Slim's In San Francisco

From sjm@pangea.stanford.eduThu Feb 29 14:12:52 1996
Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 10:43:36 -0800
From: Samuel Moreau 
To: Bryan John Penberthy 
Subject: Slim's Story

Slim's in San Francisco: (can't remember the date. Mid November?, 1995)

I've been a fan of the Goo Goo Dolls since my freshman year at college. My
roommate was from Minneapolis and had a great music collection ranging from
rare Replacements to Prince's Black Album. Included somewhere in that mix
were the Goo Goo Doll's first few albums. Unfortunatly, being stuck in the
far reaches of Montana, there were not an abundant amout of opportunities
to see a live Goo's show. However, I've since moved to San Francisco and
low and behold the GGD's came to town. Here is the story:

The venue was Slim's night club in SF. A great place to see a band. Very
intimate with lots of musical history. There is a sign on the wall that
says the room capacity is around 400 people and the crowd was loosly
packed. There were two other bands on the bill that night. The opening band
was 'YouAmI' from Australia. They are a rocking 3 piece that sound a little
like the Goo's. The lead singer kinda looks like Paul Westerberg. They were
good and the lead singer was smashed. I talked to him after their part of
the show and he was wasted. Next up was the 'Smoking Popes' from Chicago.
They were ok. I wasn't too into them. A lot of people seemed to have come
to see them because the crowd was really into it while they were on stage.
Finally, (about 11:30), the GGD's took the stage with a relentless fury. I
can't remember the song list but they played almost all of 'Boy', most of
'Superstar' and 'Hold Me Up' and a few selections off of 'Jed' and
'GGD'.Roby was running around (w/o shoes of course)  rolling and jumping
all over the place. It's a good thing they are only a three piece 'cause
otherwise they kill each other on stage. Johnny only pulled the acoustic
out for 'Name', but even that turned into a frenetic jam. Midway through
the show, some kid jumped up onto the stage and bumped into Johnny and then
dove into the crowd. The bouncers went after him and were dragging him out
the back door when Roby dropped his bass and took off after the bouncers
yelling "Hey, quit kicking that kid's ass!" It was one of the most rock n'
roll things I've ever seen. Roby brought the kid up on stage and made him
appologize to Johnny for scareing him and then to the crowd for doing a
stupid thing, and then sat him down on a milk crate and they then sang "2
Days in February" while Roby sat on the floor talking to the kid. It was
really cool and proves how cool the Goo's are. They were having a great
time that night, jumping around and joking with the crowd. Johnny even told
a Greatful Dead joke. In SF no less!!!
         Q -- How many Deadheads does it take to change a lightbulb?
         A -- 50,000. They'll just watch it burn out and then follow it
around for 20 years

They also did requests (about 20 seconds of "Up Yours") and Roby leaned
over and asked my wife and I if we were having a good time, to which I
replied, "I have an ice cold Redhook in hand and the Goo Goo Dolls are on
stage 5 feet away. I'm in heaven." It was a GREAT show all around.
 Sam

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