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THE GOO GOO DOLLS Review by Steven Stanley: "heyheyhey. . . . . . .tonite we're in leeds . . . playing in the actual room the Who's live at leeds was recorded in. . . .and it turns out the best live rock album ever released (in my humble opinion) was recorded in a university lunchroom. . . . . no kidding. . . .i mean, it holds about 2000 people and has a balcony and such but it still carries a heavy lunchroom vibe. . . . . .unreal, just unreal. . . . . .below a shot of the room. . . . . ."
The plan was originally to setoff once Nat had got to Sheffield and we would drive together to the show from there... but that wasn't happening. Nat was in a major traffic jam, which meant I had to leave without her to be certain of catching the show (I even I ran into traffic probs!). There I was flooring the car at 90-100mph in the fast lane with the Knight Rider soundtrack on... was legendary... then more songs by the Hoff made for an entertaining journey and I was soon in Leeds :) Nat arrived about 45 minutes after me but I used that time to find her a parking space... The venue wasn't at all where I'd imagined it would be... it was held at 'The Refectory' where 'The Who's' legendary live album was recorded. It was a long and narrow venue... and when I say narrow I mean extremely narrow! We saw the last 2 songs by the support act 'The Tender Box' and they were quite good I thought. The 'Goo Goo Dolls' took ages coming onstage, but they finally did about 9.10pm to kick off the UK Tour with 'Stay With You'... The crowd was absolutely wild, a lot of tall people as well and even I had trouble seeing at some points and I'm over 6ft! My favourite song 'Slide' was next, which surprised me they played one of their biggest songs at the start of the show. New song 'Feel The Silence' was up next followed by the epic 'Black Balloon'.
Robby (who's birthday is the day after this show!) took the lead vocals for 'Smash' and 'Tucked Away'... then lead singer Johnny came back and sang 'Name', I loved the acoustic jamming in that song, god it was good. 'We'll Be Here (When You're Gone)' was great to hear... one of my favourite songs off the new album. Truth be told though it's hard to choose a favourite as they are all outstanding. And then... the song everyone was waiting for... ...Johnny actually introduced the song as 'written by Ronan Keating' which was greeted with mass booing and jeering from the crowd who hate the fact that Ronan covered the song. At the end of the song (which I didnt capture on video sadly) Johnny started the song again and told everyone "lets wake up the neighbours!!!"... the crowd sang nearly all the song... just awesome to be a part of I'll never forget it.
At some point during the show, Johnny started doing a George Bush impression (which was very good and much like Will Ferrells!) and starting slating the US president... I couldn't stop laughing! Another great singalong toon...'Broadway' was played along with another one of my favourites....'Here Is Gone'... They then dipped into the archive and played a song of the 'Dizzy' album called 'January Friend'.... I was just texting somebody and all of a sudden a crowd surfer hit the back of my head... I took the full weight of the person... I would have laid a punch on them but I wasn't sure whether it was a girl or boy due to the gay emo haircut. It was a stupid thing to do as there wasn't enough people near me to support him... the little prick. Thats one thing about tonight... because it was at a university it was full of students... most are totally fine... but you always get the odd gimp in there.
Tonight was a Friday night... on Monday just 4 nights previously the band played to 60,000 people at the Superdome in New Orleans, Lousiana, USA to re-open the venue along with Greenday and U2 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed it last year. They played the song 'Better Days' which helped a lot of people in New Orleans and is kind of an anthem there... its a great song, and tonight the people of Leeds lapped it up just as much as the people in New Orleans, it got a great reception. The title track to the new album finished off the main set... 'Let Love In' was left sprawling the video screen behind the stage as the crowd cheered and screamed for more. 'Become' started the encore followed by the bouncy 'Give A Little Bit'. Johnny then said they'd do 2 more songs... but they only did one which was 'Without You Here'... a good closer actually and very powerful.
And so ends my first Goo Goo Dolls gig... it won't be the last I can tell you that right now. I was very impressed by them tonight... the band were very good, as were the crowd. The only letdowns were the poor layout of the venue, and due to its size the sound was pretty poor as you struggled to hear vocals with awkwardly arranged speaker stacks. All in all though an awesome night and I'd tell any person who's a fan of rock music to go and see these guys. The re-release of their new album 'Let Love In' is out Monday along with a bonus DVD... well worth a purchase.
Setlist: Encores: ******************** Review by Nat Whitehead: Went to see the “Googles” last night play their first night of their UK tour at Leeds Uni and was mightily impressed with the band - they simply rocked the place! It has to be said however that I am now feeling absolutely wacked now and will probably need the gayness and civilised sit down gig that is Will Young tomorrow to recover lol I set off from Leicester at just gone 4, the plan being to get to Steves for about 5.30. At 5 o’clock I had only just managed to reach the M1 - a 6 mile journey, caused by friggin roadworks at the junction. Undeterred I thought I’d just boot the KA up the motorway but alas as I bombed past the first junction I was greeted with a “long delay” sign claiming that there was congestion from J23 - J28 - Great!. By 5.30 I hit the back of the shite that was to take me 2 hours to get through - at one point I achieved 1.1 miles in 20 minutes - you get the idea lol. Steve bless him held on for me til 7 despite me nagging him to get motoring and it is at this point that the first thoughts of pissed off ness sunk in as I started to wonder if I’d ever get there ( plus I missed out on some much needed Hoff humour! L). I managed to “arrive at my destination” 4 hours after setting off having achieved a pathetic 110 miles lol. Fortunately for me, the 45 minutes that Steve had gained on me, helped me out as he had only just managed to park up so we thankfully went into the venue together - wat a cafuffle lol. The venue was a narrow hall with the small stage at one end with balconies to either side which allowed us to walk down fairly close to the stage albeit still a way back. We positioned ourselves as close as we could but unfortunately behind wat can only have been the “tall peoples society” as I could see pretty much nothing! We caught the last couple of trax from the support act - although I had gone to retrieve beer through one of them so can’t really comment too much on them! Goos came on at just gone 9 to an awesome reception, the crowd went nuts, possible fuelled by alcohol and youth lol ( fecking students!!) I have to confess that for the first track I viewed it entirely through Steves camera - an alternative to big screens I guess!! - Shoulders parted after that and I did manage to gain an inch gap view point where I filmed one of only 2 bits of footage - Black Balloon - one of my favourite trax. I won’t list the setlist cause Steve has that but the highlights for me have to be Broadway and Iris - the crowds singing was amazing, Iris in particular. I’ve never heard such a good response from a crowd vocally and Jonny sure whipped them all up - summink you just don’t get from our Bryan! Having lost my inch gap view and after a pair of legs brushed over my shoulder landing on Steve, who was bent over texting at the time so provided a good seat for the gimp for a few seconds lol, - I decided to make an exit to the back for some liquid and air refreshment lol but as I stood at the back I had urges to be back at the front (women lol ) so I moved back toward the front and low and behold got the best view of the night just as they bloody finished without you here! Their final track - Bloomin’ typical!! All in all, despite the stresses of the drive and shit venue it was still a great night. The Goos did not disappoint and its just ashame I didn’t get to see them in full view lol. Outside we managed to barter with a bloke selling unofficial tour tops and got ourselves a bargain lol - Just an excuse really to have to see the Goos again so we can wear them me thinks ;-)!! To finish the story I managed to bomb it back down the motorway in record time - 70 miles from Steves departure in 45 minutes - hopefully no-one can do the maths cause I wasn’t speeding honestly gov! | |||
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Pictures by Steven Stanley & Robby Takac
Ticket for the show
Johnny Rzeznik
Robby Takac on bass
Johnny singing
The band
Jammin' on the acoustic |
