September 18th
Coral Sky Amphitheater
West Palm Beach, FL
Here's my review of the Goo Goo Dolls/Sugar Ray/Fastball concert on its final day of touring.
I got to Coral Sky at about 6:45 and headed to the 'Will Call' booth to pick up my 2 backstage passes. Unfortunately, the lady in the booth said there was nothing there for me. Yeah, I was ticked, but what was I gonna do? I'll have to sit in the lawn for the entire show, oh well.
Before Fastball was on stage, there was a 2nd stage located in the corner with some local band on it. I personally was surprised to see local bands at an event this big, but hey, what do I know. Fastball slammed onto the stage, and the concert began. I'm not a humongo fan of Fastball (although I do like some of their songs) and they played a 30 min set, which included 'Out of my head', 'Fire Escape', and 'The Way'. I must say, they are really good live. They announced they were sad that this was the last day of their tour, and their going to miss Sugar Ray and the Goo Goo Dolls. (awww, how cute) After their set was over, the lights came on, and there was intermission 1.
I had just gotten back to my lawn blanket when Sugar Ray began their final concert of the Fuse 99 tour. Don�t get me wrong, I like Sugar Ray, and I love their songs, but Mark McGrath is a little vulgar...I mean, there were little kids in the audience...but I thought he was funny nonetheless, hehehe. He asked 2 people to come on stage and freestyle. It was actually pretty interesting! This old guy could actually get on stage and motivate a crowd. Again, I was surprised. They played 'Fly' as well as 'Sometimes' and 'Every Morning'. Sugar Ray has lots of energy onstage! There was also a bartender onstage (I have no idea why) but he wasn�t wearing any pants, and he mooned the audience. Very interesting, but strange. (I just thought I'd add that last part, I mean this IS my review, right?) After they said goodbye, the lights came on and intermission 2 began.
Gees, halfway through this article, and I haven�t even mentioned tot Goo Goo Dolls yet, strange. But that all changes now. After talking to some people, and grabbing a Surge, I headed back to my petty lawn blanket. The lights dimmed, and the show began. The Goo's exploded onto stage playing Dizzy and immediately following was Long Way Down. John was wearing a black shirt and black leather pants (from what I could see) and Robbie was wearing all black too, along with his bare feet, hehe. After the opening songs, John told a little joke, which I really liked. "A lady comes home and tell her husband that she just won the lotto and to pack her bags. The husband says 'where are we going?' and the wife says 'nowhere, get the fuck out'". After a few more songs, and Slide early in their set (which I thought was odd). Another thing that I thought was odd was that they played Acoustic #3 in their set, which they never did before. John said that song had no name, heh.
I've been to 4 Goo shows in the past year, and I must say, this was the best of them all. The set design was amazing by the way. The played Lazy Eye, Broadway, Iris, Black Balloon, January Friend, Hate This Place, Name (and he didn�t tell the Name story, I was mad! hehe), and about 7 other song which honestly I don�t remember. After their set ended (or you THINK their set ended) a screen came down, and showed a video on GREED. After that, I was more confused then a baby in a topless bar, but the Goo�s exploded back onstage to finish their tour with 3 final songs, including Hate This Place. After the music was all over, John, Mike, and Robbie destroyed the screen, throwing their guitars, drum heads, and mic stands into it...bringing it to the ground. Definitely the best Goo show I've ever seen.
Afterwards, I went behind stage and wondered what it would be like to be on the other side of the gate (which I should've been...) While back there, I met Jaime. (Jaimie, if your reading this, email me! I wanna keep in touch! [email protected]) You can read her show review of the Goo's concert in April on the Review page. She's real cool! Anyway, I never did get to see the Goo's this time (but I have met them before, I mean hey, Nathan knows me by name) because I had to be out by midnight and the concert ended at 11. Event though I didn�t get my backstage passes, I still had a kickass time. The Goo Goo Dolls are definitely my favorite band of all time.