A Green Day Fan Site

If you were sad that Warner Music has pulled a bunch of official videos from YouTube, a consolation might be that a user called GreenDayConcerts (I’m not sure if it’s someone official or a fan) uploaded a treasure trove of several hundred live Green Day concert videos to YouTube, ranging from 1989 to 2000, within just the last three weeks.

I’ve only watched a few. Here’s one that I really liked. The audio quality is not very good, and the camera work is a bit odd in parts, but I love their early performances. I love the silly remnants of a few bleached blond dreads bobbing on Billie Joe’s head, and I love his facial expressions here. He looks like a fierce kitten: an adorable ragamuffin, but watch out or he’ll bite your hand off! ;)

Paper Lanterns live at Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX 1993

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Geekstinkbreath posted a nice set of photos he took of a concert Green Day played in San Francisco on Dec. 15, 2000, “Not So Silent Night.” The one above is of Tre playing Dominated Love Slave, with Billie Joe on drums. It’s nice to see photos taken by a fan, because he included the bits we care about, like a pic of Timmy Chunks, their longtime guitar tech, and one of Jason White, plus there are some nice shots of Billie Joe. See all the photos, with descriptions and a set list, here.

I thought this was a really nice piece, by Stephanie Kuehnert, author of the novel I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, about not fitting in and not feeling accepted in high school, but finding a lot of inspiration from music, including music that one’s peers may not consider edgy enough, because it’s too mainstream, too popular, or not “punk enough.” Below is an excerpt. Read the whole post here.

Ultimately, I was a kid who felt rejected and hurt and angry and sad and had only a couple friends and no real outlet until I started discovering music, bands with a certain sound and lyrics that expressed the way I felt. How did I discover these bands? A couple of them through friends, but mostly through MTV. People forget that in the late 80s and early 90s there was more to MTV than Britney Spears and reality shows about rich kids. There were REM and Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More and Depeche Mode videos. Those were my early favorites.

Rancid was considered kind of mainstream. They played “Time Bomb” a lot on the radio then. Was it punk enough to like Rancid? It certainly wasn’t punk enough to like Green Day. You could admit that you liked their albums on Lookout!, but not Dookie. I hated that crap, HATED it. And I don’t mean Green Day. I mean not being punk enough because you liked a band that was getting mainstream attention. I mean not feeling punk enough because heaven forbid my all-time favorite band was Nirvana and not Crass. I never thought that just because a band signed with a major label so their sound could reach a wider audience, they’d “sold out.” What’s so wrong about Rise Against or Against Me!, for example, reaching more people with their political songs. They’re opening minds. But maybe that’s not a punk enough opinion.

This is my first post as a member of the Nothing Wrong With Me team. Hope you enjoy!
I thought I’d take the time to think back about this year, seeing as how 2009 starts tomorrow. This year was one of history, especially with the Election and the economic situation. It was one of great achievements; the Olympics certainly verified that.
Of course, musically, I’d like to say things were a bit stagnat. For us Green Day fans, however, it was promising. Everyone was completely taken aback by the Foxboro Hot Tubs, and it was even better when they announced their “World” tour. I for one, will always remember this. I was one of those frustrated individuals out there, who didn’t really see anything great in the music world, especially since one of my favorite bands had stopped doing everything. I admit it: I missed seeing them on t.v., their songs on the radio, finding out what they would be doing next. I had stopped listening to the “American Idiot” album every day roughty two years ago. Before that, they were everywhere. I thought maybe they had gone away for the sake of not doing anything…
The Foxboro Hot Tubs was the remedy I needed. I think we all needed it. And what a great way for them to come stomping back into the spotlight. They certainly got some attention, and these scruffy dudes seemingly stuck in the Sixties stole my heart all over again. “Stop, Drop and Roll!!!” was the shot of adrenilne I needed. I still listen to it, and it’s been how long?
As if that wasn’t enough, Pinhead Gunpowder made a notable return earlier this year, and a vinyl was realeased on top of it all. I’m the proud owner of the blue .45 EP, now, and I can’t wait for more.
News broke of Green Day’s new album, which was the last great burst of optimism we had this year. I can safely say that I’m keeping an eye/ ear out for more news. The article in “Alternative Press” is only a tantilizing glimpse at what’s to come; new characters, new themes, and above all, new songs! I don’t think I can wait until spring to hear the those gnashing guitars, pounding drums and that twangy bass again.
So…2008 was a very good year. It definately gave us all it could.
But something tells me 2009 will be even better….

Green Day’s music has a very broad appeal, and everyone who loves it comes to it for their own reasons. It’s very catchy, so some like it just for that: a great listen, and a way to blow off steam from the power and energy it gives off. Many are affected by the emotional side of the lyrics and music, by the feeling that there’s someone out there who understands and who can put words and music to your own emotions. Some see it as a form of rebellion, or as a way of looking at life that is honest and uncompromising.

There’s the personal relationship that each fan has with the music, and then there’s the community of fans, and that’s where, for me, the beauty and power that comes out of the music gets tangled up and snagged. When Dookie came out, I loved it instantly, like an explosion in a candy factory. It was a shower of overwhelming, delicious sweetness, with a kick. I didn’t know any other fans, but when I came across them, at concerts, or described in the pages of magazines, there was both a disconnect with the angry, thoughtless fans — Billie Joe said, at the time: “That’s one thing I hate about the new mainstream thing: blatant violence” — and also a sense of recognition with the shy young girls who would huddle at the sides, trying not to get smushed by the churning pit. They were visibly awed, with stars in their eyes, like I was, even though I was a lot older than they were.

Then there was the punk scene that Green Day came out of, and that was a wonderful discovery for me. It was a ragtag group of outsiders and misfits who built an amazing, vibrant community out of a shared sense of both anger and hopefulness. But many of them hated Green Day, some with such open scornfulness, and even venom, that it didn’t feel to me like a community of kindred spirits. Plus I didn’t exactly fit in there either. Just the thought of calling my nerdy and plain self a “punk” made me laugh.

Still, punk rock was a lifeline to something that made wonderful sense to me. Mainstream culture has always seemed so commercial, so grabby, competitive and gaudy, and the political landscape so unequal and unjust, that the ideals of those who stood against all of that had a very strong appeal for me, and still does. I’ll quote John Pierson of Screeching Weasel, from a recent interview, who can talk about it better than I can:

Even in a scene of outsiders, I felt like an outsider, perhaps we were all like that. I could say that the kids of the early nineties appeared to be more excited by the foundation of the punk movement, people seemed to put more emphasis on social awareness, still believing in creating change. We believed in helping outcast kids struggling with a school system and culture that felt restrictive; a country that prides itself on individualism but doesn’t support its progressive arts, and is afraid of a child who questions his teachers and parents. Even when Ben Weasel was writing a goofy song about a girl, there was always an undertone, a moral system we believed in, fighting depression with activism instead of drug abuse, getting yourself out of a stifling town before it kills you; learning to see the similarities and differences in the things we may fear, like other cultures, sexual preferences, knowledge…

Fast forward to American Idiot. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to Green Day in the intervening years, and I was struck in 2004 by how squarely in the mainstream the band was now positioned, when in the Dookie days the guys of Green Day had openly mocked the media machinery that was so enamored with them. This is a small example from the old days. It’s an interview before the MTV VMA awards in 1994. After they went inside to perform, they played a song they weren’t scheduled to play and that hadn’t been released yet. (That performance is one of my favorites.)

I once gain felt the same sense of both disconnect and recognition with Green Day fans in 2004 that I did in 1994. When I sat in line for tickets in September of 2004, there were two girls next to me who were planning to also stand in line for Jessica Simpson tickets. I have nothing against people who like Jessica Simpson, but the sense I had was that what these girls loved was celebrity itself. Green Day was just another famous band. At the concert there was girl who shoved me four separate times (and not in the pit), in spite of Billie Joe once again entreating the audience to take care of each other (at 4.43 in the video).

Just because we love the same band it doesn’t mean we’re all on the same page or care about the same things. But I think I will always feel a kinship with the many who hold Green Day tight to their bosom. And I’m not going to give up being a fan anytime soon, as bittersweet as it can sometimes be.

~If you’ve noticed that there are fewer Green Day videos on YouTube, it’s because they were pulled due to an ongoing contract dispute between Warner Music and YouTube.

~The Green Day (and other bands) playlist entered in Absolute Radio’s Rock Off by GDA’s forum won! To listen to it, tune in to Absolute Radio Monday after 9pm. There are some pretty great songs on that list.

I was listening to “Wake Me Up When September Ends” the other night and it struck me how brave you have to be to put a song like that out for the world to hear. It’s honest and inescapably personal. All the walls are down for a brief moment. Most people will only let someone else that far into their lives in extreme circumstances. They’ve had too much to drink or they forget to be careful with their words. The next morning they might deny it ever happened, hoping to put the truth they let slip back in its box. They don’t want to be vulnerable.

Green Day does the exact opposite. On songs from “No One Knows” to “Wake Me Up” they provide a window into their minds, no booze or late-night rambles required. America as a society doesn’t frown on that honesty, but it isn’t exactly “the done thing” either. Instead you’re supposed to be brave and pretend that everything is okay. Can you tell I’m from New England? Even without that unwritten rule, it’s risky to be so open with another person. It can forge a stronger connection, or it can give that person a kind of leverage. Once they know what makes you tick, they can stop your heart. And yet Green Day chooses to take that chance anyway.

It’s one of the reasons I really admire them as people, aside from how much I love the band. They’re willing to write about sorrow, desperation and craziness without a single blink. They’re like the person in a class who admits to being confused when no else will bother, only on a much grander scale. Better still, they do it for us.

They do it to prove we’re not alone and there’s nothing to be afraid of. They do it to change the rules of what should and should not be said, because sometimes the facade has to crumble. If it works, which it usually does, we all feel better. There’s that wonderful surge of hope that comes from feeling included, accepted, and understood. If it fails, I imagine it must be devastating. After all, millions of people around the world listen to Green Day. That’s a hell of a lot of dissenting voices to quiet.

The funny thing is, if someone does write Green Day off for being too sentimental, it’s probably because they are not being honest with themselves. I feel bad for them, having a compulsion to weather their problems alone. Ultimately that’s even worse than being rejected. So honesty isn’t completely altruistic.

Still, baring their heart is a step few people are willing to take, even in a society that constantly urges you to “be yourself”. Green Day takes up that challenge over and over again despite the lurking consequences. Without turning them into superheroes, I’d venture to say we’re all better for it. If only more people could be so bold.

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