Moshing With Your Mom at the Goo Goo Dolls

Sunday, September 4th marked the day of my first rendezvous with 90s American rock band, The Goo Goo Dolls. While an innate familiarity with their songs had been unknowingly instilled in me from early morning rides to school in my mom’s SUV blasting iHeart 90s radio, I had never been able to connect a face to the tune. This all changed on my evening in Palo Alto. 

The band’s frontmen John Rzeznik and Robby Tabak took the stage by storm following their alternative rock opener Blue October. After starting off the set with the well known hit “Slide”, John loosened up the crowd with a joke about confusing Palo Alto with San Francisco, asking if there’s really much difference between the two after all. The crowd of predominantly middle-aged fans, who brought along their younger and older children alike, laughed at the sentiment. 

From my seat I could see a myriad of individuals occupying the pit of Stanford’s own Frost Amphitheater: a little girl on her father’s shoulders, a group of women with faded band merch, and a dedicated couple celebrating the birth of their third child hanging off the front rails. To my right I saw a quiet older couple prepared to enjoy some tunes, and to my left the Vineyard Vines convention of Stanford’s graduating year 2000 class. Although the band acquired most of their mainstream success decades ago, the crowd’s variation made clear that their music had transcended generations. 

John and Robby erupted with the sound of familiar mid-nineties rock. Oldies such as “Lucky Star” or “Black Balloon” were combined with newer releases like “Miracle Pill” and “Free of Me”. Mismatched visuals of what seemed to be a sky of stars, followed by a sort of psychedelic laser beam show, and finally the profile of a monochromatic woman’s blank face set the backdrop for each rock melody. 

Between each song John engaged the crowd, lovingly calling his bandmates “assholes” and captivating front row fans. When the band announced that they will be playing a song off of their newest album, Chaos in Bloom (2022), faint boos could be heard from a group of fans sporting their 1995 tour merch. Nonetheless, the band persisted, the blank expressions of concert goers converting to soft smiles and slackened swaying as fans accepted their fate for the next few minutes. 

However it is with this that anticipation began to build. As the set came to an end, it was palpable that me and most others had been patiently awaiting the band’s playing of “Iris”, a song that had maintained mainstream success since its release. Finally, the song’s familiar guitar riff played, as though commanding the crowd to erupt with applause. John’s voice chimed throughout the stadium with the song’s opening line, “And I’d give up forever to touch you”, to which the crowd and I involuntarily echoed his lyrics back to him. It was as though each person, young and old alike, were moved by his words. John and the crowd sang the song together in unison, as John remained quiet for the verse of the chorus, allowing only the crowd’s singing to be heard. This went on until the band abruptly ceased to play. The crowd noticed with discontent, exclaiming that there is one chorus verse hanging in the air, waiting to be sung. John used this silence to tease the crowd, building anticipation until the very last second when the band played again at full volume to appease all of our wishes. As the song ended, the crowd was left feeling satisfied, and people began to leave before the encore, maybe to beat the traffic rush, or maybe because the song was what they came here for.  

Although it may be evident that The Goo Goo Dolls have surpassed their age of immense popularity (at least with the younger generation), it would be wrong to say that John and Robby are not making the most of what they have. With the concert’s conclusion, the duo expressed gratitude for their longstanding fanbase, as John proclaimed, “thank you for keeping this band alive,” to which each crowd-goer cheered in consensus with an appreciation of their own…whether that be a shout of reminiscence for the music associated with their youths, or for the gratitude of making it through their 20s. 

Article and Featured Image by Ally Flygare