The Goo Goo Dolls & Dashboard Confessional rocked across generations in Kansas City
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- The Goo Goo Dolls and Dashboard Confessional united fans across generations.
- Kansas City's near sell-out crowd reflected decades of sustained fan loyalty.
- Hit song “Iris” brought fans together to close the show.
Generations mixed and mashed Friday night inside Starlight Theatre, both on stage and in the audience.
Late 1980s alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls and 2000s emo rock band Dashboard Confessional brought the Summer Anthem tour to Kansas City. Goo Goo Dolls singer and bassist Robby Takac told The Star that even though Dashboard Confessional comes from a different generation, the band’s similarities made perfect sense for them to co-headline a tour throughout the United States.
Starlight Theatre is a staple venue for the Goo Goo Dolls. Takac said during the band’s 100-minute performance that they’ve played at this venue a ton of times, last in 2023. Dashboard Confessional was last in the KC area as a part of Phase Fest, the one-day music festival in 2023 at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas, filled with mid-2000s emo rock bands.
Fans young and old packed Starlight Theatre for a near sold-out show, many of whom have already seen the bands live before. Lines formed around 5:45 p.m. with fans eager for the gates to open at 6:30 p.m. and ready to sing along to both of the band’s greatest hits on a warm summer evening that turned into a cool summer night.
“The best part of right now is that we’re all here together and that’s awesome,” said John Rzeznik, lead singer and guitarist for The Goo Goo Dolls.
Growing up with The Goo Goo Dolls
Many fans in the audience were teenagers or young adults when The Goo Goo Dolls first gained prominence in 1995 with their first big hit song, “Name,” even though the band had been officially in the music industry for nine years at that point.
They’ve maintained a dedicated fanbase, one that has them ranked No. 123 in the world on Spotify’s monthly listener chart with nearly 36 million monthly listeners. Abby Hoose, a 17-year-old from Kansas City’s Northland, said her mom always played the band’s songs when she was a kid and she remembers dancing along to the songs with her siblings in the living room.
Hoose was in the front row holding a sign that said this is her third consecutive Goo Goo Dolls concert in Kansas City. They means so much to the family that she and her mom have matching lyric tattoos from the band’s song “Slide.”
Tyler Campbell, a 42-year-old Kansas Citian who was one of those teenagers who listened to the alt-rock icons growing up. The band’s focus on music quality is what keeps him listening.
“I think quality music overpowers anything you get than just what the record labels want on the radio these days,” Campbell said. “People discover the old stuff, and they learn they can untap all these other lost gems that they otherwise won’t get on the radio.”
Fans sang along to some of the songs they wouldn’t hear on the radio these days, like “Black Balloon,” “Better Days,” and “Broadway.” Rzeznik, now 59, and Takac, now 60, kept the energy going, taking no time in between songs before moving on the next.
Black balloons were released into the crowd and knocked around by fans near the front of the stage during the song, and fans stood at full attention during the acoustic part of “Name.” Rzeznik’s voice sounds near-identical to the studio releases, which he told NPR he maintains through lessons with renowned vocal coach Eric Vetro
“You guys keep this band going,” Rzeznik said. “You keep us alive.”
Friday’s show marked the fifth time Campbell has seen Goo Goo Dolls live. He was wearing a 2010 tour T-shirt from when the band played at the now-Cable Dahmer Arena. He won a VIP meet-and-greet package for 2010’s show through a contest on local radio station Mix 93.3, where he got to watch the band practice before the show.
His favorite memory? Telling the band they should try Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que while they’re in town.
‘Vindicated’
Goo Goo Dolls closed the night, but Dashboard Confessional fans were well-represented in Kansas City. The Florida-based rock band, led by singer Chris Carrabba, was the reason Elia Reed and her father, Ryan, traveled from Springfield, Missouri, to watch them Friday.
It’s the second time the father-daughter duo has seen Dashboard Confessional this year. Ryan Reed said it’s the 14-year-old that pressures him into going — they also saw the band perform July 19 in Rogers, Arkansas. Both, wearing T-shirts representing the band, said concerts like these are one way they bond and create memories.
Elia Reed was not alive when Dashboard Confessional debuted. In her words, they debuted before she was even a thought in her parent’s minds. It didn’t stop her from discovering the band, who she first learned about when they opened for Counting Crows in 2023.
The first album she received after getting a record player for her 13th birthday was the band’s 2022 release “All The Truth I Can Tell,” featuring her favorite song, “Southbound and Sinking.” She landed herself and her dad a signed copy of the album from the merchandise booth.
“I would turn on my record player really quiet, listen to Dashboard and sometimes I was able to fall asleep to it, because the record player would just shut off when it hit the end of the record,” Elia Reed said. “I really loved that, and it just kept going from there.”
The song was featured on the band’s hour-long setlist, along with classics “Hands Down,” “Screaming Infiedelities,” and “Vindicated,” which was originally made for 2004 Marvel film “Spider-Man 2.” With just a backdrop displaying the band’s name on stage, Carrabba and crew hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. and gave the fans a show to remember.
“Iris” 27 years later
Dashboard Confessional fans who may not know The Goo Goo Dolls full discography certainly had heard “Iris” before Friday night.
“Iris,” The Goo-Goo Dolls’ four-time Grammy-nominated mega hit, Takac said gives them a fortunate shadow to work with since it’s what people know them for the best. But it also opens up the opportunity for new fans to discover their old material.
Such was the case for Abigail Ringman and Caitlin Leslie. They came to the concert fresh off their first week of college at the University of Kansas. Ringman learned of the band through “Iris,” and later listened to the album it’s featured on, “Dizzy Up The Girl,” following a friend’s recommendation. Leslie said the song with over 5 billion streams worldwide is her dad’s favorite song.
“My dad actually went to The Goo Goo Dolls way back in the early 2000s and he was like, ‘Holy crap, I did this when I was close to your age, and now you’re doing it’,” Leslie said. “It’s really weird how history repeats itself.”
The band kept everyone waiting until the very end to perform the hit, garnering the loudest reaction of the night when the opening acoustic guitar chords rang through the venue’s speakers. The whole night felt like it was building up to this moment, and fans could feel the anticipation building as they kept playing songs from their long discography.
Rzeznik also earned himself some loud boos after mistaking the city for St. Louis, where they played Thursday, Aug. 21. The world didn’t want to see him end the show this way, so he immediately apologized and led the crowd in a sing-a-long before closing the night.
“Kansas City, you guys are the best,” Rzeznik said. “I want to get you on the tour bus and get to the next town.”
What songs did The Goo Goo Dolls and Dashboard Confessional play in Kansas City?
The Goo Goo Dolls played 24 songs during their stop in Kansas City:
- “Naked”
- “Slide”
- “Think About Me”
- “Here Is Gone”
- “Black Balloon”
- “Miracle Pill”
- “January Friend”
- “Nothing Lasts Forever”
- “Big Machine”
- “Stay With You”
- “Sympathy”
- “Acoustic #3”
- “Name”
- “Let Love In”
- “Come to Me”
- “Ocean”
- “Run All Night”
- “Life’s a Message”
- “Bringing On the Light”
- “Better Days”
- “Broadway”
- “Not Goodbye (Close My Eyes)”
- “You Wreck Me” (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)
- “Iris”
Dashboard Confessional played 13 songs during their set at Starlight Theatre:
- “The Best Deceptions”
- “The Sharp Hint of New Tears”
- “Southbound and Sinking”
- “Saints and Sailors”
- “State of American Heartache”
- “Remember to Breathe”
- “Stolen”
- “Turpentine Chaser”
- “Again I Go Unnoticed”
- “No More Bad Days”
- “Vindicated”
- “Screaming Infidelities”
- “Hands Down”
