Goo Goo Dolls
October 30th, 2018
Paramount Theater – Denver, Colorado
Words & Photos by: Tyler Hypnarowski
Remember the Fall of 1998? Clinton was in the White House and in all sorts of trouble, Saving Private Ryan and Titanic were the films of the year, and you were running AOL on your Windows 98 through a dial up connection. It was also the among the final glory days of the compact disc, and on September 22nd the Goo Goo Dolls released Dizzy Up the Girl, their multi-platinum selling sixth studio album. Yeah, you remember the Fall of 1998.
So does guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and bassist Robbie Takac, the pair who founded the Goo Goo Dolls as a post-punk band in Buffalo, New York way back in 1986. So when they brought their Dizzy Up the Girl 20th Anniversary Tour to Denver’s Paramount Theatre Tuesday night, there was plenty of nostalgia both on and off of the stage.
By 8:30 the house lights had gone down as the band stood side stage and did some last second tuning before sprinting onstage for the start of “Dizzy”, the album’s fiery opener. Playing the record in its entirety from cover to cover, the songs were able to connect with the crowd early as the following two tracks were hit singles and FM radio stalwarts “Slide” and “Broadway”, both eliciting big reactions and sing-alongs from the fans in attendance.
Running around stage, jumping, and doing leg kicks, neither Rzeznik, 52, or Takac, 54, appear to have lost a step physically. And with the help of an additional guitarist, a keyboard player, and obviously a drummer, the Goos seem to be in a great spot musically as well. Polished, sure. But not lacking that raw energy that has helped to define their concerts since the days they were playing Replacements covers in dive bars in the 80s.
The bittersweet sounding “Black Balloon” would then follow the Takic sung “January Friend”, meaning four of the album’s five singles were played right off the bat. This would allow for them to explore a segment of the record that features some deeper cuts, many of which haven’t shown up in Goo Goo Dolls setlists in years or even a decade or more. The album is very well supported and they had it all on display in Denver – from the guitar driven rocker “Bulletproof” to Takic’s “Amigone”, perhaps the most badass song ever written about a funeral parlor, to “All Eyes on Me”, which arguably could have fit right in as an unprecedented sixth single.
Before long the hits would return as a passionate rendition of “Iris”, the ballad that ultimately helped to define the album and the band as a whole resonated through the walls of the 88 year old room. An engaging frontman, Rzeznik allowed for and encouraged fans to sing along all night, and the smash single from the City of Angels film gave him and the crowd an opportunity to have at it. “Don’t make me come up there!” the lead singer jokingly yelled while goading fans up in the balcony to sing along at one point.
Making small talk with the crowd occasionally throughout the night, Rzeznik mentioned he was seeing lots of smiling faces up front. “Man, I love visiting Denver. Everybody is just so, just so, like…in shape” to which the theater laughed. The Goo Goo Dolls have always been a bit of an everyday, working Joe sort of band, and Rzeznik’s interactions with the crowd, and his playing for that matter, seemed genuine all evening long.
The album’s final tracks, “Extra Pale” and “Hate This Place” would then close out the Dizzy Up The Girl portion of the evening, before the show took an interesting twist. The band retreated backstage with Rzeznik alone quickly returning to a stage that had its backdrop changed out from a large banner of the Dizzy Up The Girl cover to a video screen. The lead singer proceeded to tell the crowd how Denver was an “important city” and that he wanted to do something special like bring out a guest.
The only problem, he said, was that every celebrity he has ever known has been an “asshole.” So in a highly scripted and practiced routine, he invited a video version of himself to join him for a duet for a few songs. The pair bickered and bantered and while it was light hearted and innocuous, it was definitely a bit corny. This section did feature one notable treat that perhaps made it worthwhile, as he dug deep for “Two Days in February”, the sweet acoustic track from 1990’s Hold Me Up release. A track written well before the thought of a multi-platinum selling album, and especially a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate it, was even a pipe-dream in their young minds.
The band would return to the stage for another slew of classics to go along with some of their more recent material. “Fallin’ Down”, the lead single off of 1993’s Superstar Car Wash gave a nice old school feel while songs like “So Alive” from 2016’s Boxes album showcased the bands’s post-2005 shift to a softer, often piano-led sound. Thrown in the middle was “Name”, the 1995 smash hit that first catapulted the band into international acclaim. The evening would then finish strong with an encore of “Big Machine”, the underrated and oft-forgotten guitar-driven single from 2002’s Gutterflower.
Dizzy Up The Girl was really not a groundbreaking album. It didn’t change music, or create a whole bunch of Goo Goo Dolls wannabes upon its release. Dizzy Up The Girl was a simply a collection of damn good songs that almost perfectly offers a snapshot into 1998 and its musical landscape. Grunge as we knew it had well passed, and the airwaves were increasingly becoming full of manufactured pop bands and rap music. With catchy melodies and beautifully brilliant lyrics mixing with the band’s punk roots, Dizzy Up The Girl gave the Goo Goo Dolls an opportunity to carve out a place within that crowded landscape. The result is you hearing the opening guitar to “Slide” and forever being taken back to “those times” or “that place” in your head.
Knowing an album means so much to so many people is obviously a gratifying feeling for a band, and in this case, I believe the Goo Goo Dolls are just as grateful for Dizzy Up The Girl as their fans are. Good on Johnny and Robbie for recognizing that and celebrating that on the road this fall.
