Last year’s concert lineup in Vancouver was incredible – too many good ones to be able to attend them all, and I thought (sadly) that the run was over… not so however. Green Day cruised through Vancouver the other night and with ticket (and brand new Blackberry) in hand, I joined an ecclectic mix of grunged/punked teens, parents with decked out 10 yr olds, grandmas and every age in between, for the show at General Motors Place.
Why the Blackberry? I’m on Twitter (aren’t we all?) and stole an idea from a band I follow over there: Tweet during the show for people not able to attend the concert.
The opening act was The Bravery; a decent enough band who started on time and who were openly appreciative of the audience’s attention. A quick change of equipment – one of the fastest changes I can remember actually – and Green Day hit the stage with such force and energy it was impossible to not be sucked in. The only Greenday songs I know are ‘American Idiot‘ and ‘Blvd of Broken Dreams‘ and I had wondered if I’d feel left out of the overall concert experience, since the band is currently supporting their new album, ’21st Century Breakdown’. This was so not the case! Billy Joe and the others had us on our feet and participating from the very first song.
Between calling fans up onto stage to sing, play guitar, dance or supersoak the audience, between stealing scarves and sunglasses from the audience and shooting t-shirts into the crowd with bazookas, between initiating sing-a-longs (You Make Me Want to Shout, and the soccer calls of Ole Ole Ole), and just the sheer raw energy of this band – Green Day had the crowd of nearly 21,000 sharing an experience, rather than sitting and watching a show.
In all the excitement I did manage to tweet a few lines about what was happening:
‘Green Day on now, crowd on its feet, deafening’
‘This band used ENTIRE stage! makes us on the side wings feel included! nice’
‘12 yr old with mohawk pulled on stage. priceless!’
‘pockets of bodyslamming down on the ‘floor’, security dudes cool with that’
‘flames around drummer’s kit must be 15ft high! blast of hot air felt all the way up here!’
‘band are playing instruments lying down–a little bit softer now, a little bit softer now… crazy!’
‘fan playing guitar on stage told to stage dive off ramp… 10/10 for playing, 9/10 for dive hehe’
This is hands down the best concert I’ve been to in many years – it wasn’t just a band rolling out the hits, or a band covering the new album to generate sales of that album…. this band, Green Day, are in it for the love of the music, the adoration and interaction of the fans (who span three generations), and they know that by giving it their all, they’re getting it returned 10 fold. If you have a chance to go see them, even if you don’t think you’re a fan – go! You won’t be disappointed.
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July 7th, 2009 | Tags: Music, Uncategorized | Comments:
It was also one of the best concerts I’ve seen in a long time. Billy Joe was like a man possessed. It was really amazing to see how he engaged the audience…everyone in the audience from beginning to end. The rest of the band were just as good, moving around and also playing to everyone. High energy show, for a high energy band that left us exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.
I agree, me and my girlfriend saw the show it rocked, Billy hasn’t lost his touch. The energy felt real, where the U2 concert we just saw last month didn’t have that electric kind of energy.