Green Day in Nashville

Kelsey and I trekked down to Nashville on Friday to see Green Day in concert. I've listened to them throughout the years but don't own any albums. She's a pretty big fan. She was pretty excited which made me pretty excited. And since she's been acting like a typical 15-year old recently we needed some good drama-free bonding time.

We left L'ville with three and a half hours for the trip. Google says it takes 3 hours. I remember it taking more like two and a half. Construction on I65 slowed us down leaving L'ville but we cleared that soon enough. I made her a long-promised mix for her iPod, the "Nashville Super Mega Random Mix", and we were enjoying that.

As we crossed into the Central Time Zone it occurred to me that Nashville was also in CST. Hmm, that meant that the 7:30PM start time was actually going to be an 8:30PM start time for us. That also meant that we had some time to kill. We rolled into Bowling Green, hitting nasty traffic along the way, and finally made it to a Cracker Barrel. It was delicious and we were back on our way.

We hit Nashville at 7:10PM local time and walked into the stadium with about 10 minutes to spare. I was kind of cheap and didn't get the best seats - 3rd deck. We made our way to the top and then couldn't find our seats. The ticket people kept telling us to walk down the hall. The sections were curtained off - even our section. We finally walked all the way around the stadium where there was a little table setup and a line of people. We waited in line and traded our tickets up for 1st deck. The seats turned out to be awesome! First row of the 1st deck! We were still a little far away but I had a railing to prop my feet upon (or so I thought) for the whole show.

The Kaiser Chiefs opened for Green Day and they were alright. They sang one song that I recognized. They weren't on stage for very long. And they were the only openers so I knew the time was drawing near.

Billie Joe, the lead singer for Green Day, took two steps onto the stage and the crowd went wild. Kelsey shot from her seat and took on the posture of a grrrl that wasn't going to sit down for the rest of the night. Nobody else stood and I started getting nervous that someone would say something. I felt like such an old fogy. But then Billie Joe lambasted us for sitting down ("You're not at home watching television! Stand the fuck up!") and I never took my seat again (well, okay, for like 60 seconds on the second-to-last song).

The show was awesome. They played new stuff, but not a set too heavy from their new album. They played the classics. Billie Joe accepted any crowd surfer that made it to him. And some he even sent back with a stage dive blessing. He invited audience members onstage to try and sing along (one kid knew every word but couldn't sing - one grrrl couldn't do much besides giggle). Billie Joe and Tre Cool switched guitar and drums and played a song. They all donned silly hats and played "Shout" with quips of "Earth Angel", "Stand By Me", and "Pretty Woman" between the "little bit softer now" and "little bit louder now" parts of the song. The crowd was really pumped and the band kept us engaged the whole time.

The set ended and I asked Kelsey what she thought they'd play for an encore. They came out and encored alright! They played four songs. And the last two was involved another crowd volunteer. They plucked some lucky kid from the audience to play along. Billie Joe handed him his guitar and told him to watch Tre Cool for the cues. And the kid was spectacular! He played right along like he'd been practicing for it all week.

The band went backstage. The crowd cheered. And the lights stayed dim. After a moment or so Billie Joe came back out and performed two more songs on acoustic guitar. The crowd went wild. The lights came on and the show was over.

The drive back was long and tough. But Kelsey kept us energized with her DJing on her iPod and we rolled into the garage at 3:10AM. Whew!