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Title: Goos dazzle Darien crowd playing beyond ... Post by Shannon on Jul 23rd, 2006, 10:09am Awesome review!!!!! This definitely sounds like what I saw in Detroit Friday night too. http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060723/1048421.asp Goos dazzle Darien crowd playing beyond themselves By JEFF MIERS News Pop Music Critic 7/23/2006 Bill Wippert/Buffalo News The Goo Goo Dolls rock it hard and furious Saturday evening at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, before a near sell-out crowd. More photos on the Picture Page, D14. CONCERT REVIEW Goo Goo Dolls With Counting Crows, Willie Nile, Last Conservative and the Juliet Dagger on Saturday at Six Flags Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center. DARIEN CENTER - I've seen the Goo Goo Dolls more times than I care to remember, but on Saturday evening at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, I saw them morph before my eyes into the stadium rock band I'd always hoped they would become. This is no dis, folks. The Goos, when performing in Buffalo, their hometown, always seemed a touch apologetic for their success. For all of us who remember them as the scruffy punk-pop band filling the Continental with the glorious debauchery of misspent youth on a Friday night, the Goos as a successful rock band at large was too much to swallow. We eat our young 'round here. Success beyond our borders is frowned upon. The Goos, having paid their dues here, grown up here, learned to play here, eventually swallowed the fact that they would have to get the heck out of here if they ever wanted this thing to be more than a pipe dream, and embraced their post-"Dizzy Up the Girl" success with hesitation. These are Buffalo guys, after all. We don't suffer fools - especially those who interpret success as a free pass to start acting like Hollywood types - kindly. So a bit of hesitation always stuck in the craw during these "big" shows. But John Rzeznik and Robby Takac, and non-Buffalonian drummer Mike Malinin, wrestled to forge their new-found status as a "pop" band into a presentation palatable to their Buffalo fans, the folks who had, in a sense, put them there. Saturday's show, more than any I've seen, proved the Goos have grown into their own skin. Not only does the band have a new record its members believe in - the smart and soulful "Let Love In" - but Rzeznik and Takac have rallied the finest band they've had yet, a troop of players that seems to be, as they say, "totally into it." So we got the hits - the ones you would expect, like "Name" and "Black Balloon," replete with black balloons dropped on the audience - and that was fine. But there was a subtext, a subterranean rumbling that indicated this band is comfortable with itself at last. First off, this was a surprisingly large and vibrant crowd. The concert industry in general is in a slump, but someone forgot to tell Goo Goo Dolls fans about that. Was someone from Warner Brothers here to see what an absolute command this band has over its audience? I hope so. They turned up in droves on Saturday, just about selling the place out. And they kicked it pretty hard, as Takac slammed home a one-two set of his own tunes - those are the ones that sound most like the visceral punk the Continental crowd so adored - and Rzeznik eased into his role as a front-man in the John Mellencamp/Tom Petty mode. Glorious? It sure was close for this veteran of countless Goos concerts. Counting Crows, the band the Goos have been touring with this summer, and the band that gracefully offered the band the finishing spot on this, their homecoming eve, surprised the heck out of this writer. The band's warm and fuzzy brand of roots-rock with mild jam-band overtones always stuck in my craw. "Mr. Jones," the band's first hit in the early '90s, suggested a poor man's Van Morrison, and since Van is still going strong, I saw no reason for a lame usurper to show its face. But in concert, this group was close to sublime. The guitars - three of them, wrapping around a grand piano, bass drums and vocalist Adam Duritz - displayed a wonderful synchronicity, a deepening of the simple but effective chord progressions. And Duritz - who, by the way, hand-picked our own poet-laureate Willie Nile to open the show, based on what seems to be a rabid fandom - gave himself fully to the moment during each song. He moved me, which I wasn't expecting, since I've always found his liberal approach to pitch a tad disturbing. Duritz gave a nod to alt-country creator Gram Parsons, fully offered himself to Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi," sang the hell out of "Round Here," and still found time to call attention to the community activism groups the bands teamed with for this tour. e-mail: [email protected] |
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Title: Re: Goos dazzle Darien crowd playing beyond ... Post by y2goo_4ever on Jul 23rd, 2006, 5:03pm I would love to see them play in their hometown...What a great review... |
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Title: Re: Goos dazzle Darien crowd playing beyond ... Post by Iris74 on Jul 24th, 2006, 4:36pm Hmmm... I was there. �I wonder which show this guy saw, because it's not the one I did. Except for the large enthusiastic crowd, that was true...for the DUTG hits anyhow. By the end they were a lot quieter and looking a little shocked (my section anyway). Personally, I don't think the new cd translates well live and they didn't play hardly anything that wasn't on the new disc. Name was the only John vocals song played that didn't appear on either LLI or DUTG. �:-[ The show lacked the energy I'm used to seeing from the Goos (Robby's songs are an exception to this, he's always rocking hard), ESPECIALLY in Buffalo. (and I've been to the last 4 shows they've played there) � John seemed ticked about something, had a rant about how he doesn't care about what people think anymore, which was the most he said all night, and they didn't interact with the crowd at all. � Oh...and the "headliner" played an hour and 10 minutes (that's being generous with the time). I left disappointed for the first time ever after leaving a Goo Goo Dolls show (my brother felt the same way - he's been to the same shows I have and is arguably a bigger fan. �He was more mad about it. Said it was a waste of money to him.) The article has the lineup wrong as well LC and Juliet Dagger didn't open. *sigh* I wish they had. I love LC and want to see Juliet Dagger. Whoever did open was thanking the Counting Crows for the slot. |
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