August 31st 2010. Finally! After waiting for many, many months they were finally back; Green Day. They were to preform at the Verizon Wireless Amp. in California. But what made it even better was that AFI were the special guests to go on tour with them! I was awaiting August 31st since late June. Luckily the months went by so quickly due to other concert and summer activities that the next thing I notice is myself, my mom, friend, and her dad driving to the Amp. We first got a quick bite to eat and made our way up to Irvine.
The whole drive there my friend Kayla’s dad kept saying we will be way to early and as if the ride wasn’t already agonizing enough her dad put us through his horrible music.
We FINALLY parked, picked up our tickets and heard something. Something that sounded very much like an AFI song.
“Oh NO!,” we thought! “We are missing AFI!”
But as we went through security (myself sneaking in a video camera) Kayla’s dad, Joe convinced us it was not AFI. Knowing how much an AFI fan he is (not at all) we weren’t convinced and it was them!
My mom and myself started running through the amp. looking like a lost dog not knowing which direction to turn while behind us Kayla had a puzzled look on her face and questioned why we were running, still thinking it was not AFI. We just gave her her ticket and continued running without saying a word. We ran through many photographers which was terrible for 2 reasons.
1) I wanted to photograph at the show and
2) They were just standing there. That meant AFI started the show a few songs ago because photographers can only shoot the first 3 songs.
We found our seats just in time to hear the ending of “The Leaving Song Pt.2” and were just in time for Beautiful Thieves which I recorded.
Beautiful Thieves
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Not many people had arrived yet so I went to row 1 right before the put.
I noticed the lead singer Davey Havok kept looking at me and first thought it must have been that he recognized me but then realized it was more likely because what I was wearing. A tee shirt designed by the singer himself. I may add, we were also wearing the same shoes also designed by him.
I recorded 2 songs and security told me to stop but I was kind of happy because now I could enjoy their performance. It was very funny because Green Day loves pranks. So this man was dressed in a chubaka looking outfit or maybe a bear and he came on stage. The band tried so hard not to laugh but you could see the bass player, Hunter cracking up especially when the “booms” started going off during songs.
Dancing Through Sunday
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AFI ended their short 30 min set with Love Like Winter. They thanked the crowd and left the stage.
“That sucked!,” I thought out loud “We missed half the show!” But there was nothing we could do then except wait for Green Day.
As we waited for Green Day we walked around, got a pretzel, and bought shirts. We walked back to our seats while looking out into the sold out Amp. seats filled with people. We found our seats just as they dimmed the lights and started the opening songs; “Song of the Century” and “21st Century Breakdown”
“Heyyyy Ohhhhhhhh!!” Billie Joe screamed into the microphone.
“Heyyy Ohhhhhh!!” The crowd Shouted back.
That back and fort “Hey Oh” happened A LOT throughout the show.
During many songs Billie had some fun bringing up tons of different people from Mini Billie Joe to someone mocking Billie Joe to someone to hose down the crowd!
Mini Billie Joe
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Guy Mocks Billie
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Kid Hoses Down Crowd
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He even brought up a girl, took her cell phone, made her carry him, and then kissed her!
Lucky Girl Huh?
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The next time he didn’t just choose one person. That is just way to difficult! He just invited the whole crowd onto the stage. People were running from Lodge seats to get to the pit onto the stage. About 20 got up on stage. Some dancing, some singing, and some even taking pictures with Billie with their phones!
Crowd on stage
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Next, during the song “Longview” Billie wanted a singer. “The best singer in California”
He tried with a girl who got on stage and sang a line or 2. She stumbled on the words due to excitement so Billie decided to get someone who could “sing” the song. He picked a boy this time.
It went a little something like this….
Kid on stage singing with Green Day
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After his once in a life time opportunity singing with them he asks a question to Billie in which Billie responds to,
“No, but I’ll give you my guitar.”
The kid walks off stage with his new guitar.
Later on in the show Billie announces that this show was being recorded to go onto a live DVD! Everyone was so excited!
The band then takes a break for a minute or two and come back on stage. This time Billie is wearing a pink fuzzy scarf. Mike Dirnt on Bass guitar, wearing an 80’s wig with a bandana and drummer Tre’ with Big sunglasses, a red bra and a sun hat. Elvis then comes out and plays the saxophone. Not only that but later on Billie moons the crowd.
Watch for yourself.
Billie Moons the crowd
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Billie wants to take the time out to now introduce the band members. He gets to someone named Jason. It is his birthday! Everyone sing along.
Happy Birthday Jason
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After a little while switching to different cover songs in the middle of a cover song, Tre stands up. He goes to Billie and Billie hands him the microphone. Billie goes to play the drums and Tre gets to be the front man!
Frontman Tre, Drummer Billie.
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Why stop there? Billie then trades spots with bass player Mike Dirnt.
Trade spots… again?
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You would think they would be done now, right? Oh no they weren’t. Did you forget Saxophone Elivs? Can’t just leave him out of the party!
Billie Plays Sax.
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They were performing long enough, can’t they just mess around for a little?
They Can Mess Around
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Now as if he weren’t already showing off his Drum, Bass, and Saxophone skills Billie just needs to do a headstand.
Headstand time?
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That was the last song I recorded because my camera ran out of memory! But over an Hour and 40 min. is not bad. They had a 3 hour long show, which was amazing and not easy to do while running, singing, jumping and picking people out of the pit!
All the videos in this review were taken by myself, Nicole.
For all the concert videos go to youtube.com/candyseller29
