From playing small clubs like the Bottleneck and the Ranch Bowl, to headlining major venues like Sandstone -- the Goo Goo Dolls are the first band I've seen in both roles. And it only took them about 12 years!

The Fuse Tour brought a number of other bands to watch, too. First up, on the "first stage" (off behind the main stage, in a rather secluded area), were Liars Inc. This was my first exposure to the band, and while they were sort of generic alternarock -- like the Foo Fighters with less compelling material -- they were also better than most of what I hear on commercial alternative radio. I'd take this over Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Reel Big Fish any day. Their set was short but effective.

Frogpond followed with a full set on the "first stage." When they opened for the Goo Goo Dolls at the Beaumont Club back in December, they played perhaps the best set I've ever seen from them. The two sets I've seen since then haven't been as strong as that, but this time they were once again at their best, even despite the searing heat. They played quite a bit of new material, which I was glad to see, along with the best of their old songs. The current foursome seems to have gelled, and lead singer/songwriter Heidi even made the rare move of performing a song by herself.

With the conclusion of Frogpond's set, it was off to the main stage to see Fastball. As the opening act on the main stage, Fastball had even less time to play than Frogpond -- about half an hour. They didn't have time to stretch into the Hoodoo Gurus and ZZ Top covers they did at the Bottleneck a few months ago, or even to dig very deeply into their own first album, but it was a strong, punchy set. There also wasn't time to joke around -- their sense of humor was one of the highlights of that Bottleneck show -- but they kept it real and rocked pretty hard. Though the band may want to inject more showmanship into their arena show, from my vantage point (third row), there was more than enough energy to make up for it from the nearby biker types, who acted as if they were seeing the Beatles in 1964.

Sugar Ray played novelty songs for fratboys. When they didn't annoy me, they bored me. However, they had have energy to spare, which helped pitch the audience into higher gear -- so I must not know much. They played "Fly" (their first hit), "Every Mornin'" (their touching ode to being an asshole), and, uhh, that other one that sounds like Smash Mouth or Citizen King. Eight songs were a few too many for me. The one nice touch: they brought their own bartender, who did nothing but sit in a tropical-themed hut and mix drinks for the band.

The Goo Goo Dolls were sooooo cute! Um, I mean, actually, that I think they've translated their act to the stadium format very well. On a spartan stage, the trio (augmented by a couple of touring members) played with an abundance of energy and verve. The set drew mainly from the band's two most recent albums -- the ones with all the hits. But to my delight, they also dug out old favorites from 1991's Hold Me Up ("Just the Way You Are," "Two Days in February") and 1993's Superstar Car Wash ("Lucky Star," "Another Second Time Around"). They even managed to fit in a cover (the Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away"), just like they did in the club days.

Of course they played the lighter, crowd-pleasing numbers: "Iris," "Slide," and the current hit "Black Balloon," along with "Name," which came complete with a story about selling out. But the band's punk roots are still there, and they happily indulged their mandate to rock. Some of the highlights were a searing "Lazy Eye," Robby's full-on rocker "Full Forever," and the band's most Replacements-esque tune, "Hate This Place" -- none of these are really among my favorites of their recordings, but all of them gained new life and energy when played live.

The band's sense of humor has also survived intact. While they can no longer call up audience members to the stage and draw tour shirts with a magic marker, they can still make some pretty hilarious wisecracks about hearing their own songs in the grocery store. And while it's become fashionable among the cognoscenti to criticize the band for any number of things (ripping off the Replacements, watering down their sound, prettying up their lead singer), I have to insist that despite some small validity to at least the latter of those charges, this band is doing better at keeping it honest and real than most at this level of stardom. Refreshingly, their show didn't seem overly choreographed and "performed" like the last couple of acts I've seen in this kind of setting (Prince, John Mellencamp). They're better than anyone at wedding those smart melodic rock influences (the Mats, Hüsker Dü) to a commercial sensibility that appeals to the masses. It's nice to see a band that has struggled for so long finally achieve real success.

There was a point, about three or four songs in, when I thought back to 1995 and the time I saw them at the Ranch Bowl in Omaha -- it was July 12, 1995, to be exact. "Name" had just started to receive some minor airplay at trend-setting stations out west, and Johnny remarked to the 20 or so people in the audience that he was afraid the song would ruin his career. The Goos played the song as if embarrassed to perform anything using an acoustic guitar. Afterward, they went right back to bashing out rock songs and giving them hilarious mock introductions in imitation of Paul Stanley (anyone who's heard a live Kiss record can guess what I mean). Four years and two weeks later, that entire Omaha audience was outnumbered by the first row at Sandstone. With that in mind, it was a trip to look back and see the masses of people extending to the back of the lawn section. I paused a second, to take it all in. When I looked ahead again, I saw a band not much different from the one I'd been remembering -- Robby still doesn't even wear shoes onstage -- and I felt they deserved every bit of success they've managed to achieve. I knew it long ago. While I'll always have great memories of the few shows I saw before they hit it big, they never should have been playing to a mere 20 people in the first place.