Bottom of the Hill

Incomplete setlist

I met Green Day on Sept 5th, at that secret Labor Day show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. In case you never heard about it. Aren't you all really jealous of me now? Now, Jeanna got Mike's signature at the Frustrators' show, but I went to a special private Green Day one and meant all of Green Day, so there!!! (She had me add that.) Actually, I really just want to gloat here by telling off my experience. To start, I'm a member of the Green Day Idiot Club (and damned proud of it, and my idiocy) and I asked to go to this show and they put me on the guest list, plus one guest. My adventure started Sunday morning, in which I had gone through three days of hell trying to find a ride, and the only person who was free was my friend Emily, who likes Green Day because Tré is hot. She's still one of my best friends. So anyway, we live about an hour north of San Francisco, and planned to catch a bus which would take about 3 hours to get into downtown. The show started at 8:00 and we wanted to catch the bus at 4:00 p.m. to get there with plenty of time. But we missed it, because Emily forgot her proof of age at home, and sent her sister to bring it to us. None of us drive (legally) by the way. Emily's sister wasn't on the next bus into where we were, so we had to take the 5:00 bus into San Francisco and I was a total nervous wreck about it, thinking we were gonna be late, or get lost, or miss it, or Emily wouldn't get in because she had no proof of her age. You had to be 17 to go to this show. We got to downtown San Francisco at about 7:45 and walked 30 blocks to Bottom of the Hill. I thought I was gonna die, and I was so worried, and I cried a lot, because I thought we'd be late, or they wouldn't let Emily in or whatever. As it turned out though, we got there at 8:30 and got in no problems and I was SO relieved, and the first person I recognize is Cinder Block from Tilt, and I practically WORSHIP her so I talked to her for a while. My friend Brian was there, and his girlfriend Melinda, and a couple of his friends. Some guy from Party of 5 (whoever plays Charlie Salinger, I wouldn't know since I don't watch it) was at that show, and all of the Criminals, and One Man Army, among others. There were decorations of Christmas tree lights and colored streamers all over, and bowls of candy everywhere. (Emily and I had candy for dinner, hehe!) All the Frustrators were there, and I first saw Jason (singer), and he introduced me to the other band guys Terry (guitarist) and Art (drummer), who are very, very nice people. And I met Sara "Frustratorette" who did backup vocals on a Frustrators song. She and Art ended up giving Emily and me a ride back to a bus stop after the show. On my way to the bathroom, none other than BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG passed me by, and I almost fell over right then and there and died of starstruck shock. When I got back from the bathroom, I went back to where Emily, Brian and his friends were, and all I could do was point at Billie Joe, jump up and down and squeal. And I maintain my composure pretty damn well most of the time, but this was totally different. I'd been waiting YEARS for this. I went to get some water, and someone said my name, it was those friends I hadn't seen for about a year now, because we all went to a show in Sacramento that Green Day was supposed to be at but didn't make it to. They had a camera, and were gonna take a picture of me and Billie Joe, and he was talking to his friends at that moment. He has big pouffy brown hair grown out almost into an afro, and I stood next to him for the longest time, completely starstruck then he walked away and I was SOOO sad! (I feel like a teeny bopper here, yikes!) As luck would have it, Billie came walking back my way, and I said "Hey Billie..." and he turned around... "Hi, my name is Marisa" and I shook his hand... and COMPLETELY lost my voice, I couldn't speak, I was just smiling like a big, dumb idiot. And I have NEVER done that before. My friend was there with a camera, and I could see Brian, Melinda and Emily there, waiting to be in the picture and I thought to myself quite selfishly "Go away, I've been waiting too long for this, he is MINE!" But I didn't say anything, because I felt really rude and selfish about it. But this was like my MOMENT. So, Billie Joe took the camera, and pointed it at his face, and I put my face up next to his (and I was SOOO nervous) and then he waited for the flash, and took a picture of just him and me, smiled and walked off to the backstage area. All I could do at that point for the next five minute was make these weird squealing sounds, because I was still SO in shock. They started playing a little after 10, and ended at 11:45 rather abruptly. Billie came up first, waiting for Mike and Tré and said "Hello, my name is Billie Joe, and I'm an alcoholic." Mike's hair was bleached blond and spiked up, and Tré's hair was a regular brownish color and he had a five o'clock shadow. They said we the audience held the set list and played songs that people shouted out as request. Emily and I screamed for Jinx, and they almost played it and then didn't. They covered a bunch of 80's songs, including Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and Mike insisted that Limp Bizkit's song "Nookie" is actually "Dookie" and sang it, I did it all for the dookie *fist raise* the dookie... *fist raise* and wipe if off your ASS!!! Mike also called 2000 Light Years Away 2000 Light BEERS away... and they played a bunch of old songs and even a couple of new songs. A few songs from that night: "Hitchin' a Ride," "Paper Lanterns," "Disappearing Boy," "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" "One for the Razorbacks," well you get the idea. Billie was playing two guitars I'd never seen before, and someone asked where Blue was... and the sad truth is, Blue is officially retired. Awww... One of the new songs was called "Church on Sunday" and it seems to be the only one anyone who went that night could remember. I think a line from it went something like "If I go to church on Sunday, will you go out with me Friday night?" The show ended abruptly after Billie played another new song and he really pissed about something, then he stopped suddenly, threw his guitar down and stormed offstage. Mike followed and eventually so did Tré, and we the audience were wondering if that was it or if they were coming back or what. Then the roadies packed up their stuff. Show was over, but it was SO amazing! And then I had to get Emily and me home somehow. At least back to the bus stop. I went looking for a ride. I saw Tré Cool outside and I stood next to him for a while in silent awe before going back in to find Emily, who had gotten a drumstick. So we went back to find Tré, and he signed her drumstick. Then I found Mike, and he actually remembered me from the Frustrators show about 2 weeks previous, and he signed Emily's drumstick and gave me a guitar pic which he signed for me. And then Emily and I got a ride home with Art (the Frustrator's drummer) and Sara, who are both extremely nice people and we're totally grateful for that. (I haven't stopped saying that in my retelling of this adventure either). We took a bus home, because Emily's silly mother wouldn't let her stay the night in San Francisco, even though I had a place where we could stay the night. We got back at 4am, and my ears wouldn't stop ringing for days. But it was all totally worth it, I had a blast, and I am so grateful that the Idiot Club gave me this