The opening-opening band was Fern. They were pretty good. The only problem I had with them was that they were constantly reminding us that they were from Springfield. Oh well, they were still good. The bass player had been walking around while we had been standing in line, so we recognized him. The girls who won the backstage passes found us again after Fern and told us that Robby was an angel, Mike was a sweetheart, and John was an ass hole. We honestly figured that he might not be pleasant, and we warned them ahead of time, just in case.
Tonic was awesome. The lead singer really cared about the people in the front not getting squished. He asked that everyone back up so that the pretty ladies in the front wouldn't get squished. Amber and I could see Nathan standing off to the side of the stage through Tonic's set. At one point, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor, smoking a cigarette, and singing along. Amber watched him a lot and once smiled and waved at him and he smiled back at her!
It seemed to take forever for the to set up for the Goo's to come on. When they taped down the set-list, we leaned over to see part of it and Amber said, 'Have you ever seen Cuz You're Gone live?' Of course I hadn't so that made us more excited. We could see the guitar tech tuning John's guitars, so when he got to the purple one with the KISS sticker, we knew they were coming out soon. Finally the lights went off and everyone started screaming. They played some stupid song before the Goo's actually came out though. It was kind of funny. We could see John off-stage getting ready. Then, Dizzy. We started screaming even more. We were so close, it was incredible! We've had dreams about us being that close in a concert and the reality of it was awesome!! They ended Dizzy and started Long Way Down and the one thing that sticks out in my mind was that John started playing right in front of us. Amber and I felt really cool, because we'd seen them sing on TV and stuff a lot before, so we knew how they sang certain songs, and we sang them that way too. Plus there didn't seem to be that many people around us who knew a lot of the songs. Before Lazy Eye, John said that it was a good song from a shitty movie (I agreed). They played Slide which got a big response from the crowd. We could see Nathan jumping up and down during the song.
After Slide, John did a cat-call whistle and made a comment about having a sexy audience. Then he said that he's sometimes scared of the people that come to see them, but, he said, 'Tonight I just wanna take you all home with me.' Then he said, 'This song was written before you were born.' We heard the first, like, two notes of the song and started freaking out. There You Are. One of our favorite songs, and not to mention videos:) Amber and I always make a joke about the part in the video where John says "And I self destruct" and then Robby makes the gesture of something blowing up. So when John said that, we did it. Robby saw us and laughed. It was great to know that he saw us and liked what we did. Amber and I got pushed over to the right during their set, so Robby was right in front of us most of the time and it kept seeming like he was looking at us through most of it. It was cool because if he was, he saw us sing every word to every song and have the time of our lives! At the point in There You Are when John says 'My suffering extreme' he said 'My f-ing seems extreme.' At the end, Robby got right up next to John and head-banged along with the drums. Right before Black Balloon all the lights went out and a spotlight came down on John. It turned off and he moved to the center of the stage where it came up right on him again. He looked up with an expression on his face that said, 'What the hell is this thing doing?' It turned off again and again he moved and it came back on him again. He gave it another funny look and we all laughed. At the end he said, 'Come to me' about three times like he did on the Rock to Erase MS program. During Bullet Proof, instead of singing 'Do you like the way you feel?' John sang 'Do you like the way I feel?' and he took his hands off his guitar and sort of felt down his body with them. Throughout the whole show Robby kept walking up to John and grabbing his butt, but you could tell that he was having a lot of fun. His facial expressions were priceless.
Afterwards Bullet Proof came Mike's drum solo before Naked. Amber and I seemed to be the only ones screaming because we knew what was coming next. Naked is our favorite live song of theirs, so we were more than excited when they played it. John said 'Don't waste it' instead of 'I'm wasted,' like on the BBQ. Prior to Name, John told the very humorous Walk of Shame story. They sang Cuz You're Gone with the Thousand Words intro in the middle. We'd never heard that song live, so it was very cool. But instead of saying, 'You're stuck in a grown-up world' he said 'You're stuck in a f-ed up world,' and in the Thousand Words part he said 'I want you to f-- me' instead of 'I want you to love me.'
When John introduced the band, he introduced Nathan and Dave without saying anything about them. He said that Mike never misses a beat...'unless I make him.' He said that Robby's been his partner for that last gazillion years and Robby introduced John by saying that John's been to the right of him for most of his adult life.
During Broadway John played with his hair and had a big smile on his face. In Another Second Time Around when Robby starts screaming he said something about 'I hate you, you f-ing bitch!' During Flat Top (my favorite song), at the part where John sings 'as long as there's a victim on TV' he sang 'as long as, well you know.' And I yelled out, 'There's a victim on TV!!' Then they played Acoustic #3, to which John said that we could write to him if we came up with a name for it. Nathan came forward during his solo in Iris, and we wanted badly to watch him. But John and Robby were right up in front of us and all the girls by us were screaming and reaching for them, so we couldn't see Nathan at all. John made us all sing along at the end. John was wearing a black t-shirt with red pants and his Vans, Robby was in all black and white socks, Mike started out wearing grey shorts and a hockey jersey but he took off the jersey and had on an orange t-shirt, Nathan was in all black, and Dave had on a red tee with black leather pants.
The set list was Dizzy, Long Way Down, Lazy Eye, Slide, There You Are, Full Forever, Black Balloon, Bullet Proof, Naked, Name, January Friend, Cuz You're Gone, Broadway, Another 2nd Time Around, Flat Top, Acoustic #3, and Iris. The encore was Just The Way You Are, Burnin' Up, Hate This Place, and 2 Days. (John screwed up the words a little on Acoustic #3, Bullet Proof, and Cuz You're Gone)
We noticed that on all of Robby's songs, no one really paid attention to him. Everyone was watching John and yelling for him, reaching for him. It really made both Amber and me mad, because we honestly devoted our attention to Robby during his songs. Granted, it was easy because he was right in front of us. But we sang along and watched him, because that was his time. The band left the stage before the encore, but no one in the crowd did. They came back out and John started talking to the audience. He first made the comment that they didn't fool anybody by leaving before. Then he had us all play a game with them. When John strummed on his guitar we were all supposed to clap. He kept going faster and slower and then he'd stop and everyone would still clap. When we did that, he laughed and smiled at us. Then they played Just The Way You Are, and confetti fell from the ceiling. Amber and I managed to grab a couple pieces to remember it by. At the end, where on the album version, John sings 'Hold me up,' Amber and I could see Nathan singing it.
Before 2 Days, John told everyone that he had wanted to buy blow up dolls for the song, a boy and a girl. He said that he didn't think Green Bay sold that kind of stuff and the crowd laughed. He said that the song is about a boy and a girl and the revenge the boy sought out after the girl after she dumped him. Robby asked if the blow-up dolls wore Packer helmets and the crowd, of course, cheered. While they were talking, there was only one microphone on the stage, so every time Robby wanted to talk he had to lean over to talk into John's mic.
It seemed to us that John kept cutting Robby off though. John said that he had wanted to come up with names for the blow-up dolls and he gave one name but couldn't think of another, so Robby gave him a name. John looked over at him and said 'Yeah, whatever.' and kept talking to the crowd. It was rather upsetting, but at the same time we've gotten used to it. At the end of the concert John said he wanted to move to Green Bay and then threw his guitar onto the floor and left. That was it. It was over. Amber and I were happy because we weren't being pushed into the wooden barricades, but we were sad that it was over. Amber thought she broke her ribs from being pushed so hard. We ended up with bruises all over, too. But it was worth it. After the concert was over we had to leave right away, so we didn't get a chance to go over by the buses. We wanted to because we couldn't take any pictures during the concert (even though cameras weren't allowed we snuck one in, but being right up in front we didn't want to get caught by the security guards).
At the concert in Stevens Point that we went to, we couldn't remember much because a lot of the time we couldn't see and we were so excited. But now between the two of us, we remember almost every single little detail (like when John looked over in our direction we both smiled at him and he smiled back!!!) We'd always wanted to be in the front row at one of their concerts. We were so close we could've reached out and touched any of them.
It was one of the best experiences of our lives' and we will remember it forever.