Photos and Writing by Audrey Wilson
On August 1st, rock band The Goo Goo Dolls headlined CCNB Amphitheatre in Simpsonville, SC with O.A.R opening for “The Big Night Out” tour lasting from late July to early September. The show was hot and sunny but that did not stop the almost sold-out crowd from singing along to the Goo Goo Doll’s 25-song set consisting of songs from twelve of their albums, with the most songs on the setlist coming from their 1998 album “Dizzy Up The Girl”.
The Goo Goo Dolls set around 9:00PM and lasted around two hours. A few minutes after 9, singer John Rzeznik walked onto the stage with a boot on as he broke his foot while walking off the stage the show before. Luckily, the show went on and he sat down the entire time with assistance from crew members on getting new guitars and getting situated.
The Goo Goo Dolls set was entertaining, wholesome, and consisted of a lot of laughter as John Rzeznik has a big personality and loved to make jokes. A highlight of the night was when John brought up 19-Year old Jake Stein, a student at Appalachian State University, to play guitar for the song “Name”. John questioned if Jake could actually play the song and Jake insisted, blowing the crowd away with his abilities. The entire crowd cheered for Jake as he fit right in with the Goo Goo dolls and seemed to become best friends through their instant chemistry and on stage laughter.
At the end of the set after song number 22, John Rzeznik said “This is the time where a band would have an encore and pretend to end the show and then come back with more songs but my ass is not hobbling off the stage”. The crowd laughed and got excited as we knew we were missing the hit song “Iris”; however, the band played a Tom Petty cover first. Low and behold, “Iris” started playing and the entire crowd sang along.
The Goo Goo Dolls did not disappoint the fans in Simpsonville, SC and we hope to see them come back, hopefully with a healthy John!
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