Green Day On This Day

[Cris.]

@solongfromthestars and @Rumpelstiltskin2000 I didn't know you two had been to the show in Costa Rica! I loved so much reading both your recounts of the show, and the lengths you went to to get there... and you bought the ticket the morning of? I would have died from stress thinking "I flew all this way and spent all this money and I bet you the tickets will be sold out by the time I get there" 😅 That show was legendary, I still feel like we should all talk about it in a hushed, reverential tone, so I'm really happy you both got to experience it!

[Rumpelstiltskin2000]

1 hour ago, Cris. said:

@solongfromthestars and @Rumpelstiltskin2000 I didn't know you two had been to the show in Costa Rica! I loved so much reading both your recounts of the show, and the lengths you went to to get there... and you bought the ticket the morning of? I would have died from stress thinking "I flew all this way and spent all this money and I bet you the tickets will be sold out by the time I get there" 😅 That show was legendary, I still feel like we should all talk about it in a hushed, reverential tone, so I'm really happy you both got to experience it!

There was a Costa Rican girl on the forum back then and she was able to keep checking  the ticket status for everyone on GDC. Without that I wouldn't have dared to go without tickets! It wasn't even close to sold out. Had it said sold out I wouldn't have even tried to go

[solongfromthestars]

On this day 5 years ago (30 October 2019), Green Day played La Riviera in Madrid. Fun fact: they also played La Riviera in 1998 and 2000.

More photos:

Spoiler

 15 years ago (30 October 2009), Green Day played at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England on the 21st Century Breakdown Tour.

I still remember a few bits clearly from this show – "I split my pants," the crowd singing Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 2000 Light Years Away, Coming Clean and the general magical feeling.

Here's what younger me wrote:

"On the bus to our hotel, we met another mother-and-daughter pair on their way to the show. I stuck six A4 sheets together to make a ‘PLAY ¡VIVA LA GLORIA!’ banner before we left.

This time our seats were on Mike’s side. Watching Prima Donna and the drunk bunny, I was nervous. But once I heard those opening chords of 21st Century Breakdown, saw my heroes run onstage, I knew I would be alright. The songs I was hearing for a second, third time were as fresh as ever.

Security followed Billie as he ran up into the seats in Know Your Enemy and East Jesus Nowhere. In Boulevard of Broken Dreams, he announced he’d split his pants. ‘Did anyone see my balls?’

After Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I held up my banner. Billie stopped and squinted. People around us were screaming ‘he’s seen it, he’s seen it, he’s seen it!’ and he pointed before yelling into the band mic. They began 2000 Light Years Away. The guys behind us were laughing, saying he misread it. I have no idea if it was really anything to do with my banner, but it was funny either way – and thrilling since they weren’t playing that regularly.

Hitchin’ a Ride was followed by Coming Clean. It was a furious performance of a poignant song. Everyone was dancing. This time, I noticed a stencil of Gloria was the backdrop for She. With that, the 15 year-old song joined the narrative of 21st Century Breakdown. In King for a Day, Billie sang snippets of Stand By Me, I Fought the Law and Champagne Supernova. 21 Guns remained as emotional as that first night. Maybe even more so. Because, though I hadn’t quite figured out what yet, I knew something was worth fighting for. That bridge was my favourite moment of every set.

It was all surreal. Watching the confetti spray out again; hearing a passionate Jesus of Suburbia and seeing the show close, lights dimmed and band bowing, with Last Night on Earth, Wake Me Up When September Ends and Good Riddance."

Disclaimer: The bannner was only out for a minute between songs but I wouldn't take anything like that to a show now. I was 14.

The merch:

A typically crappy photo I took during King for a Day:

More decent photos:

Spoiler

20 years ago (30 October 2004), Green Day played the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on the American Idiot Tour.

25 years ago (30 October 1999), Green Day played the Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

More photos:

Spoiler

27 years ago (30 October 1997), Green Day played Deep Ellum Live in Dallas, TX on the Nimrod Tour.

32 years ago (30 October 1992), Green Day played the Berkeley Square nightclub.

"This show was hella weird, but not the first time that Green Day played with terrible funk rock bands that were inexplicably popular in the Bay Area back then. Bands like Psychefunkapus, Limbomaniacs, Fungo Mungo, Bluchunks (who were not terrible), Compost, etc. I still went because it was only $6 and it was Green Day!" — Anthony Lew

33 years ago (30 October 1991), Green Day played BZ Huset in Aarhus, Denmark.

 

14 hours ago, Cris. said:

@solongfromthestars and @Rumpelstiltskin2000 I didn't know you two had been to the show in Costa Rica! I loved so much reading both your recounts of the show, and the lengths you went to to get there... and you bought the ticket the morning of? I would have died from stress thinking "I flew all this way and spent all this money and I bet you the tickets will be sold out by the time I get there" 😅 That show was legendary, I still feel like we should all talk about it in a hushed, reverential tone, so I'm really happy you both got to experience it!

In hindsight I can't believe we did that!!! I do remember that all the Costa Ricans on GDC were absolutely certain there'd still be tickets left, but I'd be shitting myself all the way to San Jose if I did that today.

[Rumpelstiltskin2000]

Halloween 2009 was my fourth and last show on this leg of the 21st Century Breakdown Tour. We were buying our t-shirts for the night when @solongfromthestars said "Kevin's singing the Foxboro Hot Tubs" and I turned and said  "that's not Kevin, that's Billie!" and we literally ran to our seats (me knocking someone's beer out their hand on my way) and we were treated to three songs from the FBHT. It was incredible. I never ever for one second thought I would ever get to see them. I'd been following people's stories about their shows on GDC but could only long to be there!

The whole show just had this incredible atmosphere. Tre had dyed part of his hair red for Halloween.

This time when we saw the buses leaving on that rainy Manchester night it was really sad because we had no clue when we'd see them again.

[solongfromthestars]

On this day 15 years ago (31 October 2009), the Foxboro Hot Tubs played a surprise set at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, before Green Day came on. They played Stop, Drop & Roll, Mother Mary and Sally.

This was such an incredible treat for the fans who thought they were "just" getting a Green Day show. I was 14, it was my fourth show and I was not expecting anything like this. I thought I'd just never see the Foxboro Hot Tubs. Here's what I wrote back then:

"It was Halloween. I hung back while my mum looked at merch after Prima Donna. Music was playing inside. It sounded awfully familiar. Was I hallucinating? Because I was sure I could hear Stop, Drop & Roll! I squeezed past people to alert my mum.

‘Prima Donna are playing the Foxboro Hot Tubs!’
My mum stopped. Listened. Then her eyes widened.
‘That’s not Kevin, it’s BILLIE!’

We ran from the merch stand to our seats. In our mad charge down the steps, we knocked over someone’s beer. They just laughed. The steps buckled and we almost fell. Everyone around us looked baffled as we stumbled clapping and singing into our seats. The Reverend Strychnine Twitch, AKA Billie, sprayed Carling beer – a British replacement for his signature Pabst Blue Ribbon – over the front row. His blond head darted all over the stage. Tré wore a leopard print shirt and Jason a fluffy white coat. In Mother Mary, Billie threw down his tambourine to leap into the crowd. Security helped him back up.

'My name is the Reverend Strychnine Twitch and yes, we are the proverbial Foxboro Hot Tubs.’"

Another fan who submitted his story for the We Are Revolution Radio book also wrote about this, so I'd like to share that too. The mention of the show is towards the end but I'm including the whole thing because it's a lovely story and it shows how special this was for everyone who realised what was going on (crazily many didn't).

More photos:

Spoiler

And then Green Day played their show afterwards.

My recap:

"The intro to 21st Century Breakdown still unleashed butterflies in my stomach. In Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Billie told us, ‘last night in the last song I split my pants. I did that splits thing and my whole  butt was hanging out after that.’ It was also the last outing of the leopard print thong.

That night, as 21 Guns faded to drum rolls, I expected Minority. Instead, in an explosion of pyros and energy Billie roared ‘MASS HYSTERIA!’ and I was swept up in exactly that; mass hysteria as I screamed along to one of my all-time favourite songs, American Eulogy, that I missed on the second night in Birmingham. In my own blurry video, I’m deafeningly loud as I bellow ‘vigilantes warning ya, CALLING CHRISTIAN AND GLORIA!’ over Billie’s ‘RIGHT HERE IN MANCHESTER!’ It was unreal. Thousands of people were in a shared ecstasy conducted by a tight performance. We watched through moments of quiet while Billie stamped his foot to solos, basking in the band’s talent and energy, religiously echoing ‘heeeeeey-ooooohhhhhh’ as Mike sang his last verse…

…and we screamed in unison – ‘I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE MODERN AGE!’

…and the song exploded into its final chorus.

‘I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world…’

Then the music stopped and 21,000 voices, alone with Billie’s and Mike’s, echoed that we didn’t want to live in the modern world, mass hysteria… until Billie sang like an anthem, ‘nobody likes you, everyone left you, they’re all out without you, having fun!’ over Mike and, as Tré conducted with his drumsticks, we joined him.

The world could have ended then and I would have felt the bricks crashing down were healing gold dust. I could hear the sound of my own beating heart. The heartbeat of a kid who was stifled but now impassioned, inspired and ready to smash the silence with a brick of self control."

More photos:

Spoiler

18 years ago (31 October 2008), The Saints Are Coming was released as a single.

20 years ago (31 October 2004), Green Day played the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on the American idiot Tour.

25 years ago (31 October 1999), Green Day played a second night for the Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

26 years ago (31 October 1998), Green Day played the Parque Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Nimrod Tour. It was their first show in Argentina.

More photos:

Spoiler

27 years ago (31 October 1997), Green Day played Liberty Lunch in Austin, TX on the Nimrod Tour.

29 years ago (31 October 1995), Green Day played the Metro Centre in Halifax, Canada on the Insomniac Tour.

30 years ago (31 October 1994), Green Day played the Sports Arena in San Diego, CA on the Dookie Tour.

33 years ago (31 October 1991), Green Day played Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"The list of now-superstars who have played in Ungdomshuset is very long. They came there before anybody else in Copenhagen knew who Bjork and Nick Cave were and in 1991 an American teenage punk band called Green Day played in the Ungdomshuset before shooting off to world fame." — Nikolaj Heltoft

"After the first week, when they discovered that it's a Danish tradition for punks to throw beer at bands they like, their instruments were toast. Luckily - for him - Armstrong had brought Lawrence Livermore's amp instead of his own. Replacing the instruments was out of the question, as they were barely earning enough money to keep everyone fed and traveling from show to show. The band ended up borrowing new equipment every night. 'Seriously,' says Tre Cool, 'I was using guys' kits where the drummer would say, 'If you screw up my kit, I'm gonna stab you.''"

35 years ago (31 October 1989), Green Day played the Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa, CA.

"We played this show with them, Halloween 1989 in Santa Rosa. Victim's Family and Green Day. It was a benefit. And people wouldn't give Green Day ten bucks for gas to get home in their fucking VW van. This alleged benefit, and people left them stranded with their van." — Ralph Spight

1 hour ago, Rumpelstiltskin2000 said:

"that's not Kevin, that's Billie!"

Your most iconic quote. Even better than, "I don't know anything about Turkey, Green Day don't play there (despite having been to Turkey)."

[Dingle]

1 hour ago, solongfromthestars said:

On this day 15 years ago (31 October 2009), the Foxboro Hot Tubs played a surprise set at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, before Green Day came on. They played Stop, Drop & Roll, Mother Mary and Sally.

This was such an incredible treat for the fans who thought they were "just" getting a Green Day show. I was 14, it was my fourth show and I was not expecting anything like this. I thought I'd just never see the Foxboro Hot Tubs. Here's what I wrote back then:

"It was Halloween. I hung back while my mum looked at merch after Prima Donna. Music was playing inside. It sounded awfully familiar. Was I hallucinating? Because I was sure I could hear Stop, Drop & Roll! I squeezed past people to alert my mum.

‘Prima Donna are playing the Foxboro Hot Tubs!’
My mum stopped. Listened. Then her eyes widened.
‘That’s not Kevin, it’s BILLIE!’

We ran from the merch stand to our seats. In our mad charge down the steps, we knocked over someone’s beer. They just laughed. The steps buckled and we almost fell. Everyone around us looked baffled as we stumbled clapping and singing into our seats. The Reverend Strychnine Twitch, AKA Billie, sprayed Carling beer – a British replacement for his signature Pabst Blue Ribbon – over the front row. His blond head darted all over the stage. Tré wore a leopard print shirt and Jason a fluffy white coat. In Mother Mary, Billie threw down his tambourine to leap into the crowd. Security helped him back up.

My name is the Reverend Strychnine Twitch and yes, we are the proverbial Foxboro Hot Tubs.’"

Another fan who submitted his story for the We Are Revolution Radio book also wrote about this, so I'd like to share that too. The mention of the show is towards the end but I'm including the whole thing because it's a lovely story and it shows how special this was for everyone who realised what was going on (crazily many didn't).

More photos:

  Reveal hidden contents

And then Green Day played their show afterwards.

My recap:

"The intro to 21st Century Breakdown still unleashed butterflies in my stomach. In Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Billie told us, ‘last night in the last song I split my pants. I did that splits thing and my whole  butt was hanging out after that.’ It was also the last outing of the leopard print thong.

That night, as 21 Guns faded to drum rolls, I expected Minority. Instead, in an explosion of pyros and energy Billie roared ‘MASS HYSTERIA!’ and I was swept up in exactly that; mass hysteria as I screamed along to one of my all-time favourite songs, American Eulogy, that I missed on the second night in Birmingham. In my own blurry video, I’m deafeningly loud as I bellow ‘vigilantes warning ya, CALLING CHRISTIAN AND GLORIA!’ over Billie’s ‘RIGHT HERE IN MANCHESTER!’ It was unreal. Thousands of people were in a shared ecstasy conducted by a tight performance. We watched through moments of quiet while Billie stamped his foot to solos, basking in the band’s talent and energy, religiously echoing ‘heeeeeey-ooooohhhhhh’ as Mike sang his last verse…

…and we screamed in unison – ‘I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE MODERN AGE!’

…and the song exploded into its final chorus.

‘I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world…’

Then the music stopped and 21,000 voices, alone with Billie’s and Mike’s, echoed that we didn’t want to live in the modern world, mass hysteria… until Billie sang like an anthem, ‘nobody likes you, everyone left you, they’re all out without you, having fun!’ over Mike and, as Tré conducted with his drumsticks, we joined him.

The world could have ended then and I would have felt the bricks crashing down were healing gold dust. I could hear the sound of my own beating heart. The heartbeat of a kid who was stifled but now impassioned, inspired and ready to smash the silence with a brick of self control."

More photos:

  Reveal hidden contents

18 years ago (31 October 2008), The Saints Are Coming was released as a single.

20 years ago (31 October 2004), Green Day played the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on the American idiot Tour.

25 years ago (31 October 1999), Green Day played a second night for the Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

26 years ago (31 October 1998), Green Day played the Parque Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Nimrod Tour. It was their first show in Argentina.

More photos:

  Reveal hidden contents

27 years ago (31 October 1997), Green Day played Liberty Lunch in Austin, TX on the Nimrod Tour.

29 years ago (31 October 1995), Green Day played the Metro Centre in Halifax, Canada on the Insomniac Tour.

30 years ago (31 October 1994), Green Day played the Sports Arena in San Diego, CA on the Dookie Tour.

33 years ago (31 October 1991), Green Day played Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"The list of now-superstars who have played in Ungdomshuset is very long. They came there before anybody else in Copenhagen knew who Bjork and Nick Cave were and in 1991 an American teenage punk band called Green Day played in the Ungdomshuset before shooting off to world fame." — Nikolaj Heltoft

"After the first week, when they discovered that it's a Danish tradition for punks to throw beer at bands they like, their instruments were toast. Luckily - for him - Armstrong had brought Lawrence Livermore's amp instead of his own. Replacing the instruments was out of the question, as they were barely earning enough money to keep everyone fed and traveling from show to show. The band ended up borrowing new equipment every night. 'Seriously,' says Tre Cool, 'I was using guys' kits where the drummer would say, 'If you screw up my kit, I'm gonna stab you.''"

35 years ago (31 October 1989), Green Day played the Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa, CA.

"We played this show with them, Halloween 1989 in Santa Rosa. Victim's Family and Green Day. It was a benefit. And people wouldn't give Green Day ten bucks for gas to get home in their fucking VW van. This alleged benefit, and people left them stranded with their van." — Ralph Spight

Your most iconic quote. Even better than, "I don't know anything about Turkey, Green Day don't play there (despite having been to Turkey)."

Thanks, to you and to other contributers, once again, this is a very special thread your developing.

You said at the very beginning you are scheduling stories on GDA Instagram.

Can I be nosey and ask when finished, will it be generally accessible for fans, like a chronological database or something? Thanks.