Review of the Aug. 27 show
at the Tweeder Center
By Danielle
I had been looking forward to this night all summer. I was so excited when the day finally came! It was a drizzly day, but I didn't care. I was going to see the Goo Goo Dolls! And I was also excited to see Sugar Ray and Fastball. I couldn't wait!
I wore my favorite jeans and tank top, I was ready to go about 3 hours early! We decided to leave at 4, drive an hour to Mansfield (where the Tweeder Center is) get there at 5, and have 2 hours left. Well, of course we got stuck in traffic and didn't even get there until 7. As we were finally walking into the stadium, I could hear "The Way" by Fastball. I was mad, we missed about half of Fastball. I was looking forward to hearing "Out Of My Mind" but they must have played it before we got in. Anyways, after they finished, I went and bought a shirt (expensive-$28 for a t-shirt!) We sat back down and waited for Sugar Ray to come on. Well, they certainly took their time setting up! It took about 20-30 minutes. It was really cool whenn it was finished though. It was a beach scene, complete with lanterns, a bar, and a basketball hoop. Mark McGrath had a broken rib, and after about half an hour, he didn't look too well. They were great though! Mark was really funny and cracked jokes the whole time. He made fun of Lilith Fair, imitating Sarah McLachlan and the other singers, with high sqeaky voices. He took a shot at the basketball hoop, but missed. Sugar Ray was on for about 45 minutes. They ended with "Every Morning" with a little lyric change: The line "You know I wanna do it again" became "You know I wanna f*** you again!" The crowd loved it.
By this time, I was really anxious to see the Goo Goo Dolls. I had teied to win backstage passes all day the day before on a radio station, but I had no luck. Anyways, The Goo Goo Dolls' stage setup took even longer then Sugar Ray's! When they finally finished, they turned the lights out and played music, but no one was onstage, teasing us for awhile. FInally, they came out and opened with Dizzy. I was really excited, because Dizzy is my absolute favorite song by them. I was in heaven! I couldn't believe I was actually seeing the same Johnny Rzeznik in person that I had seen on TV so many times! He looked very hot, in a gray tank top and cargo pants. After Dizzy, they played Long Way Down, which I knew from A Boy Named Goo. After that, they played Lazy Eye, which I had never heard at the time. They played a couple more songs, and Johnny talked to the audience a lot.
He seems to be more entertained by the audience than we are by him! He's really funny, he told us a lot of jokes, including the "Walk of Shame" story, which is about girls in college. Also, he said to us "So, Bruce Springsteen performed here last night, huh?" and the crowd booed. Then he said, "Don't boo him, he's the f***ing boss!" Then he said, "Oh I get it, you weren't booing! You were saying 'Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce'". Aw, he's so cute! He squirted water into the audience a few times. Robby announced that his grandmother was in the audience, so we all cheered for her. Johnny said that we were a great audience, and he took a picture of us! I took a few pics, but only one came out half-decent, and even that one is pretty bad. (I only had a little disposeable camera) Johnny started talking about some great drummer and he goes "I asked myself, why can't Mike do that?" The crowd kind of laughed and was suprised. Then he said "You know why Mike isn't like that? Cuz Mike kicks ass on the drums!" and everyone cheered. During Black Balloon, blown-up black balloons fell from the roof, and everyone was hitting them into the air.They played for quite awhile, and they played Iris and walked off the stage. Then they showed a movie called "Greed" which no one really understoon. Everyone started leaving, but we didn't. A few minutes later, the band ran back onto the stage (Johnny complete woth a towel on his head) glitter exploded everywhere, they played a song, and Johnny threw his towel to someone in the audience. After the first song they played after coming back out, Johnny said "Thanks you guys, you are our real friends. You know how we know who our real friends are? Our real friends stay after we play Iris!" then he said he just needed another pic of us, so he made everyone take one step in closer to the middle, and he took another picture of us. They played two more songs, and then John and Robby started waving their guitars around. Robby chucked his into the screen where the movie was, and it went right through. Everyone laughed and cheered. Then John turned around, and threew his guitar backwards over his head into the screen. Well, he didn't throw it hard enough, it bounced off! He picked it back up, threw it right through the screen, anc smashed it up. Then they got off the stage. (This time for real) That was one of the best nights of my life!