DOLLS EMBRACE BUFFALO PLACE

Rock group draws 10,000 to Lafayette Square show

June 24,1993

     The Goo Goo Dolls, Lance Diamond and an estimated 10,000 people gathered at
Buffalo Place Thursday evening and it was a rock 'n roll love-in. The power of the Goo
Goo love was evident in the middle of the Dolls' ballad, "We Are the Normal", when a
fight broke out in the mosh pit in  front of the band. Johnny Goo stopped singing right
in the middle of the song. "Hey, don't be fighting down there," he said, "this is supposed
to be a love thang." "How could you guys fight, we just played the most sensative part of
the song," Robbie Goo said.
     The people laughed, the fight stopped and the jampacked audience at Lafayette
Square show went back to more mundane actions such as moshing, slam dancing and
crowd surfing. The intensity of the crowd almost matched the furious performances on
stage. Diamond, Buffalo's soul brother #1, played about an hour-and-a-half to open the
Thursday Night at Buffalo Place show.
     Then the Dolls making their first local appearance in three months  after a
national tour, took the stage for a frentic set of old and new songs. Near the end of the
Dolls set, Diamond jumped back on stage with them for a rousing encore that included a
blistering version of Prince's "I'll Never Take the Place of Your Man." He added a funky
reggae touch to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Down on the Corner." Everything
seemed right.
     "We haven't seen Buffalo in three months and this is a great way to come home,"
Robbie Goo  said. "This is the biggest crowd we ever played for, and this is the biggest
mosh pit in America." The moshing was fierce all night long. Young men and women
were hurtling on top of eachothers' shoulders throughout the evening. Shoes, hats, and
pieces of clothing kept flying in all directions. "I can't believe this," Johnny Goo said, "I
just played an acoustic ballad and you people are moshing. Wow!"
     It was that way for both acts. Diamond and his remarkable band, featuring Van
Taylor on keyboards, got the nearby Rand Building shaking with a Motown medley that
included "I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself" and "My Girl." For good measure he
added ssuch R & B classics as "Get Ready" and "Dock of the Bay". Diamond worked the
huge crowd as if it were a small lounge. He jumped off the stage and sshook hands with
the fans. He pranced around, changed outfits and was in energetic form throughout the
evening.
     The same could be said for the Goo Goo Dolls, who played material from thier
early albums, including a scorching version of the Plimsouls' "Million Miles Away." The
Goos also performed much of the material on their current album, "Superstar Car
Wash." The crowd roared with delight when the band lit into such rockers as "Fallin
Down," "Already There," and Johnny's gut-wrenching vocal on "On the Line."
     At times, the sound system was ragged and garbled but that was not enough to
break the bond between the performers and their fans. "I just want to thank my family
and friends for all showing up here tonite," Robbie laughed. "We've been all over the
country the past few months and I want you to know we're all lucky to live in Buffalo." It
was another big crowd for the successful Thursday Night at Buffalo Place series. This has
been the most successful year for the event, said Amy Russ, manager of marketing. "It's
just been incredible since we started on June 3," Russ said. "The weather has been great,
people are turning out and the bands have been good. We just hope it continues."
                                        Anthony Violante


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