An all-time iconic performance.
In 2004, alt/pop-rock outfit Goo Goo Dolls hosted a concert on the Fourth of July that was to be recorded as part of a live album called Live in Buffalo: July 4th. But the weather didn’t exactly play along, though it ended up producing one of the coolest, most memorable live performances ever. Of course, I’m referring to the video I think many have seen of them playing “Iris” in the pouring rain, and during a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show podcast, frontman Johnny Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac gave the full story behind that legendary Buffalo concert.
They had organized the show for the purpose of recording the aforementioned live album, and it was shot and recorded in downtown Buffalo on Niagara Square in front of Buffalo City Hall, in their hometown. Over 60,000 fans came out to see the show, and while the day of the concert the weather cleared up in time for them to start, as the set went on, it started raining again, as hard as it had all weekend.
Takac recalled man holes blowing up and flying through the air, and Rzeznik explained that it had to do with the Buffalo sewer system and too much methane:
“But Buffalo has this, like, this is really inside baseball, okay? I’m sure your audience will be fascinated. But Buffalo is a very old city, and they have something that’s called a combined sewer, which means not only does it carry the waste water, it also carries sh*t out to get dumped. So you have all this methane inside the sewer pipes, so, so much water filled up the sewer, that is concentrated the methane gas at the top, where there was air, so it was mostly methane.
And there was a spark inside, because they also run electrical wires through these sewer pipes. So there was a spark, and it ignited all the methane, and boom, boom, boom, man hole covers flying in the air, you’re like what the hell is that? It was insane… it was like a Kiss concert.”
Takac said they were obviously concerned with the electrical items getting damaged by water, saying that they started to wonder if “50,000 people really [could] get electrocuted all at once”:
“The water was up around peoples’ knees in front of the stage. And nobody got electrocuted, that we know of. And we’re standing up there, and we’re like, oh my god, there’s massive tangles of wire everywhere to run the lights and the PA. And we’re just like, could 50,000 people really get electrocuted all at once? So we quickly checked it out, had to stop the show for a minute to check it out, and then I’m like, you gotta keep going.”
By that, they mean that they walked off stage for a second to ask someone who was running the systems if it was safe to continue, and they got the go-ahead to keep going. Obviously someone getting electrocuted is a huge concern, especially during a crazy rainstorm like that. It looks almost Biblical on camera, so I can only imagine how hard it was really raining in-person.
Johnny explained that there was no possible way he was going to stop, and it turned out to be an “epic event,” though one of the major issues throughout the weekend was… toilets. I had no clue sewage could cause that many issues, but it plagued them in many ways all weekend:
“So we continued on, because if we hadn’t continued, I would’ve never been able to go home again, because that’s not how people in Buffalo are. They’re like, ‘You’re a p****.’ I would’ve gotten that, you know, so we kept going. It was an epic event, it was an epic event, and I remember after that, the two biggest things I remember about that show was the day before the concert, not having enough toilets for this big festival.
So we had to go out and beg people for money. We needed more money, we’ll give you a rolling credit at the end of the DVD. We did a show the day before… all to get toilets, because the city was like, ‘Nope, you don’t have enough toilets.’ They’re expensive. It’s unbelievable…”
I mean, I would’ve never guessed…
Johnny also recalled being soaked after it was all said and done, and thinking that the universe had given him a break with the rain, oddly enough, because he know how incredible it would all look on camera:
“I remember begging people for money so we would have enough toilets so we could actually do the show. Then I remember after the show being completely soaked and just sitting down and thinking to myself, you know, sometimes the universe gives you a break. Because I was like , this is gonna look amazing.”
Takac added that they had actually, luckily, decided to bring in camera people to film in addition to doing to the live CD, and it rained so hard that all the cameras broke. They were first generation HD, which is why the quality is so good on “Iris,” though they did kind of piece together some of it because of water damage:
“And we brought a company in to do the video, and it was like first generation HD cameras and every single one of them stopped working, so they’re editing in my aunts home video VHS footage, the quality really decays as it goes on, but it’s pretty amazing.”
I never would’ve imagined everything that went into that show, but it all aligned to create an incredibly special music moment that has only continued to reach new generations of music fans. The hosts told them about how the “Iris” video tends to go viral on social media at least yearly, which actually just happened recently, and Johnny seemed grateful that he was able to write songs, and be part of something like the live concert, that continues to find new life:
“It amazing to me how we wrote a couple of songs that manage to age well enough that it has a new life.”
It’s NOT an easy thing to do, at all, and I think it’s important to remember just how special moments and songs like this are. It’s even more exciting as a music fan when you find out an amazing story like what they told is behind it all:
@zachsangshow @Goo Goo Dolls tell the full story behind their iconic “Iris” rain performance in Buffalo NY #googoodolls #iris #rain #buffalo #newyork #zachsangshow #zachsang #danzolot #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show
Of course, “Iris” was written by Rzeznik for the soundtrack of the 1998 film City of Angels, and it was included on the sixth Goo Goo Dolls album, Dizzy Up the Girl. It’s become one of their signature songs, and I’ll be honest, I still go back to it often… it’s just a classic.
But the live performance obviously takes it to another level, and became such an important piece of music history for a reason. Seeing all those people fully engaged, without a cell phone in sight, just present in the moment is almost sad to watch now… I would given anything to back and somehow see it from the crowd, which I think is another part of what’s given this video the ultimate staying power.
Plus, “Iris” is a beautiful song, and was absolutely perfect for this moment. They handled it like pros, and I’m just glad it was all on-camera because it needs to live on forever. If you’ve never seen it before, please change that now. I get chills every time:
The full podcast episode is available here:
