Review | Santa Barbara’s Still Gaga For the Goo Goos

They may be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their breakout album, but alt-rockers the Goo Goo Dolls have still got that IT factor that made them stars so many years ago. Their high energy show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday wasn’t filled with many surprises, but it was a totally solid evening of entertainment in the best possible way.

Lead singer John Rzeznik — looking even more like Bon Jovi than he did a few years ago, despite his summer styling black tank top, capri pants, and bright red bowling/clown-ish shoes — opened with the familiar lyrics to “Naked” from their 1995 album A Boy Named Goo (“And I call out / No one hears me / Never been, never felt, never thought I’d say a word”) and the nostalgia just kept coming all night long.

The 1998 tune “Slide,” another one with a memorable, radio-friendly hook — ”Could you whisper in my ear / The things you wanna feel?” — was up next, and the crowd sang along once again. “Are you all happy?” asked Rzeznik, who was answered by cheers from a surprisingly all-ages crowd. “Good — fucking stay that way.”

His wish was pretty much our command throughout the night, with a set that included “Think About Me,” with some particularly nice bass guitar by Robby Takac, the band’s other founding member. The lineup also includes guitarist Brad Fernquist, drummer Craig Macintyre, and multi-instrumentalist Jim McGorman, making for a much bigger sound than you would expect from just five musicians.

“I think you guys know this one,” said Rzeznik, as he introduced the super recognizable “Black Balloon” from 1998’s Dizzy Up the Girl.

Then bassist Takac brought a punkier, hyper kind of energy to the mic, as he sang a few songs, including “January Friend,” that reminded me that earlier in their career the Goo Goos were considered a punk band, with Takac as the lead singer. Despite that chapter in their long partnership, Rzeznik was mostly front and center for the night, along with what seemed like a zillion different guitars. He joked about growing up poor in Buffalo, NY, and that when people ask him why do you have so many guitars, “in my mind I go, why don’t you mind your fucking business,” and  “never in a billion years did I think this [playing music] was gonna be my job!”

Rzeznik credited the people at the Los Angeles radio station KROQ with helping to make their career with the 1995 song “Name,” saying all these years later, “I still get to come back and play it for you,” as he launched into that ear-wormy tune. There were still more longtime favorites to come, like “Better Days,” “Broadway,” and of course their best known song, “Iris,” a chart-topping, 26-year-old song which crept even further into the zeitgeist when the Goo Goo Dolls played it at Stagecoach this year.

As I heard it, I couldn’t help but think, of course I know who you are, you’ve been with me for decades, as The Goo Dolls sent us off into the night with the familiar chorus of a song that comes into my head pretty frequently these days.

 “And I don’t want the world to see me / ‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand / When everything’s made to be broken / I just want you to know who I am / I just want you to know who I am.”