It was one crazy night. One I'll never forget. The first concert I have ever attended. I've bought a lot of music over time but never have attended live music other than open mic night. And I thought what better way than to commemorate my first concert then with my favorite band, Green Day.

Make all the first time jokes you want but Monday July 13, 2009 was my first ever concert, and I'm 20 years old. Kind of sad but I spend a majority of my money on movies, DVD's and comics.

The ride up was a blast in it of itself. I'm not sure what kind of pre-concert ritual with most people go through, but I chose to start off on a sugar high with gummy worms and Gatorade. Probably a rookie mistake due to the fact that we hit road congestion on the 290. We didn't move for 30 minutes due to a truck that got torn in half. Luckily no one was hurt I think.

    Not sure why but I thought the photo to the left was somewhat amusing. That and the other one marking the "Road Safe." .....Right. Anyway. We got up to the concert 3 and a half hours early. The fun was just beginning.
    We pull around the United Center onto Madison Street, and then the fun began. We pulled up, guys who were wearing official United Center gear were directing people to parking lots and streets for parking. Got out and parked on a street near the United Center. Got out, paid the guy, and went on our merry way.
    Since we had time to kill we thought we would explore the Greek portion of Chicago and pass by the Van Buren bridge. I have an unmitigated love affair with Chicago so just the walk alone was worth the trip.

We get back to the United Center to discover that we had gotten scammed on our parking. Another rookie mistake. Turns out the jerks somehow got a hold of official United Center gear and got a bunch of people. Not aggravated yet but slightly annoyed. We got in to the United Center, no problem getting in, now came the giant rush to the memorabilia stands. I originally wasn't going to buy a t-shirt but as always my friend somehow manages to convince me to buy something, and I came out with a tour t-shirt.

After putting on said t-shirt we went to find our seats, which were basically on the third level of the United Center, basically the very top. We hand the lady our tickets and to the most amazing luck she tells us, "We're sorry your seats are under construction, we moved you to the 1st floor behind the sound booth." I couldn't believe my luck. Got scammed on parking, had to pay for parking again, and we get comped to the first floor behind the sound booth. For my first concert, not too shabby.



The Bravery was the opening act. The lights came down, the crowd went wild. It was a rush. I've listened to their music before, and I liked them a lot. They are quite impressive live. The music was explosive, Sam Endicott's voice was fantastic, and I was having a good time. The two quarrels I had with The Bravery is that they only played a half hour, and that Mr. Endicott is not a crowd worker. Which is not necessarily a huge problem but considering the fact that they were touring with Green Day, a band that half the concert is practically crowd work, was a tad offsetting. However they played some some songs off a new album they are currently working on so that was a plus.
 
After they finished Honest Mistake one of my favorite Bravery songs they walked off stage and Green Day's tech's started setting up. Now this being my first concert I had no idea how fast or how slow this was going to take, so I did not bother moving from my seat.

Green Day was ready. They had a giant projection screen behind them, and when Song of the Century started they walked out to the beautiful Chicago night skyline projected behind them. Couldn't have thought of a better way than for them to come out.


I really enjoyed 21st Century Breakdown but I had no idea the explosive power that titled song would hold. Practically rivaling American Idiot if you've ever seen Bullet in A Bible, their live DVD from Milton Keanes. They started off strong with 21st Century Breakdown, Know Your Enemy, and East Jesus Nowhere (my favorite). East Jesus Nowhere was interesting because Billie Joe Armstrong had a kid come on stage and pretend to save him as the song opened and the pyrotechnics exploded. The pyrotechnics were used quite well in this concert. Then they performed Holiday, The Static Age, Are We the Waiting, and St. Jimmy. The use of the projection screen for each song always changed, and that really added to the concert, so not only were we listening to the music, catching the power of the band, we were also getting the message from the band.




And if it's hard to tell, basically Billie Armstrong doesn't like the mainstream media. Then Green Day played some other classics like Hitchin A Ride, Brainstew, She, and then Mass Hysteria. Billie brought a random gentleman and lady on stage to both sing one half of Brainstew. After the woman was done singing he had her do a stage dive, gave her a weird look and said, "That was the worst fucking stage dive I've ever seen." The audience couldn't have laughed harder. I thought the concert was over, but of course an encore was coming. They came back and played another 45 minutes, starting with American Idiot, and then Jesus of Suburbia. Jesus of Suburbia was so much fun because Billie Joe Armstrong looked for someone who could play rhythm guitar for the song and after freaking some people out by inviting them on stage, he found an 11 year old who was amazing. He played at least 3/4's of the song. I couldn't believe it.

Then Green Day closed out with Basketcase, King for A Day/Shout (A damn good song live), 21 Guns, Minority and then finished out naturally with Good Riddance.

Overall, breaking in the first concert in was a fantastic blast. Even though we got scammed for parking, got great seats, and loved the humor and ferocity that Green Day brought to the stage. Billie Joe Armstrong is the master of crowd work. I couldn't have asked for a better time, even if my friend did end up getting a speeding ticket at the end of the night :p

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