Winning Artists Open For HANSON, Hang Out With The Brothers

posted in: OurStage Updates

In  June, the first batch of winners for the “Shout It Out With HANSON” Competition earned coveted spots opening for the pop trio on July and August dates of their summer Shout It Out tour.  We reached out to winners Delta Rae, Brightside Drive and Jeffrey James after their sets to hear about their experiences and are happy to share their stories with you.

Sayreville, NJ winners Brightside Drive opened for HANSON at the Starland Ballroom. The band played to a receptive crowd, selling numerous copies of their CD and picking up new fans on Facebook. They explained,  “Opening for HANSON was such a great experience. All the fans that came out were so great (even after waiting in the line for hours) and it was awesome performing for all of them.  I think at one point even HANSON was watching us which was surreal! The publicity from playing the show was huge! Our fan base has definitely expanded. So many people wanted copies of our CD, Transitions. Plus many other fans headed over to our Facebook page to talk to us, get to learn more about us, and become our friend!”

Nashville winner Jeffrey James played to a sold out crowd at their set at the Wild Horse Saloon. The band told us, “We played to a few thousand people. HANSON’s fans were very receptive to us. They seemed to enjoy the set a lot and I got many many great comments from the fans after we were done. As well, when I got home that night my Twitter followers had almost doubled.” Jeffrey James and his band amped up their performance for the large audience and received warm responses to their new material. “My band and I knew that we had to take our energy levels up a couple notches to play to a crowd that size. As the opening act, we had to win over an audience who, for the most part, had never seen us play. We may be recording a new song that we played at the show that got an amazing response.”

North Carolina natives Delta Rae drove 11 hours from New York to Asheville, NC to play their opening slot at the Orange Peel. Little did they know, HANSON would be interviewing THEM upon arrival. The band said, “We were lucky enough to do a live interview with HANSON right before the show, and have gotten a lot of great attention from that. Part of the interview is performing a few acoustic songs for the Hanson bros, after which Isaac Hanson generously said, ‘Wow, I think we should be opening for them.’ Couldn’t have been nicer guys.”