Here's the review that I'm writing off the top of my head in between some downtime at work.
first off, i don't think i've ever done so much flying in such a small amount of time in my life. I left my house at 5am on Tuesday, drove 3 hours up to Albuquerque to fly out. I did that on 4 hours of sleep. Got to San Fran around 1pm, and headed toward Oakland, about an hour later I got to the hotel and decided I wanted to sit in the lobby and just chill out for a while. So i sat around for about an hour waiting for greg and jnine. After they showed up we walked over to the theater right away, which was about 7 blocks from where we were staying (roughly 10 minute walk). We show up, there's not a ton of people in line yet, maybe 50. We say hi to everyone, and they start chatting. I was pretty quiet, worrying a little bit about how my ticket situation would work out since I wasn't part of the idiot club, or part of the will call list. Around 5'ish they split the lines up and move all the idiot club members to another side of the building, where they'll enter an hour early. Right before that happened, me and Greg decided to run over to the Fat Cat to get some food. Of course we step out and walk over only to see that none of our friends are around anymore. A little worried, but someone directs us to the other side of the building. I decided to go stand with them, I figured either I'd get in with them, if not, I'd at least stand around just to talk to them for a while.
As the show time gets closer, I start asking about the bands guest list, no one has any idea what I'm talking about. About 5 different people told me "Wait, are you part of the fan club or will call", i told them "neither", and they looked at me like i was speaking jibberish. So finally, at 6, when they allowed the Idiot Club members to go in a lady comes out with some lists and I ask her, she says the guest list will be at the front, but I have to wait till 7 to get in. So i go to the front and ask about it, they finally tell me the guest list people had to wait in line with the other people, so they made me go to the back of the line. I was pretty damn bugged, till someone reminded me that I was still getting in free. So i didn't complain anymore. Plus, that gave me the chance to meet a few really nice people who recognized me. I also saw Mike sitting at the bar having a drink then too. I stopped and looked in, and he looked up, I felt all awkward, like i was spying. I didn't wave or anything, just turned and walked back to the line.
Once i finally got into the show, I was able to get pretty close to the front still. Only a few people behind the rest of the group. I didn't mind it at all. Standing around for a little over 2 hours standing about 6 inches from everyone can get kind of annoying, but such a minor thing to even remember once the show started. There was a group of about 5 or 6 guys next to me all getting high right before the show started. It was a Green Day show afterall.
The show opened with that guitar/piano opening of "Song of the Century" we first heard on GreenDay.com. It was pretty exciting to hear that, then seconds later see all the band members running on stage. I won't go into details of each song, mostly because I'm terrible at comparing music to make it relevant to everyone. But ****ing hell, I was totally blown away with the new album. It sounds so good. As Greg said "it sounds like American Idiot and Warning had a baby". There's such a mix of styles in there, and when you see the band play it, the music just fits so perfectly. I expected it to be a little different after reading the lyrics, because they seemed so dark. There were new songs that reminded me of something from kerplunk, one that reminded me of Misery, but Last of the American Girls (which reminded me of some older 50's, 60's rock), See the Light and American Eulogy were the best songs. I liked all of them, but those three really got me excited. After See the Light, they played that short part of Song of the Century again, then went off stage. Dim blue lights lit up the stage and people started chanting "Green Day! Green Day!", the guys came back out shortly afterward and started playing American Idiot and some older songs (mentioned already in the song list). Minority is still my favorite song, mostly for sentimental reasons, so hearing it again was a blast, I was equally excited to hear She. When they ended a song and Billie Joe busts out the first line of Pasalacqua, "Here we go again", I started yelling with excitement. At the time I couldn't even remember what the song was called, but I knew most of the words, so I knew that meant I liked it biggrin.gif Such a great song to hear live. The show was simply amazing. So much fun.
For those of you waiting to see me moshing and dancing on the video, sorry, don't hold your breath. I jumped around for a handful of the songs, but the far majority of the time, I watched, throwing my hands up in the air every once in a while, but mostly just bobbing around and staring at everything. I don't know why, I like to just sort of absorb all of it for a while like that, just kinda standing and watching everyone in the crowd, on the stage. It feels like such a surreal moment for me when it's happening. Watching Billie Joe as he played guitar, standing on one of the speakers, it reminded me of him in the Jaded in Chicago clips, sweat and spit just flying off him. Watching Jason you could see which songs he really got into, and Tre in the background, bobbing his head all around, singing the lyrics to Gloria. During "King for a day/Shout", on the part where Tre yells "yeah yeah, yeah yeah", he didn't have his mic, so he just kinda yelled it, Billie Joe looks back at him, and Tre yells it again, Billie turns back and smirks then continues with the song. Oh yeah, I danced with this dude for a small part of King for a Day (how appropriate), he was fun.
After the show, we mostly just hung out while everyone got some water, bought some shirts, or whatever they were doing. Me, Greg (who was given one of Tre's drumstricks) and Jnine all walk toward the security lady who was watching over the backstage area, and when she told us we couldn't go back, Greg says "But Tre lost his drum stick, he needs it", which I thought was pretty damn funny, the security lady did not think so. So we just all went toward the lobby to pick up our free posters and decide what to do next. We ended up walking to the side of the building waiting to see if the band would come out. After 30 minutes or so, we decided to try our luck at going to Rudy's in Emeryville. They closed at 1, and it was 12:40 when we decided to leave. 6 of us crammed into a convertible made for 4 people. It was an interesting ride. Diane was our pilot, Jnine our navigator, a couple wrong turns later, it was 1:15am. Didn't make it there in time. But, we finally went to Denny's. I enjoyed how dead everyone looked after about 15 minutes. Everyone looked like they could have fell asleep on the table. After dinner/breakfast, Diane drove us around to drop everyone off, and we made it back to the hotel just after 4am. I passed out right away, didn't even make it under the covers. Woke up at 6:30 (when i planned to jump in the shower) and turned off my alarm, slept for another 30 minutes. Woke up at 7, got all my shit together really quickly, and left. Made it to the airport right on time. I got into Albuquerque at 2, drove back home, and got here at 6. Made it to work only 5 minutes late, and here I am now. Very ready for sleep, and a shower.
Thanks to all of you amazing folks who I got to spend some time with. Greg, man, I seriously owe you big time for getting me out there, and Diane for driving us around. I can't wait to meet up with all of you and do it again.