Hey Hey In Rockers, hope you're having a great Summer and Welcome to The Lobby for this month's wander through the last month of travels and stuff here in the pages of the mighty In Rock! This month saw GGDS playing a bunch of shows, a day of camping with our new little dog, some changes coming up for the Music is Art Festival....lots going on, let's get to it!

Goo Goo Dolls had a few shows this month, the first being in Naples, Florida which was hit by a huge thunderstorm (which you will see becomes a trend here over the column), our drummer Craig was not able to make it to the show, so we performed without drummer! Rocker Pat Benatar was also on the bill (she had her drummer), but we pulled it all together and for the first time ever muscled our way through a set without what is arguably the most important instrument in the band. We made it, people had a great time, it was almost like a sing along with the crowd! Everyone had a great time, and after an afternoon of stressful calls with travel agents and stranded band members we made it through the show, and everyone had a great time …. Like they say, “You just can’t stop the rock”!

The next show we had was a benefit for The Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut, it's a tiny little 500 capacity theater that we played ages ago on our “Otis Midnight Sessions” acoustic tour many years ago, They raised tons of money for the theater, and we played our hearts out to make up for that drummerless show in Naples, you know, it's amazing how much a set of drums livens up a rock show!

The next stop was in Joliet, Illinois, about an hour outside of Chicago, at The Taste of Joliet, a food and music festival that drew over 25,000 people in a college football stadium, we played some rock, sang some songs with the crowd and then we were off to one of the greatest legacy music festivals in the US, Summerfest in Milwaukee. Summerfest features over 400 bands on many, many stages around the Summerfest grounds, The acts include everything from local high school and tribute bands to major recording artists like Motley Crue, Keith Urban and Maroon 5 and everything in between. We have probably played this festival at least 5 times in our career, if you ever get a chance add it to your bucket list. The show was delayed by 90 minutes due to tornado warnings and storms, but we got back on track and the show went off without a hitch!

Also, this month I had the opportunity to take my daughter Hana and our new Shih Tzu puppy Luna camping for the first time this year! We've always loved camping and it's even more of a blast with our little puppy! We are generally city people, so it was a great opportunity for Luna to get into the dirt and weeds and really be a dog before we brought her home to be scrubbed down, put a bow in her hair, and let her get back to being a hip and cultured dog in the city.

Some big news regarding the 22nd Annual Music Is Art festival here in Buffalo coming up next month, there will be some changes to our annual event in September, and they will be announced over the next month, hang on for that!

And lastly Goo Goo Dolls have just announced a tour of South Africa in December of 2024, 3 shows across the country and some more opportunities to bring our music across the world, pretty cool.... Ok.... that's it for this month's column, hope you all have a great month and I look forward to getting together with you all again here in the pages of In Rock!

Talk Soon and Peace...
Robby

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