“You’ve been hit by a smooth criminal…”

This past weekend was HansenFest.  Two big typhoon’s ago, back in May, we were getting all geared up to see Alien Ant Farm at SchwabFest (where we saw the awesome Lit concert last year.)  Unfortunately, Typhoon Songda caused that event to be cancelled.  We were so disappointed; after all, this was our big chance to see Alien Ant Farm (best known for their rocking remake of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”!)

Almost 3 months later, they were able to reschedule them for HansenFest!  We were so happy!  This was our first time to Camp Hansen.  Brandon was very happy to get his Japanese festival food (due to the number of typhoons this season, a good number of our usual festivals have been indefinitely postponed or cancelled) and I was happy to see a good rock concert!

A Filipino band called “Streetbeat” was playing when we arrived.  They had a lot of energy and did some covers of Black Eyed Peas.

“Letters Burning,” a California rock band performed right before it got dark outside.  They were…enthusiastic.

We were thankful we packed our rain jackets in my purse (thank goodness for Tardis-like [bigger on the inside than the outside] camo purses!) as we did experience a cloud burst while we ate our delicious yakisoba and okonomiyaki dinner.  Reminiscent of our Lit concert experience last year, but this rain only lasted about 10 minutes instead of the majority of the evening.

Then came the main event – Alien Ant Farm!  Despite the jetlag and intense humidity, these boys rocked hard!

It’s not often you come across a band who sounds CD-quality when they are performing live, but AAF was truly amazing!  We were quite impressed!

The lead guitarist appeared to be having a great time playing on Okinawa!  When not impressing us with his nimble fingerwork, he had us laughing at his expressive antics on stage.

They even played a new song for us!  They were headed back to the studio to finish their new album soon.  We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the new CD.

A nice guy behind us offered to take our photo when he saw me trying to snap one of the two of us.  A really friendly guy in front of us decided to jump into our photo, too.  As for the chairs, a group of guys had made a row before the concert started.  I figured it would be a good vantage place for me to stand behind them and still be able to see the stage clearly.  (I’m too short to see the stage if people stand directly in front of me, but the chairs gave us a slight break in the crowd that worked to our advantage.)  It worked perfectly –and people didn’t run into me, as they were already trying to steer clear of the chairs – win, win! 

After the concert, we got to go back stage for a meet’n’greet.  We got autographs and got to briefly talk to the band.  When we got up to the table, I thanked the lead singer for coming all the way out to Okinawa, despite the long flight.  He said it was incredibly long, seeing as they had flown in from Omaha!  What a great conversation starter!  He was shocked that Brandon was wearing such an old AAF shirt and they swapped stories about the 2001 concert Brandon had seen them play in Omaha at the Ranch Bowl.  They actually remembered the concert (“the one Kyle’s mom came to!  Next to the bowling alley!”), which made Brandon’s weekend!  They were all a lot of fun to talk with and we’re so glad they were able to make it to Okinawa!  What a wonderful weekend!

Comments

[Mom Carlson]

I will bet that band was very surprised to talk to someone from Omaha!!!!!!!!!!
How fun for both of you. Glad you had a great time. Lots of love Mom

[Jordan]

I remember the Omaha show being fun.
Glad you got the chance to see them again!

-Jordan