Yes, I'm still here
Sep. 10th, 2005 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikibethI'm not going to post anything about Hurricane Katrina. If you haven't been following ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala or Making Light, I suggest you turn to them. Me, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't job-hunt in Canada instead of here.
Yes, job-hunt. I got laid off on August 19th when they reorganized the pastry department -- Sal was let go, too. I've applied for a bakery position at the Whole Foods that's opening up in West Hartford, and I'll be doing other looking around too. It would be nice if my Repetitive Scooping Injury (tendonitis that I'm blaming on scooping 80 quarts of cookie dough at a time) would ease up -- my left pinky and ring finger are kind of numb.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. I'm here to talk about getting to see Green Day last night at the Civic Center! w00t!
See, the tickets were already paid for, back when I had a JOB.
Socherrybutterfly picked me up around 6 last night. number42 dropped us off downtown, and picked us up after, saving us parking, which was a huge plus, and many thanks are due him. We wandered around downtown a little, and cherrybutterfly treated me to a drink, which was very sweet of her. Around 7, we made our way over to the Civic Center, and stood in the wrong line for a little while, until one of the security people said "GA floor tickets, over HERE."
Jimmy Eat World was the opening act. They were just about right -- WAY better than the "three opening bands, each of which sucked worse than the last" for Black 47 at Toad's a couple of weeks ago, but not to the other extreme of Fairport Convention opening for Jethro Tull in 1987 where I was so blown away by Fairport that Tull almost seemed mediocre in comparison. They played about seven or eight songs, spaced the hits out nicely, and they were fun to listen to. The sort of thing an opening act should do.
Green Day themselves -- they were great. The New York Times review says they've turned into a band that they'd have mocked when they were starting out. Well, maybe so. Yes, they did do a lot of the classic arena-rock clichés -- Billie Joe yelled "Hartford" after practically every song, there was a lot of posing and mugging, they had a hanging sign with blinky lights, several noisy explosions, big flame-pots, Billie Joe played the guitar with his teeth Hendrix-style at one point, there was a bit of James-Brown-with-a-cape stuff, and they did play "We Are The Champions" during the encore. Oh, and confetti. With heart grenades on it. So, I can see why the Times was fussing.
But it didn't feel cynical. Billie Joe didn't try to tell us we were the best-audience-ever, which always sounds like bullshit -- he said it was the best TOUR ever, which could easily be true. They didn't seem tired of playing their songs. And their smiles seemed real. The audience loved them, they loved the audience, and everyone was having fun. I managed to work my way up to within one person of the end of the center runway... which involved getting very smooshed, but it was worth it.
And Billie Joe is just an adorable goofball. Stupidly hot, and more so in eyeliner, and he knows it... but I think a lot of it is pure stage presence, because it doesn't come across so well in still photos. But when he's jumping around and grinning and holding his arms out and signaling the crowd with "1, 2, 1-2-3-4" and everyone's following along? Whooo. And when they did their standard thing of bringing three kids up from the audience to play -- the kid who played drums disappeared after a bit, so they got the drummer who was playing for Jimmy Eat World to come up; the cute teenage girl was obviously more interested in tackle-hugging Billie Joe than playing bass, and he kinda shrugged it off, but he did let her pick up the bass line even though she had some trouble; and the boy who came up to play guitar? He could actually PLAY, and Billie Joe gave him a very Bugs-Bunny-kissing-Elmer-Fudd smooch on the mouth, which got the girls to scream. Also, he told the kid to keep the guitar.
None of the arena-band maneuvers felt like "we have sold out." It felt like "hey look! if we're playing in a place this big, I guess we're rock stars! We all know how to be rock stars, right? We've been practicing since we were ten for this, just like you! And we're not gonna pretend we're too cool to have fun with it. So yeah! Explosions! Sparklers! Flames! And you know the words to "Shout!" because everyone does... so we'll throw that in, too. This is great!" There was just an incredible sense of glee.
Oh, you want to know about the music? What can I say? You know their songs. They've been around long enough, there've been enough hits. They opened with "American Idiot," they saved "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" for the encore (that was where the confetti came in), and they used "Time of Your Life" as the final closer. Good mix of old stuff and new stuff in between, and they played well. And the sound engineers knew what the hell they were doing -- the mix was NOT sludge.
It was a great time, and worth the scalper premium I paid for the tickets, and I wish I could do it again.
matociquala or Making Light, I suggest you turn to them. Me, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't job-hunt in Canada instead of here.Yes, job-hunt. I got laid off on August 19th when they reorganized the pastry department -- Sal was let go, too. I've applied for a bakery position at the Whole Foods that's opening up in West Hartford, and I'll be doing other looking around too. It would be nice if my Repetitive Scooping Injury (tendonitis that I'm blaming on scooping 80 quarts of cookie dough at a time) would ease up -- my left pinky and ring finger are kind of numb.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. I'm here to talk about getting to see Green Day last night at the Civic Center! w00t!
See, the tickets were already paid for, back when I had a JOB.
So
cherrybutterfly picked me up around 6 last night. number42 dropped us off downtown, and picked us up after, saving us parking, which was a huge plus, and many thanks are due him. We wandered around downtown a little, and cherrybutterfly treated me to a drink, which was very sweet of her. Around 7, we made our way over to the Civic Center, and stood in the wrong line for a little while, until one of the security people said "GA floor tickets, over HERE."Jimmy Eat World was the opening act. They were just about right -- WAY better than the "three opening bands, each of which sucked worse than the last" for Black 47 at Toad's a couple of weeks ago, but not to the other extreme of Fairport Convention opening for Jethro Tull in 1987 where I was so blown away by Fairport that Tull almost seemed mediocre in comparison. They played about seven or eight songs, spaced the hits out nicely, and they were fun to listen to. The sort of thing an opening act should do.
Green Day themselves -- they were great. The New York Times review says they've turned into a band that they'd have mocked when they were starting out. Well, maybe so. Yes, they did do a lot of the classic arena-rock clichés -- Billie Joe yelled "Hartford" after practically every song, there was a lot of posing and mugging, they had a hanging sign with blinky lights, several noisy explosions, big flame-pots, Billie Joe played the guitar with his teeth Hendrix-style at one point, there was a bit of James-Brown-with-a-cape stuff, and they did play "We Are The Champions" during the encore. Oh, and confetti. With heart grenades on it. So, I can see why the Times was fussing.
But it didn't feel cynical. Billie Joe didn't try to tell us we were the best-audience-ever, which always sounds like bullshit -- he said it was the best TOUR ever, which could easily be true. They didn't seem tired of playing their songs. And their smiles seemed real. The audience loved them, they loved the audience, and everyone was having fun. I managed to work my way up to within one person of the end of the center runway... which involved getting very smooshed, but it was worth it.
And Billie Joe is just an adorable goofball. Stupidly hot, and more so in eyeliner, and he knows it... but I think a lot of it is pure stage presence, because it doesn't come across so well in still photos. But when he's jumping around and grinning and holding his arms out and signaling the crowd with "1, 2, 1-2-3-4" and everyone's following along? Whooo. And when they did their standard thing of bringing three kids up from the audience to play -- the kid who played drums disappeared after a bit, so they got the drummer who was playing for Jimmy Eat World to come up; the cute teenage girl was obviously more interested in tackle-hugging Billie Joe than playing bass, and he kinda shrugged it off, but he did let her pick up the bass line even though she had some trouble; and the boy who came up to play guitar? He could actually PLAY, and Billie Joe gave him a very Bugs-Bunny-kissing-Elmer-Fudd smooch on the mouth, which got the girls to scream. Also, he told the kid to keep the guitar.
None of the arena-band maneuvers felt like "we have sold out." It felt like "hey look! if we're playing in a place this big, I guess we're rock stars! We all know how to be rock stars, right? We've been practicing since we were ten for this, just like you! And we're not gonna pretend we're too cool to have fun with it. So yeah! Explosions! Sparklers! Flames! And you know the words to "Shout!" because everyone does... so we'll throw that in, too. This is great!" There was just an incredible sense of glee.
Oh, you want to know about the music? What can I say? You know their songs. They've been around long enough, there've been enough hits. They opened with "American Idiot," they saved "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" for the encore (that was where the confetti came in), and they used "Time of Your Life" as the final closer. Good mix of old stuff and new stuff in between, and they played well. And the sound engineers knew what the hell they were doing -- the mix was NOT sludge.
It was a great time, and worth the scalper premium I paid for the tickets, and I wish I could do it again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 09:22 pm (UTC)Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's BAD, either. Remind him of this.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 10:11 pm (UTC)Oh, what fun! There is no good time better than a good rock concert! and i have been hearing tahthe Green Day tour is especially good!
Yuck on the job hunting! And with everything else! Urgh! But still, rock concert yay!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 10:24 pm (UTC)*grin*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 10:50 pm (UTC)ah yes, yesssssss, my precioussssssss
:)
sorry about the job. i hope you find something soon so the whole world can benefit from your culinary skillz!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 11:22 pm (UTC)*sigh*
He didn't actually touch me, because I was at the wrong corner of the runway, but I think I got a couple of sweat-drops on me...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:18 am (UTC)eye candy, liek damnalready yespleaseNOW.
i don't have a non-furry kid, but i can relate. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:27 am (UTC)I think he's definitely going on the List. At some point if I'm forced to keep to an absolute number, the List is going to be ENTIRELY made up of boys-in-eyeliner.
Guh.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:35 am (UTC)PERMANENT members include Bowie, Johnny Depp, and Trent Reznor. Guh.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 02:59 am (UTC)Permanent members; Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Dave Mustaine [yeah, yeah, yeah, i know...], Ewan MacGregor, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom [mainly when in eyeliner] and that's almost all i can handle right now. squeee. Trent is still uEber-hot, even with the cropped-off hair. I miss the locks, tho...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 03:06 am (UTC)Have you seen
Harrison Ford. Since I was eleven.
*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 03:19 am (UTC)I'm sorry to hear about your job :( Hope you manage to find a new one soon
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 05:44 am (UTC)Glad you had a good time!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 06:53 pm (UTC)