Concert hangover for sure today. F'n hell Green Day play a sweet show. I won tickets from Sonic and got VIP passes to the soundcheck---a once in life time chance to see them up close with just 18 other fans. Sadly I only have the snapshots in my mind to remember...no cameras allowed.
The Sound check (nutshell): So we arrived outside at Wayner's statue and hung out with Sarah from sonic who is awesome by the way-- and we chit chat and wait for the punk rock stars to organize themselves.
There were some "winners" who were complaining about the wait, but not me...ummm they are Greenday you morons!
We get escorted indoors....wait a bit...go downstairs...wait a bit by the giant oilers locker room door. A large man who resembled Mussolini, so we nicknamed him 'Moose', came out and told us
when we hear music we can come out and he'll show us where to sit. We wait a bit. We mill around sad the bar is not open. There were 20 of us in total and it was pretty big range...young-uns to mid thirties, mostly chicks--except for the 15 year olds "always making out couple". ugh.
Then we hear a drum beat. We all looked for Moose, but no, that was not "music".
We move closer to the entrance to the arena....excitedly we wait a bit. We hear a guitar squeal...we all look around anxiously...we heard music...can we go? Can we go? We wait a bit. More sounds of music blasts in. Moose comes and gets us and out we walk...onto the Visitors Bench...and there they are...pocket sized punk rock stars; BJ is in a toque wearing all black.
They are all in their spots (just like later at the concert) running through some 21st century breakdown...We awkwardly stand on the visiting players bench...awed by seeing them and hearing them, but somewhat self conscious voyeurs.
They acknowledge our group and Billie Joe claps his hands, wants us to clap, (indicative of the upper body work out to come later) we clap with him, we woo hoo! The band motion for Moose to let us come out on to the floor. They herd us out... I pretend to knock the whole group over rushing past them to the front---others hang back not sure where to stand in all this space---I bust up and park right in front to the left of the ramp out into the auduence at centre stage. I imagine the feel of the crush of people that will be there in mere hours--I take a mental snapshot of them with the american flag up in the rafters above them while they play. The band works on getting American Eulogy worked out... The Dude and I try to mosh (hilarious to us, we are being silly)...we jokingly slam dance into each other. We figure 20 people is just not enough. We laugh and I look up to meet the eyes of Tre Cool at the drums he laughs with/at us too. He's drinking a Miller Light. not sure what to think of that.
Billy Joe stops...the roadie gets him the the TP launcher (the one he used between Brain Stew and Jaded at the concert) and BJ tp's us from the stage. They sing BLVD...or more the work on the transitions between it and Minority...Mike Dirnt looks up at one point right near the end and points out to the band, "uh oh---We're in Oil Untry"....noting the broken sign in the rafters...they all chuckle. The saxophone dude plays King for a day...they bust out the accordion. We all cheer...they tell us we have to go...we say bye and float out. One of the girls shouts out a mandatory "We love you!"
In 3 words...Awkward yet amazing. Thanks Sonic 102.9 for the fun times...I will never forget it.
The concert you ask? Brilliant. It was filled to the brim with punk rock goodness. I waved my arms (like I just don't care), I pumped my fist in the air and Hey Ho'd...I sang " are we we are the waaaaiiiting, unknown" at the top of my lungs. It was bliss *with pyrotechnics. Here is the
setlist.
Song du Jour: Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day, of course. (my fav of the night-that link is to video of them live in Vancity 05.07.09)
Another wicked shot from the Greenday concert...I have decided it should be my job to go to concerts full time. Where do I apply?
