Best National Pop/Rock Act
Goo Goo Dolls
A tidbit of Wormtown rock history: the Goo's played the Rick's Cafe
basement some 10-plus years ago in front of a lucky handful of fans. And they
were indeed lucky; the band were pure, high-energy, pop-punk, and sloppy rock
and roll. They seemed a sure bet to wrestle the crown from the Replacements
(their chief influence) as the Last Great American Rock-and-Roll Band. They
were smart, fun, ballsy, and guaranteed to go nowhere fast.
Cut to LA, 1995, and a free-thinking deejay at KROQ thinks to play the B-side
cut "Name," from the Goo Goos' ready-for-last-rites disc A Boy Named Goo.
You would think it was a great one-hit-wonder story, a funny footnote for a
band known to stomp-ass live but who would be remembered for a sensitive
balled. Adios Goo Goos . . .
Except they didn't go away. They fired a second shot over the bow of an
unsuspecting public with the just-as-syrupy "Iris"; and they became bona fide
superstars. Grammy nomination, MTV Award nomination, the Rolling Stones tour
-- the boys from the wrong side of the tracks in Buffalo waved bye-bye to
their indie/alt past. They now stand as the greatest commercial band to root
for since Cheap Trick began unscrewing heads two decades ago. And that's cuz,
just like the Tricksters, the Goo Goo Dolls are still the same smart, fun, and
ballsy band they were before. Instead of a twentysomething, drunk-guy fanbase,
the Upstate New York Dolls have added a legion of nubile, young chicks to their
ranks. If that's a sell-out, where do we sign up?
Johnny Rzenik still writes the same hook-filled, buzz bombs that, at this
point in his career, would make former-chief-architect Paul Westerberg more
than a little jealous.
It comes down to one simple idea -- honesty. The Goos, a little older, but not
that much more mellow, have (while fooling an entire nation in the
process) stayed true.
-- John O'Neill