My Life Does Not Suck
#truth
So Tuesday (Nov 1) was my birthday, and I had a fine evening planned at home doing nothing. (Bdays aren't that big of a deal to me.) At about 9:10pm I was on my second glass of wine, surfing the 'net, when Billie Joe tweeted "Green Day live at the Mezzanine in San Francisco with Kut U Up and Ty Segall benefit for Surfrider Foundation. NOW!" Of course, I'm thinking by the time time I get dressed and get all the way across town, it will be over with, then Billie's wife Adrienne helpfully tweets: "Hey bay area!! Green Day is playing at mezzanine in SF tonight w/kut u up &Ty segall for surf rider foundation..Going on around 11pm.. Race you there!!"
Well, what was I supposed to do? feels_like_fire was on AIM saying GO GO GO! And I'm thinking "Gosh, it is my birthday, after all," and then it hits me that sick_of_me03 is across town dog sitting, so I called her up and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW? GET DOWN TO SoMa (South of Market) NOW!" I throw on jeans and a t-shirt and as I'm getting in my car I get a text from loser_and_user about it too, and I text her back "On my way now!" and head to the other side of the city.
Got there and met up with Ashton, and we paid our $20 bucks and headed in to the club with about 400 people I'm guessing. No line, no nothing. We get a beer and wander up to the front and hey! there's a nice spot right on the stage at the side that we plant ourselves at. Now at this point it hits me that holy crap, I'm getting to see Green Day on my birthday from the front row of a club with a couple hundred people, and my next thought is immortalized as the title of this post. :-)
The band comes on, (I'm 3 feet away from Jason White, 10 feet from Billie) and Billie says "When we woke up this morning, we had no idea we'd be playing a gig tonight!" Long story short, Billie is friends with the band Kut U Up, and the guy called Billie that afternoon and said "Hey you wanna play at our benefit gig for the Surfrider foundation?"
Which leads me to the thing that makes me love this band forever and ever: They just LOVE to play. Four hundred people or 60,000, they're game. During shows, Billie does this thing when he want to hear the audience where he cocks his head and makes little rapid grabby hands motions. When he did this last night I was struck by just how tiny he was on the tiny little stage, and yet I've seen him do the same thing in front of tens of thousands of people and he doesn't appear tiny at all. I don't understand it, but the man is amazing.
They played for about an hour and 25 minutes, about 1/3 new stuff (most of which I liked -- very old school Green Day sounding) and the rest old stuff including some gems like Paper Lanterns, She, and 2000 Light Years Away. Mike Dirnt is as fucking hot as always -- complete with Biceps of Guh (though I'm not feeling the shaggy haircut)and Tre was his usual animated crazy self. Here's the set list (from some nice person on GDC):
01 - Welcome To Paradise
02 - American Idiot
03 - Nuclear Family
04 - Carpe Diem
05 - Murder City
06 - Hitchin' A Ride
07 - Stay The Night
08 - I'll Make Your Surrender
09 - Hybrid Moments (Misfits cover)
10 - Let Yourself Go
11 - Longview
12 - Stray Heart
13 - Letterbomb
14 - She
15 - 2,000 Light Years Away
16 - Paper Lanterns
17 - Going To Pasalacqua
18 - new song (about a girl from NY said BJ)
19 - St. Jimmy
20 - Know Your Enemy
Fun moment: Billie came right over to us during one song, and as we reached up to touch him, he turned around and bent over, so yeah, I spanked Billie Joe Armstrong's ass! Go me. For the whole show I jumped up and down and screamed and sang like a crazy woman and had the *cough* time of my life.
Age ain't nothing but a number.
I've got other stuff to ramble on about, like and_ed's visit and what my beloved glittery Adam is up to, but I'll save that for another post!
So Tuesday (Nov 1) was my birthday, and I had a fine evening planned at home doing nothing. (Bdays aren't that big of a deal to me.) At about 9:10pm I was on my second glass of wine, surfing the 'net, when Billie Joe tweeted "Green Day live at the Mezzanine in San Francisco with Kut U Up and Ty Segall benefit for Surfrider Foundation. NOW!" Of course, I'm thinking by the time time I get dressed and get all the way across town, it will be over with, then Billie's wife Adrienne helpfully tweets: "Hey bay area!! Green Day is playing at mezzanine in SF tonight w/kut u up &Ty segall for surf rider foundation..Going on around 11pm.. Race you there!!"
Well, what was I supposed to do? feels_like_fire was on AIM saying GO GO GO! And I'm thinking "Gosh, it is my birthday, after all," and then it hits me that sick_of_me03 is across town dog sitting, so I called her up and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW? GET DOWN TO SoMa (South of Market) NOW!" I throw on jeans and a t-shirt and as I'm getting in my car I get a text from loser_and_user about it too, and I text her back "On my way now!" and head to the other side of the city.
Got there and met up with Ashton, and we paid our $20 bucks and headed in to the club with about 400 people I'm guessing. No line, no nothing. We get a beer and wander up to the front and hey! there's a nice spot right on the stage at the side that we plant ourselves at. Now at this point it hits me that holy crap, I'm getting to see Green Day on my birthday from the front row of a club with a couple hundred people, and my next thought is immortalized as the title of this post. :-)
The band comes on, (I'm 3 feet away from Jason White, 10 feet from Billie) and Billie says "When we woke up this morning, we had no idea we'd be playing a gig tonight!" Long story short, Billie is friends with the band Kut U Up, and the guy called Billie that afternoon and said "Hey you wanna play at our benefit gig for the Surfrider foundation?"
Which leads me to the thing that makes me love this band forever and ever: They just LOVE to play. Four hundred people or 60,000, they're game. During shows, Billie does this thing when he want to hear the audience where he cocks his head and makes little rapid grabby hands motions. When he did this last night I was struck by just how tiny he was on the tiny little stage, and yet I've seen him do the same thing in front of tens of thousands of people and he doesn't appear tiny at all. I don't understand it, but the man is amazing.
They played for about an hour and 25 minutes, about 1/3 new stuff (most of which I liked -- very old school Green Day sounding) and the rest old stuff including some gems like Paper Lanterns, She, and 2000 Light Years Away. Mike Dirnt is as fucking hot as always -- complete with Biceps of Guh (though I'm not feeling the shaggy haircut)and Tre was his usual animated crazy self. Here's the set list (from some nice person on GDC):
01 - Welcome To Paradise
02 - American Idiot
03 - Nuclear Family
04 - Carpe Diem
05 - Murder City
06 - Hitchin' A Ride
07 - Stay The Night
08 - I'll Make Your Surrender
09 - Hybrid Moments (Misfits cover)
10 - Let Yourself Go
11 - Longview
12 - Stray Heart
13 - Letterbomb
14 - She
15 - 2,000 Light Years Away
16 - Paper Lanterns
17 - Going To Pasalacqua
18 - new song (about a girl from NY said BJ)
19 - St. Jimmy
20 - Know Your Enemy
Fun moment: Billie came right over to us during one song, and as we reached up to touch him, he turned around and bent over, so yeah, I spanked Billie Joe Armstrong's ass! Go me. For the whole show I jumped up and down and screamed and sang like a crazy woman and had the *cough* time of my life.
Age ain't nothing but a number.
I've got other stuff to ramble on about, like and_ed's visit and what my beloved glittery Adam is up to, but I'll save that for another post!