Sorry I'm so late at sending this to you, but I was kinda busy... anyway, here is my review/fan encounter. I got up on Saturday and turned on my radio. I was tuned into 98.5 KRZ when I heard they were giving out backstage passes to anyone wearing something with KRZ on it. So I decided to make a banner that my friends Lindsay, Jen, April, and myself could hold up. We left for the concert at about 1:30 and got to the Marts Center around 2:45. We were the first people there, so everyone wanted to grab a bite to eat. There was no way I was going somewhere when I was first in line and I knew I could get front row seats. My mom tried to convince me, but I wouldn't budge. Everyone went to eat except April and me.

Around 4:00 I met Kat, the girl who got to go on-stage at the Charlotte concert. She seemed pretty cool. I got some pictures off of her to put on our poster. There was another radio station there giving away passes, and when the people started coming, they all went to that station. I was getting worried that KRZ wasn't going to show, no one was back from eating yet, and my mom had the tickets! Finally at around 5:00 my friends came back.

Then at about 6:00 KRZ finally showed up, so my friends and I ran over to their van and held up our banner. The lady in the van beeped. She hooked-us-up with a tape and a ton of bumper stickers. She said they were going to be looking for someone with a poster like ours and we were currently the only ones there. It was 6:30-6:45 when the guy came around to look. He asked us how many people were in our group, and we said four. He made this face and said he wasn't sure if we'd all get passes. Well, when they were getting ready to open up the doors, KRZ asked us to come over. The guy, who's nick-name I later found out was Iggy, said he could only take two of us backstage. Since it was my idea to come to the concert in the first place and since I am the biggest Goo fan, my friends decided I was definately going. Jen, Lindsay and April all picked a number. April picked closest and got to go with me. They opened the doors as Iggy was telling us to meet him back outside at 8:00. Because of this we didn't get front row, and my friends were pretty upset since we were the first ones there and all.

We wound-up getting third or fourth row. I was so anxious to meet the guys I kept telling April we should go outside. My mom bought me a shirt to wear up. It was 7:45 when we went outside. There we met up with Iggy and the other winners. He took us back inside at around 8:00 where we just waited to go upstairs to meet the guys.

It seemed like forever until they came in. I was so nervous. I couldn't believe I was actually going to meet the Goo Goo Dolls. When they walked in my heart just stopped. I thought I was dreaming! We waited with the other KRZ winners as the other station's winners got to get stuff autographed and their picture taken. We were in a single-file line, April behind me. She had a pic of Kat and John that Kat had asked us to get signed for her. KRZ had us all arrange ourselves for a picture. Then we got to meet the band. Mike was the first I met. He shook my hand while saying "hi, I'm Mike". I had him sign my dizzy up the girl cover. John was next in the line. He also shook my hand and said "hi, I'm John". He never looked up from signing my cd cover. Finally, I met Robby. He said "hey I'm Robby" and signed my cd cover. I was too shocked to speak to any of them. I wish I could have said something, and I probably would have except some guy was hurring us along. We were only allowed to sign one thing and I had a pic of Johnny I wanted to get signed. Too bad I didn't.

I waited for April to get done in line. She asked John if he remembered Kat and showed him the picture. He said "yeah, I remember her. Why isn't she up here?" April told him she didn't get the pass, but was in the front row. We walked back down the stairs and I was wishing that I had told the guys how much I loved them. I also wanted to ask them for a hug, but oh well, at least I got to meet them!

April and I walked back into the auditorium and met up with our parents. I started crying when they asked us how everything went. I was so happy, and I still couldn't believe it. April and I tried to fight our way back into the crowd of people to see Jen and Lindsay, and to give Kat her picture. Talk about mission impossible! So we went back to the bleachers. My mom grabbed my arm and fought us through the crowd. I saw Jen and gave her the picture to pass on to Kat.

The Goo Goo Dolls finally came on at about 9:30 and opened with "Dizzy". Everyone went wild. I spent most of the first couple of songs fighting my way to get next to Jen. After "Dizzy" John said to us "Youknow, you guys could move a little down there!", so of course we all started jumping around. A bunch of people were crowd surfing, and Jen got hit in the head by one of those people, so she went to the bleachers. I got even closer to the stage. It was about a quarter of the way through the concert when Johnny through the towel he had been wiping his sweat off with into the crowd. There was so many people fighting over it! It ripped in half, and I grabbed onto it. I almost lost my ring and some guy was squeezing my finger. I thought my nail was going to pop off. I couldn't take it anymore, so I ripped his hand off mine, and grabbed onto the towel with my other hand. By this time I had Lindsay helping me. Some guy was ripping off little strips, but that wasn't good enough for me, not realizing it, I had my nails dug into his hand, so I took them out. He yelled at some other girl for it when Lindsay and I yanked and ripped off a piece. She put it in her pocket so no one else would try to get it.

The rest of the concert was great! I got some water on me that John and Robby sprinkled onto the crowd because we were all sweating. Kat got to go up on stage to sing "Name" again, lucky girl!!

After the concert I wanted to sneak back to the tour bus to see if I could catch the guys when they came out, but when I got back there, I was chased away by the security guard. I had another plan, but I was forced to leave.

Well I gotta eat, but I definately recommend any Goo fan to check out a concert because they are GREAT!!!!!