Last Sunday, hundreds of suburban moms from across the Northeast queued into a line that stretched across campus for a chance to see the Goo Goo Dolls at this year’s Spring Concert.
The line of moms stretched from the Mullins Center Box Office down the entire length of Commonwealth Avenue, across the Massachusetts Avenue intersection and through the Southwest concourse, ending near Lot 22, where hundreds of minivans with UMass Amherst bumper stickers were parked.
This year’s high mom turnout was expected, though, “the sheer number of moms who came to buy tickets in person was unprecedented,” according to a UPC spokesperson. The influx of moms purchasing tickets from the Box Office is speculated to be the result of a mobile formatting error on the UPC website that made the mothers unable to order tickets for the event via iPad.
Though many of the moms said they had never met before, groups of chatting mothers dotted the line, where they discussed sending emails to professors who didn’t recognize their children’s potential, how quaint the Pioneer Valley is and, of course, the upcoming Spring Concert.
“That John Rzeznik is so dreamy,” said Rita Henrick, a 45-year-old PTA member from Newton, Massachusetts. “I’ve been looking forward to this concert since my daughter told me about it.”
Henrick’s daughter Julia, a sophomore communications major, said she will not be attending, opting to do homework instead and save her money for the next time Dayglow comes around.
Henrick said she wrote “The Goo Goo Dolls” off as just another rock band until the group’s hit single “Iris” hit supermarket radio stations across the country in 1998.
Though the mothers expressed a great deal of excitement for the upcoming concert, the lineup was not without complaints.
“‘Goo Goo Dolls’ are great and all,” said Cathy Stein, a 50-year-old mom from Longmeadow, “but I wish Dave Matthews would play in the area. Boy, what I’d pay to see him some day.”
Janet Green, a 52-year-old mom from South Windsor, Connecticut, said she first embraced the Goo Goo Dolls in 1998 as an opportunity to bond with her high school-aged daughter Carla. Green said she could not be more thrilled that her first daughter’s favorite band is playing at her fourth daughter’s Spring Concert.
“Now if they could only replace that ‘Whale’ guy with American Idol’s Phillip Phillips, I’d be set,” said Green.
At time of publication, the line has dwindled to sixty or seventy moms waiting outside the Box Office, most clutching thermoses filled with Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Spring Concert tickets can be purchased online or at the Mullins Center Box Office. Students are advised to buy quickly as tickets are sparse.
Helga Pataki can be reached in a back alley.
