The Allen Stone traveling circus is making a lap around the country with the Goo Goo Dolls this summer.

One of the first songs I learned on guitar was “Name,” breaking string after string until I found something approximating Johnny Rzeznik’s alternate tuning. I even “played” the song at a talent show with my “band” the Meadow Muffins, in a glorious mashup with something by Silverchair. The late 90’s were a thing, dear readers.

Would that we were all artistically awakened by the Clash and Leonard Cohen, or that our single digit selves devoured Blonde on Blonde. The Goos weren’t cool then, they aren’t cool now, but they were cool to me, and at a time when music was becoming everything.

So, the kid I was will be singing along side stage, while man I’ve become will be sharing a beer with them afterwards, appreciating that, somehow, statistically impossibly, it’s all come full circle.