Eleven twenty four AM on a Monday morning in June- 3 June, to be exact- and here I am at my computer. Yes, school is in session today but I am not there for at two thirty this morning I returned from the best time I’ve ever had.

On the ride down there, CJ told me her thoughts on the next section of Project Brain Lax that I gave her to edit. Her dad, who was driving us down there, overheard.

"Oh, so this kid’s dad killed his mother?"

I briefly explained the story to him, which includes a hint that Barrington might meet his father again. Oh, spoilers.

"He should just say ‘Son, let’s go to Burger King!’" His reply was sarcastic yet, in some sick and hilarious way, extremely amusing to CJ and I. We both broke out into a laughing fit and discussed the ‘Let’s go to Burger King!’ topic further.

The two hour trip to Boston was passed by munching (and drinking) out on Cheez-Its, Ring Dings, Pop Tarts, Pepsi, and Nintendo fruit snacks.

We engaged in several conversations about Invader Zim, playing guitar, our love for Green Day, pointless merchandise, different manga, yearbooks, more about our love for Green Day, performing songs about it all at the Coffee House, and a mention of Saves the Day or Blink 182 here or there.

We got to the parking lot at around six fifteen or so. It took us at least a half an hour to wind around the barriers following a slow train of cars into the Tweeter Center parking lot. Upon parking the car CJ noticed and pointed out a Clash sticker on a red Jeep Sport Utility parked adjacent to us. I squealed and wanted to meet the people who owned this Jeep.

The Pop Disaster Tour was my first concert aside from local gigs and Billy Joel, who really wasn’t anything to sneeze at though Green Day takes the cake any day.

Saves the Day, Blink 182, and, most importantly, Green Day shared the stage for what would be on mad night of hopping and ‘trout dancing’ for CJ and I.

We bought our obligatory tour shirts and Green Day foam hands at the door, then entered the Yard way the hell in the back where we had general admission just in time for the opening act by Saves the Day. Unfamiliar with their music, I just watched and was amused by their front man’s charisma. You can throw stuff at me when I’m done writing this because no, I do not know his name. This is Not an Exit was the only song which I was able to identify, and man, did I feel like a geek. Their performance was all right, but I think it would have been so much better if I wasn’t trying to make sense of all the drunks, stoned people, and high people around me. The Yard was slanted down into the seats, which sloped further into the pit, which was just getting started, and the stage, and everyone seemed to be having one bitch of a time trying to walk straightly on it.

Here it was, the concert really hadn’t even started yet, and already I could smell cigarette smoke and two different unidentified smokes in the air. Saves the Day had gone offstage; CJ and I anxiously awaited the next act and the entire reason I was there, which was the one, the only, Green Day.

It’s been my goal to get off my ass and see them some day for quite some time now, and I was in disbelief. I’m here, I thought, as I watched the guitar and drum techs run around the stage and exchange the instruments.

In that half-hour between sets I had developed a headache and was pretty uneasy from all the smoke around me. This was scary, I didn’t know what the frig I was inhaling and had no intentions of figuring out. CJ asked if we should get nachos and I said yes just because I wanted to get away from all of the damn smoke. I think I ate about three as I stood back at the Yard and watched the stage below.

Someone dressed in a pink bunny suit acted as if to be getting drunk and taking weird chemicals. What a curious act this was; and CJ and I puzzled over who it might be. We concluded that it was either one of the techs or an orchestra member. The band failed to come on after this short act and I came to the conclusion that this was to stop people from getting pissed off. I was thrilled to hear Train in Vain and I Fought the Law by The Clash blaring from the speakers as people waited for the setup.

Finally, ten minutes or so after, Green Day graced the stage and opened with Maria. The trout dancing and moshing began. The set was incredibly spectacular, for Green Day is awesome live. Billie Joe was climbing up on amplifiers and doing leg lifts as he played a guitar that I identified as Blue or its copy. Every once in a while he’d switch guitars for a different sound. Hitchin’ A Ride was played higher up on the guitar neck, which really messed with my mind for a while until I realised that it actually did sound great. Not a peep was heard from Tré or Mike for Billie Joe had the audience’s full attention. He led us all on in saying ‘Hey-o’ and ‘One, Two, One Two Three Four!’ as Tré and Mike kept the tune to the song. This kept going until Billie Joe was satisfied; at which point he kicked the guitar in and finished Hitchin’ A Ride. Everyone cheered, screamed, and hollered, CJ and I no exception.

At some point in between this and Longview, Billie made a couple gestures which are bound to give me nightmares for months, which included pinching his nipple and reaching down into his pants, saying ‘someone suck me’.

Ew.

Later, Billie Joe asked if there were any oldskool Green Day fans out there. Not even half the people in the Tweeter Center cheered, but I was damn proud to be one of them. They played 2,000 Light Years Away, and I was one of the few singing along and bouncing (pathetically) to it, for I really love that song. My voice was close to expiring at that time, for I’d been singing along to every song that was played and yelling ecstatically. After this, Billie Joe announced that the next song was by Operation Ivy and I had correctly identified it as Knowledge. This was another song that few people participated in singing along to, but I had forced CJ to listen to it a few times so she was able to sing along with me. (Kudos to you, CJ!)

To finish the song off, Billie, as is custom, called out for people in the audience who played drums, guitar, or bass.

"Anyone play the drums?" Many people all around the stadium but mostly in the pit shouted and hollered. A kid who had been drumming for four years or so was called up to duty and entered the stage via the hands of his fellow pit members.

"Anyone here play bass?" A rather young kid, maybe twelve years old- unless he’s just one of those people that looks much younger than they are- was eventually delivered from the pit and taught a simple bass routine by Mike.

"And the final ingredient… Does anyone play the goddamn guitar!?"

I shouted. I hollered. ‘Way the hell back here!!’ I knew I hadn’t a chance for I wasn’t close enough to the stage. Hell, I was as far away from the stage as one could get.

I hollered anyway just for sport. A guitarist was sent onstage from the pit and taught how to play the rest of the song. The band let the kids work at it for a while then Billie kicked the vocals in and finished the song. The guitarist kid got to keep the guitar he was playing… Lucky shit. It was a Fender Stratocaster with a sunburst gradient paint job.

Minority was played soon after. I found this to be a difficult song to sing to whilst yelling, but I proceeded to do so anyway and wailed annoyingly as I was at it. Waiting followed this and then, to finish it off, Billie Joe played Good Riddance on an electric guitar. I don’t remember if it was Blue or another one in his arsenal. The lighters came out and people swayed about, then Billie exited the stage. Techs came out right after and it became clear that there would be no encore. Mike lit his Fender bass on fire and chucked it across the stage. This guitar reminded me of Paul Simonon’s, as I told CJ numerous times during the performance.

It was at this point which I became sad for what I’d come for was all done after a very short hour and a half of the purest and most spectacular fit of bliss I’ve ever experienced. This feeling persisted even though the members of Green Day in their distance could be compared to the size of the eye of a needle each.

After Green Day’s mind boggling set, Blink 182 played or something.

Blink really wasn’t anything to rave and holler about. They were back to their dirty and immature tricks. They performed well, but the side jokes really weren’t needed. I was only able to sing along to tracks from Enema of the State, and I wasn’t too ashamed at all because I wasn’t there for Blink; It was all Green Day.

I managed to squeeze out a few screams and hollers, but silenced myself then yelled ‘Don’t encourage it!’ at the top of my stressed lungs as Tom pulled off a Happy Gilmore with the microphone. This was followed by a number of other obscene gestures, then made a very suggestive action of picking his guitar back up off the stage floor and saying something about the crowd not appreciating him. He and Mark played off each other with jokes about the full moon and how Tom’s mother turns into some beast and searches for certain male body parts at night.

I’ll quote a review of the first show in the Pop Disaster Tour in Phoenix, Arizona- "Grow up, Blink."

Obviously, more than half of the people who had come to this event were only there for Blink 182. There were many empty seats during Green Day’s set, but when Blink got out on the stage, the seating and yard were all the sudden packed with fans. This was insulting, Green Day are the reason Blink 182 are existent. The guys of Blink look up to Green Day, and with reason, for who’d have thought that a band could be so creative with simple power chords?

Travis was excellent, though. His drumming is superb, and Blink’s set did take up all the good pyrotechnics. This is probably what kept me alive. The rotating drum platform that they had Travis play on was incredible, and he was still able to keep the beat and not barf while the platform went. This technique was borrowed from another performer, I’ve heard, but I don’t remember who it was. I won’t look it up and pretend to know.

Over all, Green Day’s performance was awesome and their short slot was worth the ride down. CJ enjoyed both sets but she admits that Green Day was better. As for CJ’s dad, who so nicely drove us down there and put up with us- Thank you to the billionth power. He agreed with me and thought that Blink wasn’t that great and Green Day was a good performance. He still didn’t seem to be a raving fan, he didn’t say a word during any performance, but he still shared the opinion of CJ and I.