Live in Buffalo: July 4th 2004

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Goo Goo Dolls

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For those of you who like the Goo Goo Dolls- and live concert DVDs you wont be dissapointed. If you have HDTV-and in particular a large screen- run and get this. Most of the other reviews failed to point out this was specially filmed in HDTV.

The surprise of thid DVD is the rain- I mean it poured on the 4th of July in Buffalo and they didnt stop the concert or dissapoint the thousands that came to see the band. The fact that Buffalo is home and their families and friends were all there probably propelled them to continue. Most bands doing a promo-4th of July gig would have bailed. Its actually funny to watch the band smiling and laughing during "Slide" - its raining so hard it seems ludicrous to continue. They probably threw out at least 10 guitars. With the high def cameras the rain has an almost MTV video style look to it- but its not staged-its real.

Final note- the "backdrop" to the concert is one of the most incredible art-deco buildings standing- Buffalos City Hall. The lighting of the building and the ornate columns and sculpture is pretty spectacular.

The Goo Goo Dolls are a pretty class act- to not dissapoint their fans and to play the entire show out. They love their roots and it shows.

By the way- the sound is FINE. Its a concert video-the crowd etc is not distracting -in fact Im gonna say after watching it a couple times you feel apart of it.

This review refers to the CD recording.

It seems that every band is making Live albums to pump more money out of their careers. This is unfortunate for most of these albums are poorly produced.

It's great that the Goo Goo Dolls take the live album from their hometown performance in Buffalo. The band has a lot of energy, and so does the crowd. But unfortunately, all of this contributes to a terribly produced live album (never thought I would describe any Goo Goo Dolls album as terrible).

The horror starts just after the studio version of "Give A Little Bit." There is way too much energy, this is good for the band but bad for the crowd that was not toned down during editing. And the guitars and drums sound drowned out by everything else. Which makes me wonder...did they even bother with editing/mixing?

You hear the crowd and then you hear the band... both are distracting through the whole cd. The crowd is loud and not cut out or toned down during production. And the sound quality is poor (maybe this was not enhanced to create a "live" atmosphere for the listener).

The band does play all of their great songs including Slide, Black Balloon, Name, Here Is Gone, and Iris to name a few. And those songs make this album enjoyable. And the album does change from bad to better. But no matter how great their songs are, the sound and the crowd wreck the band's first live album. Overall, poor production runes what could have been an excellent set of songs.

The lyrics are great, the songs are great, and the band is great. But the end product sounds terrible. That is why I have said so many bad things. But I hope that the dvd is much more interesting and enjoyable. I remember reading that there is commentary from the band.

I suggest record labels start figuring out how Pearl Jam has produced, edited, and mixed so many successful live albums. So take notice Goo Goo Dolls, that is how it is done.

If it wasn't for the great set of songs, Live in buffalo would barely reach a 2 star rating.