We’re leaving… And on April 24th, 2011, they actually meant it. They did leave. I will never forgot the show or the concert afterwards on the stage of the St. James. There are lots of heads (because everyone was standing), but here are a few pictures.
Check out the videos of the entire post-show concert on my YouTube channel!
Yesterday was Billie Joe Armstrong’s 40th birthday. Forty? Whoa. Wasn’t he 22 and Dookie was released a hot second ago? Time flies! I don’t have anything eloquent to say, except, you rock, dude. I have a guitar lesson today and that’s due to your inspiration. Keep being outspoken, foul-mouthed, and musically awesome.
Here are some of my favorite shots that I’ve taken of Mr. Armstrong in the last year or two:
Foxboro Hot Tubs, Don Hills, April 2010
American Idiot, February 27th, 2011
The Final Soundcheck, March 23rd, 2010
American Idiot, the final performance after-show, April 24th, 2011
Green Day - the surprise New York concert at Webster Hall’s Studio, October 29th, 2011
I’ve had a significant other on Valentine’s Day a few times and the pressure to have an amazing time with amazing gifts makes me dread it. I wasn’t very bitter today and kind of neutral about it altogether. But seriously, who knew that the best Valentine’s Day gift ever would come from over the internet for exactly $0? I yelped a little when I saw the tweet.
Yes, that’s right. Green Day began recording a new album today, as per Billie Joe’s tweet. Of course, we went hear anything for quite some time but it’s nice to at least know there’s something new on the horizon and a new tour will be kicked off as well after the album’s release. I think this might rate as the Best Valentine’s Day Ever. And to think that as Tanya, Sally, Anne, and I were brunching last Saturday, we actually began to doubt that this would be the year the guys would record something new. We’ve decided to take some credit for the news today (facetiously).
Hopefully “Make Out Party” will make the cut onto the new album, and hopefully they’ll call the album “Fuck Time.” (Probably not though, due to the fact that that is the title of a Foxboro Hot Tubs song.)
Hope everyone had a very red (and Green) Valentine’s Day.
Not at all. I just used that headline to get your attention. It worked, right? Anyways, after a month with my iPhone, I’m finally trying to find the most awesome case I can. I picked up a $5 red Hello, Kitty case at TJ Maxx that’s been holding me over so I don’t have to worry about it crashing to it’s death, but I’ve found a couple that are awesome too and not too expensive. The only downside is that they’re plastic and not rubber (I feel like the rubber ones have been shock absorbency if it should, say, fall to the ground).
Strawberry Fields is one of my favorite places in the city and a spot that I frequent. John Lennon is also of my favorite artists (people!) ever. It’s available on society6.com for about $35. It’s kind of expensive for a phone case.. but it’s really pretty. There’s this one too that’s black and white, which I almost like better (for $15 on society6.com):
My anguish over what-cell-phone-case-to-buy is really between buy the above case or a Green Day case. Like the one below (available on society6.com for $35), inspired by lyrics from Last Night on Earth:
And this one, which is awesome (available for $15.99 on Etsy):
This one is more old school awesome, and it’s only $6.99 on Amazon, and there are a bunch of others on eBay too. So, I’m not more closer to making a decision then I was before I wrote this. Any suggestions or opinions? Asking me to choose between Green Day and John Lennon is like trying to make a decision between HAIR and Rent.
These are (not) important life decisions. Help a girl out. Or let me know if you know if any rubber cases that are in the same style as the ones above! :
I was convinced I was being punk’d until I finally saw my name on the list inside the door of The Studio at Webster Hall. The Studio is a small underground bar that holds around 300 people. Did I really see my favorite band in a venue that wasn’t big enough to fit my graduating class from high school? Yes. Was I really three people from the stage the entire time? Yes. Did I survive the roughness up front of some obnoxious fans and almost get kicked in the face by Michael Esper? Mhmm. I was there.
I usually never line up outside venues before concerts but since The Studio was so small and I was excited, I decided to get there early. I expected nearly every one of the 300 people to get there extremely early, but only about 60 did. I arrived down on East 11th Street around 7:15pm after grabbing dinner and cash and a little while later my friend Ben met me, and later Andrew and his brother joined us. There were several other concerts at Webster Hall that night and whenever someone asked us, “Who are you on line for?” and we’d reply, “Green Day!” They’d always respond with a look of shock and say, “Green Day?! They’re playing here?! No way!” The guys in front of us found out that Green Day was planning on doing 25 new songs and then a set of greatest hits. I was stoked (and nervous that I’d be out until 4am, but more excited, really). I also found out via the fantastic people of Twitter that a band (called No-No Spot) comprised of Gerard Canonico, John Gallagher Jr., and Michael Esper (as well as a fantastic guitarist named Aaron Lee Tasjan) would be opening.
As expected, the guys rocked it out. Esper is a fantastic guitarist and I always love watching him jam. Esper and Gallagher split the vocals on the songs for the most part. Canonico is a fantastic drummer, too (which we already knew). Tasjan was also awesomely fun to watch.
Around 11:45pm, Green Day took the stage and it got rough down front. There was definitely a large presence of douche in The Studio, but we overcame, I suppose (and pushed back at times). I was three people from the stage. It was pretty awesome. They were all in costume (BJA was reminiscent as Jack Skeleton, Dirnt was a zombie, Tre was a pink fairy, and I’ll guess that Jason White was a mad hatter) and opened with The Monster Mash (listen here!), which included the insertion of Basketcase lyrics at one point, and beautiful back-up vocals by Rebecca Naomi Jones and Alysha Umphress.
They played a long list of new songs punctured by two Foxboro Hot Tub’s songs (Stop, Drop, and Roll and It’s Fuck Time) as well as a cover or two. All of the new material was top-notch; I can’t wait to hear what makes it onto their next album. Everyone in attendance went absolutely batshit when the guys started to play the opening chords for Fuck Time. How can you not love that song? Billie Joe hung from the club’s piping, crowd surfed, and even threw an obnoxious crowd surfer off stage.
I couldn’t wait to hear what songs they’d choose for their encore of “old” songs. They started off with Murder City, which I’d never heard live (admittedly I haven’t heard MOST of their songs live, sadly) but it’s a track that I love. It was during this song the obnoxious crowd surfer was thrown onstage, knocking over BJA’s mic stand so he stopped singing, but kept playing and the crowd kept up with the lyrics. He picked up right where we left off without a hitch. They played Letterbomb next, which I swore Rebecca Jones would probably get onstage for but alas, she did not. Michael Esper did crowd surf though! As much as I love the all-female girl power orchestration of Letterbomb from the stage, I can’t help but love it more seeing it performed by the guys who wrote it. It’s just such an awesome song.
The other “old songs” included Going to Pasalacqua, Hitchin’ A Ride, Welcome to Paradise (a song they didn’t do at PNC last summer that I was disappointed about - score!), Geek Stink Breath, Paper Lanterns, She, 2000 Light Years Away (I wonder if Adrienne Armstrong ever gets tired of hearing this?), and 1000 Hours (if I missed any, let me know - also click here to see the new song setlist). They’d had enough around 2am and we dispersed with new faith in good music and the inability to hear anything but ringing in our ears. I spotted Libby Winters and Theo Stockman also in attendance afterward, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt! (Talk about random!)
Needless to say it was an epic night. I got home at 2:30am and went to sleep around 3am (much more easily than I expected since my head was pounding!). It was being digitally recorded (picture and sound) from all angles so I think we’ll see footage on the next album extras. My photos are almost all blurry or overexposed, but if you want to take a look at the rest, they’re over here.
Last night was awesome. They were strict with no photos, so I only got a few decent shots. Here’s one of them.
The last time I saw these three dudes onstage it was April 24th, 2011. Six months and three days later I will be seeing them again. At Webster Hall in the East Village.
I lucked out and was able to buy two tickets. A friend had told me two days ago that his friend’s band had been bumped off the bill at Webster Hall on Thursday night and when she inquired as to why, the booker said, “I’m sorry, but it’s Green Day.” Until about 11:30am today, there was no mention at all of this concert in print or online. Anywhere. Well, of course, as these things usually go, 11:59am rolled around and the website basically crashes. I reload and discover I’m now on the “waiting list” to buy tickets and soon after I’m forwarded back to the site that says “SOLD OUT.”
Well, shit. I was disappointed, but as usual, I was persistent. I kept re-loading and after about a dozen reloads it asked me how many tickets I would like. I bought two and became a happy camper.
I’ve only seen them in a huge spaces before so I’m looking forward to this quite a lot. Is anyone else going?
Above photo is mine from April 24th, 2011.
I’ve been slowly making my way through the cover story of this week’s New York Magazine titled “It Sucks To Be Us.” The story, thus far, is depressing as hell. It explains why we’re all so entitled (spoiler: it’s because, while growing up, we were always told we could do anything and be anything we wanted and given lots of oftentimes false praise by our parents) and how a majority of us are saddled with jobs we hate or no job at all and living back with our parents.
While I was taking a break at work and thinking about the article, Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams came to mind, and I thought, “Did Billie Joe have an inkling of how miserable a majority of us were going to be less than a decade later?” I should put a disclaimer up front that to say I’m legit miserable is a gross exaggeration. By all accounts I’m living the high life in comparison to a lot of people: I’m employed, have my own apartment, $0 college debt, and health insurance. (Yeah, that’s going on the next sign I hold up at Zuccotti Park.) The only thing I have to complain about is that my job is not what I want to be doing. I love my bosses and my colleagues, I’m grateful to have a job, but it’s not a job that I want to be doing.
I do it though because, unfortunately, I need to do something that will pay the bills. I go back and forth between thinking “well, that’s the mature thing to do,” and “you’re a sell out” regarding the above statement. I try not to beat myself up over it too much though. This is definitely not what we were promised growing up and being unhappy is not what we signed up for. What happened to “we can do anything if we put our minds to it”? Until something drastic changes with the economy, or this country, we’re just going to have to suck this up. I want nothing more than to become an entrepreneur, but unfortunately, I don’t have any ideas that are worthy of an investment.
Somehow when I think about how I’d like to be doing something else so much, Boulevard of Broken Dreams pops into my head and kind of depresses me even more. The song, as well as the accompanying music video, completely convey, I think, how a lot of America’s youth is currently feeling. Broken dreams, loneliness, etc. And despite the fact that some of our generation is finally taking some goddamn action (Occupy Wall Street), we’re for the most part apathetic (my shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating).
Maybe Billie Joe saw before any of us did, or before the markets crashed, how disappointed this generation was going to be. Or maybe this is just another one of those songs whose meaning is finally being realized.
After three years in my apartment, I just resigned for another 2 years and finally decided to hang things on my walls, and do a few other things as well. I had a few things hung where I was able to get nails into my walls but since my walls are concrete (like, legit concrete) that’s rather hard. My parents were able to procure a super powered drill for the day thought and we went to work. Here are some before and after shots.
Hey there - I'm Allison. Sees lots of theatre. Huge fan of Green Day, and Shakespeare. Theatrical producer. General Manager. Company Manager. I'm also on twitter.
Email me at:
thatgirlallison08 at gmail dot com
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