Ramblings From Justin Penney

Darin from Deadline called me last Thursday asking if we were interested in Green Day tickets. We were, and had initially wanted to go (even though we didn't like the show on the tour for Warning) but at $45 a pop... it was a little much. Turns out Darin, Brooke, Nathan and Mindy had bought tickets then Darin won 4 more from a radio station. He was asking $25 for them so we jumped on that! Tiffany and Adriana got the other. Adriana is just getting into music beyond the "tweenie pop" stuff and is a big My Chemical Romance fan. Actually it's pretty cool because Tiffany didn't tell Adriana until they were leaving to meet us to ride to the show!

I'm not too big on My Chemical Romance anyway and the show was more of the same. It was seriously one of the worst sounding concerts I have ever been to. It was the epitomy of a kick drum concert. There was some fizzy white noise when the guitars played but otherwise it was just a wall of low end. You could only hear the singer between songs and he mostly said "fuck," "jump," and "Kansas City!".

They had some pseudo-ballads. The singer said, "Get out your lighters and cell phones!" Cell phones? Then I started looking around and there were people holding up lit up cell phones. It was truly surreal... and lame. I went and bought some $5.50 beers for me and Darin.

Before Green Day there was a guy in a pink bunny suit slamming beers and acting goofy. Pretty random thing.

Green Day really focused on their latest album. There were a few off of previous albums but they never ventured odler than Dookie. The overall show was a really good production. Maybe it's because I never go to large venue concerts but the lights and pyrotechnics were really amazing.

There were some lights that were pionted straight out at the crowd that would wash the crowd in this wall of light. The band director when I was in Jr. High did the theme from 2001: A Space Odessy and had a similar idea. There were massive floods pointed straight out the crowd that would blind them on the "DUH DUH." He snickered and called them the "crowd abusers." These light were abusive.

So were the flash pots! Holy crap, we were pretty far to the back (about halfway) on the floor of Municipal Auditorium and when they spewed their towers of flames you really felt it. I couldn't imagine being on stage with those. There was one song with them going on for at least 10 - 15 seconds straight. Just a massive wall of fire.

There were also well timed amazingly loud explosions. I've never seen so many people gasp at once.

Last effect was the confetti bomb. Another surreal experience seeing this large auditorium filed with pink and pale green confetti.

Ok... on to music finally. Tre Cool is awesome. A lot of people have theorised on what they did to get the snare sound on the album but as far as I can tell it's all him. Just amazingly tight, precise and a great tone.

The bass was back in the mix. Really hard to pick out.

Guitars were low as well. Not the fizzy little noise like My Chemical Romance but not big rock guitars either. They had a second guitarist, as well as a trumpeter and a multi-instrumentalist (keys, sax, trombone, etc.) All of those were under the drums by a good bit. Billie Joe mostly played Gibson Melody Makers also which was a weird departure from his trademark beat up Strat.

The vocals were very up front, very good and not rought at all even after an hour and a half of singing and yelling. His lung capacity is amazing! He held a note for like 45 seconds, I ran out of breath listening.

I still prefer the smaller club setting and the "realness" of that setting but it's really neat to get the "big time" perspective once in a while. It does definitely give me some I ideas about making the show part of a show more prevalent...

# posted by Justin @ 7:26 PM