April 21, 2006
April 21, 2006. A historic day in the eyes of mill- thou- hu- a few-... okay, only me. For this was the night of... my first Goo concert. Not only that, my first concert PERIOD.
My father, sister, and I got to the venue right as it opened. There was already a huge line standing outside when we arrived, but when we reached the building, the line was moving so fast that we got in within a few minutes. And also, most were going to a different concert within the actual Earthlink Live- our Goo was in a much smaller venue in the same building, the Loft.
Now let me tell ya, the Loft is small. We were pretty crowded. There couldn't have been more than 300 people there, I don't think. There were 3 bars- THREE!- in the place, and another in a smoking section in the back. (This I was thankful for- I didn't want to be choking on secondhand smoke while trying to sing.) If you can ever go to a concert there- GO! We were toward the back (it was all General Admission) and we saw the band perfectly! I was a little to the right of Robby's mic...
The Loft opened at 8, and the show was scheduled to start at 9:30. My sister and I bought shirts- mine has 'the goo goo dolls' written huge on it in white and hers has 'the goo goo dolls' written really small over a picture of rippling water. I don't exactly understand the symbolism, but oh well. We ended up in the smoking section for around 40 minutes so we could sit down (plenty of open seats there). I ended up listening to a conversation between two other fans and a photographer. It was an interesting conversation, but I only learned one new thing from it, confirming that I know way too much about Goo.
We headed out of the smoking section around 8:45, standing in the growing crowd around the stage. We were on the right side, but moved more towards the middle, to the spot previously mentioned. This ended up being a mistake...
Around 9:00, there was a commotion from where we'd been standing. I looked over... and immediately yelled to my dad, "OHMYGODDADITSMIKETHEDRUMMER!!!!!" He didn't hear this over the roar when Robby and John and the support band came out.
They got up on stage and started moving around, grabbing equipment and stuff... I asked my dad, who knows a lot more about concerts than I do, what they were doing. He said they were probably doing a soundcheck... then they began Stay With You! I immediately started singing along. This is when I learned that I cannot yell/sing high notes. It actually hurts for me to do so.
Johnny said something about how it was great to be here, have plenty of beer and have a great time! I did, I can assure you of that. ^_~ Then they started playing Slide. I can't remember the order they played the songs in... but they played:
Stay With You
Slide
Here Is Gone
Black Balloon
Name
Let Love In
Feel The Silence
Without You Here
Better Days
Smash
Strange Love
Listen
Naked
Iris
Broadway
And they played 'Become' and 'Give a Little Bit' as an encore.
I did an insane amount of hopping around (pogoing- the lost art) and screaming. Strangely enough, my voice never died, during or afterwards. I'm still wondering about that. Especially since I screamed, yelled, sang... the whole shmear. Once, Robby saw me and smiled at me (I was the only one hopping around a lot- except on Naked, a lot of people jumped then). He has a wonderful smile.
Between two of the songs, Johnny had someone throw something that they were holding onstage. He unfolded it and said, "A pillowcase?! What are we going to do with a pillowcase? What do you think we're gonna do after this, go rob a bank?" Robby said, "No, we fill it with pop cans, go beat the crap outta someone!"
Later, Johnny gave a few water bottles to those in the front of the crowd. He was about to give one to someone, then grabbed it back and said, "You need more beer, buddy!"
As for me... With my hopping, I got poked in the back quite a few times by some girls I nearly jumped on a few times. I never actually touched them... but I got pretty close to knocking someone over. I was... extremely energetic, to say the least. This one guy with a gray beard came over to stand next to us... He started watching me while I was hopping around, and told me to have fun with it and to keep it up! That man was so nice! And during Better Days, this one man in a red shirt next to me turned to me and gave me this huge smile. I smiled back and we started singing the song to each other! It felt so cool, just to be there with other fans feeling the music.
At the end, during Give A Little Bit, my sister gave me a drawing I'd done earlier that day and some of my CD jackets she'd brought in her purse. I went over to where Goo had come in (they'd come in where we were standing before, if we had stayed there we might have gotten to say hi to the guys! Dang it!), and stood, waiting for them to come through. I handed the drawing to Mike- they just left really quick- and he took it and gave me this small grin. So I guess I've technically met him? I dunno. I hope he liked the drawing.
It ended around 10:15... We drove all the way back up to Knoxville, where I promptly fell on my bed and fell asleep, Goo still ringing in my ears... Best first concert EVER.
submitted by Kim