With a career spanning more than 20 years, it’s not unusual to see both mothers and daughters enjoying a Goo Goo Dolls concert together.
Bassist Robby Takac expects that to be the case when the Goo Goo Dolls come to the Palace Theatreat 7 p.m. on Saturday.
“To me it’s pretty insane to see multiple generations being able to come out and enjoy the same type of music,” he said.
But he’s not entirely surprised. Takac recalls opening for the Rolling Stones decades earlier. Mick Jagger came into his room and said, “It’s very strange. There are mothers out there with their daughters and those daughters are with their daughters.”
The two-hour concert will feature both classic and new Goo Goo Dolls material.
“We’ve got an awful lot of songs that we want to play and need to play,” Takac said. “We’re definitely going to do the songs you would expect to hear but there will be some surprises.”
This will be the Goo Goo Dolls’ first album since the release of “Let Love In” in 2006.
One surprise will be that the band will be opening with a song off its not-yet-released album, “Something for the Rest of Us.” The album will be released June 8.
Takac said the new album took about two years to create but is a good representation of what the band wants an album to sound like. The band started on the new album after a renovation of its Buffalo studio.
“The label decided to put out the album a little later than expected, so we had some time to revisit and craft new things the second time around,” he said.
So far, the music from the new album has been getting a great response, he said.
“So it’s been fun to surprise the audience with something that they don’t know,” he said.
Takac said his favorite songs on the album are “The Sweetest Lie” and “Home.”
“We have been opening with ‘The Sweetest Lie’ and it has some cool Motown vocals,”
Takac said. “And ‘Home’ has been getting a lot of buzz at the shows we’ve done so far.”
The Goo Goo Dolls are far from unfamiliar with Columbus. Dating way back to when the band first got started, it would stop in Columbus, usually at the Newport.
“It’s always been a place that we go. We have a core group of family here,” Takac said.
The band is also hoping to benefit the community on its tour.
“We will be collecting canned food outside of our show, and whoever brings the single-most donations gets to do a meet-and-greet with the band,” Takac said.
Takac said the biggest challenge of having a band that’s been together more than 20 years is being able to evolve and stay relevant.
“It doesn’t ever feel like you’re at the point of success,” he said “because you’re always driving to move forward.”
