Hi Abbey,
The closest I’ve come to “superfandom” is my front Row seat, one section back from the stage, looking over the heads of the mosh pit, but an oblique look, within 30 feet of Billie Joe or Mike at times. Alas, me and the fan next to me, waved our arms, hoping Billie Joe would look into our eyes when he came to our side of the stage, or that he’d at least look directly in our vicinity, so we could imagine that he did; but it never happened- And I still felt the love. (The second best thing to Superfandom is my own imagination.) The only way I got floor level front row seats at face value price: The Idiot Club Pre-sale. I owe them more than my twenty bucks a year. It was an amazing experience. Thanks, Abbey, for writing this essay!

I know how you feel, Abbey. I was that person in section 401 row Z (more or less) and a tiny part of me hurt every time someone else was pulled on stage. Thanks, reading this made me feel better :).

hi abbey, you wrote down my feelings XD. no, honestly. i so know how you feel. a part of me wants to be that superfan who got pulled on stage or travels around the world to see each and every concert of the guys. well, i’ll never be that. but who knows? maybe it’s just for the better (not meeting them means that i most probably won’t literally chain myself to billie ^^)
thanks for writing that. it’s good to know i’m not alone ;).

My “moment” with Billie was handing him another fan’s pink hat in Detroit. I didn’t get up on stage (although super close), but I freaked when he took that hat from me… After that little moment, i can’t possibly imagine how it must have felt to actually go up onstage, sing, and get a little kiss from Billie. It makes me want to cry. Especially because i was so close, on the rail, and he took the girl next to me onstage instead.

Even SUPERFANS get disappointed. Case in point, the folks in Manchester who have been following GD around for a week but can’t get to London for a wristband to the Tubbies show after Wembley tomorrow.

My first gd show was Albany and I took something that BJA took and I could tell he didn’t really like it after he took it. But I still took other stuff to other shows and pretty much said fuck it if he didn’t like it, at least he had something. I chose my level of participation and can’t really begrudge anyone their own individual experience. I stopped feeling bad about it because it’s nothing that is controllable and that’s 1/2 the excitement.

And I’ve been at the rail a number of times and have never waited DAYs to get there. The earliest was 2:00 and that’s cause I was trying for soundcheck. I’m also making up for 20 stupid years of not following this band earlier. Hahaha

I don’t consider myself a SUPERFAN, just an active and willing participant in the experience, depending on what level of participation you want to be involved in. Yes, not everyone gets to participate (I was almost chosen for Longview in San Antonio but a person I was with got to do it instead) no matter how hard they try, but it keeps you sane to look at it that way.

It’s almost like Choose Your Own Adventure

You’re not suggesting anyone should feel sorry for the fans who have been following Green Day around the UK for a week, but might not make it to the FBHT show? :)

I’m happy with the opportunities I’ve had, and I know it’s easy to say that everyone needs to find the part of themselves that is profoundly grateful for knowing Green Day’s music at all, rather than giving in to jealousy for not having had some tidbit that someone else got. But as you said, to keep sane, it’s the only way.

I think SUPERFAN!s may be guilty of stirring up bad feelings by their own greediness — no experience is ever enough — and, what to me is the ugliest trait of all, a sense of entitlement, that they should get special treatment because they are special fans.

As Abbey, pointed out, all of us are deep in this collective love-fest together, whether from home or from the nosebleed seats or from the rail.

No, but I’m not saying that anyone should feel bad for them, but I do think it’s the same kind of disappointment others may feel. I’m still not convinced of the greediness argument, though. :) but I think they are happy now since the Tubbies hit the Manchester stage about a 1/2 hour ago.

LUSHELUAH!!

:)

Nice eassy. When I see other fans onstage I can’t help wishing I got the chance to be up there, but I’m happy with the experiences I’ve had with green day, I’m happy enough that I’ve been able to see them twice when some people haven’t gotten to see a single show because of where they live or something like that.

I know what this feels like! I have been to two shows. One in the seats (good seats, very good seats) and one where I through some stroke of luck managed to get barrier. I’m not the kind of person who gets barrier. I’m usually in the seats, squinting. I love this band, but there is no way i’ll ever be able to afford to follow them around, to abandon my job to travel the country with them; there’s no way i’ll put myself through four, five, six shows in the pit one after the other. I live an hour from London, and FHT tomorrow night is just not going to happen.

I got eye contact with them and more would be awesome, but i’ll always have that big beaming smile from Billie when he saw how happy I was.

I’ve consulted with my braintrust of highly skilled mathematicians…according to their highly complex gaussian copula models they calculate that when this tour is done Green Day will have played for approximately 1.5 MILLION people and only .8% will have been inducted into the SUPERFAN! club.

Annie - you are on to something…I think the best place to live a SUPERFAN! experience is in my imagination…there’s surely no chance of disappointment there.

Moonbeam - where the h#ll do you get that sense of peace from..gimme some of that!

Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone in my maddness y’all.

Oh I am definately a SUPERFAN in my imagination… I prolly should be embarassed by all the little stories with alternative endings I’ve come up with in my head but I don’t really care. So for all you fans out there that will never get a chance to have meet or be up on stage with the guys, just make that moment up in your head.

@Abbey: Well, I don’t want to be greedy when there’s other people who live in the Middle East or somewhere who might never get to see them unless they travel. Having a split second of eye contact with Billie Joe is enough to last me the rest of my life I think. :)

Hmmm an Idiot heart desire…
tats indeed one nice blog. I felt as if u read out the lines from most of the GD fans heart :)
I dont envy these guys who go on stage coz its hardly possible for me to even hav a glance of the Trio. I m from India and i dont knw when im going to watch GD live show..

Ah, Neo, I’ve read so many stories like yours from far flung places of people who are dying to see Green Day live. They range from so many countries and continents. I hope they come your way one day. You know that they will be in Singapore and Thailand? Any chance of heading there for January? I completely understand if you can’t. It can be expensive to travel and see them. Good luck, I always say that the Lushie Gods are good, and you may get your chance one day!

thanks for ur concern Tanya… Ya i believe in god too. He’ll certainly drizzle his compassions, i believe..
I guess it will take some time , but im going to watch GD live show oneday, tats for sure

Superfans? I don’t know one person that considers themselves such and I certainly don’t consider myself such as this. I love this band and have for a very long time. Like many others I’d waited for this tour for what seemed an eternity and was going to make the best of it that I could.

I saved every single penny I had to follow the band around the UK for the first time in my life, after extremely harsh surgery and a shit year it was my first holiday in the past 4 years, the Foxies show topped off what was the best 2 weeks of my life. I don’t ask for nor seek special attention.

I do however love my friends and enjoyed every second with those that made the long trip to my country, can’t wait to see you again Tanya and everyone else that came along.

Jax, no one calls themselves a SUPERFAN! except jokingly. It’s a tongue-in-cheek term that Abbey invented when she wrote this piece, which is a love letter to all the fans, whether they experienced Green Day up close or only from far away.

It’s interesting that you take the term as being about you and yours, all the while protesting that it doesn’t apply to you and yours. If it doesn’t apply, then it’s not about you, so why bristle at it? Methinks the lady doth protest too much…

I also have to wonder at how you extend “love” to (some) people whom you know have been viciously cruel (because you saw it first hand). That is not love, it’s cliquishness; it’s wanting to belong at all costs, regardless of the price in your own integrity and humanity.

I have had to suffer terribly because of what some Green Day fans did to me (in addition to my own chronic illness, which I have had to live with for over 25 years), and I will be crippled by their cruelty forever. But I am grateful that I have disentangled myself from the demands of this clique and have been able to enjoy Green Day on my own terms.

Actually Dee maybe I should have said I was responding to you and your snorts about those of us who were travelling around the UK, you only said that because of you knew who was there, you are the one that can’t let go, you are right though I was there back then, but strange how my friendships with these women have grown into real solid relationships isn’t it, actually moved out of the virtual into the real world, I love them, they are awesome women, enjoy Green Day on your own terms, take care.

Jax

Why would you be angry at a victim and offer more barbs and pain? That is just inhuman.

You’re right that I can’t let go of having had such terrible cruelty inflicted on me (and I might add for absolutely no reason and with no provocation) that it has caused me and continues to cause me immense pain. If you can come out of the woodwork to hurt me again then you are just a despicable excuse for a human being.

I did not post any snorts, those are only in your sick mind. If anything I had in mind a fan I spoke to not long ago who I have never met. If you can’t see that considering yourself a more-important fan is ugly and hurtful to the millions who will not have the same opportunities, that is only your own small mindedness and nastiness.

The very reason I was attacked by the friends you love so much is because at the time I had had experiences that they had not, and that was just unacceptable to them and caused them to hate me. It’s exactly the superfan phenomenon that I find so distasteful. It cuts both ways: if you think you’re special or if you’re jealous of others, it’s a function of the same sick thinking. It’s the same thing you are doing now: you finally had the experience and you think it makes you special and puts you on a pedestal from which to spit on others. But I have never thought it made me special, because I am able to see past the tip of my own nose.

If you can “love” people who are cruel and vicious then you have absolutely nothing to be proud of.

Green Day would be damn proud of you.

Also, my name is not and never has been “Dee.”