A Thursday night show might sound tame, but once the Goo Goo Dolls hit the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre to kick off their Canadian tour, it turned into a full-on nostalgia trip. With Slide, Broadway, and Iris, I was transported straight back to my parents’ ’90s living room—shag blue carpet underfoot, dancing along as those exact songs cycled through the multi-disc CD player. (For our Gen-Z readers: a multi-disc CD player was our version of a playlist, and a CD is… not something I’m emotionally ready to explain right now.)
Starting the night off was Dashboard Confessional. Not being overly familiar with the band, I gave some of their music a listen in the days leading up to the show. My honest first thought was: this sounds like something a love-bombing, formerly emo ex would send me, so I wasn’t sure I’d be into it. But as soon as they started playing, I was converted.
Lead singer and guitarist Chris Carrabba wasted no time proving me wrong, delivering a powerful, emotionally charged vocal performance complete with well-placed shouts. Paired with a tight set, energy from every member on stage, and a genuinely sweet rapport with the audience, it made for one of the better openers I’ve seen in a while.
My only critique came when Carrabba encouraged the crowd to stand up for a drama-class-style stretch, complete with arm-waving. Don’t tell me what to do—some of us were in the middle of a very serious soft pretzel situation.
Then the Goo Goo Dolls took the stage, and they didn’t ease into it. Opening with “Naked,” followed by “Dizzy,” they set the tone early.
There’s been some debate online about whether lead singer John Rzeznik’s vocals still hold up, but I was pleasantly surprised. His voice carries a bit more grit these days, sure—but it works. If anything, it added to the live experience, and he held strong throughout the nearly two-hour set.
The only moment that didn’t quite land for me came when Robby Takac, usually busy on bass and hair flips, took over lead vocals for a three-song stretch. It wasn’t that he lacked ability, but compared to Rzeznik’s performance, it felt like a dip in an otherwise strong set.
The night was also peppered with pro-Canada moments, with Rzeznik openly sharing his appreciation for his Canadian fans. At one point, he even joked that if the political divide with the U.S. escalated to the point where he couldn’t get back in, he’d just marry a Canadian to stay. He quickly added that his wife might have something to say about that.
That easy, self-aware humour carried throughout the set. Midway through, he poked fun at himself, telling the crowd, “You can just tell me to fuck off and play Iris,” a nod to the song everyone was waiting for. Moments like that gave the set a knowing edge, acknowledging the weight of their biggest hit without sounding tired of it.
One of the biggest reactions of the night came when Rzeznik brought a fan, Sam, onstage to play Naked with him after she held up a sign asking to join. It had the feel of a spontaneous moment—though it was clearly a bit more planned than that—and the crowd loved it nonetheless.
While there was a slight lull in the middle of the set, with some of their lesser-known songs slowing the momentum, it didn’t take long to win the crowd back. The nostalgia in the room was undeniable. Cellphone lights came out unprompted, swaying along to Black Balloon, and when they launched into Iris, the place practically erupted. Couples danced together, friends linked arms, and the entire audience screamed along to every word.
At one point, a fan even jumped the stage, prompting Rzeznik to ask security for mercy when dealing with the fan—our resident rapscallion.
For a couple of hours, no one was really in that arena. They were back in their parents’ living rooms, or in another decade entirely—somewhere untouched by whatever current-day mess Rzeznik had joked about earlier. And as those final notes rang out, it felt like everyone had found their way back to a moment they didn’t realize they still remembered.
