Live Recap: The Goo Goo Dolls with Dashboard Confessional at Northerly Island
On Wednesday, August 13th, I finally made my way to the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island for the first time this summer to see a sold-out show from Dashboard Confessional and Goo Goo Dolls. As Johnny Rzeznik said during the Goo Goo Dolls headlining performance, “It ain’t summer until you come to Chicago and do a show,” but for me it truly doesn’t feel like summer in the city until I make it to a show at this beachfront venue. Concert attendees were treated to glorious weather after a couple of evenings filled with gloomy thunderstorms, and the music started just as golden hour hit the city skyline.
This past Wednesday was just a couple weeks shy of being exactly two years since the last time I caught a show from Goo Goo Dolls at the very same venue, only this time instead of O.A.R. they were joined by another of my teenaged self’s favorite bands— Dashboard Confessional. I mean truly, if you’ve never screamed the lyrics to “Vindicated” or “Hands Down” by Dashboard while driving with the windows down, you haven’t lived—but lucky for me that was one of my favorite pastimes in high school.
Also lucky for me, Dashboard Confessional’s setlist was packed with plenty of nostalgic tunes, opening up with “The Best Deceptions” from the 2001 album The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. The show continued on to feature lots more music from the early 2000’s, including another favorite of mine “Remember to Breathe,” in which lead singer and songwriter Chris Carrabba sings “Remember to breathe/and everything will be okay.” In the recorded version of the song, Carrabba holds a long note on the words “breathe,” “everything,” and “okay,” and during the live version I was pleasantly surprised to hear Carrabba’s vocal chops were still going strong more than 20 years later and he held out those same notes. Honestly it felt like he took it even further during the show.
Along with his impressive vocal performance, Carrabba demonstrated wonderful creative chemistry with his bandmates, bringing these timeless tunes to life onstage. Their set ended on an epic singalong to the aforementioned “Hands Down.”
Goo Goo Dolls closed out the evening with another set filled to the brim with nostalgia and epic singalongs, starting off with “Naked” from their 1995 album A Boy Named Goo. As the setlist kicked off with a lot of material from the early discography, Rzeznik took the time to address the crowd after performing one of their hits “Black Balloon”—during which the audience bounced around actual black balloons throughout the venue, a tradition that seems to have stuck around from the last time I saw Goo Goo Dolls. “We’re just finally starting to get our groove, but I’m just here to play! I’m happy!" Rzeznik told the audience as the balloons continued to ricochet from fan to fan.
About halfway through the set, Rzeznik stripped back some of their songs, performing “Sympathy” and “Acoustic # 3” solo on acoustic guitar. He also kicked off “Name” with just himself and the guitar before being joined by the full band—and of course, the crowd as backup singers. “Thank you for remembering that song,” Rzeznik told everyone afterwards.
Another fun tradition that carried over from the last time I saw Goo Goo Dolls was that they covered another Tom Petty track. Last time, I got to hear “I Won’t Back Down,” and this time they treated the audience to a rendition of “You Wreck Me” by Petty before closing with their massive hit “Iris.” In the song Rzeznik sings “You're the closest to Heaven that I'll ever be,” and I’ve got to say, getting to hear iconic songs that you grew up with performed live more than 2 decades later at an outdoor venue during the Chicago summertime is pretty dang heavenly if you ask me.
See where you can catch your own slice of heaven on tour here, and check out photos of the evening below.
