Green Day

My husband and I love concerts. His first, at age 14, was the Allman Brothers. He was my first took me to my first, Blue Oyster Cult. Both at Rob Gym, UCSB. (Sidetrack...Who else did we see there? The Tubes! Anyone remember The Tubes??? "What Do You Want From Life?")

So we were really pleased when our kids got old enough to drag along (we started them early, at 10 or 11), because let's face it: theme parks get old after a while. We've taken our sons to a lot of great shows, but it's been a while since our last major concert.

We were supposed to see Aerosmith last Sunday, but you know what happened.

Thankfully, seeing Green Day Tuesday night made up for that. Although, if I'd know we weren't going to see Aerosmith I would have bought more expensive (closer) seats for Green Day.

Frank had a ticket for the floor. (We had an extra ticket for a friend of his, who couldn't go, and Frank did not find anyone else to take the ticket. Maybe he should have asked harder.) The rest of us had real seats...because my feet get tired! I have no commentary on Frank's experience, except he didn't get trampled and he got back to the car before we did.

The show opened promptly at 8:00 with Franz Ferdinand, from Scotland. Not a group I'd ever listened to before, but they were great. There were random explosions (probably from testing Green Day's pyrotechnics) which made everyone jump, a toilet paper blower (I hope the folks who have TPd us don't get one), and even bagpipes at the end.

Green Day took the stage at 9:11 and they TOOK OVER. This was their last US show, and I have never heard a band express so much pleasure over their audience ("this is the most people we've had on the floor the whole tour") and their location ("Los Angeleez!"). Billie Joe said they were going to play all night and they did, literally, till midnight. So much for getting home early!

My husband says: "I loved the cadence of his voice and his crunchy, hard guitar." I don't review the music...it was great. You can find lots of clips on YouTube. These are from Tuesday's show. No doubt there will be more later.



The audio on this one is not great, but...what the heck...



This show was ALL ABOUT audience participation. I've never been to a show where so many people were encouraged to crawl up on stage. The security guards, instead of pushing people back, were pulling people up onto the catwalk to dance and prance. Some audience members got special treats: two kids were pulled up to be saved, a boy sang a whole song, and a supposedly 21-year old long-haired blond guitarist, after downing an entire beer, played on Jesus of Suburbia. He was so good, I thought he was a plant! But there's a video of another show, with someone completely different, so I think it's legit.



I met another mom in the frisk line (they were seriously patting us down). Her daughter was 11, it was her first concert, and the mom thought she was old enough to tolerate the "f-bombs." Yes, Billie Joe said FUCK a lot. Constantly! But not in an insulting way like Ozzy.

Summary: We had a great time, I hope I've written something coherent because I'm still functioning on less than 4 hours of sleep, and I'm surprised we couldn't find someone to take the extra ticket. "I don't like Green Day," was the common answer.

I say: "Keep an open mind and you might have a great time!"