My Mangled Heart

Hey all! This is going to be my first official blog! And it’s a review of the latest Goo Goo Dolls concert I went too! Yay for you! This won’t be a regular thing on here however, I’m going to make a separate concert blog . . .well, Tiffers is going to make it for me that is. . .so, onto the review/blog. . .

Me and Steph got up at 3 in the morning to make the 6ish hour drive to Cleveland, it turned into much more that 6 hours. . .I was sick the entire way there and most of the day. . .I was running literally on about 2 ½ hours of sleep, I ate some really bad Chinese food the night before and it was insanely hot. I was miserable.

Our plan for months had been to leave early and head to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while we were there. . .well, come to find out, the local radio station there was having a contest to tour the hall with them. What a bonus right?!? That Goo would be there the same time as us! We got to The Hall about noonish and were there until 3ish. That place is amazing by the way, I am a mega huge Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks fan so just to see her itty bitty dresses was enough for me!

On the way out, they have the Johnny Cash tour bus and we decided to check that out too. Now mind you, the entire time we were there, we didn’t see Goo and we just assumed they had probably had a private tour before the place even opened. So we’re standing in line and what pulls up in front of the Johnny Cash tour bus? Go on guess, cuz you’re probably gonna be right. . .correct!

So we get on the bus and on the way out, the lady who lets you on the bus told me, “now, I could possibly get in very big trouble for this, but that bus that just pulled up, look who’s on your shirt.” which I had a Goo shirt on cuz they are super comfy to spend 8 hours in the car with. Plus sometimes a girl just has to have the Goo Goo Dolls on her boobs to make her feel pretty. . .Steph and I decide to wait a little bit and see if they come out, because at this point, the bus was just parked. We sit at a little bench by the front door and decide we’ll wait 20 minutes, if they don’t show we were out because it was crazy hot out there. A few minutes later Brad and Korel come out and walk past us and Korel stands in line to get on the Johnny Cash bus and Steph is like, “Lets go say hi!” and I’m like, “No way, that’s rude! He just wants to get on the Johnny Cash bus!” Now, honestly the fact that those two already came out should have tipped us off because about 10 minutes later, here come the Goos with their posse and casually walk by us and not a soul bothers them all the way to the tour bus. . .including me and Steph. We just sat on our bench, with our mouths hanging open in shock, pointed to them, silently looked at each other, got up and went to the car. . .we are so lame!

Rzeznik had some gorgeous highlight by the way. . .

So back to the room to take showers and get prettied up. . .

. . .and to drop my stuff off for the USA Harvest, which I won, yays! My girls at work totally helped me out and donated, my mom bought me stuff, then I bought TONS of water, ramen, kool-air and snack crackers. . .806 items in all. I was very proud of myself. We loaded, hauled, and unloaded all that stuff. Now that’s a job! We at first got lost and ended up at the back of the venue and asked someone there where the USA Harvest was set up so we could drop it off and he had no idea what we were talking about. I about bawled! But when we told him they should be up front, that’s when he told us we were in the back and directed us to the right place. I talked to the super sweet girls at the USA Harvest table and then because I was still feeling like crap, went inside and spent $10 on a pretzel and a bottle of water which I neither ate nor drank because it was so hot I couldn’t enjoy it. Went to the t-shirt stand and bought a t-shirt, two Cds which were only $7 and a setlist. They didn’t have the set lists yet because they told me they didn’t know what they were playing and hadn’t made them out, which was kinda exciting. They told me to come back after the show and get it.

Time for the meet and greet! There were a few issues getting the wrist bands, but all was resolved soon enough and we were all 3 waiting at the lovely smelling port-a-potties for our meet and greet. When it gets to my turn Robby gives me a hug, which I totally didn’t ask for and said, “it’s nice to you again.” What? He remembers me? AWESOMENESS!!! And then John said, “I believe we’ve met before,” and smirked. *MELT!* and Mike just smiled and said hi because he was sick for my last meet and greet. All in all they took 3 pictures but they only posted one. *tear* Which makes me sad because I hate that picture. The first one John was rubbing his hair, then they took another and the third is the one they posted without the USA Harvest Winner sign. . .oh well. I liked my last meet and greet photo. . .

Now the show. Can we say AWESOME! They were all in great moods last night, lots of talking, interacting with audience and John flirting most of the night with a very pretty blonde. . .it started raining about half way through the show and the wind really picked up but it felt wonderful! And John said a few times, “it’s raining on us again!” The show started out with this like mix of music and people talking, it kinda sounded like a news reel. . .can’t remember if the spring tour had it or not. They played great, sounded great, looked great and seemed well rested. I have to say this is in my top 5 fav Goo shows. . .

This was my 13th show and since it was number 13 I was a little nervous about it but everything turned out wonderful even if I did feel like crap 90% of the day, only had 2 ½ hours of sleep and woke up with a concert hangover this morning. . .those are the best kinds of hangovers by the way!

I think I can honestly say, the only bummer of the day, not including my being so sick, was that they didn’t play We Are The Normal. . .I had read an article when John said they were going and it was nowhere to heard. . .*tear*

Stay tuned for my Cleveland road trip/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame blog. . .