Let’s take a pause from “Old Goo” and peek into the evolved version of the band which resulted from the 1998’s worldwide success of “Dizzy Up The Girl”.
It’s no mystery that the aforementioned album changed the band members’ lives, and contributed to spread their music throughout the entire planet. Simultaneously it also inspired John et al. to explore other soundscapes, so to speak.
While the focus of this blog is to mainly admire and enjoy what I consider to be the truest incarnation of the Goo Goo Dolls, that is pre-1998 eras, I don’t necessarily intend to suggest that anything after those years is to be considered unworthy of attention. To the contrary, I quite like a lot of stuff the band released after “Iris“, even if their material has been prone to a more radio-friendly, pop-oriented approach rather than the alternative / garage rock expressions of the early days.
For instance, one of the best post-“Iris” performances I have ever experienced is certainly VH1 Storytellers, a mostly unplugged show they did for the famous TV network back in 2002. I feel this is probably amongst the most passionate executions of some of their old and then-new material. I like they really put a lot of sentiment and emotion into performing those tunes, and I believe the nature of the show itself helped push the band in that direction. What do I mean by that? Well, each Storytellers episode requires the band to introduce a song they will be playing by telling stories about it in front of a crowd. My interpretation is that talking about a song, in terms of what motivated it, the memories it evokes, the suffering or joy it instills, is the perfect formula which leads to its enhanced execution.
As a consequence, you will be experiencing what I consider to be one the best live shows the band has ever offered. My favorite take is certainly the last one of the episode, that is “We Are The Normal“. If you’ve never listened to this version of their famous tune, you’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime surprise.
Now, enough talking (writing). On to the show itself. I am sharing the audio-only version of the concert. If you want to enjoy the video for it, that is the whole aired episode, check below (thanks to YouTube user Machias Music Man for sharing it).
If we look at the dedicated setlist.fm page for it, we notice a total of 10 songs are listed. However, the episode only aired with eight (“Lucky Star” and “Here Is Gone” are missing). On top of that, “Name” is presented as an intro to the show itself, rather than a full song. In fact, only the last fifty seconds of the live take for it are present. Another thing to notice is that the order of the songs in the aforementioned setlist entry is different.
I have been looking for a complete version of this performance for a long time, but never had the chance to put my hands on it. So, to summarize, let’s briefly list the main differences between the complete version and the one what was aired on VH1, which I am posting today.
- Complete version has a total of 10 songs, aired version features only 8
- “Name” is played in its entirety in the complete version, whilst only the last portion of the live take is present in the aired one
- Set list order may differ between the two versions
As far as the second bullet point is concerned, it is really a shame as it sounds like the take for the 1995 hit was really greatly executed, according to the few seconds of it we get to hear.
The version I am sharing today also features the entire show, which includes both the eight live takes and the stories about them told by the band members. Hence, you will be getting a total of nine MP3 files: the eight songs and a single, big one featuring the entire show (songs + stories). Files have been encoded at 192k.
In terms of audio quality, it is truly amazing. Polished and very clean. Like I mentioned, this is certainly one of the best bootlegs out there.
Overall, I encourage you all to listen to this release. If you are looking for a show whereby the band plays by showing palpable emotions, this is it.
You can listen to the concert below. Download links are available at the end of this post.
TRACK LISTING:
- Name (Incomplete)
- Iris
- Broadway
- Slide
- Sympathy
- Black Balloon
- Big Machine
- We Are The Normal
- VH1 Storytellers Entire Show (Songs + Stories)
Temple of Goo - The rarest Goo Goo Dolls releases, for real Goo fans only 