ThE MESSENGER - Franco-American School of New York

In Review 7November 2012Green Day Samples Old and New in “Celebration”By Alex MasonAs I pushed through the throng of impatient, ardent Green Day fanstrying to get a spot as close to the stage as possible, I realized that I was a littleout of place.Sure, I know about four or five Green Day songs absolutely by heart,but I hadn’t stopped to think about their other music. And let me tell you rightnow, they have plenty of those other songs. In fact, out of the five songs that Iknow by heart, they played only three of them: “Holiday,” “Wake Me Up WhenSeptember Ends,” and of course, “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.”They played forty songs, and it seemed like everyone else in the crowdknew the lyrics to every single one of them. Everyone had at least one arm up,and was flinging it to and fro in perfect synchronization with the staccato paceof their music. All I could do was try to mimic them as best as I could and tryto forget the fact that I was an imposter.There’s an expression that goes against everything that anti-conformitystands for: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” and since everyone else wasdoing the same thing, I decided to throw my 9th grade English class lessonsout of a metaphorical window, and decided that it was too bad if imitation wassuicide (Thoreau), because for the next three hours I was determined to have asmuch fun as possible. This wasn’t going to happen if I stood around awkwardly,so I took the road most traveled by, and that made all the difference. Well, exceptwhen there was a mosh pit, in that case, I just got outof the way.Alex MasonSo there I was, smack in the middle of a Green Day concert at IrvingPlaza, which isn’t too big, so I was closely pressed against sweaty, pumped up,young adults with beer bellies and no sense of shame whatsoever in using themto their advantage. Fortunately for me, I was taller than most every one ofthem, so I had a perfect view of Billy Joe Armstrong about ten feet away fromme. This unlike my little brother, who can only be described as substantiallysmaller than me. (He’s going to kill me now.)The concert finally started after a horrible opening act which I might kindlycharacterize as noise, and Green Day started off with a fast, upbeat, punkishkind of song, which is also the description for about 70% of the songs they played.Then, about 30-45 minutes into the show, Armstrong started rambling, the detailsof which I can’t really remember today, but he then asked the audience a questionwhich he repeated several times: “Do you want a party or a celebration?”The crowd didn’t really know what to answer, decided instead to cheer,maybe hoping that it could be interpreted as both answers. I didn’t really knowwhat to do, so I just looked down at my brother, who was also cheering, andwhen he saw me looking at him in obvious confusion, he just shrugged as ifto say, “I don’t know any better than you,” and continued cheering. So I stuckto my policy of following the crowd and started cheering as well, harder andlouder every time he repeated his question. Until finally, Armstrong, who wasobviously relishing his power over his audience just like every other showman,howled out his answer: “Cause I want a f****** celebration!”Right in his element, he exploded into the next song, “Holiday,” which,if you remember correctly, is one of the three songs I know by heart, so the nextcouple of minutes were my favorite of the whole concert. The song itself wascrazy because it was a crowd favorite and it fulfills the previous description ofthe 70% of the songs at the concert. But that wasn’t the truly mind-blowingevent of the night. That would come about 2 minutes and 20 seconds into thesong, at the end of the bridge between the last two renditions of the chorus.To the right of the already-elevated stage was a platform about 25 feet abovethe ground, and while the guitar solo was in full swing, Billy Joe Armstrongclimbed a couple of boxes until he arrived onto the platform normally reservedfor the photographers. Once on top of it he proceeded to yell out the a cappellabridge which has quite a revolutionary theme to it, with a tinge of anarchy. Andthen, he jumped. He landed on a crowd of astonished but eagerly awaiting fanswho had their arms outstretched to catch him.When I saw this, I thought to myself: “How on earth does this guywant a celebration? This is clearly a party.” But the moment that best representsthe concert came later, when Billy Armstrong yet again said something to thecrowd, but this time it wasn’t an order. “Shhhhh. Be quiet,” he said in a loud,raspy whisper, “Be quiet.” But this time, we all knew what to say: “NO!” Andjust like before, he repeated himself multiple times, getting louder and louder,and every time we answered with a same emphatic “NO!”, but louder as well.With a crazy, satisfied grin, he finally relented and started playing “Boulevardof Broken Dreams” which everyone sang along to—even my parents,who were also there. This was one of their favorite moments, along with thetimes Green Day played portions of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,”ACDC’s “Highway to Hell,” or Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” whichprompted Armstrong to chuckle: “Yeah, this is really happening guys.” Heplayed those songs in homage to the respective artists, to celebrate their legacy.Right then I realized, I understood why Billy Joe Armstrong wanted a celebration,because after having worked so long on their trifecta albums, “Uno!”“Dos!” and “Tré!” Green Day was back, and this was a celebration of that.Alex Mason