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        Goo Goo Dolls >> Goo Goo Dolls >> Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
        
(Message started by: ChickenCookie on Jul 7^th, 2008, 8:35am)

Title: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by ChickenCookie on Jul 7^th, 2008, 8:35am

Maybe it's the fact that this review featured a picture of Robby, not Johnny. Perhaps it's the comparison to Bruce Springsteen (that's a new one!) Or maybe the final sentence. I don't know what it is, but I really liked this review!

Frills-free rockers go extra yard for the fans
The Ambassador, Dublin
By Ed Power
Monday July 07 2008

Somewhere between Springsteen's pool-hall poetry and REM's gently arty college rock, you will find the Goo Goo Dolls. Starting out, the upstate New York duo of John Rzeznik and Robby Takac plied awkward post-punk as The Sex Maggots.

But realising they were better at channelling sweet romanticism than wriggly angst, they re-named themselves the Goo Goo Dolls and set off to conquer the mainstream.

They've surely succeeded beyond their most overwrought dreams. On the first of two sold-out dates in Dublin, the Goo Goo Dolls are cheered on by an ebullient crowd that seems to encompass every imaginable demographic of music fan.

Naturally, the loudest roar is for 'Iris', the 1999 hit which, with its unabashedly uplifting melody and self-empowering chorus, comes on like an edgier version of the theme from the sit-com 'Friends' (to the Goo Goos' apparent horror it was later covered by Ronan Keating).

Slouched low over an acoustic guitar, the tatoo-wreathed Rzeznik is an efficient, if frills-free, frontman (most of the heavy lifting is carried out by backing players).

But his sandpaper rasp is unmistakable. Soaring through emotion-brimming anthems such as 'Stay With You' and 'Let Love In', he resembles a non-cheesy Jon Bon Jovi, a chronicler of the American heartland who isn't afraid to look a little silly and over-earnest if it means connecting with his audience.

He's certainly willing to go that extra yard for fans. When someone in the front row calls for an obscure early track, Rzeznik works out the chords, nods towards the rest of the band, and knocks out a pitch-perfect rendering.

It's the sort of gesture that has helped the Goo Goos weather critical derision and hipster sneers: the tastemakers may regard them as fatally corny but their public remains unstinting in its devotion.

You can bet they'll still be standing tall when more fashionable acts have burned out and faded away.

:)

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/frillsfree-rockers-go-extra-yard-for-the-fans-1428774.html

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by Shannon on Jul 7^th, 2008, 9:32am

HA! Great minds. I was just coming to post this. Thanks for doing it.

This is a great article. I LOVE the last line.

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by The Cerulean O on Jul 7^th, 2008, 11:42am

This guy is either showing off his vocabulary or playing with a thesaurus. I like him.

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by ChickenCookie on Jul 7^th, 2008, 4:20pm

I'm really curious as to which 'obscure, early track' he's referring to. (Hope it's not Name!)

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by nmf016 on Jul 7^th, 2008, 5:19pm

on 07/07/08 at 16:20:25, ChickenCookie wrote:

I'm really curious as to which 'obscure, early track' he's referring to. (Hope it's not Name!)

I think he's referring to 'the reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about'. I don't think the band has spontaneously performed a requested song in about, oh, at least 8 years (not that they could be blamed for that, considering the extra musicians), even if John likes to occasionally ask the audience to request a song and wait for someone to call out the next planned song on the set list.

The set list, as posted by someone on AG, is below for that night. Please note the lack of anything that should be considered obscure.

Naked
Slide
Feel the Silence
Black Balloon
January Friend
Tucked Away
Dizzy
Here is Gone
CYG+1000 Words
Name
Before It's Too Late
Stay With You
Smash
Slave Girl
Better Days
Let Love In
Acoustic #3
Iris
Real
Broadway

(Dear GGDs, It wasn't very certain for awhile, but I can now safely say I will be seeing you two nights in a row in August. I know I can't expect anything off the wall or drastically different, so please just manage to play HIG one of the nights. Segue from Dizzy? Even better. Love, Nicole)

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by ChickenCookie on Jul 8^th, 2008, 2:50pm

Damn. I was hoping (against all hope) that maybe ... just maybe ... they pulled Just the Way You Are or Up Yours from their bag of tricks. WTH was I thinking? :(

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by lionhill on Jul 20^th, 2008, 2:47pm

This dude doesn't know the Goos usual setlist obviously, but when you think about it he's got a point. CYG is, after all, starting to show some wrinkles.

Title: Re: Frills-Free Rockers Go Extra Yard for Fans
Post by JohnnysValentine on Jul 28^th, 2008, 9:12am

This is the reason the Goos are the best band in the world!!!

He's certainly willing to go that extra yard for fans. When someone in the front row calls for an obscure early track, Rzeznik works out the chords, nods towards the rest of the band, and knocks out a pitch-perfect rendering.