"The whole thing turned from strictly a 'concert DVD' to a sort of event documentary," bassist Robby Takac said late Monday night after stepping off a plane in Los Angeles. "It will be a very cool package, but it won't be merely a DVD of the concert. We shot a lot of footage in the days leading up to the show. So the thing will ultimately cover the whole event."
The weather wreaked havoc with cameras, lighting and instruments, said Takac.
Sixteen cameras located around Niagara Square stood poised to capture all angles of the show. But one by one, the cameras stopped working as the weather worsened. This was, for all involved, their worst nightmare realized.
"On three separate occasions, only one of the 16 cameras was working," recalled Takac. "But the amazing thing is, never once did all of them go out. It was like they crapped out on a rotating basis, so we were never completely shut down."
Takac described the experience this way: "I'm standing on stage in water past my ankles, looking out at the crowd and thinking to myself: 'Am I really here? Is this really happening?'"
The Goo Goo Dolls became fearful of a complete washout but were very determined to carry on, said Steven Joseph of Buffalo Place, which produced the concert.
Joseph recalled Tuesday that he stood drenched backstage Sunday night after the band had just finished the most difficult set of their career. Addressing band members John Rzeznik, Takac and film director Anthony Bongiovi, Joseph was frantic.
"Please tell me this whole thing was not in vain," he said. "Please tell me we have a DVD!"
"We've got a DVD. There will be a DVD," Rzeznik assured him.
Buffalo Place, however, did suffer a serious financial hit, said Joseph. He didn't have exact dollar amounts on the loss, but said that the less than expected turnout weakened concession sales. He said Buffalo Place is counting on the remainder of this summer's Thursday at the Square events to make up for some of the losses.
Still, Takac credited local fans for making the weekend salvageable.
"If this had happened in any other city, I think the show would've been a total washout," Takac said, noting that the Buffalo crowd "simply refused to leave. It was like, nothing was going to stop them from seeing this show. Anywhere else, people would've run for the hills, I think."
Not here, though.
At one point, the band came close to calling it, Takac said. But then Rzeznik said, "Screw it," grabbed an acoustic guitar, and headed out on stage to do a solo number. And the crowd loved it.
Even if the band desired to release a strict recounting of the performance itself, it's unlikely they'd be able to do so. Water covering drum heads, shorting out guitar rigs and deluging stringed instruments made them "virtually unplayable," said Takac, who said he believes that some overdubbing will be necessary to salvage certain segments.
But he said the modified DVD project will be "in a way, better. I mean, I don't buy straight concert-footage DVDs, you know? This will be something more than that."
"What we're gonna end up with will be a great document of this experience. Was what happened the ideal scenario? Obviously not. But what did happen made it unique. We're never gonna forget this, and I doubt anyone in the crowd will, either."
e-mail: jmiers@buffnews.com