The band offers classics and new songs on tour
Goo Goo Dolls had the crowd at Wolf Trap on their feet all night on Sunday (July 27th). The pop-rock hitmakers are currently on their Summer Anthem Tour with Dashboard Confessional.
Lead Singer John Rzeznik started the show by himself, a spotlight illuminating his black tank and tattoos, as he sang the opening to “Naked.” “Slide” followed, much to the approval of the sold-out audience in Virginia.
Goo Goo Dolls have made a career through their core combination of strings and keys into alt-rock earworms. The back-to-back pairing of “Miracle Pill” and the new song “Nothing Lasts Forever” is a perfect example. The former is backboned by a plunky riff on the keys; the latter starts with a loop and becomes very guitar-heavy as the song progresses.
The Dolls are perhaps the tightest live pop band performing right now. Every note of their layered instrumentation rang out with clarity to the pavilion and wafted over Wolf Trap’s gorgeous lawn. And that tightness extended to the flow of the setlist, which never jarred as they powered through over 21 songs in about 100 minutes. Their stage set featured lots of beamed lights that moved and danced up and down the rafters.
Rzeznik’s vocals did not fail him, despite warning the crowd he was losing his voice “a little bit” before “Acoustic #3.” His contemplative tone is emblematic of 2000s pop music, transporting fans to a time when his genre of choice was a lot more songwriter and story-driven and not so algorithmic. Reznik referenced as much when, after saying he hears from fans about what GGD songs mean to them, he said, “Fuck AI. I’m betting on humans.” He then delivered “Names” partially a cappella.
Bassist and co-founder Robby Takac took lead vocals on “January Friend.” The 27-year-old song highlights the group’s punk rock beginnings. Takac’s consciously strange and high-pitched vocals fit perfectly.
I feel like I say this every five reviews or so, but I never cease to be amazed by the connections humans create with poetic words set to a series of notes. But it seems like every five shows, that connection is the invisible band member, creating a bridge between the fans and the stage. That was certainly the case here. And it’s more than just “Iris,”—though that certainly was the loudest sing-along of the night.
I could hear those individual histories each person had with the Dolls’ catalogue in the passion with which they sang along. And the group gets it. Said Rzeznik, “Thank you for keeping this band alive.”
