John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls performs Wednesday at the Michigan Theater.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

The Goo Goo Dolls are one of those groups that never seemed to make much of an impression on me. I’ve been aware of their songs over the years, and enjoyed them, but I would have been hard-pressed for an answer if someone asked me to actually name one.

Thus, it came as a bit of a surprise to realize, during the band’s concert Wednesday night at the Michigan Theater, that songs such as “Slide,” Here Is Gone” and “Iris” played a more prominent part of the soundtrack of my life than I thought.

It’s been 24 years since John Rzeznik and Robby Takac founded Goo Goo Dolls, and their tunes wear the years well. The 90-minute show was an almost non-stop parade of hits, plus a few tracks from the upcoming CD “Something For The Rest of Us,” due in early June.

Besides the aforementioned songs, the crowd — on its feet for the entire show and often singing along enthusiastically — also heard “Sweetest Lie,” “Big Machine,” “Everything You Are,” “Can’t Let It Go,” “Let Love In” (from the TV show “Friday Night Lights”) and “Better Days.” As far as songs from the new album, the band offered the radio-ready “Home,” “As I Am” and “Sweetest Lie.” The new stuff sounded great, and the band made the classics feel fresh, even though they have probably played them many hundreds of times.

Speaking of the band, Rzeznik and Takac were ably backed by drummer Mike Malinin as well as tour musicians Brad Fernquist (rhythm guitar) and Korel Tunador (keyboards, sax). Opening was a pretty decent Texas band called Rocket Summer, featuring multi-instrumentalist Stephen Bryce Avary.

Although a review from a previous gig on this tour suggested that Rzeznik didn’t seem all that into the performance, just the opposite seemed true for the Ann Arbor show. He appeared to be having blast, charging about the stage, touching the hands of the fans down front and flashing his infectious grin at every opportunity. When he said “It’s nights like this that make everything worthwhile” and “You have made my week,” I got the feeling it was from the heart.

The show ended with a killer encore, consisting of “Sympathy,” a supercharged version of “Broadway” and, of course, “Iris,” a huge hit for the band in 1998.

Bottom line: It was a little loud, I had to stand for an hour and a half, and the boorish fans behind me from that college up north insisted on chanting “Go Green, Go White” between every song. Still, it was an excellent show by a rockin’ good group that may have been around for a while, but still has a lot left to offer. I’ll pay more attention to them from now on, I promise.