Monday, May 22nd, 2002
Alright goobers, here it is. After three long years of waiting, Goo has finally made it's way back to Kentucky again. Oh yeah. *MandyMay does her happy dance in the computer chair* So this is how it begins. My poor computer got a virus and had to go to the doctor for like a week. So I am living off other people's computer, basically being a computer moocher. I had my friend, Heather, (everyone say, "Hi" to Heather) check the Tour Diary for me for tour dates. About five minutes later, she calls me back and these are her exact words, "Now, before I start, I am going to tell you this, then I am going to pull the phone away from my ear. . .the Goo Goo Dolls are coming to Louisville in May!" This is where MandyMay jumps for joy and screams that embarrassing girlie scream and basically goes spastic.
Here we are on our way to Goo.
Now, on to the concert. We're hanging out in front, my sis with her spikey hair, Heather in her blue flame shirt, and me with my Goo purse. Behold the Goo purse:
(That was my picture album and checkbook cover in the background.)
We wait an hour out front, get in, buy our stuff, then go to our seats. Our seats were awesome, great, stupendous, wonderful! Shall I go on? We were in the sixth row to the right, in perfect view of one Robby Takac and Mike Malinin. The venue was small, the stage was small, so they were pretty close.
They come out jamming to "Big Machine," and when they came out, my knees were literally shaking. Let me begin, by saying it was surreal. I mean, I know the Goos are real people and all, but it didn't hit me until they were right there in my face. Suddenly I realize, "The Goo Goo Dolls aren't just pictures in magazines and they don't live in my TV." My bad, our TV's. *grin* Me, my sister, and Heather were rockin' through the whole thing. Well, Heather to the songs she knew, the rest of the time she faked it, like Rzeznik said to do.
Rzeznik was looking GOO-d as usual, in a tank top, and let me tell ya, I am totally diggin' the longer hair and the purple guitar. Purple guitars rock!! Now Robby and Mike, they are another story because we totally made eye contact. It kicked ass!! Me and my sister were like the loudest ones in our section. The people in the first five rows were getting down, but they weren't all screaming and putting their hands in the air like me and my sis were. Robby came over like three times and jammed and smiled at us. It was great, a moment I'll never forget. Then Mike, he always plays his drums to the right. You know, he kinda sits to the right and his head is usually turned to the right, so we kinda got his attention too, and were like, "Mike!" which he couldn't hear, and he smiled a couple of times. It was great.
The best part of the concert I have to say was when they threw a little surprise in the middle of, "Cuz You're Gone," I was totally not expecting that and I am not going to ruin it for everyone else, but you will love it. I'm not going to give out a set list, I probably shouldn't have even given out that they opened up with "Big Machine," consider that a freebie. . .oh yeah, and the "Cuz You're Gone," thing, but that's it! I promise!
Rzeznik also had us do this little pledge thingy. We had to raise our right hand and repeat what he said. Which was something along the lines of, "I promise to myself," kinda thing. Then the last thing was, "Don't repeat after other people." It was cute. Then he was talking about Gutterflower and people downloading it off the net, I forget how many hits he said it has had, but he was like, "If you haven't downloaded our new album, go buy it." Actually, you need to buy a couple of copies. One for at home, in the car, a back up, then a back up for your back up. So how many is that? Four? I know I will, I've gone through three Dizzy Up the Girl albums already, haven't we all? :)
Now a word of caution to all of you: if you know you are really going to be getting down and funky in the whole jam, remove your rings. I beat my rings flat and I got up this morning and my right ring finger is purple. I was clapping so hard, I would stop, clap again and I couldn't feel my hands. Then for some odd reason, I touched one of my rings, tried to pull it off and it would not budge. So I pull and pull and it finally comes off and well, you have a look.
This is all coming to an end, I promise. You have to forgive me, I am still on a Goo-high. When it was over, the guy behind us, taps me on my shoulder. He is this kinda hippie looking guy, long curly hair, black t-shirt and he was like, "You girls rock!! I have to shake your hands! You didn't sit down, didn't leave, were screaming, you just rock!" And I said, "Dude, you can't leave when Goo is on stage. You just can't." And again he was like, "You are so cool," and he shook our hands again. Now people, that felt GOO-d to be complimented by another fan. So keep that in mind when you go to a concert. You see someone jamming their ass off through the whole thing, tell them how much they rock! It makes a person feel GOO-d.
So let me just point out how much that dude rocked!! Not that I was ease dropping or anything, but he was talking to his buds about how him and his girlfriend got to hang out with Robby one time, then went on to talk about "A Million Miles Away." Then through the first half of the concert, in between each song he would scream out, "Flat Top!" until finally he screamed it and they actually played it. Pretty cool. Now that my friends, is a fan. Dude, if you're out there, "You rock!!"
Also, I have to give a thumbs up to the opening act, Sense Field. They were awesome. I really like, "Emergency Exit," "Save Yourself," and "Heather." The lead singer really knows how to wail and if there is one thing I like in a band, is a lead singer who can wail his ass off!! You guys are awesome!!
Ok, that's all. . .for now. *wink, wink*