Green Day Concert
Last night I went to the Green Day show at the Great Western Forum. I've never seen this band live, but they've been around awhile. I wasn't to fond of a lot of their older material, but it kinda grew on me. Both American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown are amazing pieces of work and I love those albums. Tuesday night isn't exactly a convenient night to go to a concert, but The Forum is only about a 20 minute drive from home. For most other venues, I probably would not have gone.
It's also been a while since I've been to the Forum. $22 for parking. Ouch! Seat was pretty good. Loge 27, Row M, Seat 7. If anybody has been to The Forum, this is next to the entrance to the Forum Club, which is at half court. For that reason, the loges on either side of the Forum Club are missing a Row L of seats. It's a walkway instead. So, I had a pretty significant break between me and the next row of seats in front of me and I had a rail to seperate Row M from the walkway. I had plenty of legroom and the rail was pretty good since I was standing for the whole show. There were only about 5 more rows of seats in front of me before reaching the bottom of the section. Yeah, it's a good seat. I think I was one of the few people in this section that didn't have any sort of pass. Sean Penn was a few seats away. Nothing but big shots in this section. How did a get here?
Opening band was Franz Ferdinand, who could be the headline band in a lot of places. They were fun, but no "Do You Want To". I love that song. OK, without further delay, the setlist:
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Holiday
The Static Age
Before the Lobotomy
Are We the Waiting
St. Jimmy
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
2000 Light Years Away
Hitchin' A Ride
Welcome To Paradise
Disappearing Boy
Tight Wad Hill
When I Come Around
Brain Stew
Jaded
Longview
Basket Case
She
King For A Day
Shout(The Isley Brothers cover
21 Guns
American Eulogy
Encore:
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
Minority
Encore 2:
Macy's Day Parade
Last Night On Earth
Good Riddance
As you can see, it's a massive setlist. Green Day took the stage shortly after 9 PM. I expected it to be over around 11 PM. Instead, it went on until midnight. Occasionally, they would break into some snippet of some random song, some of which included "Sweet Child O' Mine" by GNR, "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, "Free Falling" by Tom Petty, "Break on Through to the Other Side" by The Doors, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. There were a bunch of others, but it's hard to keep track of them. They do more goofing around than any other band I've ever seen live. They tell random stories or take time to spray the crowd with a massive water gun or fire t shirts into the crowd with one of those t shirt launchers.
They also pulled a lot of audience members onto stage. Most of them had to do a mandatory stage dive as payback. One kid got pulled up to sing "Longview" and another kid got pulled up to play guitar on "Jesus Of Suburbia". These kids weren't just playing or singing along, they were expected to actually take Billy Joe's part and perform the song with the band in its entirety. The singing kid wasn't all that great, but he did the whole song. The guitar player was pretty good and he was workin' it. He was all over the stage, on the catwalk, on the drum riser. He did a pretty good job. It would be awesome to do something like that. I think the key to great show is audience participation. If the crowd is into it and involved, it's more fun. For most of us, we just get to hell "Heyyyyyyohhhhh!" a lot.
There was lots of pyro and fire. There were times when the smell of burning metal was pretty strong. At the end of the show, it was raining confetti. I loved the second set of encores, which were acoustic. I also loved "21 Guns" with some piano thrown into it. It sounded pretty good. No "Wake Me Up When September Ends"? Booo!! It was a fun show and definitely one of the best shows that I had ever been to, and I've been to a lot of them. Green Day is a great live band. I had no voice at the end. Traffic was a nightmare getting out of there thanks to some guy getting pulled over for DUI and not pulling into a parking lot or side street. Got home at about 1:30AM. I'm surprised I made it through the day and just a few hours of sleep.
I think I'll take a break for the rest of the night. August has taken a huge physical toll on me. I'll be back on my photo projects tomorrow.
It's also been a while since I've been to the Forum. $22 for parking. Ouch! Seat was pretty good. Loge 27, Row M, Seat 7. If anybody has been to The Forum, this is next to the entrance to the Forum Club, which is at half court. For that reason, the loges on either side of the Forum Club are missing a Row L of seats. It's a walkway instead. So, I had a pretty significant break between me and the next row of seats in front of me and I had a rail to seperate Row M from the walkway. I had plenty of legroom and the rail was pretty good since I was standing for the whole show. There were only about 5 more rows of seats in front of me before reaching the bottom of the section. Yeah, it's a good seat. I think I was one of the few people in this section that didn't have any sort of pass. Sean Penn was a few seats away. Nothing but big shots in this section. How did a get here?
Opening band was Franz Ferdinand, who could be the headline band in a lot of places. They were fun, but no "Do You Want To". I love that song. OK, without further delay, the setlist:
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Holiday
The Static Age
Before the Lobotomy
Are We the Waiting
St. Jimmy
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
2000 Light Years Away
Hitchin' A Ride
Welcome To Paradise
Disappearing Boy
Tight Wad Hill
When I Come Around
Brain Stew
Jaded
Longview
Basket Case
She
King For A Day
Shout(The Isley Brothers cover
21 Guns
American Eulogy
Encore:
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
Minority
Encore 2:
Macy's Day Parade
Last Night On Earth
Good Riddance
As you can see, it's a massive setlist. Green Day took the stage shortly after 9 PM. I expected it to be over around 11 PM. Instead, it went on until midnight. Occasionally, they would break into some snippet of some random song, some of which included "Sweet Child O' Mine" by GNR, "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, "Free Falling" by Tom Petty, "Break on Through to the Other Side" by The Doors, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. There were a bunch of others, but it's hard to keep track of them. They do more goofing around than any other band I've ever seen live. They tell random stories or take time to spray the crowd with a massive water gun or fire t shirts into the crowd with one of those t shirt launchers.
They also pulled a lot of audience members onto stage. Most of them had to do a mandatory stage dive as payback. One kid got pulled up to sing "Longview" and another kid got pulled up to play guitar on "Jesus Of Suburbia". These kids weren't just playing or singing along, they were expected to actually take Billy Joe's part and perform the song with the band in its entirety. The singing kid wasn't all that great, but he did the whole song. The guitar player was pretty good and he was workin' it. He was all over the stage, on the catwalk, on the drum riser. He did a pretty good job. It would be awesome to do something like that. I think the key to great show is audience participation. If the crowd is into it and involved, it's more fun. For most of us, we just get to hell "Heyyyyyyohhhhh!" a lot.
There was lots of pyro and fire. There were times when the smell of burning metal was pretty strong. At the end of the show, it was raining confetti. I loved the second set of encores, which were acoustic. I also loved "21 Guns" with some piano thrown into it. It sounded pretty good. No "Wake Me Up When September Ends"? Booo!! It was a fun show and definitely one of the best shows that I had ever been to, and I've been to a lot of them. Green Day is a great live band. I had no voice at the end. Traffic was a nightmare getting out of there thanks to some guy getting pulled over for DUI and not pulling into a parking lot or side street. Got home at about 1:30AM. I'm surprised I made it through the day and just a few hours of sleep.
I think I'll take a break for the rest of the night. August has taken a huge physical toll on me. I'll be back on my photo projects tomorrow.