From boy-band to genuine article – Hanson plays Six Flags Over Texas

Malcolm Mayhew
Star-Telegram

Hanson is one of the few teen acts — maybe the only one — to survive teen-act hell.

But they’ve paid a price.

When the Hanson brothers — Isaac, Zac and Taylor– released their 1997 debut, Middle Of Nowhere, they did so just as the cut-throat boy-band race began.

Didn’t make much difference that they played instruments and wrote songs– they were young and cute and they guys who did that MMMBop song. A boy-band, it seemed, they were forever doomed to be.

With this year’s This Time Around though, Hanson managed to free itself of the boy-band label. Time may be ticking its way off the charts, but it’s simply a more genuine, not to mention grittier, record.
Hanson may have lost a lot of fans when the guys invited Blues Traveler singer/harmonica devil, John Popper to blow his heart out on a couple of tracks, but they gained credibility– which you simply cannot buy.

And live they are in an absolutely different universe than “NSync’ and all those others.

There are no costume changes, no explosions, no props, no flying drummers. It is a rock ‘n’ roll show in the simplest of terms: They walk on stage, say “Hi”, then play.

You will never see the Backstreet Boys do that. Ever.

• Tags: 2000, album, concert, Hanson, Isaac Hanson, Live, six flags, Taylor Hanson, this time around, Zac Hanson