Matchbox Twenty/Goo Goo Dolls Concert

This past weekend we took a road trip up to Minneapolis with Kevin's sister Heather (oops! and MY sister now!) and our best man Brian. Destination: Matchbox Twenty and Goo Goo Dolls concert!

When Heather alerted us to the fact they were touring together, my 5th grade self got suuuuper excited! I loved them as a kid, especially Matchbox Twenty. I especially love music that makes me feel nostalgic; music that instantly takes me to the place in time where I first heard that song. For this concert, I immediately traveled back to my best childhood friend Kayla's house, in her computer room chatting with boys on MSN messenger and downloading songs on Limewire, eating grape popsicles. Ahhh, those were the good ol' days.

Anyway, I digress. The concert was at the Basillica Block Party, an outdoor concert/festival to raise money for outreach programs. I had the best cheese curds I've ever had and you could even get your picture taken with the pope. Unfortunately, we forgot to do the latter. It was a pretty cool setup. Now, I've never watched a concert NOT in the front row so that was my only regret of the weekend. We found a spot off to the side in front of the video board.

Best photo bomber!!

The Goo Goo Dolls were up first, and my first impression: that guy has GOT to lay off the plastic surgery! He looked exactly the same as he did 10 years ago, but...something was different. See below.

Scary, right? Nonetheless, he sounded great and played all their old hits. Iris, Slide, Black Balloon, Here is Gone, Sympathy, etc. Remember those?? Kevin and I made an untimely beer run and missed seeing Iris :(.

Heather caught the Goo's coozie............. or maybe it was just a random one. We'll never know.

I was most excited to see Matchbox Twenty and they definitely did not disappoint. In fact, they far exceeded my expectations. Rob Thomas is one good looking guy! He is so intense when he sings and he put on a fantastic show! I was in no way disappointed. He also played EVERY song that any of us wished to hear, which was much appreciated since they've come out with new stuff recently. They played nearly every song on their first album, which was AWESOME!! Real World, Long Day, 3AM, Push, Girl Like That, Back 2 Good, and other favorites... How Far We've Come, Unwell, If You're Gone, Bright Lights. So. Many. Songs!!

The best was the encore, when they came back and said, "We're just gonna play a bunch of old shit!" SO GOOD. I have been listening to Matchbox Twenty NONSTOP since the concert. My favorite songs they played were "Back 2 Good" and "Push," which was the last song.

Funny story: I remember as a kid being very offended by "Push," and boycotted listening to the song. The lyrics had me a little confused... "I want to push you around, well I will, well I will," "I want to take you for granted." Haha! Glad I got over that.

After the concert, we went back to our hotel, ordered some pizza, and reminisced on oh amazing the concert was. Heather was also subjected to some dares. Oh--I feel it's also worth mentioning that Brian was dared to shotgun a Straw-ber-Rita before the concert and did so in a matter of seconds!