Last Modified: Friday, October 28, 2011 2:37 PM

BY JOHN GUIDROZ / AMERICAN PRESS

To say the Goo Goo Dolls have come a long way from their humble beginnings 25 years ago as a punk rock band from Buffalo, N.Y., is an understatement.
The band — made up of singer/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik, bassist Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin — has churned out several hit albums and singles, including the 1998 song “Iris,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Adult Top 40 charts for 17 weeks.
The Dolls will perform at the L’Auberge Casino Resort Event Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $55 at L’Auberge and Ticketmaster. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
BAND HISTORY
In the early days, Takac said the trio played at popular punk rock venues like CBGB’s in New York. They released their first, self-titled album in 1987. A string of follow-up albums followed, which gave the band attention on college radio stations. But it wasn’t until the 1995 album, “A Boy Named Goo,” where the band found its first taste of mainstream success. The acoustic ballad “Name” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 charts.
“Somewhere along the way, we learned to play our guitars and write songs a little bit better,” Takac said. “We were critics’ darlings for a little while. And (then) we sold a lot of records, and the critics hated us.”
The song “Iris,” which was featured on the soundtrack to the 1998 movie “City of Angels,” is their most successful to date. The song was later featured on the 1998 album “Dizzy Up the Girl,” which included other hits like “Slide,” “Broadway” and “Black Bavlloon.” The album “Gutterflower” followed in 2002, which included the hit song “Here Is Gone.” The band released the album “Let Love In” in 2006.
ROAD WARRIORS
Takac said they have spent the last year on the road in support of their 2010 album “Something for the Rest of Us.” He said they started touring four months before the album was released, a choice that was initially “frowned upon.”
“In the model of the old record industry, that’s never a great idea,” Takac said. “But, we found that doing that really gave us a great round of promotion. People seem to really dig it.”
Takac said the writing process was quite different than previous records because the band used its session players from an earlier tour. He said they usually would switch musicians for every tour.
“I think it’s a lot less of a produced piece of music than it is a rock band playing,” Takac said. “That’s what we are able to bring live with this record because the nuts and bolts were actually assembled by us.”
CHANGING DYNAMICS
Takac said the band has stayed together largely by sticking together through the good and bad times.
“When you start a band, you don’t expect it to last,” he said. “People always ask me how do you keep your band together? My answer is usually very simple ... Don’t break up.”
Takac said the 20-plus years worth of band relationships is “every bit as complex and wonderful and irritating” as any long-term relationship.
Because of the changes in the music industry over the last several years, Takac said the band has spent more time on the road.
“We’ve turned into carnies,” he said. “We need to be in your town and give people a reason to talk about stuff.”
STILL ROCKING
Takac said the band recently returned from a show at Wembley Stadium in London for an NFL game between the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He said “Iris” has climbed back up the UK charts after it was featured on the talent show “The X Factor.”
Because some of the band’s hit songs are on the softer side, Takac said it’s easy for casual fans to consider them a soft rock band. But he said their hard-rock style hasn’t gone away.
“People are often pretty blown away by how hard of a hard-rock band we actually are,” Takac said. “That’s what we grew from. We really knock some people over with that.”
Takac said while the band does not play some of its older punk-rock material as much today, he said they haven’t shied away from being a solid rock band.
“It’s a great rock ’n’ roll show,” he said. “You can bring your husband, too,” he joked.