“The Goo Goo Dolls are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York by vocalist and guitarist John Rzeznik and vocalist and bass guitarist Robby Takac. Since the end of 1994, Mike Malinin has held the lead position of the band’s drummer, a position previously held by George Tutuska. Some of their most popular songs include ‘Name’ from 1995’s A Boy Named Goo, ‘Iris’ and ‘Slide’ from 1998’s Dizzy Up The Girl, which produced five top-10 singles, and ‘Here Is Gone’ and ‘Big Machine’ from 2002’s Gutterflower. Overall, the Goo Goo Dolls have 14 top-10 singles and have sold nearly 9 million albums in the United States alone.”

And who said rock was dead? Last night Zane Lowe suggested that The White Stripes saved rock ‘n’ roll in 2003 with their album ELEPHANT… As good an album it is it did no such thing. Let me give you a quick and current example: Cheap Trick’s first album was released in 1977 and the band has toured continously for the past forty years. And the new album is rock ‘n’ roll magic. Yes, the “American Beatles” are still filling venues and sustaining their fabulous live sound. There are of course many other older rock bands that still sell-out stadiums from both sides of the pond.

The Goo Goo Dolls a band formed back in 1986 and who have recently released their ninth studio album, and still sell out medium-sized venues like the Liverpool O2 Academy last Saturday night. Line-up for the night included Rzeznik, Takac and Malinin with tourers Korel Tunador on keys, guitar and sax and Brad Fernquist on guitar. But I’m going to start with a negative… This year I’ve seen some of the worst support acts ever and this show was no exception. Unkle Bob from Scotland were plain dreadful although Liverpool’s characteristic patience and consideration was not defeated. As a ‘warm-up’ act it was dire and I wonder why great bands like the Goo Goos expose us to this shite which only gives the band the task of getting the audience up and at ‘em.

In fact it would have been better for the band to have supplied a short acoustic set rather than this enthusiasm-blunting crap.

Then there was the sound quality. The O2 Academy is now one of the worst-sounding larger venues around and although the Goo Goos sound man made a good fist of it, sound was not great. Now for the good news: The Goo Goos took a few songs to really get going and the audience fully into response mode, but when it all came together it was brilliant. It was also one of the most obvious examples in my experience of an audience giving the kind of encouragement a band needs, and getting it back in truckloads.

There were surprises too including an early one when I could distictly hear the audience singing (albeit quietly) along to the up-tempo opening new song, ‘Sweetest Lie’. Goo Goo fans do like their older favourites but seem to have latched onto the new album in double-quick time. In fact this set the pattern for the night with virtually all songs sung by the audience to varying degrees. It must be extremely difficult for a band with nine abums and a host of great songs under their belt to devise a suitable set-list, but the band managed it so bloody well for this show.