Venue: Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island: (4/6) I think I must be getting fussier as I get older I found that while I still love the Charter One Pavilion, the audio set up is very off balance and like so many venues and it makes for some pretty nasty distortion, especially with the vocals. Now this may not be true for every one but personally I find the vocals one of the most important parts of rock music. I’m a huge sucker for lyrics. So when the awful clipping noise your bass makes drowns out my artists I get a little miffed. Even John Rzeznik commented on it. I’ve seen this way too often especially at outdoor venues. I appreciate good bass, but people please, it’s not all of the music. If you overdo the bass you drown out many of the details that make or break a good artist.
I’ve been to the Charter One five times that I remember. As a result, I’m used to ignoring the unhelpful staff and overpriced (even for concerts) drinks. I did notice the security was more vigilant than in the past, which was nice, if annoying because I had to pull out my ticket more often. Granted that’s preferable to lax security.
Small tangent: I have a great respect for the people who do security at concerts. In my option they are one part ninja, one part gladiator with the patience of a saint. These are not petite people- they have to be burly enough to be able to physically escort out drunk, rowdy people. They put up with being shit talked, cussed at and probably hit. They get puke cleaned up. And they do all of that nearly invisibly. I’ve more than once seen security appear when they were otherwise nowhere to be seen, deal with an issue and vanish again.
Crowd: (2/6) I don’t’ know if it was Michele branch’s horrible performance, the heat or what, but the crowd was dead. Even when the Goo Goo Dolls played ”Name“ (their biggest song) the crowd was fairly dreary. They perked up once ”Better days“ played, nearly half way through the show. I noticed an interesting dynamic. At other Goo Goo Dolls shows I’ve been to, the songs they played from Dizzy Up the Girl (1998) and of course ”Name“ (1996). However, this time their stuff from Let Love In (2007) was what sparked the crowd. An interesting phenomenon considering how much bigger Dizzy up The Girl was.
Opener: Michelle Branch (1/6). I vaguely enjoyed hearing "Everywhere" on the radio, and the handful of singles I knew of hers. She was always decent, not good, not bad just decent. Live it was a different matter. She gets a point for effort for certain; she was enthusiastic and interacted with the crowd as much as she could. (See previous comments on the crowd) However, she had only rudimentary talent on the guitar, clumsy even with the simpler cords and her guitar sounded slightly off. Not quite out of tune, just off.
Vocally she has no training and unlike many artists, it shows. While I appreciate a raw, otherwise good voice, this was not one of those. Her voice was tinny and flat most of the time, especially on the ‘showy’ notes. To be quite honest, it was bad enough that I had trouble paying attention and walked off to get a soda about half way into her set.
Her recorded stuff is not much better, to be quite honest. Wrenched vocalist.
Main Act: The Goo Goo Dolls (4/6) this is my third show with the Goo Goo dolls. I adore them. There is something very honest about their lyrics and the fact that the two front men have been a part of the band for 25 years makes for a very strong dynamic between the two of them. Bassist and occasional front man Robby Takac keeps them honest to their punk roots, while John Rzeznik gives them their more famous glossy alternative rock sound. The addition of other members has filled out their overall sound and given them more verity than their past roots.
While I will admit this was not their best performance, Rzeznik’s voice is getting a little tired and the energy wasn’t stellar (though I blame that on the crowd), I thought it was still a through good show. John Rzeznik is always a pleasure to listen to both as a musician and a speaker and his dynamic with Takac is wonderful to watch. Despite Rzeznik being the more popular of the two front men, he often defers to Takac letting him have the spot light as often as Rzeznik himself does. Both men bring their own distinctive sound to the table. Rzeznik has a gravely, melodic voice that embodies their genre so well. Takac has a voice like a goblin and a grin to match, which adds a lovely mischievous tone to some of their work.
The addition of a mandolin on “Iris” and saxophone on ”Broadway” adds welcome spice to an already very good show. Especially given that the saxophone is not on the album, adding just that much more to the live show.
Overall I acknowledge the band is aging, but they are still and I think forever will be one of my favorites.
And, incidentally, I was right about their new album. Wonderful stuff.
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