Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Simone Don: "After a FIFTY-MINUTE wait between bands, Green Day finally came on and opened with Nice Guys Finish Last. Crowd went nuts so I promptly moved from my spot close-ish to the stage, to further back where I wouldn't get kicked and could dance freely. The energy was up from the beginning (as always) and crowds was lapping it up. Castaway kept the energy up as it seems we forget how good a song it is until we get the chance to see it live and go nuts! The set continued on in high spirits with Billie Joe frequently insisting we 'hey-oh' after him. I was hoping that after 4 years he'd be over that, but apparently not. I have to say I groan when he starts up with that! Hitchin' A Ride brings out the bounciest dance moves in us all which is rather exhausting. The stretching out near the end of the song is a welcome rest. Once again we were subjected to 'hey-oh' and learning how to count to four for the big count in for the song's tremendous ending. While I needed the rest, I'd have rather just they played the song all the way through. More on that later. Request time came and to my DELIGHT some genius down the front got my telepathic message of Going To Pasalaqua and passed it on to Billie Joe. I had been wanting to hear this live since before I first saw them in '96. This was a real dream come true for me! I jumped and danced and leapt until I was out of breath. This in itself made my night as I love this song so much! Note: I'd like to especially NOT thank my friends Sam and Tracey in Australia who, after one show in '96, wrote a gay 'note' to give to the band to get them to play One Of My Lies at the next night's show, refused to include my Going To Pasalacqua request, so screw you both because you have never heard One Of My Lies live and I finally got my song, HA! Expecting the request portion of the show, I had some plans but I got lazy and didn't get around to making my 86 sign. I could see some champ down near the front flashing eight fingers, then six fingers repeatedly. He did his best, but it never turned up. Now as great as everything was, there was one major problem, in my opinion. It can get a little tedious when a band lets the song run for several minutes while they pump up the crowd, talk shit, get people onstage or whatever. Usually you come to expect these things, so you can deal with it, but I think Green Day went waaay overboard this time! They drew out FIVE songs with 'hey-oh' and other stuff and it was completely ANNOYING and BORING! I hate to say it because I look forward to Green Day shows so much. But dragging that many songs out really weakens the pace of the show. They did it on Hitchin' A Ride, the cover where they get people on stage to play the instuments, one other song (I forget which), then in the encore on Minority and Platypus right after each other! It really pushed me over the edge those last time. Much eyeball rolling was going on at that time, sorry! It would be tedious enough on it's own, but since it is just always 'hey-oh' and counting '1-2-1-2-3-4' it is even worse. It just bums me out a lot because the show was perfect in every other way. (Except Good Riddance, which I hate. That's never a good moment for me.) So while I DID just go on a bit of a tirade, I still stand by the show as being great. Green Day's shows are so energetic and fun that even with ongoing dull spots like they had, the show is still memorable. There is enough good stuff in any Green Day show to make up for the dud times. Perhaps they did me a favour. Perhaps my head would have exploded from overexcitement had they not done that? Ponder..."

Cristina: "We went to wait in line at 6:30 pm and by that time the line was half way wraped around the bulding! By the time the gates opened the line had wraped around the building once and was going on a second time. When you'd get to the front, where they check your ticket, they made you go in a nother big fat line if you had bag. But anyway when we finally did get in(we got the camera in without any trouble,in my underwear) everyone was sitting down and waiting for the living end. So we went to get a shirt,a program,and a poster(I wanted the f-you finger, but my mom wouldn't let me)When we got back everyone was standing up. So the living end came out ,did some songs, thanked Green Day and left. Then the guitar tech stared to play his favorite songs. Everyone stared singing along to "Hey Micky" and "YMCA", the stared chanting Green Day and sure enough they came on. The warning signs& light started going off. Mike ran out with beer in his hand, threw it out onto everyone the started playing the bass. Tre ran out and started spining on the Drum thrown,and stared playing. All of a sudden you could hear the begining chords of Nice Guys Finish Last ,and Billie walked out and started singing.At the end of the first song Billie started talking to the crowd."hey san franciscso!! My people!! My people!!!!Who kicks L.A.'s ass??? MY home!!!" Then he came out with a Nixson mask and stared playing Castaway(he took the mask off when he stared singing) Then they went right into Church on Sunday *. Longview*,and Welcome to Paradise* were the next songs. Then he asked the crowd "What song is about Sex and booze? The whole next hour is going to be about sex and booze!!" He started going into Hitchen' a Ride and he made the crowd sing 1,2,1,2,3,4!! In the middle of the song he started pretending to have an orgasim and he made the greusome sound effects." If you want an orgasim, is takes a simple 1,2,1,2,3,4(softly)1,2,1,2,3,4(louder)1,2,1,2,3,4(loudest)" then they went back into the song."this is a song about a place in Berkeley", said Billie as he started into the Ballad of Willhim Fink."Okay it's request time. What do you want to hear? You wan to hear Limp bisket?" Then everyone fliped him off and booed"okay,okay.You want to hear Crispy row?(some one was trying to say Christie road)Oh cristie road.No not Operation Ivy. Operation Ivy sucks.How many of you want to hear something even older than Christie road?" everyone roared and he said "here we go again......." and he did finish the whole song of Going to Pasalacqua. Then he started singing 2,000 light years away*. Sometime before or after that Billie cameout with his water bottle and got the people to the right of the stagewet,and then he sprayed the people in the balcony with his super soaker. Around that time he also took out a stage light and told every one to wave at the people in the balcony,and I think he told them to flip off some of the mosh pits."How many of you want to hear some metal ? Okay this one goes out to mental mike over there." and they stared playing the beging of the Van Halen song ...........I think it was "something like love". It was the one they played on Behind the music.He had everone say 1,2,1,2,3,4 in the tune of Brain Stew and sure enough they started into Brainstew.Platypus(I hate you)* and Jaded were next and they were the songs that the most mosh pits were started. They started playing Knowlege,but in the middle they went into a jazz tune and Billie took out the Stage light and started choosing people for a band. Once he had the drummer and the bassist, he had the gutarist jump from the balcony and crowd surf to the stage. Once he got the stage, Billie gave him a hug and kissed him. The guitarist fell to the ground of shock, and then the fake band finished the end of knowlege.Billie named the band The San Francisco Sweethearts right before they did stage dives. After that they played Basket Case*, She*(the Ey-hoooo was really long)and King for a Day. King for a day was really funny. Billie wore a Crown and kept rubbing his butt, Jason wore a hippy outfit with a green wig, and the trumpeter wore a bee suit. After that they played Waiting, and in the middle of the song Billie said, "This is the part where I say i'm not going home, but I'm already here". They closed with Minority,and in the middle part, Billie said" I want to thank you,and you ,and you ,and you......." Then He started blowing kisses to the crowd, and then he gave us the a-hole sign. Everyone started chanting Green Day,Green Day, Green Day, Green Day.It wasn't a loud chant, but Billie came out ,said thank you and played Good Riddance all by himself.Everyone stoped moshing,and some even lit there lighters. After Billie was finished , Tre and mike came out and they played Warning. In the middle(yes again) Billie introduced everyone on stage."Give it up for Mike fuckn' Dirnt!!! And Tre the man who likes to milk dogs Cool!!!(everyone cheered for tre)" Then he inroduced the two trumpet players(one came out smoking pot) jason,and himself "My name is asshole" is what he called himself.Then they played When I Come Around,and at the end of the song a huge bag of red confeti exploed from the ceiling,and Mike and Billie ran crazy around the stage getting everyone wet with like 10 water bottles. While they were doing that,Tre took his time distroying everything on the stage(He mainly tore up the tom toms), and while tre was doing that the roadies set up new mikes and a new drumset. And of course they closed with the Macy*s Day parade,and one of their roadies dumped fake snow on tre(they had it planned out). At the end of the song, they went cray with the water bottles again and left. After the show, we were going to go try and met them(we even found their cars) but we had to get to the BART station before it closed."