“What am I, nothin’ here blue eyes?” the usher playfully asked me as I tried to zoom past the entrance to Tower D.

“Nah, we’re sorry,” I said. “We thought we had to go over there, because our tickets say ‘Tower C’”.

“Lemme see,” he said, smiling as he took the page I held out to him. “Oh! You’re in heaven.”

How right he was.

As the Kaiser Chiefs cleared the stage the excitement grew. The minutes passed by painfully slowly while the crew set up the stage. The pink bunny kept us entertained, but even he wasn’t what we were waiting for. So close. So very, very close. Then there was darkness and a rising scream. It was on.

There was so much to love about the show Monday night I hardly know where to start. There was the massive singalong to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” thousands of people roaring the words at the stage like their lives depended on it. There was “Disappearing Boy” with Billie pounding away on trusty old Blue. There was the girl who played guitar on “Jesus of Suburbia” and absolutely nailed it. Every time I thought we’d hit the high point the band made us climb even higher. I know that might seem gushy, but it’s true. When Tre attacked his drums for “21 Guns” I could have done backflips, the energy was so electrifying.

At one point I glanced down and realized just how vast a sea of people there was below me. Every one of them had their eyes trained on Billie, ready to wave their arms in the air and yell “Heeeeey ooooh!”. For once we had found something to do together, rather than using cellphones and petty differences to block each other out. Which brings me back to the singalong of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. It echoed to the rafters. Perfectly focused, we roared, “Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me/ till then I walk alone!” That’s the power of Green Day’s music. No one was going to miss that line because everyone knew how it felt to spend a night in aimless wandering. Everyone knew that isolation could eat at their hope, but they were determined to walk on anyway. In that moment I thought, I can do this. I can take it and I will survive. Go on, universe, just you try to mess with me. There were quite a few times I lost myself singing along with the entire arena spellbound. I stepped out of my life just long enough to regain a little bit of faith in the world. Those will be my fondest memories.

After the first encore Billie Joe strode across the stage saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you” more times than I could count. He pointed at several people in the crowd to really bring home the point. Well Billie, you don’t know who I am, or who most of the people in that arena were, but I have to say one thing. The one thing that echoed in my mind long after the confetti had fallen. Thank you. I’m in heaven.

Write a comment