The opening act ended up being a band called the Gufs, who I had never heard of, instead of the New Radicals. They were actually pretty good, but I was anxious for the Goos to come out. I caught a glimpse of them in a long corridor before they took the stage, I was so excited! It was dark and all I could see was the silhouette that was unmistakably Johnny's. Then the funky church sounding music started playing until it is recognizable as the intro to DIZZY. Then the guys just burst onto the stage and begin playing away. >From the second I saw them I had goosebumps!! They were full of energy and sounded great.
A few highlights of the night were Johnny's story he told before NAME, not the typical story, this one was new. He was talking about how life had changed since they had had a hit, giving several examples, ending with the comment that now every time they go out in public, some Backstreet Boy wants to hang around them. Then Johnny went on and on about the "boy bands" for awhile, it was hilarious! He has a great sense of humor! Some girls worked their way right in front of them and Johnny says "Hey girls, if ya wanna go find a seat, we'll start the show over for ya. Just kidding!" Then later, some girl near the front had a birthday and he asked how old she was. She said 21 and Johnny said "Hey here's some money, go buy me a beer!" He also told her "Happy birthday sweetheart."-lucky girl! Johnny was also having fun yelling this little "P-E-O-R-I-A" chant off and on all night.
Johnny sounded great all night. Robby was sort of losing his voice on and off, but he still did a great job on his numbers. He'd just make some noise or whatever when the words wouldn't come out and kept on playing, no one seemed to mind. Mike did an awesome drum solo and Nathan and Dave were totally into the show as well. It was a great performance on all of their parts. A definite crowd pleaser!!
After the show I decided to hang around by the tour bus to catch a glimpse of the guys if I was able. Security kept making all of us scoot back over & over. I saw Mike and a couple others go by, Mike waved (I couldn't tell who they were it was pretty dark, possibly Nathan and Dave). Anyways, all of us waiting were getting pretty excited knowing it wouldn't be long now until Johnny came out. Finally the moment came and everyone ran toward the bus, Johnny waved and said a few words . ( I snapped a pic!). Then from inside the tour bus, Nathan and Dave opened a window, and later, Johnny raised the curtain inside and did this cute little jump-in the air, raise his hands over his head thing, kinda like an "oh my gosh, there's screaming girls outside of my window" kinda look, it was priceless!
The guys put on a fantastic show! Set list as follows:
DIZZY/ LONG WAY DOWN/ LAZYEYE/ SLIDE/ BLACK BALLOON/ BULLETPROOF/ NAKED/ NAME JANUARY FRIEND/ STOP THE WORLD/ FULL FOREVER/ BROADWAY/ ANOTHER SECOND TIME AROUND/ FLAT TOP/ IRIS/ JUST THE WAY YOU ARE/ BURNIN' UP/ HATE THIS PLACE/ TWO DAYS IN FEBRUARY
On "Two Days..." Robby and John did this great guitar jam in the middle of it. Johnny went back up to the mic to finish the song and says "that was interesting". Then they left the stage after Johnny threw his guitar around for awhile. I don't think it ever did break!
Well that was my first GOO concert, but it won't be the last!!! I was also lucky enough to meet our very own Alex from World Of Goo! We've been online friends awhile now. We all got together at his cousin's place after the concert and played guitar and sang Goo tunes and had a great time talking- great ending to a great night!!