"They have these girls that run up and down the stands with these kegs of beer on their backs," says Johnny Rzeznik, "and they stop and pour you a beer out of these kegs. It's the best, man." The Goo Goo Dolls frontman isn't actually referring to the band's upcoming U.S. tour, which kicks off May 23rd in Houston, but rather his first ever Japanese baseball game, which he caught earlier this month, while the band took its latest album, Gutterflower, to the Far East.
Despite hopping hemispheres to keep the tour wheels rolling, Rzeznik is showing no signs of fatigue. "I'm psyched," he says. "I like getting out on the road and getting together with the band and doing that whole thing. It keeps reality at bay [laughs]." As for the trio's stage show, the band promises a cross-section of its fifteen years of tunes, including a dusting off of "Cuz You're Gone" and "Up Yours." "I was listening to ["Up Yours"] and was like, 'You know something, it was a lot of fun pretending to be the Replacements,'" Rzeznik says, laughing. "That's all I wanted to be, man, Husker Du and the Replacements -- all smashed together into one band."
And fans can expect little visual fanfare to distract from the music. "It'll be lots of loud rock," he says. "Lots of loud rock, and that's it. [Sometimes] we will just play in the afternoon some place and bust out six or seven songs and some people will come down, but I love hearing a big crowd and I love the big lights, all that shit."
Sensefield will be onboard as opener for the entire tour, while Five for Fighting will also open on several dates. The tour is scheduled to run thirty-two dates, wrapping August 16th in Wantagh, New York. With another three months of touring ahead, Rzeznik says the band hasn't yet looked forward to its next project. "We just did a Storytellers," he says, but I'm just thinking about going out and playing shows. We're just going out to play rock concerts and not thinking beyond that."
Goo Goo Dolls tour dates:
5/23: Houston, Verizon Wireless Theater
5/24: Dallas, Bronco Bowl
5/25: Tulsa, OK, Brady Theater
5/27: Louisville, KY, Palace Theater
5/28: Detroit, State Theater
5/29: Chicago, Riviera Theater
5/31: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
6/1: Mansfield, MA, Tweeter Center
6/2: East Rutherford, NJ, Giants Stadium
6/4: Mississauga, ONT, Hershey Center
6/5: Albany, NY, Palace Theater
6/7: Atlantic City, NJ, Trump Taj Mahal
6/7: New York, The Today Show
6/8: Mashantucket, CT, Foxwoods Casino
6/9: Washington, DC, Warner Theater
6/11: Atlanta, Tabernacle
6/12: New Orleans, UNO Lakefront Arena
6/14: Orlando, Hard Rock Live
6/15: Tampa, FL, Tampa Bay P.A.C.
6/16: Charleston, SC, Wave Fest
6/18: Pensacola, FL, Bayfront Auditorium
6/19: Memphis, Orpheum Theater
6/21: Minneapolis, Northrop Auditorium
6/22: Winnipeg, MTB, Winnipeg Arena
6/24: Edmonton, ALB, Jubilee Auditorium
6/25: Calgary, Jubilee Auditorium
6/26: Kelowna, BC, Skyreach Place
6/28: Vancouver, Queen Elizabeth Theater
6/29: Spokane, WA, Spokane Opera House
7/1: Portland, OR, Arlene Schnitzer Hall
7/2: Seattle, WA, Paramount Theater
8/16: Wantagh, NY, Jones Beach
ANDREW DANSBY
(May 21, 2002)
