The Summer Of Our Lives, chapter 6
As soon as I saw the stage at Madison Square Garden right there in front of me, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted nothing more than to get up there and sing my heart out. However, the 65,000 restless, screaming people there were there for Green Day, not me. But since I was one of the screaming 65,000, I wasn't complaining.
The four of us found our seats quickly, and I decided that I had been incredibly stupid not to come to New York before now. Of what I had seen so far (mostly Grand Central Station), this was by far the coolest place on earth. The energy that was practically oozing from the city itself was like none other on earth. Right away I knew where New York's many nicknames had come from: It was huge, it was a complete zoo, and it looked as if the roaring traffic and bright lights would never settle down for anything as trivial as nighttime.
As Liv, Kevin, Rob, and I walked into the Garden, the carbon dioxide level in the room must have rose pretty high as all four of us exhaled at once.
"Wow," I breathed. "This is the coolest place on Earth!" I turned to Liv. "Why haven't we come here before now?"
"Because, we haven't even BEGUN to live," my friend answered.
Rob, the practical one, snapped us out of our trances by going, "I guess we should find our seats."
Kevin nodded. "I guess we should." He took my hand and led me to my seat. Once we all sat down, he said with a small laugh, "So... how did we get here again?"
"Liv loves Green Day. Liv won a contest. Liv was smart enough to get our parents to let us go. And Liv knew what time the train left. So basically we all owe her one," Rob said, simply.
"Yeah," I said. "Liv, I never did thank you for winning us a contest."
Liv smiled. "What can I say? Luck of the draw!"
Just then the hugest cheer you ever heard in your life went up from the crowd behind us. The four of us looked up at the stage just as Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool walked out onto it to greet the screaming applause. Billie Joe yelled into the microphone, "Alright New York! Are you ready to SCREAM?" The crowd had been doing so for a while now, and with that, everybody (my friends and I included) became even louder.
And as they struck up the opening chords to 'American Idiot', which was now my new favorite song, I knew that I had been wrong about Green Day: they were without a doubt the coolest band in the world, and now that I was at their concert, I was loving every minute of it.
The four of us found our seats quickly, and I decided that I had been incredibly stupid not to come to New York before now. Of what I had seen so far (mostly Grand Central Station), this was by far the coolest place on earth. The energy that was practically oozing from the city itself was like none other on earth. Right away I knew where New York's many nicknames had come from: It was huge, it was a complete zoo, and it looked as if the roaring traffic and bright lights would never settle down for anything as trivial as nighttime.
As Liv, Kevin, Rob, and I walked into the Garden, the carbon dioxide level in the room must have rose pretty high as all four of us exhaled at once.
"Wow," I breathed. "This is the coolest place on Earth!" I turned to Liv. "Why haven't we come here before now?"
"Because, we haven't even BEGUN to live," my friend answered.
Rob, the practical one, snapped us out of our trances by going, "I guess we should find our seats."
Kevin nodded. "I guess we should." He took my hand and led me to my seat. Once we all sat down, he said with a small laugh, "So... how did we get here again?"
"Liv loves Green Day. Liv won a contest. Liv was smart enough to get our parents to let us go. And Liv knew what time the train left. So basically we all owe her one," Rob said, simply.
"Yeah," I said. "Liv, I never did thank you for winning us a contest."
Liv smiled. "What can I say? Luck of the draw!"
Just then the hugest cheer you ever heard in your life went up from the crowd behind us. The four of us looked up at the stage just as Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool walked out onto it to greet the screaming applause. Billie Joe yelled into the microphone, "Alright New York! Are you ready to SCREAM?" The crowd had been doing so for a while now, and with that, everybody (my friends and I included) became even louder.
And as they struck up the opening chords to 'American Idiot', which was now my new favorite song, I knew that I had been wrong about Green Day: they were without a doubt the coolest band in the world, and now that I was at their concert, I was loving every minute of it.
