July 9, 2003 Bonner Springs, KS - Red, White and Boom by latebloomer (allison) Ok, I'll start out talking about who I took to the concert. A Goo-Virgin! My ex-boyfriend, Kurt, got de-gutterflowered tonight. And he had a great time! He was impressed and would definitely like to see them again in concert. Woo Hoo! Another new fan! I took a "before" picture of him before we left my apartment, and then an "after" picture when we got back. He just shook his head and smiled. He never really got used to me calling him a name with the word "virgin" in it, he just rolled his eyes every time. He did draw the line though when he said he would NOT stand there (at the concert) and hold a hot pink sign that said "GOO" on it. LOL! Guess a guy's got to draw the line somewhere, huh? He wouldn't even go with neon green though! It's just as well though. Posterboard would NOT have held up tonight for 5 minutes. It rained like crazy. But I'll get to that in a little bit.

Decorated the car up with my hot pink "Goo Goo Dolls Rock" sign in the back drivers side window (with .com in tiny letters at the bottom! hehe), and my "Goo Fans For Peace" sticker in the passenger side window. We went on our way about 6:15, stopped for gas and food, and headed west to Bonner Springs. By the time we got there, about 7:15, there were some dark clouds lurking around and I was starting to get really bummed. Well, we decided to just stay in the car and wait till it was almost time for the Goos to go on in case it started raining or something. Well, it's a damn good thing we did because it stormed really really hard there for a little while. And everyone started leaving. I was starting to get nervous because it seriously looked like the end of a concert and I thought maybe they had canceled it. So we listened to Mix93.3 and they continued to talk about it, although I thought it was really lame the way they said that Kelly Clarkson was "headlining" it. Paleeese! She played for 15 minutes after the Goos. That's not headlining to me. Nothing against her, I just thought that sounded ridiculous. But, anyway.... so it finally stopped raining for a while and we decided to go on in about 8:45/9:00 or so. I bought me another Goo t-shirt (the black one with the row of roses on the front) for $20, and a size smaller than I bought at the Denver concert in April! Woo Hoo! I think I paid $35 or $40 for the one in Denver. Sheesh!

Before I start talking about the concert, I'll talk a little bit about what John was wearing. I know some of you are dying to know, so I might as well get it over with so I can move on to the important stuff! It was really cool to see him looking a little different tonight. He wore the rolled up cammies, with his socks scrunched down, and the old faithful black sneakers that won't die (or a similar pair). He also wore a dark baseball cap, and a black sleeveless t-shirt, showing off the infamous tattoo'd biceps! Robby was wearing a black tshirt (don't remember which one, not sure if I could really see it that well anyway) and black jeans; and of course sporting the multi-colored hairdo. Mike, Greg and Jason, just looked like, well, Mike Greg and Jason. I was a little disappointed though not to see Jason's cool fashion statement I saw in a picture not too long ago; John Deere hat and a button down shortsleeve shirt under an AC/DC concert T. I love it!

They all sounded great; vocally and musically. The sound was awesome overall, except Robby's mike was a little screwy a time or two during one of his songs, but nothing too distracting. Mike didn't miss a beat, as usual!

Not soon after the Goos came on, the rain started coming down again. I took an umbrella, but gave up and said to heck with it after a few minutes. You can't take pictures and hold an umbrella at the same time, so it had to go! I wore a denim jacket, which helped a little, but not much. Also wore jeans instead of shorts, so I felt like I weighed 300 lbs trying to drag myself back to the car afterwards. Our seats were good, but I wish we would have been a lot closer. Our seats were the 20th row I think, and kinda off to the side, so we had a view of the whole stage, but we weren't close enough to where they would be able to see my banner if I held it up. Oh, did I mention I took my GGD Fans 4 Peace banner? I even had an extra ticket on the other side of the stage, about the 13th row, and that was even closer over on Robby's side, but still not quite close enough because it was really off to the side. Although at one point during one of Robby's songs, John came over to that side of the stage and I decided to just grab the banner and twirl it around above my head and jump up and down like a maniac, and I think he saw me because he pointed over there. There wasn't anyone else around me doing anything special at that moment so I think he really did see me and pointed at me! If I could have stood up on my seat for a few moments above the crowd, I'm sure I could've gotten Robby's attention with my banner at one point, but the seats were just too dang wet and I was afraid of busting my butt or something. I did get brave when a bunch of other people around me stood on their seats for a little bit (tried to dry it off with my jacket) but security made us get down, and I don't blame them. It was pretty dumb. After I took a bunch of pictures over on that side I decided to go back over to the other side where Kurt was. Do you have any idea how hard it is to try to take pictures in the rain, while wearing glasses? And the camera lens kept fogging up and getting wet, so I don't know if the pictures will even come out or not. One hour photo, here I come!

Ok. For the funny John moment. You knew it was coming. Every show, it seems, there is a funny John moment! Ok. He's just kind of pauses and smiles and so on, then he says something like "I know now that I'm definitely in the mid-west." He says that this girl in the front row showed him her boobs. He said that only here in the mid-west would a girl have boobs that looked like that and have them be real! (Not the exact story, but got the main gist of it down!) lol.

Another funny moment was when John started playing Name, and his guitar was out of tune. I was like, at this point in time, who cares! But as he walked off stage to go get another one or to tune it or something, this guy comes out on stage and starts singing "Can't touch this" while Robby and Mike start playing it! I thought it was MC hammer at first, but Kurt didn't think he looked old enough to be him! So I don't know. But there were 2 or 3 other people that came out there too and started dancing and stuff. They played it for a minute or two, it sounded pretty dang cool! The crowd went nuts while that was going on. Very fun, and very cool. Then John came back out with his tuned guitar and was like, Man! After that? We should just leave! Goodnight! (or something of the sort- sorry, I'm terrible with the exact quotes, it was just too wet to write during the concert!)The crowd was like No! It was pretty funny.

There was one song where the rain was coming down reeeally hard, and Robby even said "hang in there, we're right here with ya" or something of the sort. I just want to say it was soooooo cool standing (dancing, jumping, etc) out there getting stormed on while watching my favorite band in the whole world, knowing that they appreciated every single soggy one of us!!!!! That just meant so much, you know? I was like, I don't care how hard it rains! I'm not leaving! And I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had to.

There was another moment later, right before Sympathy, when John thanked us all for sticking around in the rain to see them, and said that he was getting kinda teary eyed, and looked like he wiped his eyes and he sniffled a bit. At first I thought he was going to make a joke or something, but he never laughed, he just kinda started playing Sympathy, and I was like oh, that is so sweet! We probably were quite a site out there! Man, it was really, wet. And Kurt and I weren't as wet as those that had been there through the entire storm, but stayed around just to see the Goos. That's dedication! That place holds 18,000 people, and about 1/2 the people stayed. That's a lot of soggy people!

Sympathy sounded so good too. I watched most of that with the binoculars! Did I mention the binoculars? I totally recommend them unless you're in the first few rows. It's cool to be able to see the guys in the back better. Robby looked cute back there with the shaker thing too during Sympathy. Iris was so cool, not just because they sounded awesome of course, but when they were doing the light show thing, lightening was flashing on the other side of the stage and it just really added a dramatic effect. Kurt thought it was cool too. What an awesome way to end a show!

We decided not to stay and listen to Kelly Clarkson, so we started slogging along toward the car. I swear I had to stop 2 times on the way because I ran out of breath. I was so wet, and my clothes were so heavy, and it was still fairly hot out. At least we weren't wet AND cold, that would've been worse. We did hear Kelly on the way out, and she sounded really good. They also had a cool fireworks display afterwards that we sat in the car and watched. We could see the gates where the busses went into to go behind the stage, but we couldn't see the busses. Kurt didn't seem to think that there was any chance of meeting the Goos, partly because of that, and partly because it was still sprinkling off and on. And I agreed, so we went on out to the car. So if I read a bunch of reviews talking about meeting the guys I'm going to feel like a really big dud and be depressed!

All in all, it was one of the coolest nights of my life. Know why? Because it was just so cool to be a part of something like that. And after chatting with one of my goo-buddies online, I truly have admitted to myself what an impact music and the people that make it can have on the soul. And I realize that it's ok to talk about it sometimes and not feel like a goof. I have NEVER stood out in the rain for anyone like that, and never thought that I would. Maybe I'm just winding down now from an exciting evening, but I truly believe that the guys appreciated every single one of us out there tonight getting rained on just to hear them play some songs that they created in private at 3:00am one night. You know? I really hope nights like tonight make up for all the B.S. they have had to endure along the way. It may only be Rock and Roll, but I tell you what, Rock and Roll can be "as much as medicine" * for all involved if you've got the right mixture. And I'm telling you, these guys have got it.

The Goo Goo Dolls Rock. Period.