My Green Day Adventures (True Stories)
Sacramento/Fresno show
Nothing else that major happened at the Sacramento show except, they played 2,000 Light Years Away, Michelle and I each caught a drum stick from Tre, and I think we each got a pick from Mike.
Besides the Warfield "secret" show and of course the Las Vegas adventure(s) (previous Las Vegas and the Las Vegas to come) Fresno was one of my favorite Green Day shows.
Michelle and I got up sort of late the next day. I don't think we got to Fresno until noon, which is quite unusual for me as you have read in previous chapters.
There weren't many people in front of us, but I was still a bit nervous, but on the other hand we had Verizon on our side now. We met up with Verizon as they were setting up. Matt said "Well, after we set up you guys can come hang out, maybe we'll get you into the sound check and what not. You guys know the drill by now,"
We sat in line with our Verizon VIP passes around our neck. People offered us outrageous amounts of money for those passes.
"Hey you! I'll give you $300 for that pass!"
"I'll give you $500!"
I think even someone offered $1,000. They didn't know we didn't have backstage access.
We sat in line making signs. Mom and I were determined to get Michelle on stage for Knowledge. My mom made a sign that said Kick ass guitar player. Also, we came up with the clever idea of making a sign that said R.I.P Stuart the first official victim of Hurricane Katrina and then in the corner we wrote a brief summery of what happened to Stuart. We, were hoping by doing this they would play Stuart and the Ave
After Verizon sat up they all went to lunch. They said they would bring us back something. They proclaimed us "Tent Monitors". We took that roll seriously. We made name tags out of star burst wrappers that said that.
Now, something you should know about Verizon's tour bus is that it has Green Day on it, so of course one would jump to conclusions that it's Green Day's. Although, I would think they would try to be a bit more humble on their bus for stalker reasons and what not, but that's just me.
People constantly kept coming up to us, going "OMG can you guys hook us up to meet Green Day?"
"Are they in there?"
"OMG you hang out with Billie Joe!?"
At the time we decided to be assholes and tell people that they were in there more towards the what most people on here call "teenies", which yeah I realize wasn't the most generous thing, but I was sixteen, kill me for it. Oh, and sorry if any reading this were one of those people, I actually did run into people on the Idiot Club forum and GSB forum that we let down or whatever.
After disappointing many people and making a few new friends, Verizon people returned empty handed, because they said the food was shitty, but did go and get candy for us. Also, in the duration of this time one tour bus pulled up.
Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned before that if you get this VIP thing you get autographed Green Day pictures. Personally, I didn't think the band really signed them, but they do. Alysia pulled out a stack of them and was like
"Matt where the hell are they?"
"Well, apparently Billie Joe's bus is here, but Mike and Tre over slept. They should be here soon,"
At this time people from VIP were coming, which is why this questioned happened.
Mike and Tre's bus pulled up momentarily after that conversation. We looked down the hill to where we did see Billie Joe run into Tre's bus and then watch them both leave together. Also, we saw Mike Pelino and Jason Freese.
Steven was giving the whole rule of the VIP speal when he turned to Michelle and I and went
"Oh and I want you two to come to the sound check too"
Then he made us introduce ourselves to the group, which made us feel so official.
After we were waiting for Art (Green Day's security) my mom comes up and asked if we get to talk to Billie Joe at all. When we told her most likely not she introduced us to this girl.
I want to say her name was Molly, but anyway she has the same vocal teacher that Billie Joe had when he was three. She had a letter from her teacher in which, she asked her to find away to give to Billie Joe. She gave it to us and asked if we could try, in which we said we would.
We went into the Arena to hear them playing St. Jimmy, Letterbomb, She's a Rebel, Give me Novocaine, and Extraordinary Girl in the mean time Bill Schafler (or whatever his name is) Green Day's tour manager was passing out the autographed pictures. I pulled him to the side and asked if he could give the letter Molly wrote Billie Joe, and explained the story. He said he would.
We held up our RIP Stuart sign it looked like at the sound check they all were trying to read it, but we were way father away opposed to the Ft. Lauderdale sound check. Tre though kept flashing us a shrugging of the shoulders indicating he couldn't read it.
As we left Billie Joe say bye, and Michelle yelled "Stuart", hoping maybe they would catch on, especially once they saw our sign. After we left we could hear them playing Whatshername
Jimmy Eat World came out and did their thing. Then Green Day came on. The first thing Mike did when he saw us was say
"You two again?"
This of course made Michelle's day since it indicated he recognized her too.
Now, during [American Idiot I was of course going as crazy as I was the first time I saw them play it, until Michelle kept hitting me in the shoulder pointing and yelling "Adie! Adie!". I looked over to where she was pointing and saw Adrienne standing there looking like how we were.
We kept trying to get her attention. Finally she did and she smiled and waved to us! Seriously, to this day we get more excited about that then other things that happened in which you will find out later.
Then I kind brought up my camera showing I wanted a picture. When I tried it didn't come out so I did my best to say "Can you come to the other side of the stage?" she nodded her head and went behind the curtain. By this time Green Day was in the middle of Jesus of Suburbia.
A few moments later she came back on the same side shrugging her shoulders saying "I can't get over there, sorry". We both nodded our head in a "it's okay" kind of thing. Then she left.
When Green Day was in the middle of Longview we decided to whip out our sign for Mike. When he was looking at us we pulled it out and he bent down and read it. Then he mouthed
"I can't read what's written on the side," which is where we wrote how Stuart died in Hurricane Katrina. Michelle had a sharpie and wrote it bigger and Mike laughed at us.
Green Day so far was doing their usual set list, until when I was expecting them to go into 2,000 Light Years Away like they had done at last nights show Billie suddenly goes
"There is a special guys here tonight. A man named Chris Relva, who is the brother of a close friend of ours named Jason Andrew Relva. This next song is called J.A.R!"
As you know Mike is my favorite member, so J.A.R is one of my favorite Mike written songs.
Then Knowledge came. Mom raised the sign above Michelle. Billie, kind of nodded at us that basically said "Okay, I'll pick her". We were pretty confident that she was going to get picked. I raised my hand for bass player, because it was in my area and no one around me was really volunteering. Then Billie Joe looks at me and goes
"You play bass?"
I nodded my head. Then this smirk came across his face and he shook his head laughing. His face basically said "I already know you've played before" and he called on a girl on the other side.
Then came for time for the guitarist. Mom had the camera ready to take a picture and I was holding some of Michelle's stuff. Billie came towards our direction and gave Michelle and I a look. Then you want to know what the bastard did? He called on someone else. It wasn't the fact that he called on someone else (because it was a little kid) it was the fact that he kind of led us on that he was going to pick her. Also, it was Michelle's last Green Day gig with me. At the time we presumed that this was going to be the last tour for American Idiot
I was pissed, mom was pissed, and Michelle was bummed. As Billie was finishing Knowledge Mom stuck her tongue out at Billie. As silly as it sounds Billie actually looked a bit offended. I took it a notch further and flicked him off. He kept shooting us these looks of sorrow.
By this time Green Day was midway through She and I was still pissed at Billie Joe. Also at this time I began to feel light headed and nauseous, kind of like how I did at the Cleavland show. In fact I passed out just like at the Cleveland show. They brought me to the side of the stage right next to Chris Relva. I heard someone say Chris and I sprang up. I wanted to go up and say something to him, but was too shy and couldn't think of anything worthy to say.
One of the security guards said whenever I felt better I could go to the back of where the floor section was. This time I didn't luck out at getting put back in my spot, which I didn't blame them with all the crowd surfing they were already attending with.
For the remainder of the concert I sat by the sound booth. When mom and Michelle met up with me Michelle had a smile on her face, and handed me a pick. I had already caught two picks from Mike at that nights show, so I told her to keep it.
"No, they're from Billie,"
I was a bit thrown off by this, because Billie never really throws out his pick. Apparently, he threw two out and told Art to give them to us. I guess that was his way of apologizing or something. In it's own twisted way it did.
Besides the Warfield "secret" show and of course the Las Vegas adventure(s) (previous Las Vegas and the Las Vegas to come) Fresno was one of my favorite Green Day shows.
Michelle and I got up sort of late the next day. I don't think we got to Fresno until noon, which is quite unusual for me as you have read in previous chapters.
There weren't many people in front of us, but I was still a bit nervous, but on the other hand we had Verizon on our side now. We met up with Verizon as they were setting up. Matt said "Well, after we set up you guys can come hang out, maybe we'll get you into the sound check and what not. You guys know the drill by now,"
We sat in line with our Verizon VIP passes around our neck. People offered us outrageous amounts of money for those passes.
"Hey you! I'll give you $300 for that pass!"
"I'll give you $500!"
I think even someone offered $1,000. They didn't know we didn't have backstage access.
We sat in line making signs. Mom and I were determined to get Michelle on stage for Knowledge. My mom made a sign that said Kick ass guitar player. Also, we came up with the clever idea of making a sign that said R.I.P Stuart the first official victim of Hurricane Katrina and then in the corner we wrote a brief summery of what happened to Stuart. We, were hoping by doing this they would play Stuart and the Ave
After Verizon sat up they all went to lunch. They said they would bring us back something. They proclaimed us "Tent Monitors". We took that roll seriously. We made name tags out of star burst wrappers that said that.
Now, something you should know about Verizon's tour bus is that it has Green Day on it, so of course one would jump to conclusions that it's Green Day's. Although, I would think they would try to be a bit more humble on their bus for stalker reasons and what not, but that's just me.
People constantly kept coming up to us, going "OMG can you guys hook us up to meet Green Day?"
"Are they in there?"
"OMG you hang out with Billie Joe!?"
At the time we decided to be assholes and tell people that they were in there more towards the what most people on here call "teenies", which yeah I realize wasn't the most generous thing, but I was sixteen, kill me for it. Oh, and sorry if any reading this were one of those people, I actually did run into people on the Idiot Club forum and GSB forum that we let down or whatever.
After disappointing many people and making a few new friends, Verizon people returned empty handed, because they said the food was shitty, but did go and get candy for us. Also, in the duration of this time one tour bus pulled up.
Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned before that if you get this VIP thing you get autographed Green Day pictures. Personally, I didn't think the band really signed them, but they do. Alysia pulled out a stack of them and was like
"Matt where the hell are they?"
"Well, apparently Billie Joe's bus is here, but Mike and Tre over slept. They should be here soon,"
At this time people from VIP were coming, which is why this questioned happened.
Mike and Tre's bus pulled up momentarily after that conversation. We looked down the hill to where we did see Billie Joe run into Tre's bus and then watch them both leave together. Also, we saw Mike Pelino and Jason Freese.
Steven was giving the whole rule of the VIP speal when he turned to Michelle and I and went
"Oh and I want you two to come to the sound check too"
Then he made us introduce ourselves to the group, which made us feel so official.
After we were waiting for Art (Green Day's security) my mom comes up and asked if we get to talk to Billie Joe at all. When we told her most likely not she introduced us to this girl.
I want to say her name was Molly, but anyway she has the same vocal teacher that Billie Joe had when he was three. She had a letter from her teacher in which, she asked her to find away to give to Billie Joe. She gave it to us and asked if we could try, in which we said we would.
We went into the Arena to hear them playing St. Jimmy, Letterbomb, She's a Rebel, Give me Novocaine, and Extraordinary Girl in the mean time Bill Schafler (or whatever his name is) Green Day's tour manager was passing out the autographed pictures. I pulled him to the side and asked if he could give the letter Molly wrote Billie Joe, and explained the story. He said he would.
We held up our RIP Stuart sign it looked like at the sound check they all were trying to read it, but we were way father away opposed to the Ft. Lauderdale sound check. Tre though kept flashing us a shrugging of the shoulders indicating he couldn't read it.
As we left Billie Joe say bye, and Michelle yelled "Stuart", hoping maybe they would catch on, especially once they saw our sign. After we left we could hear them playing Whatshername
Jimmy Eat World came out and did their thing. Then Green Day came on. The first thing Mike did when he saw us was say
"You two again?"
This of course made Michelle's day since it indicated he recognized her too.
Now, during [American Idiot I was of course going as crazy as I was the first time I saw them play it, until Michelle kept hitting me in the shoulder pointing and yelling "Adie! Adie!". I looked over to where she was pointing and saw Adrienne standing there looking like how we were.
We kept trying to get her attention. Finally she did and she smiled and waved to us! Seriously, to this day we get more excited about that then other things that happened in which you will find out later.
Then I kind brought up my camera showing I wanted a picture. When I tried it didn't come out so I did my best to say "Can you come to the other side of the stage?" she nodded her head and went behind the curtain. By this time Green Day was in the middle of Jesus of Suburbia.
A few moments later she came back on the same side shrugging her shoulders saying "I can't get over there, sorry". We both nodded our head in a "it's okay" kind of thing. Then she left.
When Green Day was in the middle of Longview we decided to whip out our sign for Mike. When he was looking at us we pulled it out and he bent down and read it. Then he mouthed
"I can't read what's written on the side," which is where we wrote how Stuart died in Hurricane Katrina. Michelle had a sharpie and wrote it bigger and Mike laughed at us.
Green Day so far was doing their usual set list, until when I was expecting them to go into 2,000 Light Years Away like they had done at last nights show Billie suddenly goes
"There is a special guys here tonight. A man named Chris Relva, who is the brother of a close friend of ours named Jason Andrew Relva. This next song is called J.A.R!"
As you know Mike is my favorite member, so J.A.R is one of my favorite Mike written songs.
Then Knowledge came. Mom raised the sign above Michelle. Billie, kind of nodded at us that basically said "Okay, I'll pick her". We were pretty confident that she was going to get picked. I raised my hand for bass player, because it was in my area and no one around me was really volunteering. Then Billie Joe looks at me and goes
"You play bass?"
I nodded my head. Then this smirk came across his face and he shook his head laughing. His face basically said "I already know you've played before" and he called on a girl on the other side.
Then came for time for the guitarist. Mom had the camera ready to take a picture and I was holding some of Michelle's stuff. Billie came towards our direction and gave Michelle and I a look. Then you want to know what the bastard did? He called on someone else. It wasn't the fact that he called on someone else (because it was a little kid) it was the fact that he kind of led us on that he was going to pick her. Also, it was Michelle's last Green Day gig with me. At the time we presumed that this was going to be the last tour for American Idiot
I was pissed, mom was pissed, and Michelle was bummed. As Billie was finishing Knowledge Mom stuck her tongue out at Billie. As silly as it sounds Billie actually looked a bit offended. I took it a notch further and flicked him off. He kept shooting us these looks of sorrow.
By this time Green Day was midway through She and I was still pissed at Billie Joe. Also at this time I began to feel light headed and nauseous, kind of like how I did at the Cleavland show. In fact I passed out just like at the Cleveland show. They brought me to the side of the stage right next to Chris Relva. I heard someone say Chris and I sprang up. I wanted to go up and say something to him, but was too shy and couldn't think of anything worthy to say.
One of the security guards said whenever I felt better I could go to the back of where the floor section was. This time I didn't luck out at getting put back in my spot, which I didn't blame them with all the crowd surfing they were already attending with.
For the remainder of the concert I sat by the sound booth. When mom and Michelle met up with me Michelle had a smile on her face, and handed me a pick. I had already caught two picks from Mike at that nights show, so I told her to keep it.
"No, they're from Billie,"
I was a bit thrown off by this, because Billie never really throws out his pick. Apparently, he threw two out and told Art to give them to us. I guess that was his way of apologizing or something. In it's own twisted way it did.