'That band from Buffalo': Robby Takac looks back on Goo Goo Dolls’ ride from Buffalo to breakout
As the band prepares to arrive home for an Aug. 9 show at KeyBank Center (with opener Dashboard Confessional), Robby Takac has ingrained appreciation for the band’s journey from gritty garage band to an act big enough to play anywhere.
Most guitar bands don’t last multiple decades – but if they do, they have to survive myriad transitions along the way.
Just ask Robby Takac.
Thirty years ago, the West Seneca native was the raspy-voiced, hirsute bassist of the Goo Goo Dolls, one of multiple Buffalo-area bands and musicians that had nosed their way into national radio play and MTV broadcasts.
Goo Goo Dolls are pictured in front of the Superstar Car Wash on William Street, for which their 1993 album was named.
Buffalo News file photo
Ingrained in the local scene from their wild shows at The Continental and elsewhere, Takac and bandmate Johnny Rzeznik had strummed and sweat their way into the national alt-rock conversation; evolved past their earliest punk-rock recordings; and with their March 1995 release, “A Boy Named Goo,” were ready to build on the power-pop they had unleashed on their 1993 Warner Bros. release, “Superstar Car Wash.”
Then, in September of ’95, the single “Name” hit the airwaves – and everything changed.
“With (‘Superstar Car Wash’), we made that record, and it felt like we had made a jump,” said Takac, reached recently before the Goos’ “Summer Anthem Tour” stop in Boston. “We had kind of started working with some new people, but we really didn’t have any interest (in the album or us) that was over the top. But once you have a song like, ‘Name,’ everybody’s got an opinion.”
Thankfully, these opinions have led to a multiplatinum-selling career, Grammy nominations, and recognition as one of the most accomplished acts to emerge from a decade still in vogue. But as the band prepares to arrive home for an Aug. 9 show at KeyBank Center (with opener Dashboard Confessional), Takac has ingrained appreciation for the band’s journey from gritty garage band to an act big enough to play anywhere.
The Goo Goo Dolls – John Rzeznik, left, and Robby Takac – are pictured at a 1999 concert in Shea’s Buffalo Theatre.
Buffalo News file photo
‘That band from Buffalo’
To be a music fan in 1990s Buffalo was to be blessed with an embarrassment of local riches.Audiophiles could descend on stores like Home of the Hits and Record Theatre to thumb through CDs, cassettes and Canadian imports. Clubs like The Continental, Showplace Theatre and Blind Mellons provided a potent blend of local heroes and touring talent. Working musicians could look to a handful of acts – like 10,000 Maniacs, Ani DiFranco and Mercury Rev – that made it out of town to find bigger audiences. There was even a drummer (Patrick Wilson) who left Clarence to find a group of Pixies disciples named Weezer.
The Goo Goo Dolls were central in this conversation. With “Hold Me Up” (1990) and 1993’s “Superstar Car Wash” (1993), the band landed singles on radio, worked with The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg (on “We Are the Normal”), and had videos aired on MTV’s indie-rock-focused “120 Minutes.” They were the most Buffalo-centric act to find the national spotlight, and they were happy to represent the city – and its wealth of artistic talent both recognized and undiscovered.
“We were always that band from Buffalo,” said Takac, who still lives locally when not touring. “There was always something about our silly name and the fact that we came from kind of an unlikely place, (albeit) with an incredible breadth of talented (musicians) that just weren’t, for some reason, exploding onto the scene.”
Singer and guitarist John Rzeznik reacts to his hometown crowd during a 2022 concert at KeyBank Center.
Buffalo News file photo
From normal to ‘Name’
But despite video play, industry recognition and CD compilation inclusion alongside era vanguard like Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins, the Goos were still the local three-piece that launched “Superstar Car Wash” with a wild live show at Elmwood’s New World Record. They were freewheeling and independent, still figuring things out.“I felt like we were really on our own back then. We were really controlling every aspect of this whole thing,” said Takac. Town Ballroom co-owner “Artie Kwitchoff was our manager, but he was a kid, just like we were. We were all just trying to find our way through this whole thing.”
On March 14, 1995, these kids released “A Boy Named Goo,” a tongue-in-cheek play on a famous Johnny Cash song, and an album full of blistering singles like “Long Way Down” that built off the vibe of their previous release. But in the acoustic thread of “Name,” the band kicked open a door not previously accessed by them – or any other Buffalo band. The song went on to top both the U.S. Modern Rock and Album Tracks charts, and peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
“That’s when you kind of felt everything shift a little,” Takac said. “And it didn’t feel like it was just kind of like a few of us against the world anymore. There was a team of us.”
Eventually, the album was certified double-platinum, spawned the five-time platinum-selling “Dizzy Up the Girl” (1998), and fueled the band’s nearly four-decade comet ride from beer-soaked rock clubs to the biggest of stages – including those in their own hometown.
The Goo Goo Dolls played a memorable concert in the rain outside of Buffalo City Hall in 2004.
Buffalo News file photo
Bringing it all back home
Now weeks into the “Summer Anthem Tour,” Takac and Rzeznik will return home with a catalog packed with radio hits across 13 studio albums, along with seven new songs – including their newest single, “Nothing Lasts Forever” – they’re releasing amid show dates.For a band that’s interspersed gigs at Shea’s and Darien Lake with one epic, rain-soaked performance in the shadows of Buffalo City Hall, one-upping their past performances may prove difficult. But according to Takac, this appearance may provide some unexpected nuggets for those longtime fans who once crammed record stores or spilled onto Franklin Street.
“We’re trying to go deep and play some older, lesser-known tracks that we know (play well) live,” he said. “We’re still working on that math right now while we’re out here, but by the time we hit Buffalo, we should have it all dialed in and have the perfect show for everybody.”
But regardless of what individual songs echo across KeyBank Center, the Goos’ odyssey from Buffalo’s underdog horse in the alt-rock race to the biggest act to ever call this city home will forever be memorable for those there at the start – and those still enjoying the ride, like Takac.
“When it boils right down to it, I don’t think this group would be the group we are if we weren’t from that city. Growing up there really formed like a lot of things for us – some awesome, some things maybe not so awesome,” laughed Takac. “But that’s what you got from growing up through the ‘70s and ‘80s in a place like Buffalo, and we love it.”
PREVIEW
Goo Goo Dolls
With Dashboard Confessional
7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at KeyBank Center (ticketmaster.com, keybankcenter.com)
