A Buffalo bar band made good, Goo Goo Dolls have been around a lot longer than some folks probably realize, especially if their main exposure to the band is their monster hits from the mid-’90s, “Name” and “Iris,” or their big albums from that era, “A Boy Named Goo” and “Dizzy Up the Girl.”

Frontman/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and singer/bassist Robby Takac have actually been making music together as Goo Goo Dolls since 1986, when they formed the band with then drummer George Tutuska — and since then, they’ve never really stopped; they’ve kept on recording and touring and making their music. To put it in perspective, the Beatles lasted for around a decade; other bands have had long fallow (and sometimes acrimonious) periods between intermittent reunions — we’re looking at you, Mick and Keith.

Goo Goo Dolls is releasing their 12th studio album, “Miracle Pill,” next month; the title track came out as the first single earlier this summer. And they’re touring this summer with Train, San Fran rockers whose big hits have included “Drops of Jupiter” and “Calling All Angels.” The tour brings them to Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center (CMAC), 3355 Marvin Sands Drive in Hopewell, this Friday, Aug. 2, for a 7 p.m. show. (Gates open at 5:30 p.m.; also on the bill is Allen Stone; access tickets through cmacevents.com or visit the on-site box office, open starting at noon the day of the show.)

So what’s kept Takac and Rzeznik — the band’s founders and core — together all these years?

“Well, I guess number one is just the desire to see it happen another day,” Takac said in a phone conversation Tuesday. ”‘Chemistry’ is an overused word, but there has to be a sort of chemistry and cooperation between the people who are in the band, to do the right things. I think John knows me pretty well, I know him pretty well — we just try to do what we need to do” to get the music across.

“The long and short of it is, you have to have great songs — Johnny’s managed to come up with great songs — and make records that fans seem to come along with us on, which is what you want every time you make a record,” he added.

Getting together in Buffalo — Takac grew up in the West Seneca suburb and graduated from Medaille College, and Rzeznik grew up on the city’s East Side — they were a part of the city’s underground, punk and alternative scene (before “alternative” was really a thing) and playing both locally and around the country opening for such punk heavy-hitters as Motörhead, Bad Religion and the Dead Milkmen, making several albums and creating increasing buzz. Their sound evolved into a melodic rock sound, Rzeznik’s vocals and lyrics characterized by an earnest sense of yearning. Indeed, if there’s an underlying theme to Goo Goo Dolls songs, it’s an attempt to make, and maintain, the human connection in a world that fights that attempt, one where “everything’s made to be broken,” to quote “Iris,” the big hit recorded for the “City of Angels” soundtrack.

Sometimes a monster hit like “Iris” can be a double-edged sword for a band, becoming what it’s defined by. But then, Goo Goo Dolls have had other popular tracks, and it’s a good song. Takac’s surely not complaining: ”‘Iris’ casts a big shadow — but that shadow helps us do a lot of things, leeps us out of the sun when it gets too hot. To look at it any other way except with gratitude would be wrong.”

The latest single, “Miracle Pill,” addresses how people increasingly seek quick fixes or instant gratification, or intimacy-lite through social media, in lieu of the hard work of maintaining human connections or improving themselves. It uses the metaphor of quick-fix pharmaceuticals — the “miracle pill” of the title: “What I need is to feel incredible/What I need is a real love chemical/Wanna beat like a heart that’s painted in gold/...Baby would you be my miracle pill?/And I could be somebody else ...”

“I guess we sing a lot about relationships — not necessarily men-and-women — I think we sing a lot about connection,” Takac said — especially as they’ve gotten older and have more commitments. (Both men are in their 50s.)

Takac and his family are back in Buffalo these days, where he has founded a record label and an annual celebration of Western New York’s creative spirit, the Music is Art Festival (the seventh one, set for Sept. 7 at Buffalo RiverWorks, is to feature some 150 bands plus exhibiting artists, DJs, performance artists, dancers, and more). Since this particular tour with Train isn’t passing through the Queen City, playing CMAC will be “like a hometown show for us,” Takac said — with a lot of the hometown crowd coming out.

“It’ll be a lot of fun to get back,” he said. “It’s hectic, but it’s always a lot of fun.”