I just came back from the concert in San Francisco, and man they really give you your money’s worth! Two and a half hours straight and it was the best concert ever! They totally pulled all the stops on this tour with visuals, fireworks and their stage presence. I’m glad I got to share this with my SO, brother and friend. I’m going to bed happy. Now I can’t wait to wear my Green Day tie to my last day of work tomorrow before I go back to school. Hehe.
Just wanted to share my happiness. 
Wow. You brought back some memories for me.
I went to see Green Day back in 1994, in Fredericton, NB, Canada. One of our local school bus drivers drove us all up there for the price of gas (we lived about two hours away), and he brought a couple dozen of us up there. It was one of the better shows I’ve ever been to, highly energetic, entertaining, and everyone had fun. Heh, I remember I had dyed my hair red with Kool Aid. :o
By the time we went home, my ears were ringing, my mascara had run down my face, my dye had run down onto my white T-shirt (but hey, I had my trusty gray plaid shirt on to cover it up, which was the style at the time [/Grandpa Simpson]), I felt like I’d been beat up, and Billie Joe had actually spit in my eye while singing “Going To Pasalacqua”. I lost my Doc Martin shoe (hee!) but ended up getting it back in the mosh pit of all places.
We had snuck our cigarettes in, and lit up before the show started, and one of the security guys saw us and said “HEY! You kids! No smoking in here!” And three of us looked at him in horror, then simultaneously squatted down into the crowd. We were never caught, but we finished our cigarettes quickly.
Toward the end of the show, Billie dropped his pants… shirt… and underwear. He was up there wearing nothing but his socks and his guitar. Sadly, because it was an all ages show, they were banned from playing there for a couple of years. Oops. However, my best friend, Adam, who is gay and had the hugest crush on Billie, came away the happiest that night.
The show* rocked*. They sounded tight, they had fun, we had fun. I’ll never forget it.
Thanks for sharing your story, it’s good to hear they’re still putting on a good show after all these years. You brought a great big smile to my face. 
I’ll be he pleased some people at SBC Park tonight as well! He mooned the audience twice, and once reached into his pants and started… :eek:
[musician mode]
They sounded really tight, sounding clean as a CD but with enough variation, improv, and interaction to make it worth seeing live…
[/musician mode; jaded sound engineer mode]
… and were mixed pretty well, and at a volume thankfully lower than the other acts: Flogging Molly and Jimmy Eat World.
[/jaded sound engineer mode]
Perhaps it was the Irish in me, but I took to Flogging Molly more than I expected - and I’d never seen them before. Jimmy Eat World reminded me, with pleasant surprise, that they did do more than “The Middle.”
I was expecting some stage antics and a light show for Green Day, but there was a lot more. Lots of pyro - showers of sparks during “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, explosions, fire, and even fireworks over the bay - lots of lights - even a disco ball.
Now let me tell you something Penchan’s brother has been fantasizing about for a month: he goes to a concert and Billie joe gets an injury. “Billy Joe’s hurt his hand, everybody, and can’t play! Can anyone here play our songs?” “I can, I can!”, exclaims her brother. “You, sir? Please, come up here and play Billie’s guitar! For some strange reason, we all signed it before the show - anyhow, go ahead and keep it.”
Well, dammit, tonight that happened. But not to Penchan’s brother. Instead, a guitarist, bassist, and drummer were pulled from the audience. The drummer got on the throne and started repeating the beat, then decided to spice things up and do a little florish - Tre Cool promptly smacked him upside the head, knocked his hat off, and yelled at him so he’d play it right, dammit! 
Billie then pulled a girl out of the crowd to play the bass, and finally picked a guy (from Peru, I believe?) to play the chords on the guitar. They played pretty well, the drummer was asked to and performed a stage dive, and the guy from Peru walked away with a guitar. :eek:
Great show, definitely the best I’ve been seen!
Get thee to Cafe Society!
I always feel bad for the other guy on stage, the 2nd guitarist, who has to stand in the shadows and never gets any credit.
Flogging Molly opened?! Wow, I would say they were my “best concert ever”. Combined with Green Day would kick ass. (When I saw them the opener was My Chemical Romance who are actually pretty good but not a great match IMO. More rock than punk.)
Normally I would have to come in here with a bunch of punk posturing blah blah blah…
However, last night I happened to be working on a dinner cruise in the bay full of high school students. It was a beautiful night- fireworks over the bridge, the lights sparkling…the driver pulled up to SBC park for a while, just as Green Day was starting their set. It was one of the most specatular things I’ve ever seen- all the lights and the roar of the crowd. I don’t even have words for how magical it all seemed.
I was about to do that too - cmon, Green Day shirts in the orange-and-black SF Giants theme? That’s disgustingly unpunk; it’s touristy! But I don’t think Green Day are claiming to be punk anymore, and are more interested in putting on a good show and making good music. In that, I think they succeeded.