It seems that Billie Joe was at an event for Barack Obama’s campaign in Newport Beach on July 13, where this photo was taken. The caption is sweet. It says: “Mom and Pop Nguyen’s favorite album is Dookie.” Rock on Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen!
Edit: I just saw this is also on GDC, posted by eagle-eye arohex.
~A cute blog post by someone who ran into Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool at the airport in San Francisco and had a little chat. There are also some small photos. [ Via loves2bang ]
~This is a cute, excited blog post about talking to the Tubbies in New Orleans after the show, written by someone who was too young to be allowed in the venue to see the show itself.
There have been so many wonderful reviews of the shows posted on GDC by fans that it may be hard to keep track of them all. Compared to the professional reviews that have come out in newspapers, which I also like, these have a much more personal touch, which makes them even more special to read.
I’ve linked to the various threads about each stop on the tour in my posts on GDA, and so has Andres, so I wasn’t thinking of linking to any of them here, but for those who don’t have the time to sift through all the threads, here’s a sampling of some recaps that are definitely worth reading (you have to register for the forum in order to see them): Dallas, by PedestrianNumber5, Austin, by Met Fan, Phoenix, by justcause, San Diego, by greendayfan518, Los Angeles, by amy_runs.
And check out djrosstar’s recaps of three shows, and his pics with Mike and Tre.
Whenever I take a trip to see Green Day — er, I mean the Tubs, in this case — there’s a buzz in the air (or is it in my head?) that makes everything sparkle. Knowing that Green Day is at the other end of the journey makes everything seem sweet and glow with promise. Going to New Orleans from New York an a train is a long way, but it’s a very peaceful, slumbering ride, and it was a ride to see Green Day…
The train pulled into New Orleans at sunset. There’s a long, slow glide into the city over Lake Pontchartrain, on a very low bridge, with no railing, which makes the train feel like it’s skimming the lake, for over twenty minutes of nothing but a wide expanse of water. There were only two small boats in the distance. The sun was a huge orange glow, the sky was starting to darken, and the surface of the water was all glittery slivers of silver and brown. New Orleans is the last stop, and there were only a few passengers still on the train, so there was no noise, just the gentle rolling lull of the train. It was surreal. Welcome to New Orleans.
New Orleans is an amazingly cool place. You can’t beat a city where there are bars on every block — in the French quarter anyway — and you’re allowed to drink on the street and smoke in clubs, and where everyone seems to be laid back and having a sweet time, despite the struggles that the city has been through. New York is downright prissy and buttoned up by comparison.
I planned to get up at nine on the day of the show, but I woke up at seven thirty, so I walked down to the venue, which was only a couple blocks from my hotel, to see if anyone was in line. One Eyed Jack’s is in a cool old building, with a large wrought iron balcony on the second floor that provided nice shade for most of the day. There were two girls, who said they’d been there since four thirty in the morning. I left, and went back at eleven. There were now five people. So I joined them. Well, not exactly, at first. The sidewalk had been washed down and I wanted to sit, so I went to a nearby stoop.
I always feel kind of odd around Green Day fans in real life, I guess because I’m used to being the oddball crazy lady among a bunch of kids. The last time I waited in line for hours on a sidewalk for Green Day tickets, I was the only person reading the New York Times.
So maybe I was feeling a little shy, but these couldn’t have been a nicer bunch of people. Jen and Jess had driven from Houston, and were planning to go on to Dallas and Austin. They seemed a little wary of me at first, but when they found out I was “Delfina from GDA” then I was okay with them. Adam, who also works on GDA, and Stephen are the sweetest guys, really easygoing and smart. They had driven from Florida. Susan, who is my age, came over to my stoop when I first got there to talk to me. She’s a lovely person. I talked to her the most throughout the day, and she kept telling me she was glad I was there. She had flown in from North Carolina. Lynne and Jeff, who arrived shortly after me, are also my age. Lynne was like the mom of the group — well, if you had a cool mom who had black and blue hair and wrote horror novels — she was taking care of everyone and making sure everything was okay. They had come from Florida. And Sara was a New Orleans local, who worked at a restaurant around the corner. Sara came back and forth to the line throughout the day. She got sodas from her work, called to order food on her cell for people, and just generally knew everything and everyone and was very bubbly. That’s us.
Reading the more recent reports from the tour, it strikes me how lucky I was to be at a really mellow stop on the tour. Not only is New Orleans completely laid back, and the setting in the French quarter a storybook-perfect place to spend several hours just hanging out with great people, but it’s also out of the way enough that there weren’t any crowds clamoring to get in the show or trying to get a glimpse of the band members, who we saw several times throughout the day, and who themselves seemed completely laid back.
Tre came out and asked us if anyone could give him a ride to the music store to buy a tambourine. No one could, because those who had cars were parked too far away. So he walked off. When he came back, he held up the bag with the tambourine and said, “Mission accomplished.” He walked back and forth a few other times. No one freaked out or tried to mob him. You couldn’t miss him, walking down the street in his red faux-hawk, plaid shorts, and hot pink tie. But in New Orleans he didn’t really stand out as an oddity. Kevin Preston was out walking around too. The tech guys were going back and forth unloading the equipment, and they chatted a bit. They were these burly rock and roll dudes, all in black and wearing steel toed boots with the steel showing. The woman who ran the venue, a dreadlocked lady who seemed perplexed when she opened up around noon and we were already there — “You know doors don’t open until eight?” she said — gave us bottled water, and someone inside tossed out a bunch of Foxboro Hot Tubs buttons for us to grab.
A few bits and pieces of information have been trickling out over the last few days surrounding the band’s opening “home town” shows on their current mini-tour. The band themselves have today posted a few photos here on their official website of the opening night show at The Stork Club. It’s pretty obvious from the shots just how crowded the place was!
Many of you may remember Niki Lee, from her fabulous story “Seize the Green Day” of a few years ago. If you don’t - well - you need to read it. You can find it here on her website. Niki posted a couple of great reviews of both of the Oakland shows on her blog just recently. You can find her write-up of the opening night show at The Stork Club here and the next “family and friends” only show (plus 100 lucky fans!) at Toots Tavern here.
Another lucky fan posted a review of both local shows, including her chance to actually meet some of the band afterwards. In her words “The best part was that they weren’t jerks with rock star egos… not at all. They were genuinely nice, appreciative for their fans coming out, and excited to be playing these shows.” You can read the rest of her review here.
Lastly, a big shout out to everyone attending tonight’s show in Little Rock (that means you Debb and Beth!). Hope everyone has an amazing time!
~Mike Dirnt was at The Relax Bar in Hollywood for a show by the bands Prima Donna and The Billy Bones. A fan wrote: “I noticed Mike Dirnt, the bassist from Green Day standing next to me. Billy Bones introduced us. I told Mike that I thought it was great to see such amazing things happen to him and his bandmates. He told me he appreciated that, and, ‘If we keep writing good songs and playing as best we can, then things will be alright.’ I asked him if he was ever amazed by Green Day’s success. He told me ‘No, because I don’t really pay attention to it.’ Overall, he was a down-to-earth nice guy without a rock star inflated ego just hanging out in a punk rock dive-bar with friends.”
I love stories, and I came across this one, that I thought was cool, funny, and very well written, about being called up on stage to play with Green Day during Lollapalooza in 1994. Below is an excerpt. You really need to read it all, to get the full feel for it, here.
I stepped up behind the microphone and stared at the gigantic crowd. Never in my life before then and not since had this many people been looking directly at me.
I seriously almost puked again.
After what seemed like 30 minutes, Billie leaned over and told me to tell them my name.
No answer. They just rip right in to it. My head is spinning and I’m doing that weird in-a-tunnel, blurry faces, muffled sounds thing. All that I hear coming out of the monitors on stage is white noise. I start to realize that this isn’t going to be as cool as I thought it was going to be.
I shake off the haze and focus. The sound clears up a bit. I can hear the chords and I realize that I don’t recognize it. At all. It’s not even close to anything I recognize. My brain starts quickly running through all of their songs, one by one, album by album. I know every song. I know every song. I know every fucking song. I don’t know this song. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SONG???
Pressure, people. Pressure. I had to do something. I didn’t want to be the dumbass that just stage dove when pulled up on stage by FUCKING GREEN DAY! I let out a couple of metal “YEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHH”s, but they only carried me so far. I decided to make up some words. They went like this:
“I don’t know the words to this song! So I hope that you can all sing along!”
That’s as far as I got before they stopped playing in that sort of uncoordinated, break-down and fall apart style. Tre Cool threw a drumstick at me. Billie fake booed me. Mike gave me a little hug. Billie said, “Ok… get off the stage now,” and then “Let’s hear it for Steve!”
As I jumped off the side of the stage and walked back in to the crowd, expecting to be lynched for being so damn lame, the crowd blew up in crazed applause and screaming.
I love the little accounts that put you in a place and time, written by people who happened to be there, often only by chance. This one is a bittersweet story of love lost that really has very little to do with Green Day, other than that the girl the author once loved was with him at a Green Day concert in 1994, and the two of them hung out after the show and the band was there, and they took some pictures. It was at Barron’s Beach Club in Allentown, PA, July 30, 1994. Billie Joe is looking so very young…
The mom who took her kid to see Hannah Montana and posted the now-famous picture of her boy posing with Billie Joe wrote a cute post about the frenzy it caused among us squeeing and slobbery-in-love Green Day fans. The internet is a funny place. On its good days, it’s a happy and silly place. Oh, and I’m going to toot my own horn here: I broke that story! Yep, you saw it here first…
She writes:
“i don’t mind actually. i totally get that these people are uber fans of billie joe and green day and they want to know every single detail about the concert and what he was doing, and who he was with, and what he was wearing, etc. i’ve answered every email i think. even when it’s just been to respond with a “i have no idea” because i don’t know half the shit people are asking me.
“maybe when some of his fans have kids, they’ll understand the shit you do for your children. things you wouldn’t normally do, but you do because it makes them happy. and that is what makes you happy. becoming a parent takes away your ability to be 100% selfish….. and in all honesty, you don’t want to be anymore.”
Billie Joe and a fan at the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana concert in Oakland, California, November 1, 2007. (You can see Adrienne in the background!) The person who took the picture wrote this:
“billie joe from greenday was in front of us! and what was really cool was that everyone and their dog recognized him. he was so patient and so sweet. he took pictures with all the millions of annoying people (including myself) and posed for pictures. he was really mellow, even though he just wanted to watch the concert with his wife and son (and his wife must have the patience of a goddess). it was really cute to see him jumping up and down and rocking out to hannah montana.”
(More info from the sidebar, posted Nov. 2, 2007:)
~Billie Joe was backstage with his kids at the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana concert in Oakland yesterday, says Jonas Brothers bassist: “Also, i saw someone i recognized backstage today. he had a small beard going and was with his wife and kids. it was billie joe from green day. guess his kids are hannah montana fans or he is just really into the disney music scene. it’s slightly weird looking up to a person you’ve never met and playing their songs all throughout middle school and then one day you wake up on a thursday and you’re 21 and now that person shows up and watches you work.”
———————–
Edit: just after I posted this I saw that my own beat now had this info as well. Check out her livejournal.
Okay, I’m intrigued. Is this new? It was added to youtube in the last few days but it could have been filmed ages ago. I speak Italian but the title is no help: it says “Mike Dirnt not far from the little wall.” Muretto is a little wall, and it’s also slang for a hangout, like a short wall in a piazza or some other public place where teenagers sit around. And the description only says, “I still don’t believe it.” Hmmmm….
[Sorry, I turned off the comments. Send me an email at asfo_del@yahoo.com if you know what this is, and I’ll post the info here.]
—————
Update: as everyone besides me already knows… the original poster of the video wrote in the comments to say this is from Sunday, October 14, in Palermo, Sicily. I guess Mike is taking an Italian vacation!
Links Page 
