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Mankato’s Green Day Stories
Posted by Delfina

I don’t know why I’m so tickled by this, but it’s just so damn cute! It’s like a punk rock fairy tale.

As you know (I posted about this a couple times in the sidebar, and here’s the full story if you missed it), the Free Press of Mankato, MN has launched a campaign to bring Green Day to play in their town, where Green Day has a cool little history. They played there in their early days, before Dookie, and they went there primarily, it seems, because Adrienne lived there at the time, and uh, one of the boys just couldn’t stay away. I remember Tre mentioning this in Behind the Music (I think that’s where it was). He said Billie Joe kept suggesting that they should go on tour to Minnesota, and Mike and Tre were like, “Why Minnesota? Hmmm…? Oh… Adrienne!”

I’m nowhere near Minnesota so it doesn’t affect me personally if Green Day play there or not, though I’m certainly rooting for the folks in Mankato and hope they get their wish. What I think is just so sweet and interesting are all the stories that people have been sending in to the Free Press reminiscing about Green Day’s times in Mankato. You can read them all on Amanda Dyslin’s blog. One of my favorites is this one:

I guess my big Green Day story involved playing on a street corner with Billie Joe once while he was in town. I was actually playing Green Day songs with a few of my friends in front of the Barmuda Triangle trying to make a few bucks off of drunk people when he came out of a bar with Adrienne (who I only casually knew) and he jumped in and played along. He was so drunk that he couldn’t hit the high notes in the chorus of “Christie Road” — that was funny.

I can imagine Billie Joe doing that even now if he got the chance.

There are also some terrible-quality videos (hey, it’s more punk rock that way, right?) of a show Green Day played at a farm in 1992, and stories about that event as well. You can see enough to tell that the crowd — and it was quite a crowd — is absolutely loving it. The videographer tried to take some close ups of Tre, but all you can see is a funny halo of green hair.

And in the latest post, Amanda Dyslin got an email from Adrienne. Keep up the good fight Mankato!

June 17, 2009 at 3:47 pm [ Category: News, History ]

Comment from Moonbeam June 17, 2009, 4:43 pm

I’ve been following this too through the links in the sidebar. It’s really interesting to read everybodies stories about the time Green day and Adrienne spent in Mankato. I hope they convince Green Day to play there again.

Comment from Elly June 18, 2009, 11:45 am

That is sooo cool! I really hope they get Green Day to come back and play a few gigs. :) I think they deserve it- seems like this mission has been going on for awhile! The stories are so cute and interesting! Makes me wish I could have seen them ‘back in the day’. ha ha. Thanks! :D

Comment from Amanda Dyslin June 22, 2009, 10:58 pm

Hey, thanks everyone! I periodically google “Green Day Mankato” to see who is buzzing about our little campaign. This site has been our biggest supporter, so thanks. The Green Day campaign made it on our local TV station, KEYC, and for a half hour segment on KTOE Radio in Mankato. And the very next day Adrienne e-mailed! I’ve been patiently waiting for her response. It’s hard to say if we’ll get anywhere with the concert, though. The band is just so very huge! Our little berg seems completely out of the question. But you never know, right? Anyway, thanks again!

Comment from Delfina June 23, 2009, 8:32 am

Thanks for collecting all these great stories Amanda! I love reading them. I wish you luck with your campaign. Green Day love to do surprising things, so who knows…

Comment from matt July 1, 2009, 10:09 am

I know some more info about the show that there is a video of…
it started at one persons backyard, and by the time the support band had finished the show was shut down by cops, so they packed up and moved to a house in makato. Before the show was even started it was shut down by cops again. green day then relocated the entire crowd to a farm outside of mankato and played on a giant wire spool until the cops shut them down again (after playing what was seen in the video…)

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