30 by 30 #11 - See the Goo Goo Dolls in concert

Another 30 by 30 item is now complete and it has been by far the best one I've done so far!

A month or two ago I was checking the Goo Goo Dolls site as I do every so often, searching for a nearby show to attend and finally, they were playing within driving distance! Driving distance being within 6 hours–AJ and I love us some road trip.

They were playing in Erie, PA, about a 4 hour drive from us and we decided to make a weekend of it and stay overnight. AJ took this as the perfect time to introduce to couch-surfing, which he's been trying to talk me into for a while now. Basically, you go on the site, look for people in the city you want to stay in and ask them if you can crash on the couch/bed, or in our case, air mattress.

We opted to stay with a couple, rather than a single, feeling slightly safer that way. It turned out...okay. The owner of the house was nice enough. Kind of a new age/hippie-esque woman with a big garden and lots of books on herbs and enlightenment. It was somewhat awkward to be on an air mattress in the middle of their living room. Luckily, we got back from the show when they were already in bed and we decided to get up early enough so we wouldn't be in the way. Overall, I guess it was fine. I wasn't feeling unsafe or anything, though I did make AJ promise never to leave me alone.

Now to the good stuff. The show. The concert was at Penn State Behrend College so it was a very young crowd, which was fine. We got to wait in the shorter line because we were picking up at Will Call, though we still ending up waiting in the snow for about half an hour. So cold. But totally worth it.

The Rocket Summer opened the show. I like his songs, but I didn't really have any expectations for the show. He surprised me though; he was really great! Lots of energy and he did a lot more than just stand there and sing.

Then the main event. The Goo Goo Dolls set was like they went into my iPod favourites playlist and played the whole thing. Every single song I was hoping to hear. They did play a couple extras. 2 or 3 from their upcoming July release and 4 from their secondary lead singer who I'm not a fan of.

The only slightly disappointing thing was that Johnny Rzeznick just doesn't have the pipes he used to. Those incredible high notes that make songs like Iris amazing. But he knows he can't hit them, so he doesn't try. Instead, he changed the melodies to fit his abilities. At first it was a shock to hear the songs so different, but I really appreciate that he didn't either just use tracks or totally butcher the song.

All in all a fantastic show that has just moved to the top of the list of my favourite concerts ever, and that's saying a lot!