It’s always fascinating to observe the shared delusion that is New Year’s Eve, when otherwise rational adults anticipate some amazing or transformative experience based on nothing more than a fairly arbitrary date, when in reality, aside from the plastic hats and socially sanctioned public intoxication, it’s actually just another night on the concert calendar, albeit a busy one. From the outset, then, there was no way local-band-made-good GGOOLLDD’s much-hyped New Year’s Eve homecoming concert could live up to the absurd expectations the holiday inspires, but there are certainly worse ways to symbolically ring in the new year than with the band’s signature brand of dramatic poptimism.
When the crowd finally made their way out of the cold and through the unusually convoluted entry process—separating those with “VIP” packages from the general riff raff—they were greeted by a VJ set from 88.9 FM’s Jordan “Madhatter” Lee, which might imply some sort of trippy effects or visual remixing but was more like a YouTube playlist of classic music videos (the first hour or so felt uncannily like watching ’90s VH1). Around 10:30, though, GGOOLLD launched into the first of three sets with the earworm “Bling Ring,” later bringing on Lex Allen for a fun take on Prince’s apocalyptic party-starter, “1999.”
Soon, it was back to the music videos (a little more like ’90s MTV this time around), but the band wasn’t gone long, reappearing near midnight accompanied by a troupe of dancers and a string section, lending some extra bombast to “Killing Times” and, as the clock struck 12:00, a version of Queen’s arena-rock staple, “We are the Champions.” Despite its built-in sing-along appeal, it felt like an odd choice given the year America has collectively just suffered through. By the third set, with the holiday’s inevitable anti-climax out of the way, some people had begun to drift out (some drunkenly escorted out), and it began to feel like things were winding down musically as well.
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As enjoyable as it is, GGOOLLDD’s sweepingly cinematic, mid-tempo pop has a consistency of tone which wears thin after a time, although the band did round things out nicely with a spirited go at T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution.” Overall, it seemed as if the band was conspicuously avoiding the unpleasantness of 2017, but GGOOLLDD’s rose-tinted sound suited the intrinsic positivity of the occasion perfectly; even if, like New Year’s itself, its intoxicating effects wear off rather quickly.
