Green Day Green Day Green Day!!

Wow.... let me say that again.... WOW!!!

So here's my informal review of the Green Day concert from Saturday night. So much energy, so much passion for what they're doing up there. Or maybe it was when Billie Joe Armstrong came out and opened by telling us to "scream so every redneck across America hears you" that had me hooked. Oh yeah... and after the first song (American Idiot which is a message to Dub-ya), Armstrong said that "tonight was a big F*** You to George W. Bush". Ok, so maybe that was harsh in retrospect, but I still had a good laugh and enjoyed the moment!

Earlier in the day I had called my buddy Nate who lives in Des Moines with his wife and asked what he was doing that night. He said he was going to Green Day in Des Moines. I replied that's funny because I was in Des Moines and going to Green Day. He then informed me of the possibility of having extra room in their box suite and to call him later so we could hook up. So what could be better than going to a Green Day concert???

How about seeing them from a private Suite with a fully stocked fridge and air-conditioning and lots of space to mingle with friends????? yeah - it was rough. I would definitely recommend this concert to anyone that loves GreenDay, remembers Green Day from their High School days (I think Longview was our Senior Prom theme... or at least was a close 2nd to Richard (Karl) Marx's Hold onto the Night (yuck!). I think the Star Trek theme also got votes that year...... I'd have to go look.

St. Jimmy was definitely a highlight for me. I love that song - something about the chord progression at the end that is very different, yet still quite musical. Revolutionary even! At one point, Armstrong said they were going to build a band and had audience members come up and one to play drums (he was pretty good - just played a basic rock beat that I could have done with my YEARS of air drumming practicing) and then he asked "WHO OUT THERE KNOWS HOW TO PLAY BASS" and of course this was where I started screaming "I DO... I HAVE A )(*)@$# DEGREE IN THE DANG THING". But of course there was no way Armstrong could hear me from our private box suite so some pud got up there and enjoyed the thrill of playing with Green Day. Then after an unsuccessful attempt at getting a lead guitar player from a 14 year old girl (he told her to get off his f'in stage), the next girl was very good and we had an amateur make-shift Green Day. How cool would that be to get to play onstage with Green Day like that? The bass player fan got to take a stage dive at the end, and the guitar player girl got to keep the guitar. AWESOME.......

More than anything, I like to observe at concerts how a band plays to the crowd and Green Day was very very interactive with their millions (AND MILLIONS) of fans in the audience. He kept giving the cheap plugs to Des Moines (causing reaction from 20,000 of us screaming "I LIVE IN DES MOINES") or changing lyrics to "I-O-WA". Would have been even cooler if he would have added a "Go Cyclones" in there but was still a thrill none the less! Here's the review from the Des Moines Register that is pretty good.

So...... how does my week get any better after that experience? Oh yeah... I have GA floor seats to U2 on Friday night in Minneapolis at the Target Center...... yeah, good luck finding those tickets online. I will be talking about U2 all week so get used to it.

Song of the Day - One more day of this, but it's Boulevard of Broken Dreams this morning by Green Day of course. They ended with that (well, they went into a cover of We Are The Champions which was interesting but was well interacted with a singalong by the crowd - then Billie Joe played Good Riddance solo style (Kahn, you have to teach that one to me along with the other 100 songs I keep telling you to teach me) to send us packing. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

Video of the Day - I brought U2's Elevation Tour DVD to work today to start getting excited for this weekend. And yeah, for anyone that doesn't already know, the new DVD for U2 that will probably come out this Fall.... yeah, I'm on it;) They filmed the DVD the Monday and Tuesday Chicago shows back in April that Claire and I went to. So look for the real tall bald guy that is next to the stage on the outside on the right. Plenty of times when Bono and Adam were right in front of us:) More info later this Fall.

Webpage of the Day - http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/50_most_awesomely_bad_songs/series_countdown.jhtml
A list I agreed and disagreed with. VH1 lists "50 most awesomely bad songs"... whatever that means. I did not agree with the Right Said Fred because I love that song and would be proud to Kareoke that at the next wedding I attend (any takers?).

Have a great day.... and keep on Truckin'!!!!