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So the Goo Goo Dolls are one of only four bands I will pretty much go anywhere to see in concert. I've had some pretty up-close-and-personal concert moments with them in the past at House of Blues (where John Rzeznik squirted his water bottle on my leather jacket laying over the barricade in front of the stage. I forgave him cuz he looked really good that night ;) and Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (where, after an awful experience waiting for fan club tickets to arrive at the box office for like two hours, my Goo-buddy Miriam and I discovered we were once again in the front row, but at a much bigger venue and with a seat number on a ticket!). So when the Goos announced a show at the awesome Greek Theatre on August 29th, I signed up, even though their new CD -- Something for the Rest of Us -- wasn't out yet and I had no idea what to expect.

The show started with a new song ("Sweetest Lie") I didn't know... by the end of the song, I loved it!. Then they moved into hitsville for a while... the sound was so good, both instrumentally and vocally -- John's voice sounded amazing! They sang a few other new songs: the first single, "Home," "Not Broken." By the end of the show, I couldn't wait till Tuesday to get the new album.

I stopped at Best Buy last night to purchase the actual physical CD on the way home from work (I do that for bands I'd go anywhere to see in concert ;), and ripped it to my Droid so I could listen to it today on the plane to Raleigh. I've often felt that the band has never quite topped the overall goodness of 1998's Dizzy Up the Girl (which brought us "Slide," "Black Balloon," "Iris" and "Acoustic #3" some of my fave GGD songs, along with "Here is Gone" and "Sympathy" from 2002's Gutterflower) that could be listened to end-to-end without feeling the need to skip a song or two. That's a rare feat for an album, especially these days when very few people actually buy and listen to full albums.

But after listening to Something for the Rest of Us approximately 10 times in a row today, and actually reading the lyrics (many of which read like love letters), I think they might have done it. This album is beautful... full of extremely emotional, personal stories of love, yearning, happiness, acceptance. It's not loud, it's lyrical and I love that. My favorite songs thus far, in no particular order: "As I Am," "Home," "Notbroken" (which is already the second most downloaded Goo song on iTunes ever, 2nd to Iris), "One Night," "Nothing is Real," and "Still Your Song." After the emotional roller coaster I've been on this year, those songs really spoke to me in different ways. I really love this album -- it was definitely worth waiting four years for.