Sydney, AUS
12/14/05
Written By: Raj

Hi there, I went to my first Green Day concert on 14/12/05 and I had an awesome time. I had GA tickets.I reached SCG at 5:00 pm for a 6:30 pm start and there were a huge line to get in through the gates for the GA patrons. I quickly got some gear ( a T-shirt and a wrist band) and was checking out the line, when I noticed that everybody was lining up near 3-4 turnstiles and there were few with hardly 10 people waiting. So I got in quicker than I had expected. I walked as close to the stage as the GA section would allow.It was a relatively sunny day and Im glad I had a lot of sun block on as we just sat there waiting for the show to start. After some time,people started standing up and pushing and shoving to get closer to the barricades. I really envied the Idiot zone ticket holders at this stage. By the time the first two bands finished (My Chemical romance & Jimmy Eat World) the pushing & shoving had reached epic proportions (yup even before Green Day came out). I am not into these bands,but the crowds were packed together like sardines and I couldnt help jumping along to the tunes. It was fun (although today I have a sore rib and my knee hurts). For people who couldnt take the lack of air and the sweaty confines of the GA area or were on the verge of collapsing, the security would pull them out by having them crowd surf over to the guards (if you know what I mean, the guards were near the divider between the GA & Idiot Zone). Many people took that option although it was not clear where they were taken to. The bunny came out to the tune of YMCA and I knew from reading previous reviews that Green Day would be out soon. The shoving increased. Green Day came out to American Idiot and the crowd went crazy. It seemed they spent more time getting pushed around than actually enjoying the music. I rocked as much as I could. GD played JOS next and it was epic. I loved it, but by the end of the song I decided that I wanted out of this section. I asked for myself to be removed and I surfed over the crowd to safety. On the other side, I found that I could go to the Idiot zone and get a lot closer to the band (how awesome).I found a nice spot and rocked like crazy (maybe I did my knee then). GD played one hit after another and it was pure magic interlaced with pyrotechniques and lighting. Loved all the songs that they played from American Idiot and also their older hits including Basket Case, Welcome to Paradise, She, Minority to name a few. Billie used a water cannon to spray the crowd at one stage and invited two young kids to do it and it must have made their day. He also had a guitar/bass/drum player from the crowd accompany them for a track (Knowledge) but the coolest thing was he gave the guitar away to the 12 year old.How cool is that. Billie kept getting the crowd involved by chanting "ah oh's" and screaming Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi Oi and calling out Australia/Sydney :-) Seeing Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool up close was awesome!! Those guys are so good at what they do... The band went away a couple of times only to come back and play some more...but we just couldnt have enough. Billie finished with "Good riddance" followed by the fireworks and it was brilliant. I had such a good time. One of the biggest parameters of a band is their live shows and I reckon GD rock !!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers Raj