Live Review: Hanson

Hanson mania descended on the Enmore Theatre, as besotted middle-aged fans came out of hibernation and lined up around the block in vintage merch to sing and scream their hearts out for the American pop group's 25th anniversary show. Yes, you heard right; it's been 25 years since the infamous MMMBop-pers burst onto the scene and boy, do they still have a loyal following!

Hanson churned through nearly 30 sugary pop-rock tunes from their (surprisingly) expansive discography, transporting the crowd back to their pre-pubescent bedrooms where songs like Where's The Love and If Only were sung into hairbrushes - on repeat.

Time has been fair to the Oklahoman brothers, who have retained the cherubic faces, long-ish locks, sweet melodies and genuine energy that transformed them into teen idols. It's easy to forget that behind the bubble gum appearance, there were three young musicians in the making - and now the full-grown men tour non-stop, sharing lead and no-longer-squeaky-pitched vocals and playing multiple instruments. The crowd, however, definitely did not forget the obsessive crushes they had on Taylor, Zac and Isaac, and did not hold back in loudly confessing their love to each one.

Hanson were certainly on a mission to keep things high energy, barely stopping for air between songs and encouraging singalongs and hands in the air - albeit with smartphones nowadays. But the halfway point did see the trio strip things back a little for ballads Weird and Go, as well as Madeline and Juliet (they weren't wrong in pointing out that the majority of their material was about girls).

After keeping the audience entertained for over two hours - and yes, playing the iconic smash hit MMMBop to everyone's guilty pleasure - Hanson returned for a '50s rock'n'roll tribute encore of Bobby Day's Rockin' Robin and Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode.

Hanson are well aware they're not the coolest band in the world, but that hasn't stopped the '90s heartthrobs from giving a die-hard community of fans their absolute all for the last quarter-century.