Disapperingirl Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I remember the first time I listened to this song, I almost cried. I usually don't cry, I haven't cried listening to Wake Me Up When September Ends or other sad songs, but this one touched me so so much... For the melody, the lyrics, it gives the impression that it's saying this town, this life ( YOUR town, YOUR life) maybe sucks, maybe it's hard, disappointing, and you're alone with your still not-realized dreams, but there will always be a hope, a chance to change everything. "Are we, we are, are we, we are the waiting??" it's like stand up all togheter and scream at the sky, that's why maybe it's so involving live, it's everyone's cry. Best lines, like almost everyone said, "the rage and love, story of my life/the Jesus of Suburbia is a lie". And if "there will always be a hope", I want to hope that one day I'll hear this song with the band that changed my life in front of me, with thousands of people with me. Uh, I didn't want to write such a sad, serious post but.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pasalaska Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 This one is hilarious www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDbxrEG1IW0 oh my god, that one's brilliant! I also have to share Lorie's AWTW moment (watch the kiss and the after-the-kiss moment, it's so hilarious) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermione Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I also have to share Lorie's AWTW moment (watch the kiss and the after-the-kiss moment, it's so hilarious) youtube.com/watch?v=cGfdeCVfSqA Ahaha it is . And I also enjoy the well coordinated outfits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Undómiel Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Currently watching this on BIAB... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermione Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Currently watching this on BIAB... Ahh that was the first live footage of it I ever saw, I remember loving it so much on there when I first watched it. I really love how he goes on the runway leaning down and holding people's hands and stuff, it's just so awesome how he connects with the crowd. I haven't watched it for ages, gonna do it right now! One thing I've always wondered, at about 1:01 Billie makes a movement towards the crowd. Is he thrusting his hips or just moving closer? What's he doing? I can't tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pasalaska Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 One thing I've always wondered, at about 1:01 Billie makes a movement towards the crowd. Is he thrusting his hips or just moving closer? What's he doing? I can't tell. I never noticed that! I think he's just adjusting his footing or changing which knee he's leaning on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermione Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I never noticed that! I think he's just adjusting his footing or changing which knee he's leaning on Yeah I think that's probably it. It's just always looked strange to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Undómiel Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 All this talk of AWTW is just making me need to see them live again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TJAbKerr5I When I first watched Bullet in a Bible (which was also the first time I watched something live from Green Day, and I hadn't seen many video clips either) Billie's smile at 1:53-1:54 just struck me and it still does. It's so... well, words wouldn't do it justice. And I don't mean that in a "omg billeh hot" or fangirly kind of way, just how genuine and happy it is. It's a smile I connect to how I felt at certain moments during Green Day concerts, too. I love Are We The Waiting from BIAB anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura! Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Talking about BIAB... I still find it funny and odd that it shows up as We Are The Waiting in my iTunes. Does it appear that way to anyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Yeah, it does. Confused me as a new little Green Day fan. I didn't know what to believe, Bullet in a Bible or Youtube (that was before I bought American Idiot) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Armstrong Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 it took me awhile to warm up to this song. st.jimmy was the next song so i usually just skipped to that one lol. it wasn't until i saw them in concert that i started to love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraG Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 it wasn't until i saw them in concert that i started to love it. Me too! When they play it live, the chorus is so powerful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefloyd.94 Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Me too! When they play it live, the chorus is so powerful! Same hear this was skipped but seeing it live changed my entire opinion of it it's so epic live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenRanger Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Can I just say that the musical took the epic transition between this song and St. Jimmy and manage to turn it Up to Eleven? I mean really, I always said that the main reason I listened to this song was to hear it go into St. Jimmy, but the musical went about this brilliantly, especially if you saw it with Billie, because you know this is his big entrance, and you know that Are We the Waiting goes right into St. Jimmy...then the drums keep going. Johnny's talking, something's going down back stage, the drums are getting faster and faster like Johnny's doing a hit of some good shit, and you're wondering where the fuck Billie is....then bam, the first note of St. Jimmy is so much sweeter than it was on the album, which naturally no one ever thought was possible. Then in that moment, tears are shed, bricks are shat, and then you realize Jimmy hasn't even hit the stage yet. In the few seconds I scanned this thread trying to find a mention of the musical version of this song, I realized that this song is a bit more than the perfect transition. Yeah, i've skipped it a few times, but when I don't, it's a total blast. It's one of the songs on AI that just can't be on any other album, and that AI just couldn't be as good an album without this song. The drums and vocals are very, very powerful, and the lyrics are potent and direct. It's one of those songs that the audience can sing as part of a generation. Yes, indeed, we are waiting, waiting for something better. We just want the bullshit and the hard times to be over and get back to the good times represented by faster songs like St Jimmy and She's a Rebel. Despite the rather obvious references to the plot of the album, I always see Are We the Waiting as one for the people, one for the audience, and that the few lines about the Jesus of Suburbia were a little out of place. Maybe that's just because I've always seen Jesus' activity in the city prior to St Jimmy (well, and afterwards too) as one of the lesser developed points of the plot that not even the musical really touches on. That's just me. Anyway, Are We the Waiting is a very important song to the pacing and power of American Idiot as an album. There's nothing fancy about it, yet it's not '94 Bay Area punk either. It stands alone, just like the person singing it. It's really an Ensemble Darkhorse of a crowd pleaser. You don't know you really want to hear it until after you've had your moment in the spotlight of screaming this out with Billie and the boys and a few thousand other people. Then there's all this electricity built up because everyone knows it's coming. You're excited, you're having fun. Could this moment get more awesome? Dun. Dah dun. It did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBasketcase Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 This song live is like 1000x better then the recording, same with other emotional songs like time of your life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon456 Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 At this point in the story-line, it’s Easter Sunday, and the Jesus of Suburbia is in the big city, under the “starry” night sky and the “city lights”; he’s come to realise (after the ‘events’ of Boulevard of Broken Dreams) that the city isn’t the place where he’d find himself, or realise his dreams – the “fairy tales in my mind”. Instead he ends up questioning his purpose and himself; he’s the “unknown”, “lost and found” kid from Jingletown, just waiting for something to occur. It’s at this point that he realises that “The Jesus of Suburbia is a lie”. As Billie Joe said on VH1 Storytellers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingrid Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 When I first watched Bullet in a Bible (which was also the first time I watched something live from Green Day, and I hadn't seen many video clips either) Billie's smile at 1:53-1:54 just struck me and it still does. It's so... well, words wouldn't do it justice. And I don't mean that in a "omg billeh hot" or fangirly kind of way, just how genuine and happy it is. It's a smile I connect to how I felt at certain moments during Green Day concerts, too. Even without checking the video, I know exactly what moment you're talking about! <3 That smile has always been one of my very favourite moments of BIAB, it just makes me grin back at the screen like an idiot; and now after having been to several of their concerts, it reminds me of every wonderful time I've seen that exact look on Billie's face in person - one of the very best parts seeing them live, in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bastard of 1967 Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I mean really, I always said that the main reason I listened to this song was to hear it go into St. Jimmy, but the musical went about this brilliantly, especially if you saw it with Billie, because you know this is his big entrance, and you know that Are We the Waiting goes right into St. Jimmy...then the drums keep going. Johnny's talking, something's going down back stage, the drums are getting faster and faster like Johnny's doing a hit of some good shit, and you're wondering where the fuck Billie is....then bam, the first note of St. Jimmy is so much sweeter than it was on the album, which naturally no one ever thought was possible. Then in that moment, tears are shed, bricks are shat, and then you realize Jimmy hasn't even hit the stage yet. Oh yes, and if you were within a few rows of the stage you'd often hear this gut-wrenching growl-scream come out of Billie from backstage just before his cue. In one of the interviews he gave while the show was still running, he made particular note of how, at Green Day concerts, the concert itself has a building rhythm that helps him "warm up" if you will, to get ready to cut loose when it's time to perform St. Jimmy. Not so on Broadway -- here, he's waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting to come on, and all of a sudden the spotlight's on him and he has to get himself into character literally at the flip of a switch. That blood-curdling growl was the technique he used to do that...and experiencing it up close just blows your mind. I wish everyone here could have had a chance to witness that. But, yes, Are We The Waiting is a warmup song. I had missed the lyrics booklet's reference to Easter Sunday -- the day Jesus of Suburbia was martyred for the sins of his parents and reborn as St. Jimmy. I don't see AWTW as a "hangover" song (I think that was Boulevard's place after the rush of Holiday). Instead, it frames the transition from JoS to St. Jimmy as: we're stuck waiting here for something else, something better, something REAL to come along....thus the protagonist casts aside the failed remnant of his victimized childhood and -- 1, 2 - 1 - 2 -3 - 4 !!!! -- along comes St. Jimmy to fill the void. I've always thought that AWTW's music has a very R.E.M.-like vibe to it. Light, airy guitar coupled with that steady, repititious BOOM - bum - bum - BOOM - bum - bum - BOOMBOOM drumbeat where it almost seems like Tre has to force himself to keep his usual fury contained. It's unlike anything else in Green Day's back catalog and makes for a perfect bridge between the dark void of Boulevard and the frenetic pace of St. Jimmy. Gets two Wubs in my book. Even without checking the video, I know exactly what moment you're talking about! <3 That smile has always been one of my very favourite moments of BIAB, it just makes me grin back at the screen like an idiot; and now after having been to several of their concerts, it reminds me of every wonderful time I've seen that exact look on Billie's face in person - one of the very best parts seeing them live, in my opinion. It's one of the reasons why seeing Green Day live is such an incredible experience. I know this will sound trite, but Billie in front of a crowd is like watching a kid in a candy store. Performing for an arena full of people who want to see his band and share an experience with them seems to be one of the things he lives for. It inspires him, it motivates him, and 22+ years after the band first got started it still blows his fucking mind. When you see Green Day live, you see it on his face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermione Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 It's one of the reasons why seeing Green Day live is such an incredible experience. I know this will sound trite, but Billie in front of a crowd is like watching a kid in a candy store. Performing for an arena full of people who want to see his band and share an experience with them seems to be one of the things he lives for. It inspires him, it motivates him, and 22+ years after the band first got started it still blows his fucking mind. When you see Green Day live, you see it on his face. I wish I could rep this 10 times! It's so true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraG Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 It's one of the reasons why seeing Green Day live is such an incredible experience. I know this will sound trite, but Billie in front of a crowd is like watching a kid in a candy store. Performing for an arena full of people who want to see his band and share an experience with them seems to be one of the things he lives for. It inspires him, it motivates him, and 22+ years after the band first got started it still blows his fucking mind. When you see Green Day live, you see it on his face. It's sooo true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
in_your_face Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 This is my fav. line off the song : "Rage and Love, the story of my life, the Jesus of Suburbia is a lie" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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