Originally posted by jadeily
Neo, I miss you!
I'm alright. Trying to uh, help a friend feel better and to relax (Friends for 10 years now, and I have to bid farewell for good, and she's not taking it well.)
Oh sorry to hear about that, such is life though.
Originally posted by ~Wålshy~
when im mod
This place will finally have gone to hell.
So, Thursday afternoon I'm sitting around the house in my sweatpants being unproductive: surfing LJ, TWoP, reading a magazine, watching stuff on my TiVo, with no plans to do anything more exertion-al.
Now, normally I read my email through a client, downloading them all when I feel like it, but that day I happened to have gmail open in a tab for some reason and I noticed I had a new mail, so I clicked on it.
Hey Mary !
Green Day will be performing a gig at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco,
California (375 Eleventh St. San Francisco, CA 94103) TONIGHT (Thursday,
April 9th, 2009.) Doors: 9pm Show: 10pm
Head over to www.idiotclub.com to see how you can get your name on the
Will Call list to purchase your tickets. The clock is ticking....
Enjoy!!
--Idiot Club
This was at 2:21pm.
I'm looking at my watch because it's about a 4+ hour drive to SF from my house, and I've got to feed the cats and take a shower and get in the damn car if I'm gonna make it on time. So after about an hour, I email them and apologize and beg for an answer BECAUSE I HAVE TO GO, and I get a very nice email saying "Yes, you are on the list."
(FINALLY, that $20 a year wasted on the Idiot Club is no longer wasted!)
I get in my car and hit the road around 4pm. The traffic gods were with me since I arrived at the venue around 8:15pm.
The show started around 10:30 pm. The venue holds maybe 1000 people, tops. Although we were about mid pack on the floor before the music started, we somehow managed to keep getting closer.
For most of the show I was about 4 feet away directly in front of Billie Joe Armstrong! I could hardly believe it! I could read the writing on the bass/treble switch of his Les Paul Jr. When he raised his hands in the air and his shirt pulled up, I could see his 80 tattoo. As I said after the PHGP show, I could see his ****ing fillings! Here's the thing: After the PHGP shows, I thought "OK, I've gotten to see Billie Joe Armstrong perform in a club, close up. It's not gonna get any better than this." Then the FBHTs came along, and I got to meet them, and chat with Adrienne, and get pictures with them, and for one show I was actually on stage with my arm around Billie, singing into the mic with him, and spent the rest of the show sitting on the edge of the stage 2 feet from Mike Dirnt thinking "OK, now for real, this is the peak fan experience! It can never get better than this."
But Thursday night, I got to go to a Green Day show in a small club for 2 1/2 hours, and I got to be in the second row, and I got to hear the new album in its entirety only the second time it's ever been played publicly. I say this in all seriousness, I've gotten all that I've ever wanted from this band now. Meaning that, if I only see them play from the nose bleed seats in a stadium from now on, I'll never complain. Because I will always remember 9 April 2009.
Some stuff about the show:
~They looked amazing. They have not aged in 5 years at all. The styling is sort of American Idiot lite. All black, just a light touch of guyliner, no ties, Billie with black hair, Mike has gone back to the brown hair which looks sooooo much better than the blond on him, and Tré's still rocking the fauxhawk.
~The new guy Jeff Markita was there, hiding in the back, but introduced by Billie, along with the Jasons, of course.
~ They sounded great. It didn't sound like a warm up or a rehearsal performance at all. The set list:
All of 21st Century Breakdown
~~
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
St. Jimmy
Give Me Novocaine
Burnout
Coming Clean
The Grouch
80
Stuck With Me
Blood, Sex & Booze
She
Worry Rock
Basket Case
Going To Pasalacqua
King For A Day/Shout/Stand By Me/
Minority
~ The new stuff sounds amazing. You know how sometimes you have to listen to a new record a few times to differentiate ths songs, or get into it? Not with this. This was my first time hearing it and i feel like I know it already. I was very frustrated because I wanted to sing along, but I didn't know the words. I CANNOT WAIT to sit down with the lyric sheet and listen to it. There are a lot of different musical styles and tempos, even compared with AI. I loved how a lot of the songs started soft or mid-tempo, then just rip into your soul. Amazing! If this album isn't bigger than AI, I will eat my CD of it. (And then buy a replacement.)
~Just look at that set list of the old stuff! They never play Worry Rock! I love that song so hard. And I thought for sure I'd never ever again get to hear JOS live, but oh, it was great to sing along with the band and the crowd. I think Billie adores St. Jimmy so he will play it whenever he can get away with it.
~Billie laughed after Novocaine, saying it was the best they'd played it in three years, even though he had to show Jason the chords. And he was just adorable ****ing up the lyrics on Coming Clean, and The Grouch. When he brought the girl in the audience up to to sing, he did that "Knowledge" thing he does: "Who knows the lyrics to this song? You do? You swear to God you do?" The girl knew the lyrics, but couldn't sing for shit though. LOL
~Here's the part where I died, only to be brought back to life with happiness. When they started Going to Pasalaqua, I pretty much lost my shit. I have always dreamed of hearing that song live. I was already going absolutely batshit when Billie turned around and looked up at the VIP section and said "Davey Havok, get down here!" I actually didn't recognize him at first! He's got his hair cut in this David Lynch style with blond tips, but HOLY SHIT, does he look hot! I mean, he was absolutely gorgeous. So that's when I really lost my shit. They sang together in the mic, then Davey sang a part by himself---sounding beautiful. (I don't know what's going on with AFI, but it's way past time for a new album from them too.) That might have been the highlight of the show for me.
~Minority was as usual, the perfect song to end with. The crowd went wild. No encore. Tré Cool was almost responsible for my death. He threw a bunch of drumsticks out right where I was standing, and I got knocked down on to the ground with about 3 people landing on me. And I didn't even get one, but Kat did. :-)
It finished up around 1am. About 20 people were hanging around waiting for the band to come out to the limo. Billie was pretty friendly, according to Janine who waited. Now today, it seems like a dream, except that my whole body is sore from being assaulted in the pit for 2 1/2 hours. Totally worth it though.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/0...ts/green480.jpg
See the raised arm in the lower left? I was directly behind her.
