Green Day Rocks My World Again

Maggie and I saw Green Day at the Mandalay Bay event center. We had VIP tickets which put us closest to the floor, with seats, behind the railing, for an unobstructed view.

It was an unbelievably incredible show. If you've never seen them live you are missing out. The wall behind them was a video screen that was perfectly coordinated with every song, everything they did. Billie Joe is a madman energizer bunny running back and forth across the stage. He came out into the stands with his guitar and put it on a kid and played it. Got an 8 year old boy up there who knew all the words to Longview, and a girl who played guitar for St. Jimmy. That lucky bitch. They were forehead to forehead singing into the same mic, and then he sat in front of her with his head on her knee while he sang. She had to sit on the amp down front because his guitar strap wouldn't shorten up enough for her to play standing. I was so jealous. Made me want to learn to play the guitar.

They played Shout and all laid down on the stage and put in snippets of other songs like Iron Man, Free Fallin', Satisfaction, and that was a lot of fun. They played almost every song off the new album, not in order. They also played:

When I Come Around
She
Longview
Basketcase
King For a Day
Hitching a Ride
Welcome to Paradise
Minority
Blvd of Broken Dreams
Brainstew
Holiday
Then he asked who in the audience was an old school Green Day fan and they played Going to Pasalacqua, one of my favorite songs off their first album. I almost lost my mind. The encore was American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia and then the rest of the band left the stage, and Billie and his acoustic made their way to the end of the platform. He played the love song off the new album called Last Night on Earth. It gave me chills. It was so sweet and wonderful and heartfelt and to watch him in the spotlight with just the acoustic was so touching. His wife is a lucky, lucky woman. He ended with Time of Your Life, held up his guitar and then left the stage. It was so wonderful.

My other favorite events of the evening were when he mooned the audience and later lifted his shirt up and just stood there. I could still see most of his ass hanging out the back of his pants. The only thing keeping them on was...Christ, I almost exploded. I also loved when he told everyone to put their cell phones and cameras away, that these were our memories and to live in the moment. God, I loved that. I'm always stressed about whether or not to bring a camera because I'm so anxious about documenting and remembering big events like this. Fuck it. I have everything I need in my head and pictures would never do my experience justice. I didn't want to worry about taking pictures so I didn't bring my camera in.

I've seen Green Day in concert 5 times now and they just keep getting better. The theatrics, the pyrotechnics, and the showmanship are simply outstanding. A 3 hour show with just about every song I could want to hear and an unobstructed view. I am so in love with this band and with that man. I'm sitting here with a glazed over dreamy look on my face just remembering the night. The cute guy who asked me if he could hold my hand on the way to the show started the show off with a bang, too. I'm spent.