Carson, CA Home Depot Center, October 7th, 2005
Oh man, that was the best night of my life! It was so much fun! I'll never forget it! I went with my mom, my best friend, and her mom. It was my very first concert. On the way there, we stopped at the Del Taco right across the street from the stadium. It turns out that a lot of people on their way to the concert had stopped there just like we did, so it ended up looking like some kind of punk/goth convention instead of what it really was, just a bunch of punks and goths eating at the same conviniently-placed fast-food joint. I even talked to a few of them.
When we got there, we found our seats. They were a lot closer to the stage than I thought they would be. Then we went souvenier shopping. I bought a five-pack of pins, there was one that was exactly like the ones Billie Joe has on his main guitar's strap, another one had the design of the Amrican Idiot album, another one was with a picture of the guys on it the fourth one was the Jimmy sign, and the last one was another heart design that I hadn't seen before. I also bought a poster that has a picture of Green Day in front of the flag that they used on the American Idiot music video. I also bought a white shirt that shows St. Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia shaking hands with their other hands behind their backs holding knives and on the back it has all the 2005 American Idiot Tour concert dates up untill the one on October 9, 2005.
We got back to our seats just in time to see the first band begin. No one really knew who they were and they didn't introduce themselves. My guess would be either Flogging Molly or a band signed with Adeline.I didn't enjoy that part of the show very much, because I didn't know who they were and they were a screamo/metal band, so I couldn't understand any of the words, and they didn't interact with the audience at all.
Then came the first intermission which lasted about fifteen minutes. The second band was Jimmy Eat World. They were better then I'd expected and I soon found out that I knew the lyrics to more songs than I'd thought. I also found out that there were a few songs that I liked that I didn't even know Jimmy Eat World did. They did a good job with interacting with the crowd. I want their CD's, so I guess you could say I'm a bit of a Jimmy Eat World fan now, too. I enjoyed that part of the show more than I thought I would have.
Then there was the second intermission. During that time me and my friend went and talked in the bathroom, (don't you dare say "EEEEWWWW", because that was the only place we could go at the time to actually hear each other talk). Then, we went back to our seats. That intermission lasted FOREVER!!!
Every time someone came on stage, almost everyone in the stadium would start screaming. Every time everybody started screaming, I would grab the binoculars, take about ten minutes to get them into focus and find the stage, and by that time, whoever had been on the stage was gone and everyone had stopped screaming. The floor of the platform above us was made of metal and every time someone would go on stage, the people up there would stomp their feet and at least one person had two empty water bottles that they were using as drumsticks on the railing. That got kind of annoying.
Finally, the pink bunny came on stage, (betcha it was Billie Joe or Tre', that was what all four of us guessed). He came onstage drinking a beer. When he finished with that one, he grabbed another one from a person in the audience, drank it, crushed it when he was done, and gave it back to the person who had given it to him. He did that over and over for about five minutes. Then, when he walked off stage, I watched him leave, and saw... Someone coming out from backstage, as they approached the limelight, I could tell it was Billie Joe.
I was still holding the binoculars when I srarted screaming, "Oh my God, it's Billie Joe! It's Billie friggin' Joe!!" I handed my friend the binoculars, and with my screams, I gave the whole stadium the the go-ahead to start their screaming. My friend said, "Oh my God, it really is him!!!!!!". When Bille Joe was announcing who they all were, he said, "On bass, Mike Dirnt, on drums, Tre' Cool, and then there's me, Arnold Schuartzenneggar!" Everybody booed. Then, he said , "Okay then, how about..." He said the name of somebody I couldn't make out so clearly. Everyone booed again. This time he said, "No?, okay then, how's Asshole for ya? Is that good?" Everyone cheered, including me, and my mom gave me a dirty look .
The first song they did was "American Idiot". The second song was "Jesus of Suburbia", yeah, they did the whole song. The third one was "Holiday". At this point, I thought they were going to do the whole album in order,but then they skipped "Boulevard". The next song, although it was really "Are We The Waiting", got announced by Billie, drunk as he obviously was, said it was "St. Jimmy, after "Are We The Waiting", they played "St. Jimmy".I don't remember them playing "Give Me Novacaine", although they might have and probably did. They skipped "She's A Rebel", "Extraordinary Girl", "Letterbomb", "Homecoming", and "Whatsername", although Billie Joe half-sang, half-spoke in a girly voice, "Nobody likes you, everyone left you, they're all out without you, having fun."Then they did some older hits like "Longview", Brain Stew", "Jaded", "Hitchin' A Ride", and "Maria".
At about this point in the show was when they picked three audience members to come up and play a short little song.The drummer that they picked, once he got out of his nervousness, (I think Tre' got him to snap right out of it because I think Tre' hit him in the butt with a drumstick on purpose)did pretty well. I could hardly hear the bassist.
Then they picked a guitarist. The guy that they picked looked to be about five or six years old. Billie put the guitar on the little kid and it was laying flat on the ground. He adjusted it a little bit and pretended that he had adjusted it as much as he could, and said, "Sorry kid, that's all I can do, you're too little." The poor little kid looked like he was going to burst into tears. Billie handed the kid back to his dad, and picked another guitarist. The new guy said that he hadn't played in six years, but Billie said it was fine, to come on up.
The new guy sucked, so Billie almost literally had to kick him off stage, because the kid wouldn't leave. Finally, theguy left after Billie threatened to beat him if he didn't get off the stage. Then, he said, "Hey, bring the little kid up here again. Bring him up to me now." said Billie. So this time the kid got surfed up to the stage by the crowd, and Billie adjusted the strap so it'd fit him perfectly.They did their little song and the drummer got to keep Tre's drumsticks, and I think he got them signed without even asking, and the guitarist got to keep Billie's guitar. The kid looked like he wasn't too sure if Bille was serious or not when he told him to keep the guitar. Billie told him, "Go ahead, keep it, it's yours now, take it, you earned it!! That didn't work. The kid finally gave in when Billie Joe said kind of jokingly, "Take it or I'll beat you!!!!"Then, after Billie said that, I yelled at the top of my lungs to the little kid, "Say thank-you".
Then they did a cover of an Operation Ivy song, "Knowledge". I didn't know the words, so I couldn't sing along.Next, they did "King For A Day", and he was crowned King Of The Stage. Then, Billie got really tired almost like on cue, so that's when he decided to take a rest. He laid down right on the stage with his crown on, and then somebody, (I think it was probably Mike),covered him up with this cloak/ robe thingy.
And guess what, he started singing "Stand By Me" really softly. At first I couldn't really hear what he was saying, then, when he got a little louder, I realized he was singing "Stand By Me". Everyone who knew the song, and let me tell you, just about everyone knew the song and sang along. Now every time I hear that song, and I am in a place where I can lay down and sing along, I will, as sort of an honor to Billie. I know, that's the corniest, stupidest, weirdest idea in the world, but I like being corny, stupid, and weird. Then they did a cover of "Shout", and nearly everyone in the entire arena sang along.
Then, Billie Joe did something very disgusting that grossed me out so much that it shut me up for almost the next ten minutes. He started making noises that made it sound like he was getting banged. I think you can imagine what that sounded like, hopefully you can, so I won't need to go into further detail about that part of the show, because I'd really rather not. I'm getting queasy just thinking about it. All I'll tell you is that I remember thinking, "Geez, Adie must be standing behind him, and standing really, really, really close", if you know what I mean, (Yeah, its weird, I call her Adie too.)
At that point, I looked away, I think everyone except for maybe the perverts and drunk people who were too drunk to think straight enough to look away looked away. Then, Billie did a fake phone conversation, which was almost equally disgusting, so I won't go into details about that either. Sometime during all the grossness, I think Billie started masturbating, trust me, I swear I wasn't watching. Then he mooned the crowd and everyone smiled, well at least all the chicks did, some of the dudes might have been quite happy, too.
They did 2,000 Light Years Away, and I sang along to the parts that I knew. Then all the lights went off and Green Day walked offstage. Then, a digital sign, like the ones you see on the side of the freeway, lit up with green letters that spelled out the words "Green Day " started flashing faster and faster and every time the words flashed on, that was our cue to say "Green Day", untill the lights came back on and Green Day were back on stage.
They did four more songs. The first encore song was "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams". I was very happy that they picked that as one of the songs to do because I think that Billie's vocals sound better when you hear the song live than it does on the CD. The second encore song was "Wake Me Up When September Ends". Everyone swayed either a cell phone or a ciggie lighter and sang softly along. It was very heartfelt and sounded good because everyone singing sounded as if we were in perfect harmony. The third encore song was "We Are The Champions". That was one of the sure-fire-everyone-sings-along songs of the night. The last song that they did was of course "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)".
I hadn't expected my mom to sing along or even know the words, but she did know the words and she did sing along, because when I looked at her during that song, that was exactly what she was doing. My best friend hadn't seemed to have that much fun. She'd hardly ever even smiled, she just kind of robotically sang along. One thing that might have put a damper on her night was that I kept accidentally stepping and jumping on her feet and getting in her way and blocking her view. She's shorter than me and I'm not exactly light as a feather either, so I can see how I probably pissed her off and annoyed her, too.
Her mom was pretty quiet, but then again, she's not a huge fan of Green Day, especially when her daughter listens to it almost constantly, not that that's a bad thing, but she might get tired of it.
At the true end of that incredible rock show, I screamed as loud as I possibly could at that point, and I screamed, "THANK YOU TRE'!!! THANK YOU MIKE!!!!! THANK YOU BILLIE JOE!!!"
I also considered saying thank you to the jazz band, but I couldn't remember their names, andremembered that they hadn,t had very much to do with the show, and I had been considering whether or not to say thank you to Jason Freese and Jason White, just when I was going to say thank you to them, my mom pulled me in her direction and we started walking towards the car to go home. Don't worry though, I made sure to thank them mentally.
When we got there, we found our seats. They were a lot closer to the stage than I thought they would be. Then we went souvenier shopping. I bought a five-pack of pins, there was one that was exactly like the ones Billie Joe has on his main guitar's strap, another one had the design of the Amrican Idiot album, another one was with a picture of the guys on it the fourth one was the Jimmy sign, and the last one was another heart design that I hadn't seen before. I also bought a poster that has a picture of Green Day in front of the flag that they used on the American Idiot music video. I also bought a white shirt that shows St. Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia shaking hands with their other hands behind their backs holding knives and on the back it has all the 2005 American Idiot Tour concert dates up untill the one on October 9, 2005.
We got back to our seats just in time to see the first band begin. No one really knew who they were and they didn't introduce themselves. My guess would be either Flogging Molly or a band signed with Adeline.I didn't enjoy that part of the show very much, because I didn't know who they were and they were a screamo/metal band, so I couldn't understand any of the words, and they didn't interact with the audience at all.
Then came the first intermission which lasted about fifteen minutes. The second band was Jimmy Eat World. They were better then I'd expected and I soon found out that I knew the lyrics to more songs than I'd thought. I also found out that there were a few songs that I liked that I didn't even know Jimmy Eat World did. They did a good job with interacting with the crowd. I want their CD's, so I guess you could say I'm a bit of a Jimmy Eat World fan now, too. I enjoyed that part of the show more than I thought I would have.
Then there was the second intermission. During that time me and my friend went and talked in the bathroom, (don't you dare say "EEEEWWWW", because that was the only place we could go at the time to actually hear each other talk). Then, we went back to our seats. That intermission lasted FOREVER!!!
Every time someone came on stage, almost everyone in the stadium would start screaming. Every time everybody started screaming, I would grab the binoculars, take about ten minutes to get them into focus and find the stage, and by that time, whoever had been on the stage was gone and everyone had stopped screaming. The floor of the platform above us was made of metal and every time someone would go on stage, the people up there would stomp their feet and at least one person had two empty water bottles that they were using as drumsticks on the railing. That got kind of annoying.
Finally, the pink bunny came on stage, (betcha it was Billie Joe or Tre', that was what all four of us guessed). He came onstage drinking a beer. When he finished with that one, he grabbed another one from a person in the audience, drank it, crushed it when he was done, and gave it back to the person who had given it to him. He did that over and over for about five minutes. Then, when he walked off stage, I watched him leave, and saw... Someone coming out from backstage, as they approached the limelight, I could tell it was Billie Joe.
I was still holding the binoculars when I srarted screaming, "Oh my God, it's Billie Joe! It's Billie friggin' Joe!!" I handed my friend the binoculars, and with my screams, I gave the whole stadium the the go-ahead to start their screaming. My friend said, "Oh my God, it really is him!!!!!!". When Bille Joe was announcing who they all were, he said, "On bass, Mike Dirnt, on drums, Tre' Cool, and then there's me, Arnold Schuartzenneggar!" Everybody booed. Then, he said , "Okay then, how about..." He said the name of somebody I couldn't make out so clearly. Everyone booed again. This time he said, "No?, okay then, how's Asshole for ya? Is that good?" Everyone cheered, including me, and my mom gave me a dirty look .
The first song they did was "American Idiot". The second song was "Jesus of Suburbia", yeah, they did the whole song. The third one was "Holiday". At this point, I thought they were going to do the whole album in order,but then they skipped "Boulevard". The next song, although it was really "Are We The Waiting", got announced by Billie, drunk as he obviously was, said it was "St. Jimmy, after "Are We The Waiting", they played "St. Jimmy".I don't remember them playing "Give Me Novacaine", although they might have and probably did. They skipped "She's A Rebel", "Extraordinary Girl", "Letterbomb", "Homecoming", and "Whatsername", although Billie Joe half-sang, half-spoke in a girly voice, "Nobody likes you, everyone left you, they're all out without you, having fun."Then they did some older hits like "Longview", Brain Stew", "Jaded", "Hitchin' A Ride", and "Maria".
At about this point in the show was when they picked three audience members to come up and play a short little song.The drummer that they picked, once he got out of his nervousness, (I think Tre' got him to snap right out of it because I think Tre' hit him in the butt with a drumstick on purpose)did pretty well. I could hardly hear the bassist.
Then they picked a guitarist. The guy that they picked looked to be about five or six years old. Billie put the guitar on the little kid and it was laying flat on the ground. He adjusted it a little bit and pretended that he had adjusted it as much as he could, and said, "Sorry kid, that's all I can do, you're too little." The poor little kid looked like he was going to burst into tears. Billie handed the kid back to his dad, and picked another guitarist. The new guy said that he hadn't played in six years, but Billie said it was fine, to come on up.
The new guy sucked, so Billie almost literally had to kick him off stage, because the kid wouldn't leave. Finally, theguy left after Billie threatened to beat him if he didn't get off the stage. Then, he said, "Hey, bring the little kid up here again. Bring him up to me now." said Billie. So this time the kid got surfed up to the stage by the crowd, and Billie adjusted the strap so it'd fit him perfectly.They did their little song and the drummer got to keep Tre's drumsticks, and I think he got them signed without even asking, and the guitarist got to keep Billie's guitar. The kid looked like he wasn't too sure if Bille was serious or not when he told him to keep the guitar. Billie told him, "Go ahead, keep it, it's yours now, take it, you earned it!! That didn't work. The kid finally gave in when Billie Joe said kind of jokingly, "Take it or I'll beat you!!!!"Then, after Billie said that, I yelled at the top of my lungs to the little kid, "Say thank-you".
Then they did a cover of an Operation Ivy song, "Knowledge". I didn't know the words, so I couldn't sing along.Next, they did "King For A Day", and he was crowned King Of The Stage. Then, Billie got really tired almost like on cue, so that's when he decided to take a rest. He laid down right on the stage with his crown on, and then somebody, (I think it was probably Mike),covered him up with this cloak/ robe thingy.
And guess what, he started singing "Stand By Me" really softly. At first I couldn't really hear what he was saying, then, when he got a little louder, I realized he was singing "Stand By Me". Everyone who knew the song, and let me tell you, just about everyone knew the song and sang along. Now every time I hear that song, and I am in a place where I can lay down and sing along, I will, as sort of an honor to Billie. I know, that's the corniest, stupidest, weirdest idea in the world, but I like being corny, stupid, and weird. Then they did a cover of "Shout", and nearly everyone in the entire arena sang along.
Then, Billie Joe did something very disgusting that grossed me out so much that it shut me up for almost the next ten minutes. He started making noises that made it sound like he was getting banged. I think you can imagine what that sounded like, hopefully you can, so I won't need to go into further detail about that part of the show, because I'd really rather not. I'm getting queasy just thinking about it. All I'll tell you is that I remember thinking, "Geez, Adie must be standing behind him, and standing really, really, really close", if you know what I mean, (Yeah, its weird, I call her Adie too.)
At that point, I looked away, I think everyone except for maybe the perverts and drunk people who were too drunk to think straight enough to look away looked away. Then, Billie did a fake phone conversation, which was almost equally disgusting, so I won't go into details about that either. Sometime during all the grossness, I think Billie started masturbating, trust me, I swear I wasn't watching. Then he mooned the crowd and everyone smiled, well at least all the chicks did, some of the dudes might have been quite happy, too.
They did 2,000 Light Years Away, and I sang along to the parts that I knew. Then all the lights went off and Green Day walked offstage. Then, a digital sign, like the ones you see on the side of the freeway, lit up with green letters that spelled out the words "Green Day " started flashing faster and faster and every time the words flashed on, that was our cue to say "Green Day", untill the lights came back on and Green Day were back on stage.
They did four more songs. The first encore song was "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams". I was very happy that they picked that as one of the songs to do because I think that Billie's vocals sound better when you hear the song live than it does on the CD. The second encore song was "Wake Me Up When September Ends". Everyone swayed either a cell phone or a ciggie lighter and sang softly along. It was very heartfelt and sounded good because everyone singing sounded as if we were in perfect harmony. The third encore song was "We Are The Champions". That was one of the sure-fire-everyone-sings-along songs of the night. The last song that they did was of course "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)".
I hadn't expected my mom to sing along or even know the words, but she did know the words and she did sing along, because when I looked at her during that song, that was exactly what she was doing. My best friend hadn't seemed to have that much fun. She'd hardly ever even smiled, she just kind of robotically sang along. One thing that might have put a damper on her night was that I kept accidentally stepping and jumping on her feet and getting in her way and blocking her view. She's shorter than me and I'm not exactly light as a feather either, so I can see how I probably pissed her off and annoyed her, too.
Her mom was pretty quiet, but then again, she's not a huge fan of Green Day, especially when her daughter listens to it almost constantly, not that that's a bad thing, but she might get tired of it.
At the true end of that incredible rock show, I screamed as loud as I possibly could at that point, and I screamed, "THANK YOU TRE'!!! THANK YOU MIKE!!!!! THANK YOU BILLIE JOE!!!"
I also considered saying thank you to the jazz band, but I couldn't remember their names, andremembered that they hadn,t had very much to do with the show, and I had been considering whether or not to say thank you to Jason Freese and Jason White, just when I was going to say thank you to them, my mom pulled me in her direction and we started walking towards the car to go home. Don't worry though, I made sure to thank them mentally.
