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On Green DayMay 9, 2005 | 12:48 AMAs I mentioned in the last post (sheez, was that really two days ago? What a slacker...) last Friday's concert was phenomenal. My sister and I arrived at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland just in time to find ourselves near the front of the line an hour before the doors opened. The two of us spent our time making fun of the scantily clad girls and admiring the rainbow of hair colors and mohawks. After the doors opened, we waited for another half hour to get down to the floor, where we grabbed our spot about 20 feet from the stage. By the time the lights dimmed for the opening act, the crowd had pushed us up another 5, and when Green Day took the stage we got close enough to see inside Billie Joe's nostrils. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. The first pit started when Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance ordered us to mosh. I didn't actually engage in the moshing myself, but I did catch a few elbows here and there. One girl back-handed me in the face while crowd surfing, but it wasn't intentional. My Chemical Romance got the whole arena screaming like crazy (including my sister, who I can now thank for the partial deafness in my right ear... never again will I have her standing behind me at a concert). The best part of their set was when Gerard spoke to the females in attendance and said, "You know, tonight some guys are going to tell you to lift up your shirts and show them your t*ts for a backstage pass... and do you know what you're going to do? You're going to spit back in their faces because sisters, you're better than that!" That was so unexpected, and so impressive. It's rare to hear such a sentiment expressed by the average joe, let alone a rock musician on stage. I think my inner feminist shed a tear that moment. Gerard also told everyone in attendance to give their mom, dad, brother, sister, or whoever else took them to the concert, a big hug. Seriously, that was the first time in recent memory that I actually got mauled by my sister. After a short intermission featuring a drunk Easter bunny doing the YMCA, Green Day jumped on stage. They started out by playing the first few tracks off of American Idiot, then included some of their older songs. Everyone went crazy for Holiday and Brain Stew. At one point during the show, Billie Joe pulled three fans from the audience onto the stage, and had them play a song using Green Day's own drums, bass, and guitar. After staffing the drums and bass, Billie Joe pulled up a girl for guitar that was obviously a newbie and couldn't play the song. She got booted (gently, of course) and an old friend of my sister's (if you can call him that...) got chosen to take her place. Being in a band of his own, he had lots of practice playing in front of crowds, so he did a pretty good job. Good enough that Billie Joe told him to keep the guitar. I am now kicking myself for not having swiped my brother's guitar ten years ago and learned a few things... The show ended with a spirited rendition of We Are the Champions and a confetti shower (pieces of which I'm still finding in various pockets). It was the best darn show I've ever seen, and worth every nickel, dime, and bruise. Klara, I hope you enjoyed your birthday present as much as I did. Comments open, for now. Comments:Green Day rocked out the next night, Saturday, in Grand Rapids MI when we saw them... It was my 12 year old daughter's first concert and she had an incredible time! Helluva way to start your concert-going career! We also had the bunny - I'll never think of the YMCA the same again! -=kt=- Posted by: ktpupp at May 9, 2005 09:42 AM As a 41-year-old (42 on 5/13) who more or less gave up on contemporary popular music when grunge took over, I can't make any intelligent comments on the work of Green Day, Drina-diva complains of spam problems lately, so I thought it might be useful to invent some rules for this blog: Rule 1: NO SPAMMERS! Why so many prohibitions of spammers? Because spammers are clotty-faced heaps of parrot droppings and vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts! I fart in their general direction! Their mothers were hamsters, and their fathers smelt of elderberries! May they all be rescued prematurely from Castle Anthrax and taken to the Spanish Inqusition and poked with the soft cushions in the comfy chair! Now go away, spammers, or I will taunt you a sec-AWNN time! The Acting Deputy Minster of Silly Walks, Kid Charlemagne Posted by: Kid Charlemagne at May 9, 2005 12:37 PM"Minister", not "minster". Dangit, Drina, why doesn't this blog have a "Preview" feature? The Acting Deputy Minister of Silly Walks, Kid Charlemagne Posted by: Kid Charlemagne at May 9, 2005 12:40 PMKT, glad to see you enjoyed the show. And believe me, you couldn't have picked a better show to be your daughter's first concert. Kid, I think I'm going to go ahead and make those rules official. NO SPAMMERS! Spammers will be violated repeatedly by being made to watch television addresses from the oval office. By the way, I think you'd really like Green Day's new album, American Idiot. Check out the song Holiday. Here... And there's no preview feature because I'm too lazy to include it. Posted by: Drina at May 9, 2005 01:55 PMGlad to hear you had fun there, though you should have taken ME! Posted by: Alison at May 9, 2005 04:22 PMI was there second in line at doors and my cousin was the one u probley are talking about cause she kept pointing at the mowhawks shes never been to a concert so yeah lol oh well we got in the very front Posted by: Amber at May 28, 2005 08:33 PMOMG I cant believe that billie joe that hottest guy ever gave your bother his guitar why couldnt it be me Posted by: amy at July 2, 2005 10:48 PMACtually, it was my sister's friend who got on stage and was given the guitar... but my brother is also a guitar player, which makes me wish he would have taught me a few things so I could have had a chance! Posted by: Drina at July 2, 2005 11:31 PMy i wanted a guitar from my 1 true love Posted by: kati at August 14, 2005 05:57 AM I had apple jacks for breakfast Posted by: hubert cumberdil at August 23, 2005 11:43 PMbrain stew is the koolest song me and my frend hubert can play that so good!! \m/ Posted by: jeremiah cubicle at August 23, 2005 11:49 PM
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