By Erik Casarez
My wife made me watch the movie “Spice World” with her recently. Despite the late 90s being the foundation of my youth, I never had any interest in seeing a movie about the Spice Girls playing concerts and getting into very British hijinks. Pop music and the culture around it just wasn’t my cup of tea even as the Spice Girls were collectively at their apex of fame. The movie was so enjoyable that I regretted not seeing it sooner. When I told my wife that Hanson would be playing at Emo’s, she implored that we go and within a couple of songs I once again found myself with a new appreciation for a band that was so huge in my early formative years.
Hanson brought their “Underneath: Experience Tour” to Austin on November 2 and 3. The two-night show was separated into an acoustic set featuring Ben Kweller as an opening act the first night and a full live-band set with Phantom Planet the second night. We were able to catch the second night for the full band experience and even for a Sunday night, the energy in the room was infectious.
While this tour is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the band’s third studio album Underneath, Hanson showcased the range of their discography and their technical prowess. It’s easy to forget they have spent the majority of their lives as professional musicians with a discography that spreads across four different decades. While their biggest hits came in the 90s and early 00s, they have persisted, releasing albums on their own label, 3CG Records.
Their musical journey from the pop mainstream to indie touring band is echoed when Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald tells the crowd they first met Hanson in 1998 and have wanted to do a tour together for years. Phantom Planet achieved mainstream success providing the title song to millennial-core teen drama “The O.C.” with their hit “California,” instantly turning them into indie darlings. While they may not have reached the levels of fandom that Hanson reached with their debut album Middle of Nowhere, Phantom Planet’s electric set resonated so much with the crowd that it became clear how much these two bands fit on the same bill. The Venn diagram between Phantom Planet fandom and Hanson fandom is a lot closer to a circle than one might think.
Hanson’s performance elicits an interesting array of reactions, song by song. As someone who has always seen the band as omnipresent throughout the last 30 years but can’t help but cling to their first hit “MMMBop” as what defines them, I diverted what I knew about the band and prepared myself for a potentially edgier type of rock set that would make Gen X dads say “hell yeah.” Opening up the show with a cover of Radiohead’s “Optimistic” validated these feelings momentarily. I briefly wondered if they would even play “MMMBop.” Then they followed up with the second track off of Underneath, “Dancing in the Wind,” a more pop-leaning pop-rock sound in the realm of Adam Schlesinger or Ric Ocasek. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the band doesn’t care about defining a sound, they’re just here for good vibes and to play music they love to play. This feels like the true essence of what makes Hanson Hanson.
They vacillated between different eras of their discography, sprinkling in covers ranging from Bill Withers to Tears for Fears and the vibes were great. The crowd ranged from older adults to kids who were younger than Hanson when they started the band in the early 90s. The best part is everyone was into it; the kids didn’t look like they were dragged there by their nostalgic parents but rather like they were equally as excited to be there. It felt like being at a great wedding reception where everyone was just having the best time.
They did end up playing “MMMBop” towards the end of their set, which is a great move by the band. Seeing a band that a lot of people may define by their biggest hit can sometimes be a crapshoot of whether you’re going to hear that song played in earnest, begrudgingly, or even at all. Obviously, the song is too big a hit to not play, but they played it with such enjoyment you would have never guessed this was probably the millionth time they’ve played it. It’s deep enough in the set to where they’re not just trying to get it over with, but also not saved for last as leverage to keep the people there who just want to hear that song.
27 years after its release, “MMMBop” still brings so much joy to people, and that was more than apparent by the crowd’s reaction. Even more telling was the way the crowd enjoyed singing and dancing along only to continue doing so with the following song “Get the Girl Back,” a single off of their 2013 album Anthem. Hanson has cultivated a diverse fanbase that really goes hard for them and while a song they wrote before they were old enough to drive remains what most people know them for, it doesn’t define who they are as a band.
Phantom Planet
Hanson
