the Goo Goo Dolls rocked! They were so much fun, I can't even believe it. I'm still smiling about it... it doesn't even seem real still! It was at the State Fair right? And at our State Fair's grandstand (the stage and bleachers) there is a stage built about 10 feet off the ground. Then there is a little pit in front of that about 10 feet across and a fence. No one can go past the fence. Then there is a walkway about 40 feet across, or more. No one can go on the walkway during the concert. Then, there are the seats, they start level with the stage only about 50 feet away, or more. It's a span too far to throw anything across, it's far. But we were in the 3rd row and that equals as close as you can get! When Johnny came out he goes: "You are all so far away! I wish we could all be closer." And he thought about it for a minute and he goes: "Well, I guess we really can't do anything about it. Can I see them at least? Turn on the lights so I can see them!" So they turn the lights on us and he looks around and everything and goes: "Since you can't get any closer to us we'll just have to send it out to you a little harder." It was so cool. But I can start from the beginning... See, Tonic opened. They were cool and everything but not enough to make me want to stand up, or pay close attention to them. I was tired after an incredibly long day at the fair, I probably walked 5000 miles in my fake leather pants. It was hotter than hell and humid, man. It was disgusting. We all smelled so bad and were sticking to one another. Tonic was out for about 1.5 minutes and were covered in sweat, it was so nasty out that day. So we were sitting there hot, sweaty, and trying to stay calm until the Goos arrived. Then my sister spotted Nathan December looking out behind the Tonic speakers onstage. So she starts waving, screams "NATHAN D!" and slams me in my face and I jump about 50 feet in the air and start waving like a maniac. He sees us and starts to wave and gives us the peace sign. We are just cracking up and he laughs too. Then we started to watch him. Every time he looked out we waved and he waved back. I looked at him through the binoculars we brought and he started pointing at me and making fun of me through gestures that I was spying on him! He made his hands go around his eyes like binoculars and pointed at Tonic and was like... watch them! So I shrugged my shoulders and made a gesture like I was watching them the whole time and he started to laugh and flipped me off! So we all laughed and waved again. The next time we waved at him he pointed to Tonic again, but waved back and smiled. And then, Dave came on stage and Nathan went to talk to him. He dragged Dave over to where he had been waving to us and made Dave look at us. Of course we waved to Dave too and Dave and Nathan laughed so hard and waved and Dave made the peace sign at us. And the best part of it all was that Nathan waved to us the whole entire show Tonic AND Goos, about once every minute. He'd stop playing his guitar to wave! It was so funny. He waved and waved and made the peace sign or smiled or laughed. It was so fun and cute! I didn't really like him before but he was so good to us, I was incredibly impressed. And I am not kidding about it either. He posed for a picture, I have a picture of him waving at us too. All sorts of people asked us why he kept waving at us, if we knew him... and we didn't, but it felt like we were friends that night. It was so fun. The concert of course was wonderful. They played Dizzy, Long Way Down, Lazy Eye, Slide, Full Forever, Black Balloon, Falling Down, Naked, Name, January Friend, Broadway, Flat Top, Another Second Time Around, Iris, Just the Way You Are, Burning Up, and Two Days in February. They might have played one more, but I don't remember. Johnny and Robby talked a lot, which was very cool. They joked about N Sync and Britney Spears. Johnny told a mini-Name story and then he goes, "when we had a hit it was like we were N Sync or something" and everyone booed. And he goes, "Thanks for booing!" and then him and Robby did a dance together! They both did these really funny arm movements and kicked their legs out! It was so funny. They shook their butts and then posed with their arms in the air and smiling hilariously! Johnny was smoking and Robby was holding a pick in his mouth, like deranged boy band members. I laughed so hard. And at the end there was a confetti machine and the crew rolled them out during their break before the encore and started dumping boxes of confetti into them. And so Johnny ran out and goes, "Now like this isn't obvious... what is going to happen? What is going to come out of these here machines?" and someone must have yelled something at him and he goes "Fuck you!" and goes, "Yeah, you. I'll kick your ass. There's going to be a fight after the show, $2 admission... " It was so funny! Then they did audience participation and that was funny. Robby did the clapping and Johnny goes "If he can do it so can you!" and Robby made this face like, "hey!" and Johnny just looked at us... it was so funny! I am not that good at explaining it sorry... but I am trying. So then they kicked off into Just the Way You Are and the confetti went off, and off, and off, and off, and Johnny started to laugh and went "What in the hell is going on?" because it wouldn't stop spraying confetti. It was everywhere, it was sticking to us because we were all sweaty, it was at the top of the 10,000 person bleachers... that's a lot of space to cover! It looked so cool though, but it was funny to watch them look at it like, this isn't supposed to happen. And then at the end in 2 Days in February, they came out with weird guitars. I thought they had furry guitars and then when they burst out from the quiet version of 2 Days into the super loud version, their guitars started to sparkle. They taped Christmas lights to them! It was so funny! They were both laughing and then Johnny goes, "Isn't that just hilarious???" and he laughed and Robby was grinning from ear to ear. It was hilarious! Everyone was screaming so much, I think the crowd really liked it. I think Johnny's voice hurt him because he wasn't singing full out and he wouldn't do any backup for Robby's songs or sing the higher parts in Iris or Lazy Eye. I think it hurt because he was smoking probably to clear it up? And it was so humid, that can ruin your voice without warning, my sister's friend lost hers that afternoon. It was either that or the sound was messed up. He was a little quiet. It took a really long time to get his microphone out onstage, so it might have had something to do with sound. But I still thought it was good and I could hear him just fine when I wasn't screaming! Johnny was so sexy, I mean, OH MY GOD! I can't believe how good looking that guy is and I am not afraid to admit that. He was hot! His chest is very sexy and I really liked his hair... I looked at him through the binoculars and he just about sent me to my knees, I was in heaven! So I didn't look through them anymore, or I'd ruin my experience. Anyways, he would travel around and wave and everyone would just scream and wave their arms in the air. I ended up in the aisle, I was the only one in the aisle, dead center stage. And I was wearing shiny pants and a white Goo shirt. Nathan could see us, so Johnny could too. When Robby started to sing January Friend he went "reach... for higher ground" and I was singing along and I reached my arms in the air and danced, really badly, but I was into it. And Johnny was singing along too and he saw me, pointed, waved and I waved back and jumped and freaked out and he smiled this huge smile and waved at me again! It was so cool! He might have made a peace sign at me, but I'm not sure. All I remember was him moving towards me and I remember making the best eye contact I could possibly make and him pointing at me! I remember his smile too, it was so big! And then afterwards I screamed "Johnny waved at me!" and everyone was looking at me already and they all just nodded and I screamed and fell down! I really did! I almost fell down the stairs I was so excited and I just got up and jumped around. It was incredible. I think Johnny might have waved at our group a few times in fact, I have a picture were it really looks like he's smiling at me or waving at me, but I don't remember exactly what was going on. That was my favorite part of the night though, I totally just about died. Mike never waved at us but he smiled in our direction, at who I don't know. Mike seemed really far away, he was so small. He had really cool green hair and Johnny made him stand up, turn around and then he goes: "Mike has no ass. He is a man without an ass. Because he played his ass off for you!" It was so funny! He talked about Mike 2 times during the concert and I thought that was cool. Mike also did a drum solo and it was REALLY good. And I have seen the best drummers in the state of Minnesota play because I used to be involved in all that drum stuff. Mike was really, really awesome! And Robby, of course. He was so funny to watch! I really payed a lot more attention to people besides Johnny this time. I watched Nathan the best I could but he was in the dark a lot. Dave I couldn't see that well at all. But I did watch Robby a lot. He is so funny, he would creep around the stage and he made funny faces and smiled huge! He has huge eyes and he just stares at people. We couldn't really get his attention though. My sister claims that when he was singing one song he was looking at us because we were waving at him. She said he was staring at her and she was staring back. I don't know about that because he didn't really play to our side of the stage as much as his side. But in a few pictures he looks like he's looking at me. The reason I think they were looking at me in the pictures is that I was one of the only people with a camera and I looked really out of place in the aisle, they were keeping people out of the aisles with force, but I was allowed to stand there because I had a large girl next to me who took up my room. So my dad thought maybe they thought I was a photographer, but I don't know. Johnny waved at me like I was a fan, and I felt so special! I just love him so much now, it's unreal. Anyways, Robby was funny and he sang really good. He sang 4 songs. The best was Another 2nd Time Around because they did it like a funny song... he went into it slowly without any music. It was like a Broadway Musical with actors and stuff. He pretended to cry and everything. They stopped their really cool jam session and he stood there by himself with his hands around his face and sang the last verse. It was so cool! I know you would've loved it. This is getting really long so I'll wrap it up. After the show I ran down to the fence to ask if I could have Johnny's cigarette butt he threw down. Someone else asked so I watched the fireworks and waited for the lights to come on. I made friends with the security guard/police officer and he got me a bottle of the Goos' water, I don't know who's but it was cool! Then the camera guy picked up Johnny's other cigarette butt for me and then the roadie threw me the set list and Johnny's other bottle of water. My sister missed the water though and some girls got it. They also got a piece of our set list which I am still kicking myself about, we should have told them to screw themselves but we already had so much! We picked up a ton of confetti because it was really cool and then the security kicked us out of the grandstand. I thought that was mean of them and I told them too. I really believe that if I had been thinking of it and somehow got someone to listen to me and go find Nathan for me, he would have let us backstage. Nathan really had fun with us, we waved at each other the whole time, from 7:30 to 11:00. But of course, you never think of those things when they happen. It was so much fun, we didn't need any more. I really think it was worth it without all the extra meet and greet. We would've been so giddy and stupid they would've been freaked out anyways! Oh and I got a Goo T-shirt. It's light green with 6 red stars across the front with a big G in the center. Around the G it says Goo Goo Dolls, Buffalo NY. It's really cool!
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