Getting in to see Green Day at Irving Plaza
I could see them perform a million times and never get bored
Green Day is one of the best bands I’ve ever seen live.
If you’ve seen them, you know what I’m talking about. They always have a ton of energy, they know how to command a crowd, and they treat their fans like family. It helps that their music is pretty damn good too. In 2009 my sister and I went to NYC at 3am to stand on a line until around 8am to get into the free outside concert for Good Morning America. They were only allowed to play like four or five songs to promote the release of their new album at the time, 21st Century Breakdown. One more song they said, “This song is called Jesus of Suburbia!” (their second longest song that runs 9 mins and 9 seconds long off of American Idiot). Tré cool.
Fast forward to January 2024 where me and my sister waited on a line yet again in NYC for a chance to see Green Day. This one was at Irving Plaza which is a very small intimate venue, with a 1,200 capacity. Why is a stadium band playing a small club you ask? They like to do this from time to time, but this one was an exclusive event presented by SiriusXM and sponsored by Carnival Cruise Line and the people who were lucky enough to get tickets won them or were industry people I believe. There were never any tickets on sale to the public for this event. You can read more about it here. We couldn’t get tickets so we waited on a line with many other crazy fans who decided to take the same chance in the dead of winter. We made friends with the people around us in line quickly. A couple people towards the front of the line brought guitars and were singing Green Day songs pretty much the whole time (see video below). Some people bought a couple pizzas to share too. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Thank goodness there was a woman there who unofficially managed the spots on the line. Once you got on line, she wrote the number of the place you were in sharpie on your hand. I think me and my sister were like 28 & 29. If this person didn’t police this, then we probably wouldn’t have gotten in because throughout the day people showed up (especially after work) and cut the line where their friends were waiting. Also shout out to Trey from Irving Plaza who was mediating the line situation and tried his best to honor the line number organization the fans did to try and keep it fair and functional. We got there a little after 2pm and the venue started to let un-ticketed people in on the line (for free!) at around 8pm. This line was LONG too. My sister and I were the last two people they let in! We were so fucking lucky. The set list was unreal. They were promoting their new album so they played six songs off of Saviors, but the rest was a mix of old and even older songs. The setlist was actually INSANE. You can peep the setlist at the end of that article I linked above or click here. They even gave us a huge pink and black show poster as we were leaving the venue!
On Monday August 5, we saw them on their tour with Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and The Linda Lindas at Citi Field in Queens, NY.
Celebrating the 30th and 20th anniversaries of Dookie and American Idiot, they played these albums in its entirety. I was in heaven. I remember listening to American Idiot on my discman on my walk to soccer practice in middle school. This album is timeless. It’s crazy how the Bush era really fueled some bands to write some of the best albums ever written, in my opinion. Neither of those two albums have one bad song on them; no skips for me.
They’ve always cared about their fans.
Back in the day they used to bring fans up on stage to play a song called Knowledge by Operation Ivy. They would pick three random kids out of the crowd to play guitar, bass, and drums, to form a band and play the song. But probably after lots of trial and error (some kids not actually being able to play the instrument), they ended up just bringing one guitarist on stage to play with the band. If you were good, Billie would let you keep his guitar. Watch here.
This time around, Billie invited one lucky fan on stage to sing part of Know Your Enemy. The girl they brought up at Citi Field killed it. Watch a clip I took below.
Thanks for indulging me on some of my Green Day experiences. I’ll spare you by only briefly mentioning the two American Idiot on Broadway shows I saw (one of them was with Billie Joe as St. Jimmy) which was amazing! Green Day is iconic and still relevant after over 30 years as a band. As long as they are performing, I will get my ass out there to see them.
¡VIVA LA GREEN DAY!
Check out my website below and come to a Come Original Showcase to support local bands and artists! I also host an open mic once a month (every 2nd Wednesday) at The Madison Community Arts Center!
Rage & Love,
Caroline