The Goo Goo Dolls

at the Paradise
by Scott Hefflon

I’ve liked The Goo Goo Dolls since Hold Me Up (Metal Blade) in 1990. That CD will always have a place in my heart. I moved into a new apartment soon after getting that CD and, seeing as how all my belongings were in storage, I really got close to that CD. I sat penniless and jobless in a new (and completely unfurnished) apartment for a week of transitional freakout listening only to the Goo Goo Dolls. “Laughing,” “Just the Way You Are,” and the punky “Out of the Red” and “On Your Side” got me through a really shitty week. The trembling passion of “Two Days in February” will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever tried to maintain a cross-country relationship with someone who’s split out West to the land of golden opportunity.

With all that said, it pains me to say there was something horribly lacking at the show at the Paradise. Some of the emptiness was probably due to the material on their new album, A Boy Named Goo (WB). While some of it still has the frantic pop-punk energy of old, they aren’t rolling pennies to buy cigarettes anymore. The vocals sound like Cori Hart. It’s pop. It’s Green Day. On stage, The Goo Goo Dolls were energetic and funny, but they played to a room full of smiling college kids and young girls. Whatever sneer they might have had turned into a goofy pop grin long ago. Maybe new fans will dig the energy and get off on the fun live shows, but I expected more. Their encore performance of Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309” pretty much finished it for me. I couldn’t get to the door fast enough.