"It says 'home is where your heart is'"

Green Day came home last night...and they did it with a big bang. Well, several, and flames, and fireworks, and of course, amazing music.

We (HippyChick, BeeDragon, & I) headed from their home about 6:30 p.m. The BART wasn't packed, but when we switched to Muni it was. We barely squeezed into the space and HC and I forgot to remind BD to hold her wrists to fend off motion-sickness, so she was a bit queazy when we got there.

We all piled off the train at the stadium and slogged through the crowds to the end of the line to get in...We were anticipating being able to get there to hear Jimmy Eat World, we'd planned to miss Flogging Molly...but by the time we got through the doors Jimmy Eat World was in their last song of their set. I promptly found myself buying the most expensive pint in plastic I ever imagined and we found our seats.

The whole stadium, except for a middle section behind the light and sound booth were filled, and the field was half full (again except for the section they had blocked off behind the light and sound booth). At one point Billie Joe made reference to the fact that there were 47,000 total in attendance. I can't say, I don't know the capacity of the stadium and I have never been good at guestimating even small crowds.

Whatever it was, we made a lot of noise. Just before coming out on stage they sent out a big pink rabbit to help psych up the crowd with the tunes YMCA and We Will Rock You. It was a trip to see this crowd which ranged from ages of about 10 to into their 40s all getting into these classics.

Then of course, the real show started. I don't have words...no really, I can't speak well this a.m. I was screaming and singing so much. And almost every part of my body hurts from dancing and jumping around. There were 3 empty seats beside me, I wish that some of you could have joined me, but I'm afraid if you had you may have been hit by my flailing about.

They played for 2 hours straight, and the only thing that I got tired of was Billie Joe yelling out "San Francisco" every other song. We got it, your home, we love you, too. The music rocked from the first chord, the lights, the pyrotechnics, and the sheer showmanship (which was easily viewed on the fullscreen) was brilliant. Billie Joe Armstrong was charismatic and has more energy than I thought it possible for an adult to possess. Mike Dirnt is less out-there but plays his heart out and really does feed off the fans. Tre Cool...he's just hysterical. He seemed to have an instinct for when the camera was on him and was a total mug! And they really did end with a fireworks display.

At one point they pulled 3 fans up on stage who could play drums, bass and guitar and gave them their instruments to play while Billie Joe sang! The guitarist was from Peru and he gave Billie Joe a big hug to which Billie Joe responded with a buss on the lips. Lucky Peruvian...he even got to keep the guitar!

By the end, I was happy, energized, tired, and hurting (the jumping up and down for 2 hours is no longer so easy on my body). We headed out of the stadium and found a quicker way out, than we had found in. Sadly, with tens of thousands of people pouring into the streets at the same time, it was a bit of a mess. The line for Muni seemed to stretch back into the stadium. So we decided to walk out and find a taxi...bright idea had by many. HC reminded me that Eddie Izzard has said that SF only has 5 taxis, and we did see them all last night, it's just that someone else got to them first and none came back to get us.

We ended up walking to Embarcadero BART...taking a scenic route, a good walk, if we hadn't been jumping and standing for 2 hours in fashionable, if not terribly practical shoes. We all kind of dozed off on BART...but not enough to miss these comments from fellow concert goers: "It was sick!" "Awesome!" "The best rock concert I've ever been to."

A good time was had by all!