress shirt and dressy pants:
and Zac was wearing a leather jacket over a t-shirt with thick slate-colored stripes. How he did not overheat in that thing, I have no clue:
Kristin was most excited because it would be the closest she’d ever been to a celebrity. As The Walk got underway and we floated into a position behind Isaac, she was all but giddy.
I overheard a few interesting things as we were walking, but I was not taking notes because I have a severe overabundance of faith in my memory. The only one I can remember for certain is as follows: as we were making our way down East 4th, I heard a girl behind me say, “Look at those guys! They’re probably thinking, ‘Who are all those girls following? And more importantly, how can I get them to follow me like that?’” A dozen clever answers were swimming around in my head, but none of them came to fruition so I just kept my mouth shut and smiled to myself.
Isaac was given a megaphone this time, so he and Taylor each had one, and Zac relied on his ability to project should he need to say something. At the halfway point Taylor said something about being yelled at by a crazy guy with a megaphone, mentioning that Zac is usually the crazy guy yelling at him with a megaphone. Zac declared, in a loud voice, that he didn’t need one.
We walked with each brother in turn, surprisingly, as last time I pretty much kept close rank with Isaac for the whole Walk. Sometime before the halfway point, Isaac managed to sneak ahead while Taylor appeared somewhere behind us, by some wonderful Hanson-related magic.
After the halfway point we managed (where I took a video of Taylor speaking to the gathering), to my surprise, to find ourselves relatively close to Zac, although not nearly so close as we managed with his older brothers.
Note that he is posing for a picture with a fan in this picture. I saw all three of them doing this, which should have bolstered my confidence, even though they were strict about not posing for photos the last time I walked with them. 
When Zac was propelled too far forward for us to have a hope of claiming we were walking “near” him, Isaac appeared, again as if by magic, about 20 feet behind us. I slowed my walking a bit (my prerogative) and actually found myself the courage to do some of that backwards-walking-picture-taking. 
You can't see it in the pic because I cropped him out out of irritation, but there was a guy in the original shot with a camera in Isaac’s face. He took up space in front of all three of them at one time or another. I don’t know where he was from, but he was extremely skilled at walking backward… and was making it difficult for the rest of us to get good shots.
The terrain we navigated, shoelessly, was old hat to the boys, who traversed it all nonchalantly. In places in direct sunlight it was hot enough to be painful, but during his midway speech, Taylor told us, “I heard someone complaining, ‘It’s too hot here!’ and let me tell you this: You know nothing of heat until you’ve Walked in 100+ degree weather…” Also, though this has nothing to do with the walking conditions, he praised the fans for the efforts that have been made in the past three years to host our own Walks that the band was not involved in. They have apparently been taking place all over the world, from Chicago to London to Sydney to Tokyo, and according to hanson.net, band and Fansons have, as of the writing of this blog, walked over 36,000 miles collectively.
Besides the really hot places, we walked over asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and these REALLY painful grates that most of us hopped over or skirted around. I made a point to watch Isaac’s reaction to one of these obstacles. Surprisingly (or not, because I’d half expected it), he walked over it like it wasn’t even there.
As for my own pain…
I noticed a sharpish pain in both my heels before we ever reached the halfway point, and recognized the local as the place on my heel where most of the pressure is concentrated when I take a step (indeed, if you were to examine the wear on any pair of shoes I own, you would notice that the heel is worn in a decidedly lop-sided manner). It wasn’t until we got back to the House that I suspected that there were actual blisters down there – when I felt like I had something stuck there but couldn’t find the culpable irritant, then when I took a step and it actually felt like there was some fluid being pushed around in there. Gah.
I can’t imagine how painful it must have been for them the first several days or weeks of the campaign, getting used to what must have been constant pain (in addition to blisters, I’ve noticed a fierce soreness in my calf muscles from walking without the support of shoes). Also, as I will mention later, their feet must have been constantly dirty, because let me tell ya – my feet are still not completely clean.
The doors were scheduled to open at 6, but at that time we were just finishing up – when I looked at my phone for the time and saw it was exactly 6, Taylor was still addressing the crowd outside the HOB.
Kristin and I waited about 10 minutes (remember, I wanted to hit the swag table), but by quarter after 6 they still hadn’t opened the doors. I was exceedingly hungry, having skipped a trip to Subway in hopes of finding a cheapish place near the HOB. Ha. Ha ha ha.
I realized that I didn’t have to get in as soon as they opened the doors. The table would be available all night until the show was over – another oddity about not going to the show itself. I realize that these may sound like obvious things to the average layreader, but they are novel ideas to me. I don’t HAVE to get into the venue as soon as they open the doors! Imagine that!
Thus reassured that nothing would be lost by it, we walked over (well, she walked; I sort of minced, due to my blisters) to the Corner Alley, a great bowling alley/bar/lounge right on the corner of Euclid and E 4th St. It is a wonderful place – open to anyone who wants to come it and hang out, yet it has a very clean and classy feel to it. The hostess and the bartenders were very friendly (it’s the same place I stopped at for water with Jennie after last year’s show). We saw a few people that we recognized from The Walk, and some that we didn’t but whom we recognized as Hanson fans by the I heart ISAAC and I heart ZAC shirts they were wearing. I almost asked them why they weren’t going to the show but I decided against it for whatever reason. Was probably mostly social phobia, but they also seemed a bit standoffish to me.
We were in time to take advantage of the happy hour specials, and though I had intended to go in for water and then find somewhere closer to home to eat, we ended up ordering a $5 pizza with red and green peppers. It was quite good, but could not TOUCH a Lu’s pizza for deliciousness. Kristin also ordered a triple chocolate mousse-type thing, which was more delicious than I expected it to be, since it’s surprisingly easy for me to become over-chocolated in the area of dessert dishes (we are exact opposites in this respect!).
Upon leaving the Corner Alley, which I am now shamelessly plugging for its great atmosphere and service, we got back to the venue before 7:30. I was exceedingly disappointed to find that the shirt I’d wanted was not available --> http://www.hanson.net/site/sections/337 (If you’re a fan, you’ll get what this shirt is about. If you’re not, go here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QswJz6IDAPg&feature=channel and here--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FRtQr9PDus for more information.)
I commend the woman working the swag table (and Kristin, for that matter) for putting up with my customary indecision, and for generally being fun and friendly in the face of it. Faced with an inability to buy a REFRESH t-shirt, I (eventually) bought an “I <3>So there I sat, having washed my feet (3 times) in the tub and rubbed them with some Aloe Vera-infused lotion, with the light off and Cindy trying to sleep, steaming about how after months of looking forward to this day only to have it all rendered pointless by two of the people who are supposed to be my biggest supporters.
*sigh*
I suppose that’s a bit of a negative note on which to end a blog.
I LOVE HANSON!!!!!
