Jessica Bell
Arts Editor
Kady Bell
Web Editor

“We missed our chance but not for long, I know somehow we will hold on.” –John Rzeznik

Let us preface this column by saying that we are certainly some of the most unlucky ticket buyers in Southern California.

Though just being at a concert is half the battle, only dark victories are won when we seem destined to see favorite bands perform from the forgotten corners of the back row.

In reoccurring fantasies we watch full-size rock stars from the wings of famous venues or dance alone to the music in our heads, swirling drooping roses on abandoned auditorium floors with our feet, much like Penny Lane.

Both scenarios remain promises unfulfilled.

Still, our night with the Goo Goo Dolls, which began in an explosion of white illumination and sound, was one we would never trade, not even for a copy of the Japanese “Bang” import (Well, maybe, it’s hard to
come by).

“I’m drowning in your dizzy noise.”

Dizzying lights strobe on and off.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Speeding up, they transform into beaming bursts akin to spinning Morning Glory sparklers on Fourth of July.

The Goos launch into “Dizzy,” but the audience spread throughout the Wiltern in Los Angeles is already effectively gone.

And a little bit blind.

“And it won’t take long to burn, all eyes on me.”

Lead singer John Rzeznik rips across the stage smiling his whiter-than-white smile as he sings, “You’re cynical and beautiful, you always make a scene” and way up in the nose-bleeds, two dizzied-up girls hold up their fingers, mimicking a favorite rock star’s size. Rzeznik is a bit larger than an ant and perfect for a pocket.

Thoughts running through our vertigo-struck minds at the time:

A) We could have dug a hole to Shangri-la and paid our respects to some de facto holy rollers in the 45 minutes that passed before the Goo men appeared on stage (complaints would generally be few and far between, but we had just been victimized by Ronnie Day’s emo ways).

B) Damn the front row viewers, aside from the mega fans. They are almost as bad as the concert-goers who stand during the Goos’ biggest hits; yet sit during bassist Robby Takac’s tunes (again, we blame our rage on Ronnie).

C) Did an obsessed fan just throw her thong onstage?

Perhaps we were foolish to spend $200 to see the Dolls perform for one short hour from the second to the last row in the Wiltern, but as our friend Jackie, who sold us two of the four tickets, said, seeing the Goos in L.A. is “priceless.”

Johnny, Robby and ex-Minor Threat drummer Mike Malinin.

We love it.

“Slide,” “Broadway,” and “Tucked Away.”

Hello, we love it (Picture the Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor jumping in his purple underwear. Do you “Dig?”).

“I’m on a mission baby, I ain’t hearing what you’re saying.”

The concert was sold out, foiling our seat-thieving mission. Forced to make the best out of our cheap, but actually not-so-cheap, view at the top, we screamed loud, feeling close in spirit if not in distance, and prolonged feelings of nausea-inspired giddiness by standing up – that way the pictures we snapped were not just shots in the dark.

Lesson learned: a Goo show from the back row is still priceless.

“Slide” morphs into “Feel the Silence” as the lights fade to a hazy blue.

Rzeznik throws himself across an amp, most likely feeling that “pride, yeah,” Takac tip-toe dances across the stage and an audience of strangers becomes a community of Goobers.

Later we recall a tale of Rzeznik’s first concert experience with the Police.
Sting had thrown several songs out of whack by performing each a fragment faster than norm, something a young and impressionable Polish boy had deemed “cool” and apparently imitation-worthy.

The light doesn’t blind us, it just helps us see.

“I’m sorry I’m not there with you, but you ain’t here with me.”

Toying with his hair Rzeznik points at the Mezzanine and shouts, “I see you up there.”

Funny, because we can hardly see him.

Nonetheless our Johnny is seemingly out of sorts; bashing the record industry and refraining from his storytelling whims.

There will be no encore featuring “All Eyes on Me” or “Cuz’ You’re Gone” but we are loyal like strays, completely satisfied with “We’ll Be Here (When You’re Gone)” “Stay With You,” and Takac’s “Smash.”

“Let Love In” differs from almost every other Goo effort; exploring the band’s softer side, exemplifying Rzeznik’s progressive nature and displeasing many a rock critic.

But the walls will fall before we do.

“No one can hear above this noise.”

Black balloons resembling jelly beans from afar are tossed back and fourth like beach balls while Rzeznik sings fans into frenzy.

After all the Goos have a never-ending propensity to reproduce an in-studio sound; mirroring radio play onstage, no matter how slow or fast each song is performed.

Screaming “I can’t hear you,” Johnny moves the crowd like a hurricane wind, warranting louder chorus sing-alongs during “Black Balloon.”
“Cuz’ you’re gone and I wish you’d come back.”

Myriad “Let Love In” tracks and a slew of chart-toppers circa “Dizzy Up the Girl” fame comprise the set list, ending with an encore of “Acoustic #3” and Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit.”

Our favorite albums — 1994’s “Superstar Carwash” and 1990’s “Hold Me Up” — are forgotten, not one song from the power trio’s punky past performed.

“Now that it’s over, of course it’s so clear.”

Fab Fay, a prominent GGD fan in Internet domain, once said the magic of a Goos’ show lasts forever.

Her words proved true, even though the Dolls were no bigger than a thumb and ring finger combined from atop the Wiltern world.

Of course, we still dream of fulfilling the ultimate “Almost Famous” fantasy.

In our minds we danced ourselves dizzy to the tune of “On Your Side” once the stage cleared, booting black balloon remnants around a lone pair of lacy panties.

Jessica Bell, a senior communications major, is arts editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at jbell@ulv.edu.

Kady Bell, a senior communications major, is web editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at kbell@ulv.edu.