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What kind of name is Parachute? Or Michelle Branch, for that matter?
Luckily, the Aug. 18 concert at Deer Valley features the Goo Goo Dolls, the imaginatively named band that continues the long line of truly bad band names such as Limp Bizkit, Hootie & The Blowfish, Hoobastank and Test Icicles.
The latest show of the Park City Performing Arts Foundation features a triple bill of rock with two acts that have respectable names as well as a headliner with an awful name — a name that prevents most sober people from chanting the name of the band. (Fortunately, Deer Valley lets you bring alcohol to the show.)
Not wanting to ask the question most bands despise — "How did you get your name?" — instead we asked John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, Branch and Parachute's singer Will Anderson about the influences of their upbringing. (Because who, as a 5-year-old, says, "I want to be a Doll when I grow up. Not a New York Doll. But a Goo Goo Doll."?)
John Rzeznik • The 45-year-old is the face of the band that has charted 14 Top 10 singles and sold nearly 9 million albums in the United States since its formation in Buffalo, New York in 1986.
Coming of age in the city along Lake Erie meant growing up as the region's shipping industry was decimated by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Then the region suffered through the closure of once-lucrative steel mills as they relocated overseas.
Rzeznik said he grew up at the tail end of the industrial era. "With high unemployment, there was a period of time there where everyone was trying to refocus themselves," he said. "There was a big exodus. There was a feeling of desperation and a lack of opportunities."
But Rzeznik's family stayed put, and the working-class household fashioned a modest living. He was the youngest of five, the only boy, who at 15 faced a succession of tragedies. His father, a bar owner, died from a diabetic coma at the age of 55, and then six months later his mother died from a heart attack. Rzeznik was raised by his sisters.
"I have a blue-collar mentality," the musician said. "We've been willing to put in the work and not shying away from challenges."
One of Rzeznik's formative musical experiences was first hearing the sloppy but incisive music of The Replacements, a Minnesota-based alt-punk band led by Paul Westerberg. "When I discovered The Replacements, [what I connected to was] that it talked about heavy emotional issues," he said. "They were themselves. Every time someone told them to conform, they did a 180 [from that]. That was punk."
The Goo Goo Dolls started as a punk band but eventually softened their edges and became one of the most popular rock acts of the late 1990s and early part of the century, with hits such as "Name," "Iris," "Slide," "Black Balloon," "Here is Gone" and "Give a Little Bit."
Michelle Branch •Somewhere on the way to pop stardom, Michelle Branch, 28, took a detour into country music.
Hit singles such as "Everywhere," "All You Wanted," "Are You Happy Now?" and the Santana collaboration "The Game of Love" established her as a artist with a bright future in the pop world. Yet in 2005 Branch recruited her longtime friend and backing vocalist Jessica Harp to form the country duo The Wreckers. They were welcomed into the country community, and the duo's only studio album, "Stand Still, Look Pretty" sold well and produced a No. 1 country single, "Leave the Pieces."
Branch was silent for a few years — except locally for a notable opening gig for The Eagles at the first Rio Tinto Stadium concert — and has reappeared with an upcoming album called "West Coast Time," where she rediscovers her pop-rock roots. "I knew I would make a pop album," Branch said. "I wanted to challenge myself and do something I hadn't done in a long time."
She credits her willingness to experiment as a result of growing up in a supportive household in Sedona, Ariz., fondly remembering vacations in Moab. "My parents are fantastic," she said. "They are very open-minded,"
The title of her new album reflects her new home in Los Angeles and her marriage to a California native. But she reflects often on her childhood among the red rocks of Sedona. "There's a romance of living in Arizona," she said. "There's wide-open skies and lots of natural beauty." Santa Fe, Colorado and Utah are still among her favorite places to vacation and perform.
Will Anderson •When the Virginia-based rock band performed in Salt Lake City in June, they headlined a Fight the New Drug anti-pornography event.
"We didn't know about [the message] beforehand," Anderson said. "It was random."
Instead of an anti-pornography crusade, the pop-rock quintet is instead focused on promoting its sophomore album "The Way It Was."
Anderson grew up in Virginia, forming the core of Parachute with friends in high school before going to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville — the same music haven that produced the Dave Matthews Band. "I've never seen a small town with such a great music scene," Anderson said. "Everyone is very nice and welcoming."
Parachute got signed before their fellow Charlottesville bands because of a drive that many other college bands don't possess. "We were more outwardly focused than our peers," he said.
The breadth and well-honed appeal of their songs has led the band to open for a variety of artists, ranging from pop starlets like Kelly Clarkson to blue-eyed soul singers like Duffy, from jam bands like O.A.R. to singer-songwriters like Matt Nathanson.
Anderson is a recent transplant to Nashville, which is further broadening his horizons. "It feels like L.A. did in the 1970s," Anderson said. "Robert Plant lives here."
Running in country circles led to writing a song, "Kiss Me Slowly," with Lady Antebellum's Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley, with the song ending up being one of Parachute's singles off its latest album. "We wrote it for another artist," Anderson admitted. "But it was so good we kept it."
With a diverse background and diverging interests, there is no telling what genre Anderson will be dabbling in next. Just as long as he doesn't change the band's name to something terrible like Chumbawamba or Porno for Pyros, they should be fine.
But, then again, the Goo Goo Dolls have done quite well despite the name.
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Making a name
P Goo Goo Dolls with Michelle Branch and Parachute
When • Thursday, Aug. 18, at 6 p.m.
Where • Deer Valley Snow Park Amphitheater, Deer Valley Resort, 2250 Deer Valley Drive, Park City
Tickets • Lawn seating: $32 Park City Performing Arts Foundation members; $35 others; reserved seating is sold out; at http://www.ecclescenter.org or 435-655-3114