Sometimes fans are lucky enough to receive a document of a band in concert that means something important in the group's history. Rock survivors the Goo Goo Dolls are slated to bring listeners just that, nearly 30 years after that crucial show was first recorded.

Live At The Academy, New York, City, 1995 is slated for release from the band through their longtime label Warner Records on October 20. It features two breakthrough sets: a memorable performance for the CMJ Music Conference, recorded just as they were starting to enjoy their first success on the radio; and an invite-only soundcheck that became treasured by fans when it was taped off radio performances. A mobile recording truck captured the entire thing, and the fruits of that work will be presented on two CDs or three LPs.

The Buffalo-raised Goo Goo Dolls were hardly newcomers when they loaded into the Academy, a crumbling Broadway venue that would be demolished less than a year after this concert was recorded. (It's now the site of the Lyric Theatre, playing a Harry Potter sequel play to eager tourists.) That spring, the group released their fifth studio album, A Boy Named Goo, which found the Replacements-lite sound and songwriting of singer/guitarist John Rzeznik and bassist/occasional singer Robby Takac melding into something loud and a little grungy, but with enough mainstream polish to attract new listeners. But the road up to that point was hardly easy: drummer George Tutuska was fired right before the album hit stores, and the band was also in the midst of trying to extricate themselves from a bad deal with longtime label Metal Blade. (Goo was mostly handled by Metal Blade's longtime distributor, Warner Bros. Records - the label the group calls home to this day.)

The Academy set included plenty of songs from A Boy Named Goo ("Long Way Down," "Flat Top," "Only One," "Naked") as well as the group's back catalogue ("Lucky Star," "Another Second Time Around," The Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away") - and even more spirited covers of INXS' "Don't Change" and Prince's "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" heard in the main set's encore. But the centerpiece was a heartfelt acoustic number with an unusual tuning (two high E strings!) called "Name." Released as a single two months before the Academy set, it was starting to earn the Goo Goo Dolls attention that no other release of theirs had to date; at the end of January 1996, the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting the group on a path to pop-rock performance that no one could have expected - unless, of course, you got to see a show like this one.

Previously excerpted for an expanded edition of A Boy Named Goo, Live At The Academy features both set and soundcheck in full. It's out October 20 and can be pre-ordered below.

Live At The Academy, New York City, 1995 (Warner, 2023)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Disc 1

1. Girl Right Next to Me (Soundcheck)
2. Impersonality (Soundcheck)
3. Two Days in February (Soundcheck)
4. Another Second Time Around (Soundcheck)
5. Name (Soundcheck)
6. Don't Change (Soundcheck)
7. Naked (Soundcheck)
8. Introduction
9. Just the Way You Are
10. Burnin' Up
11. Fallin' Down Again
12. Million Miles Away +
13. Lucky Star
14. String of Lies
15. Impersonality
16. Long Way Down +
17. Only One
18. Already There

Disc 2

1. Naked +
2. Name +
3. So Outta Line
4. Eyes Wide Open
5. Another Second Time Around
6. Up Yours
7. Stop the World
8. Flat Top +
9. Two Days in February (Encore)
10. Slave Girl (Encore)
11. Don't Change (Encore) +
12. Girl Right Next to Me (Encore)
13. Impersonality (Encore) +
14. Naked (Encore)
15. Never Take the Place of Your Man (Encore)

All tracks recorded live at The Academy, New York, NY - 11/21/1995. Tracks marked + previously released on A Boy Named Goo (20th Anniversary Edition) - Warner Bros. 550748-2, 2015