13 November 2010 (gig)
20 November 2010
Tonight, see’s the return of the Goo Goo dolls after years, back to blighty on this cold November evening... the fans inside are obvious loyal supporters, and are within the walls of the decadent Brixton Academy to hear the polished slightly grungy tunes, they’ve come to love over the years.. The support band is Unkle Bob , a five piece band from Glasgow, Mainly acoustic their harmonious songs are augmented by keyboards, pedal steel and mandolin and in one or two instances strings. The first song they break into is Weather, followed by Don’t Let It Go down, which has elements of Radiohead.
The crowd seemed mesmerized by the atomic tones of Hit Parade, a former single with quite a tasty melodic and subdue moment in the chorus when the singers voice goes all warbled with desire. This is followed by the drifty subliminal "Ships on the Shoreline.This Band seem comfortable and finely tuned in with their sound, Unkle Bob give the atmosphere a slight touch of Utopia and melancholy setting the scene for the main contenders Goo Goo Dolls, and a frightfully comfortable feeling is left leaving revelers in a content mood.
The Goo Goo Dolls, have never quite been as embraced by the UK as they have by their home in the US. This show follows the release of their 9th album “Something for the rest of us”…. You get the feeling that the fans in the building tonight show utter and complete devotion to this band as you would for any band that formed in 1985, if you absorb that for a moment you realize that this band is 25 years old but the founder members John Rzeznik and Robby Takax look like any young fresh faced front men.
Far removed from their early days of performing Cream and Plimsouls covers, the Dolls, led by Rzeznik, seemed to connect with the crowd, eliciting large waves of applause for songs such as " "Big Machine,"
Rzeznik has done a good job of playing down, if not resisting, his frontman good looks, coming off more as more of a down to earth man than eye candy, particularly on his version of one of the band's classics, "Dizzy,"
When he sang "Here is Gone," he came off less like aggressive and more like a supportive friend, just the kind of elation that has captivated the Buffalo, N.Y.-based band to its fans.
Naturally, songs from Something for the Rest of Us dominate, and ‘Home’was particularly astringent addressing (as does the entire album) the fear and uncertainty of the last few years. "Another night with all my friends/The kind you'll never see again" were a few of the lines from that song, but they were miles away from the feeling of the evening.
The final song of the main set was the band’s huge hit “Iris” (which everybody sang) to.
Johnny’s finely polished and pitch perfect tones leave you with a feeling that of complete nostalgia for the 90s… and that something was missing from today’s ever revolving music scene.
