Shannon
WOG Administrator
 
Gender: 
Posts: 6800
|
 |
Goo Goo Dolls Lili Claire review!
« on: May 1st, 2008, 10:00am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
Goo Goo Dolls, Sugar Ray play hit-filled show
By: Jordan Healy
The Goo Goo Dolls played at Mandalay Bay last weekend for the Lili Claire Charity, which benefits families with children who have neurogenetic conditions
The 6th Annual Concert for Lili Claire rocked the Mandalay Bay Arena Saturday night, featuring excellent performances by The Goo Goo Dolls and Sugar Ray.
When the house lights went down, for The Goo Goo Dolls performance, something akin to the decibel level of a small earthquake erupted in the arena. The audience was clearly here to see the main act, and for the rest of the band's hour-long hit-studded set they were bent on showing it.
They wasted no time in getting right to business, playing such well-known numbers as "Slide," "Black Balloon," and their own version of Supertramp's classic "Give A Little Bit."
The only weak point of their set was when bassist Robby Takac took over lead vocals for one song. While he may have been the lead singer of the group for the first five years of their existence, it's quite clear why they didn't become majorly successful until Rzeznik took his place.
The Goo Goo Dolls are one of those bands that needs to be experienced live in order for the listener to fully appreciate the music being presented. While many of the group's songs easily run together on their albums, they flow quite nicely and all sound unique in a live setting. Johnny Rzeznik's vocals aren't given their proper justice on the recordings, and if anything he sounds much more confident of his vocal ability live.
After a solid 50-minute performance, the group stepped offstage for a moment, eliciting loud applause and screams from the eager audience, as if they already knew what was coming next. Less than a minute later, the band returned to the stage, launching into a moving version of arguably their most famous track, "Iris." The song is already powerful to begin with, but it's absolutely meant to be experienced live. The combo of the sheer volume of the crowd singing along, and the expert rendition of the song on stage was simply breathtaking, and only augmented by an added guitar solo courtesy of Brad Fernquist.
This would have been the perfect time to tie up the set, but the group decided to play one more track, a cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl." The cover was spot-on, but it would have seemed more logical if they had closed the set with "Iris," considering the sheer magnitude of the track. To only make it stranger, the group left the stage immediately after finishing the cover, without saying a word. It was an amazing performance, but the abrupt ending left many attendees wondering if there was more to come. When the house lights came up the crowd looked confused for a moment, then slowly filed out of the arena, faces lit up with smiles.
Sugar Ray put on a show that was equally as impressive, albeit a little more playful. Vocalist Mark McGrath must have run across the expansive stage at least 40 or 50 times as he lead the crowd through sing alongs of the group's many hits. As an added bonus, the group threw in two energetic Ramones covers, "Mean Machine" and "Blitzkrieg Bop," as well as a spot-on rendition of Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"
About halfway through their set, DJ Homicide took the spotlight and began to spin a mash-up of Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O'Mine" with a hip-hop beat. The crowd instantly picked up the tune and began to sing along as McGrath did his best impression of Axl Rose's trademark "snake dance" on stage.
After this brief interlude, the group closed their set with an extended version of the first single that earned them fame, "Fly." Drummer Stan Frazier came out from behind the kit on this track and donned an acoustic guitar, dancing around as if crazed while strumming happily away. As irritating and overplayed as this song may have been when it first came out 11 years ago, it took on a new life live.
Overall, this was an excellent concert, and for a good cause. All proceeds went to the local Lili Claire family resource center, which provides assistance to families with children who have neurogenetic conditions. Hopefully this is a tradition that will continue, and the 7th annual Lili Claire Concert will be even bigger than this year's edition.
http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/article.php?ID=12012
The Goos and Sugar Ray together again .... must have been a wild night in Vegas 
Despite the bad review of Robby  , I thought this reviewer really caught the essence of their live show. It was nice to read a review where the writer "got it".
|
| « Last Edit: May 1st, 2008, 12:19pm by Shannon » |
 IP Logged |
If you need help, please email me at [email protected]
|
|
|
Home
Help
Search
Members
Login![[MFC]](http://www.musicfanclubs.org/googoodolls/images3/tag_mfc.gif)
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print
Author