Hey everyone!! This site is great, I just started checking it out before my first ever Goo show in Sioux Falls on August the 16th. Though it was my first show, I have been a HUGE fan ever since "Name" hit the radio air waves! We don't get all that many big name bands to come to South Dakota and I was SO EXCITED to see that they were going to be at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences. Anyway, I didn't actually find out about the concert til after the tickets went on sale, so my seats weren't very close--last row of the Mezzanine, which is the middle level. The Great Hall is a very beautiful theater type of venue though, and there is not a bad seat in the house. I went in to pick up my tickets early and heard the band warming up playing Slide!! It was so awesome, the entire place was quiet and we walked down the hall next to the Great Hall and could hear Johnny's beautiful voice singing the song! Wow. Anyway...a band from Sioux Falls that is kinda making it big, I don't know all that much about them to tell you the truth--Kory and the Fireflies--opened. They were pretty pumped because Sioux Falls is there hometown and the crowd was pretty good to them, they played lots of songs and I was fairly impressed. Check them out if you get a chance. There was a short intermission period where they changed the sets, taped the set lists to the floor, all that fun stuff. Then the lights started to dim and it went completely dark, and Johnny sang the first line of "Naked" kinda drawn out from how it sounds on the CD, it sounded AMAZING, and "Goo Goo Dolls" dropped down to the back of the stage in silverish-white letters. I had goosebumps. They did a neat lighting effect on the drum set, lots of lights hitting it at once so it looked like it was flashing silver light, I know that's a bad description but I'm trying my best here, it was really cool. Then the lights came on and Johnny sang backstage until the song sped up at which point he ran onto the stage and the crowd went crazy!! It was just unbelivable. John was wearing his long camo pants and a white wife beater with black skater type shoes. Robby was wearing a black t with yellow writing that I couldn't make out, dark rather tight jeans, and what appeared to be black socks. He was really energetic. Despite being in the second level I had a great view of the entire stage during the whole concert. I can't say enough about the venue, it's just beautiful, the sound is amazing no matter where you are sitting and all of the seats face the stage. So...John talked quite a bit, he made comments about what people were wearing in the front row, commented on how beautiful the room was, hugged and kissed a girl on the cheek in the front row who had a sign that said she had stayed up all night for her tickets, at which point he asked her how she had gone to the bathroom, and she said she had held it. He responded to that with: "I'm really working hard for you guys tonight, I really have to pee but I'm going to wait til after the show." My favorite part of the whole show was "Name". Johnny came out with a cigarette, it was just him in the front of the stage with a spotlight on him, he lit it up and said "Please don't smoke, it is a violation of venue rules." Everyone laughed. "I'm probably going to get fined, I don't care I'm a big rich fucking rock star." More laughing. "I should have been a basketball player, yeah right, a 5 foot 10 inch Pollack playing basketball. Then I wouldn't be rich." He might have said more but that is the gist of it. Then he played the opening notes to "Name" which got everyone excited, he stopped, smoked a little bit and finished the cigarette I think, then went into the song. It sounded like the acoustic version you'd find on Kazaa or something, very "raw" which I thought was cool. His voice sounded beautiful. He barely sang the last line and made it sound kind of apathetic which I think was on purpose. I loved it!!! "American Girl" was great, as was "Iris", which was the last song before the encore. The last song of the encore was "What a Scene" which I thought was one of their best performances of the night, I love that song. Robby sang 5 songs in total including one of the encore songs. They played all of the hits of course, I tried to remember all of the songs but I didn't write down the setlist or anything. Anyway, it was a great show!! The band was so receptive and seemed really happy to be playing which isn't always the case at shows, I thank them for that!!