8.02.2009

Green Day/Nashville - 7.31.09

Friday had to seriously be the best day of my life. I know I’ve said that before, but this time I really mean it.

Laken and I left for Nashville early Friday morning. Laken drove to Jackson, where we stopped at Taco Bell for food (aren’t we cool?). Her mom drove the rest of the way to Nashville.

Laken & me + hyperness + music + long car ride = sing alongs with dancing.

Seriously, we sang and made up dance moves to the songs we were listening to. I think there was even a discussion about My Chemical Romance sing along CDs for kids (you know you would want one). We were listening to Teenagers. We struck violent poses that weren’t very intimidating.

Once in “Nash-Vegas” (why do they call it that?) we went to the Sommet Center to get the tickets from Will Call. The Green Day tour bus was parked out front. It was GORGEOUS. We took our pictures with it because that’s just how hard we roll. And holding a ticket to a Green Day concert in your hand is the best feeling on earth. I don’t care how many people say sex feels great. This feels way better.

After that we went to Opry Mills. That mall is just…….awesome. Seriously. Everything you could possibly want exists in that mall. Downside is that walking to your favorite store takes a lot of energy. Laken and I went to Barnes & Noble (bought two books), Hot Topic (Green Day shirt and All Time Low CD), Spencers, and Journeys (GD shirt).

When we were walking to……somewhere Laken said something and my response was “oh Jesus of Suburbia” and then Laken, being her awesome self, started singing. Some random black guy came up to us and told Laken I was “preaching to her”. It was weird.

When we were in Journeys we met this really kickass girl who worked there. She was really nice and had a lot of cool things to say about HIM and Green Day and some other bands. She talked me into buying another Green Day shirt (Spin cover). Then Laken bought some really really bright shoes. But there were two pairs and she couldn’t decide. I asked her “What would Pete Wentz do?”. She ended up getting the cool ones. She also got a shirt that says “I’m on a boat”.

Laken and I also came up with a really weird high five.

We went to the Rainforest Café for dinner. We went to the bathroom and came out talking in weird accents and linking arms. Yes we are cool.


That night at Green Day was EPIC.

When we got there we didn’t even have to wait ten minutes until the doors started to open. We had floor seats so we got smiley face wristbands. But they desecrated our tickets by marking them with an x (how dare they). Me and Laken hit up the merch table and bought the same GD shirt (we are so cool that we match).

Next we headed to the floor. The even staff was being weird so they made us sit down on the floor. It sort of reminded us of music fest. The coolest thing was that we could send texts and pics to a special number and they would appear on the megatron. Laken sent “Laken loves Green Day”. I sent “snap if you love billie joe”. I sent a pic of us, but we never saw it get up there. Some people sent marriage proposals, others about loving their moms. One person sent “I’m only here for Kaiser Chiefs”. Everyone booed.

Kaiser Chiefs was up first. No one really seemed to like them that much which was sad. They’re a really good band. They played I Predict a Riot, Never Miss a Beat, Ruby, and some other songs that I honestly don’t remember the name of.

I have no idea how long it took for Green Day to take the stage, but once they did everyone was fucking insane. The second I saw Billie Joe Armstrong walk onto that stage, tears started to flow. Seeing him up there, knowing how close I was, remembering how I used to listen to his voice when I was a little kid just made me cry. He’s one of my biggest heroes. Laken cried too. It made me just want to hug her.

Green Day played Song of the Century, 21 Guns, The Static Age, American Eulogy, 21st Century Breakdown, Are We the Waiting, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, East Jesus Nowhere, Holiday, Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Brain Stew/Jaded, Minority, 2000 Light Years Away, Before the Lobotomy, St. Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia, Last Night on Earth, King for a Day/Shout, When I Come Around, She, Dominated Love Slave, Time of Your Life, Blood Sex & Booze, American Idiot, and part of I’ll Be There.

That was the longest set I have ever heard. Ever.

The first kid he let up on stage was from Memphis. His name was Eric. Billie Joe “saved” him. Damn lucky kid. A couple of other people got up on stage with him.

During Longview, BJ had two people from the audience to sing. The first was some guy and the second was a girl named Stevie. BJ made them stage dive off. When he was trying to choose who to bring up on stage a guy said “I’m from Chicago”. Billie Joe told him “I don’t care if you’re from Chicago. You’re in Tennessee now”.

When they were about to play Jesus of Suburbia, BJ asked if anyone in the audience knew how to play it. There was a guy in a tie-die shirt that was holding up a sign that said “I play Jesus of Suburbia”. He was seventeen. Billie asked the guy if he was a virgin. The guy said yes. BJ told him he wouldn’t be after that night. He then told him to come on up and then proceeded to say he was “a goofy looking motherfucker”.

That guy fucking owned. He played that song perfectly all the way through. That guy fucking killed that shit.

Bilie Joe has a hell of a lot of energy. He said “I'm going to stay here all night because I can!”.

At one point people helped Laken through the crowd so she could get some water (she looked like she was gonna pass out). It was from Billie Joe’s water bottle.

The show also involved a shirt gun, a toilet paper gun, water gun (Laken and I got hit with that shit; it was refreshing), confetti, fire, and explosions.

I also learned that BJ and Mike have been friends since the fifth grade. They’ve got a bromance.

Laken and I left during Time of Your Life. We walked through the crowd limping slightly and holding hands.

When we got back to the hotel we looked like we had died.

That night was a total EPIC WIN.