Hanson: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Oct. 16, 2017 | Stephen Thompson -- The audience for Hanson’s first Tiny Desk concert could be cleanly sorted into two distinct camps: the curious and the committed. The curious were the ones who’d inquired about whether the band would play its 1997 smash “MMMBop“ (answer: nope), or wondered what Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson have been up to since the ’90s (answer: touring constantly, putting out records, starting their own label, raising families, launching a music festival, developing a line of Hanson Brothers-branded “MMMHops“ beer). As for the committed? They were psyched. For those who haven’t kept up, Hanson has maintained a lovingly ravenous fan base. The night before this performance, the brothers played to a joyous sold-out crowd at Silver Spring, Maryland’s 2,000-capacity Fillmore — and, it turns out, some of those 2,000 folks work at NPR. (A few even had friends fly in for the occasion.) We tried to get the committed as close to the Tiny Desk action as possible, because the vibe in the room was spe