RAPID CITY -- After touring for more than a year to promote the band's latest album, "Gutterflower," Goo Goo Dolls bassist and vocalist Robby Takac said life on the road is like eating cupcakes.

"We're on the seventh leg of this tour, and it's getting a little old (playing the same songs over and over)," Takac said during a telephone interview from Pittsburgh, Pa. "But even cupcakes don't taste as good after a year. They're still good, but you have to put yourself in the place where you say, 'This is a cupcake, and I do enjoy this.'"

The band will be sharing its latest musical cupcakes with a local audience when it hits the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center stage at 7:30 p.m. today. Tickets will be $26 for reserve seating in the balcony and $30 for floor general admission. Kory and the Fireflies will open the show.

The band typically plays 500 shows for each record release and tries to keep up with a grueling late-night schedule of touring. Takac, now 38, used to work in a flower shop, deliver pizza and spin records in a dance club before he began his life as a rock star. He said, "The coolest thing (about touring) is you get to enjoy cupcakes with different people every night, and you get to feed off their energy."

"Gutterflower" is the band's seventh full-length album since the group first got together in 1985 in Buffalo, N.Y. Earlier hits include "Name," "Iris," "Slide" and "Black Balloon." After 18 years together, John Rzeznik (vocals, guitar) and Takac haven't hit the bottom of their creative-songwriting barrel. The pair joined with drummer Mike Malinin to put out their most recent record in the spring of 2002. Several of the 12 tracks on the new album have already proved to be hits ("Here Is Gone") and add to the band's reputation as a powerhouse of thoughtful lyrics and a hearty rock sound.

Takac sings lead on four of the album's songs and said it is essential to enjoy what you create. "You really have to look at the fact that you have to go out and play 500 shows on every record. So you want to make sure you really like the record you've made."

"Gutterflower" offers the recognizable sound of the band's previous full-length album, "Dizzy Up the Girl" (199, and lyrics that will grab the heart of most young teens and is an easy record to enjoy for both old and new fans of Goo Goo Dolls. Today's performance will consist largely of songs off the newest album and some past hits.

Goo Goo Dolls opened for No Doubt and Bush at the civic center in 1996, but this year's crowd will likely include a few more leather-clad fans. "Maybe I should break out my Harley-Davidson hog farm T-shirt," said Takac, who recently bought a new Vespa, an Italian scooter.

"I have no idea what to expect," the veteran performer said. "But I've played on top of volcanoes and spring break in Daytona, which was definitely scarier than when I played in Bosnia. It's really hard to surprise me."

The summer tour will wrap up in early September, and Takac and Rzeznik plan to take a month off to work on a few side projects. Then they will head back to the studio to put together an eighth album of cupcakes and hit the road again to share their newest, and, it is hoped, tasty creations.