The Goo Goo Dolls at Mystic Lake Ampitheater

Howdy Folks!

Our night opened up with Neon Trees, a band that I had been a fan of ever since I got my first MP3 player, and hearing them live was really fun for me.

The crowd for this event wasn’t overly full, but there wasn’t a ton of empty space either, and especially for the opener, there was a large majority of the crowd there, which was great to see. The band had kind of a similar vibe to The Midnight with that synthy pop sound, and they were able to get some of the crowd moving from that. However, what was kind of funny was that the vocalist, who was very interactive with the crowd, did at one point mime yawning and falling asleep since a majority of the crowd was just not moving in any way (but that kind of happens with seated shows, unfortunately).

There were two major things that stood out to me, though, and that is one, that I think they played “Animal” waaaaaay too early in the set. Unless they just really don’t like performing that song, it’s one that does get people more involved in the show, and had that played it a bit more halfway through i think the momentum would have carried a bit more. Secondly, it was really neat to hear some of the backstory for “Everybody Talks”. The vocalist said it was written during a time when the band was Mormon, and he was scandalously dating a girl whom he had to constantly lie to everyone about, and how the rumours really affected him. Afterwards, he went into the song by saying, “This is for anyone who’s ever been fucked over by gossip,” and it was a fun way to end the show and their set for sure. Overall, fun show, with a crowd that didn’t quite catch up, but it was nice to watch!

Later on, The Goo Goo Dolls came on stage to some BRILLIANT lighting, and the crowd was absolutely ecstatic at this point, everybody was standing as far as I could see (though at this venue you can only see so high!), and ready to see the show.

They played a wide range of songs, both new and classic for them, but for me, the song that hit the most was definitely “Jim’s Theme”, as I absolutely adore Treasure Planet. It was cathartic for the little kid in me for sure.

My only complaint I had through the night was that frontman Rzeznik didn’t really move a whole ton besides from his mic stand, which was understandable to a degree with the vocals, and maybe I’m just a little nitpicky, but I would have loved to see him interact with that front row a little bit more.

About halfway through, John pulled out a short but sweet acoustic set that was very wonderful to listen to and definitely gathered the crowd for a much more intimate feel, and I could tell it landed very well, especially “Name”.

The set eventually concluded with the as expected finisher “iris” and man, the amount of folks that decided this was their time to dance and sway together was enormous! It was a bit endearing to see, and also had every single person in that crowd singing along to the song itself, and was definitely the moment of the night that culminated it all together. As expected, the perfect finisher. Overall, a solid, well done set that’s obviously been polished over and over by the band, and the crowd definitely loved it.