Song of the Century

Green Day @ Sheffield Arena. Monday, October 26th 2009

On Thursday night I ended up with a Green Day ticket thanks to my cousin which, considering I'd given up hope of getting one back in May when they were released, was pretty fucking amazing. Spent all weekend learning the words to the songs on 21st Century Breakdown so I could sing along to everything and pretty much just waited till Monday night.

Got to the Arena at about 5pm (Doors were at 6) and joined a fairly small queue for the entrance...by 6.25pm when they opened the doors you couldn't see the end of the queue. Rather than sprint through to the floor we got T-shirts (which are pure sex!) and just mooched down into the arena (still ending up about 10 people back from the front). From where I was stood I was taller than alot of the people in front of me so had a pretty good view.

Ther support band were failry enjoyable. Prima Donna they were called, and they sounded like the bastard sons of a union between the New York Dolls and Hanoi Rocks but the best support act was a man in a rabbit suit who chugged 2 beers while leading all 13000 of us through the YMCA. And then it was Green Day.

Amid the strains of Song of the Century they took to the stage and all hell broke loose. For just under 3 hours we were treated to some of the greatest music that I have ever seen. The setlist went something like this...

• Song of the Century
• 21st Century Breakdown
• Know Your Enemy
• Easy Jesus Nowhere
• The Static Age
• Holiday
• Are We The Waiting
• St. Jimmy
• Give Me Novacaine
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams
• Hitchin' A Ride
• Jaded
• Brain Stew
• Longview
• Welcome To Paradise
• Murder City
• When I Come Around
• Basket Case
• She
• King For A Day
  
• Shout (Isley Brothers)/I Fought The Law (The Clash)/Teenage Kicks (The Undertones)/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones) Medley
• 21 Guns
• American Eulogy

Encore:

• American Idiot
• Jesus Of Suburbia
• Minority

Encore 2:

• Wake Me Up When September Ends
• Last Night On Earth
• Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
  

Musically they were perfect but their stage show was out of this world. Everything from water guns, hoses, toilet paper launchers (for us to dry ourselves after getting soaked) and t-shirt cannons were utilised alongside pyros, ticker tape cannons and fireworks. Billy-Joe frequently got people on stage to sing with him before getting them to stage dive off the ramp and into the crowd. During Longview a member of the audience was invited to sing the entire song on one condition...Billy-Joe could cut his hair (which was round his shoulders) with a pair of scissors. One swift haircut later and the dude, now with hair cut right back to his neck, did his song and dove off into the crowd. After 2 and a half hours of pure madness, ending with a lengthy rendition of Minority in which everyone went mental, Billy-Joe came out on his own with an acoustic guitar to calm everyone down ending with a poignant Good Riddance.

I was excited about the gig but it surpassed all expectations. It truly was the greatest live show I have ever witnessed, their showmanship is rival to none and they had everybody acting like they were about 14 again. Even after 3 hours, we still wanted more despite the fact my back was killing me, I'd lost my voice and worryingly I couldn't feel my feet. Green Day may well be the Band of the Century!!!

Peace, Love, Empathy

Sad Sad Situation

20th October 2009 - The day I finally grew up!

This worries me alot, today for the first time I've started thinking like an adult, thinking less about exactly what I want and more about who I have to be to get anywhere :/
Confused? I am!

I have realised that not everything can last forever. A notion which hit me due to my job interview today when I had to take out my eyebrow piercings. In the past 5 months I have dropped 3 piercings and I really don't want to put them back in. Since I started getting piercings back in college I've always used them as something to hide behind. They're a talking point and they allow me to avoid talking more about myself...but they don't help me get a job!

The sad fact of life is that people look down on alternative types and metal heads because generally we are big on tattoos, piercings and other body mods and while this is prejudice, it is something which will probably never be dealt with because it is not deemed an important issue. Too many people see body mods as being taboo. it makes you unemployable. While I understand completley if somebody has a face full of metal or "ANAL C*NT" tattooed on their forearm, I fail to see how an eyebrow, tragus or tongue piercing can make me that unattractive to employers.

However it does, and it is something which I have been forced to come to terms with, but the more I think about it the less I feel aggrieved at having to remove my eyebrow piercings. I want to become a teacher, I could not have so many piercings in if I wish to do this because it would be unprofessional.

While I can (and do) rant on about wanting to keep my identity, it's clear that my identity is not really related to the various bits of metal I stick through myself. I am a metal head. I wear nothing other than band t-shirts and jeans, i play guitar and sing, i enjoy horror films and books and get on with pretty much anyone unless I'm being difficult! This is what I am, and it will forever be who I am. Taking my piercings out doesn't make me any less metal and it certaintly doesn't mean I'm a totally different person. I had the same issues when I cut my hair and for the most part it is all in my head but now everything is crystal clear...and it feels very very weird

On this day:

• 1971 - Snoop Dogg Born

• 1973 - The Saturday Night Massacre. President Nixon fires the US Attorney General and his deputy for refusing to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox
  

• 1977 - Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes in Mississipi, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, the road manager and both pilots

Peace, Love, Empathy

...For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

So I figured I'd start writing one of these fucking things again. Mostly 'cause it gives me a creative outlet and because I have rather alot of free time on my hands what with still being unemployed.
Today however marks a change, for the first time in 3 months I've been offered an interview...granted it's only for a part-time job as an admin assistant at Sainsburys but hey at least it's something right?

Unfortunately as I am still without a means of income I have to endure the delights of the job centre every 2 weeks and while normally it's no bother; 5mins to sign on and leave, today I had to attend a "Back to Work Session"...the Governments way of rubbing the proverbial "it" in the faces of everyone who cannot find work. For 45 mins I sat and listened as I was enlightened on the finer points of job seeking, such as:

• Can you all use the internet (one of middlesbroughs finest chavettes did actually raise her hand and ask what the internet was, I shit you not)
• Read newspapers...well I thought you were meant to make paper hats out of them!
  
• Write a C.V. The abovementioned chavette also lacked one of these but then that was ok 'cause she was so like in college part-time training for what I can only assume was a hair and nails course or something
  

I also learned (with the help of a very colourful pie chart) that 51% of all jobs aren't ever advertised by companies. Now me not being in the best of moods at this point politely asked how the giver of this oh so informative presentation would know. Did he secretely have contacts with every employer in the country? was he about to impart his wisdom on us? No he just looked over the top of his NHS glasses, declared the session was over and let us go; 50mins on the bus from Ayton to Middlesbrough, 45 mins in the presentation, 50mins back and to top it all off I had to pay the bus driver £4.30 for the privelage!

I must also add, that while the job centre is a useful place...they give me my benefit afterall, there are some very unfortunate aspects of having to attend there, the major one being you have to interact with Middlesbroughs breed of chav...one of whom, seemingly bored of waiting to be seen by a careers advisor whips out his twig and berries and takes a slash right there in the waiting area...it would have been funny if I wasn't worrying about getting splashed and catching AIDs

I realise I'm moaning, I do it alot but should I get a job I promise I'll try to be more cheerful, infact I can fucking guarantee it. Life is pretty sorted right now. I've got a career direction; starting my teacher training in September hopefully, I'm going to learn how to ride a motorbike and I'm gonna play some gigs with one of my best mates so I've got lots to look forward to. Just right now...life is really dragging on

On this day:

• 1888 – The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by the investigators
• 1967 - The Black Panthers were formed
• 1996 - Phish release Billy Breathes, their 8th and most popular Studio Album

Peace, Love, Empathy