Last Night: Goo Goo Dolls & Michelle Branch At The Woodlands
Goo Goo Dolls, Michelle Branch, Parachute
Phiotos by Matthew Keever
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
August 13, 2011
The Goo Goo Dolls, Michelle Branch and Parachutes made an interesting lineup at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion Sunday night. The bill sounded more like a mini-music festival from a time long past, featuring one band you haven't really heard of (yet).
At least, that's what Aftermath thought going in. By the time we left, we had gained respect for a group of up-and-comers we had never heard of before, developed a crush on Michelle Branch and realized that the Goo Goo Dolls are absolutely nothing like we remember them.
Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, going into the show, we had this idea in our heads of the Goo Goo Dolls as alt-rockers from our youth whose fan base was closer to John Mayer's than that of a modern-day punk outfit. By that, we mean that we assumed most of their fans were female. Come to find out, that isn't the case.
Now, as most popular bands tend to, the Goo Goo Dolls have plenty of female fans, but their live performance - and their overall repertoire, actually - isn't composed primarily of radio-friendly alt-rock. Far from it, actually. Their tunes are poppy, sure, but they're a lot punkier than the well-known songs like "Iris," "Black Balloon" and "Broadway." After a little research (and a tweet or two), we found that the Goo have actually been compared to renowned punk acts, such as The Replacements.
In fact, Replacements singer Paul Westerberg co-wrote "We Are the Normal." That was back in the early '90s, though, and the Goos' style has changed a lot since then. But while they may be much more radio-friendly these days, they still warrant much more appreciation than we had given them before last night's show, which kept our hearts light, our ears open and our eyes dazzled with a lavish light show.
The only real drawback of the show came near the end, when someone in the crowd made a comment about Johnny Rzeznik's sunglasses, to which the singer tersely responded, "Fuck off." Rzeznik then told the crowd that he was "not trying to be somebody I'm not" and that he wasn't trying to be a big rock star by wearing shades at night; he was just hung over.
Well, that's that then. And even if he was trying to be a big rock star, if the shoe fits...
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Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
2005 Lake Robbins Drive, Spring, TX
Category: Music
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