I thought we would be running late since we only left the coast at 6pm and the concert started at 7.30. It takes about an hour to reach Brisbane, and normally on the way to the Entertainment Centre we would experience a 15 – 20min period of stoppage on the highway, caught in the midst of a traffic jam as everyone made their way to the concert. Amazingly, this wasn’t the case for Green Day, and we arrived at just after 7pm. We made our way inside, and settled down in the bar for some pre-show drinks. At 7.30 we took our seats.

With Mat, I know enough about him to know never to buy him general standing tickets. He hates being crowded, and being shoved by thousands of people is definitely not something he would desire. Seating is therefore perfect for him, and I was lucky enough to secure us amazing front row seats for Foo Fighters, the first (and until now, the only) concert he had ever been to. Thus he had high expectations for Green Day – front row seats just far back enough from the stage to be able to see everything. Originally I thought this was the case, but when we sat down to watch the support band, Jet, we discovered the stage was a LOT closer to our seats than we had anticipated. In fact, the stage was directly in front of us. To make it even worse, there were sound technicians on the side of the stage, blocking our view of the band. For Jet’s entire performance, I saw the lead singer maybe twice, when he jumped up, and when he walked out to the crowd a little bit. Needless to say, I was pretty devastated.

Can you see Jet? No, neither could we

After they finished, we were approached by a member of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre staff. He said the stage had been set up a lot further forward than anticipated, and they apologised for our lack of a view. They offered to reposition us in the stadium to different seats to have a view, but unfortunately the only seats available were at the back of the stadium on the floor. We would still be able to see over everyone’s heads, and therefore see the performance, but we wouldn’t be as close as our current seats. In the end, Mat and I decided to take him up on the offer, purely because if we stayed where we were we wouldn’t see anything at all. We sat in the new seats, then waited for Green Day to take the stage.

The new seats were further away, but at least we could see what was going on

When they eventually came out, they played their first song hard and with a lot of energy. They yelled the words Brisbane, and Australia a lot, each time getting a massive cheer from the crowd. Finally, in a down moment during the song, Billie Joe (lead singer) made his way to the side of the stage, pointed at the people sitting down in the stands, and yelled,

Stand the fuck up! This is a rock concert, not a fucking tea party! Get the fuck up!

That went down as one of my all time quotes for a concert. In that one simple statement he really set the tone for the night. I won’t go into details of songs; they played 2.5 hours worth of music. There’s just no way I could tell you each song they played and keep this blog post interesting. I can tell you they put 110% effort into every single thing they did. Every song they were dancing madly, and playing loudly. Billie Joe did a section where he performed covers of other songs, most notably, Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It felt almost unfair when he cut the song off early, and went into something else.

There were two standout items from that concert that I will take away with me forever. The special effects, and the audience partipation.

During the concert they had fireworks raining down on the stage. They had loud crackers that scared the shit out of us. They had cannons blasting out thousands and thousands of pieces of paper, each with the band’s name on it. They had flames firing up on each side of the drummer (I could feel the heat from the back of the room, I can’t imagine how he must’ve felt). Their background was city building stands which also transformed into background displays for their music. I’ve never seen flames and fireworks during a performance before, so this was pretty amazing for me.

The audience participation level was incredible. Past concerts I’ve seen a lead singer occasionally run into the crowd, but that was about it. Billie Joe really took it to new heights, and I can’t see any other band in the future ever surpassing it. He ran into the crowd and up into the stands, picked a kid from the crowd and brought him into the aisle. He then placed his guitar over the kids head (but still around his own shoulders, he was standing directly behind the kid) then proceeded to play the song using the kids hand to strum. After about 30 seconds or so, he took the guitar off again, hugged the kid then ran back to the stage. I believe that have been one of the best nights of that kid’s life – I know it would be for me if I was in his position.

But Billie Joe didn’t stop there. He also brought people up onto the stage. Two were just standing up singing along with him for a few seconds, but then “Welcome to Paradise” came on. After searching to see who knew the words, he got a woman on stage. He then handed her the mic, and invited her to sing the song while he just hung about in the background. Again, what an experience for that person. It would have definitely made her night. Her singing sucked, but she really worked the stage. She went and visited each of the band members, singing along with them for a bit, before getting flustered and forgetting part of a verse. She recovered, and finished that particular section. Billie Joe then thanked her, and looked for a guy this time. A man was brought up on stage, and same deal. He was handed the mic and left to his own devices. He rocked it HARD! He got the crowd jumping, and ran around the stage playing with the band members. At one point you could see Billie Joe laughing and cheering the guy on. At the end of the song, he took the mic back then made the guy stage dive at the end of the stage. Brilliant.

Even when Billie Joe wasn’t pulling people on stage, he wasn’t forgetting about the audience either. Between songs, they amped the crowd up by pointing to particular sections, asking them to yell. Or Billie Joe sung a tune, and made the audience replicate it. He really got us all involved, and didn’t let anyone sit down for the entire duration of the concert (if you tried, he would point at you and yell “get up” until you stood up). At the end of the night my legs were exhausted from dancing, and I knew I had to get up in 5 hours to catch a plane to Sydney, but I didn’t regret one minute of it.

It’s funny how at the end of each concert I’ve been to I always walk out thinking it was the best concert I’ve ever been to. But really, I can’t see anyone surpassing this (though my first big concert, Foo Fighters in 2005, will always hold a special place in my heart). Billie Joe was right. On Tuesday night, I went to a rock concert, and not a fucking tea party.

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1. Learn to Surf: I haven’t started this one yet however it’s all planned. My friend Paige and I will be participating in the 2009 Ripcurl’s Girls Learn to Surf Day, where females all over Australia are given the opportunity to attend a surf school for the day to receive free surfing lessons. One of Mat’s workmates is also a surfboard maker and his wife is an artist, so he offered to make us both totally customised boards at a very cheap price. Awesome!

2. Run 2.4km in under 15mins: In progress. I’m following the Couch to 5k running training program, designed for non-runners to gradually increase their amount of running until they can confidently run for 30mins at a time (roughly 5km). If I can do that then I should be able to achieve 2.4km in under 15mins by the end of the year.

3. Enter in the Sydney City to Surf: Completed. I’ve entered, and the race is only 2 weeks and 2 days away! I’m extremely excited; I’ve managed to convince a friend, Julie, to fly to Sydney with me and Jo will also be flying from Darwin to meet us there. Mat will be joining us for the weekend, but while we spend time slogging it out on the bitumen he will be playing the cards at Star City Casino. Hard life isn’t it?

4. Go on a holiday (must include flights): Completed. We flew to America for 2 weeks, and had one hell of a holiday. One of my fondest memories ever, and I’m honoured to have shared it with the ones I love.

5. See a live concert: Completed. This year I saw P!nk play in one of the biggest concerts of the year (I’ve lost track of how many concerts she’s doing in Australia now; at last count it was something like 8 in each state but I’m sure it’s increased). I also got to see loads of live acts at the many festivals I worked at with RaveSafe earlier in the year including Kaiser Chiefs, Nine Inch Nails, Snow Patrol…too many to name. I was so lucky to have that opportunity, and depending on whether I’m in the police service next year I’d love to do it again. I’ve also got tickets to see Green Day perform in Brisbane at the end of this year, and I’m stoked that Mat will be joining me for this one.

6. Go skydiving: Not yet completed. This will be another one for the end of the year. However one of our friends is a pilot who actually flies the plane the skydivers jump out of, so again I’ve been given the opportunity to complete this task at a reduced cost. I’m looking forward to it though, should be fun!

7. Go on a tour: Completed via the segway tour with my family in Sausolito in America (one of the highlights of the US trip for me). The video of the tour can be seen in the Day 4 video of our holiday.

8. Photograph a sunrise/sunset: Not yet completed. I haven’t really given this one much of a priority as yet, but ideally I’d like to get down to Mooloolaba beach and take some photos of the sunrise. It’s extremely early in the morning for me though, so it’s probably more realistic that I’ll be photographing a sunset. I have my ideas on what I want, just need to get out there and get the shot now!

9. Have a girls cocktail night: Technically completed, although I want to complete it again. Jo and I got together and had a cocktail night when we were watching a socceroos match, but I’d love to get together with the girls and make it a big one at a hotel one night. We’ll see what happens.

10. See a live sporting match: Done and dusted. I’ve been to a few QLD Roar games (back when they were “QLD” Roar) including seeing the women’s side win the grand final for the 2008/09 season. I also went to an NRL match in Brisbane with Paige. I’m looking forward to seeing some more A-League matches again once the season resumes.

That’s it! 6/10 isn’t bad given it’s only just over the halfway mark. I’ll have to make sure I keep the others in mind though so I’m writing about another successful year!

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This morning was the pre-sale, and I have the absolute pleasure in telling the whole world that I have two front row seats. That’s right, I’m sitting (what a lazy sod) and the lucky person who will be joining me is none other than my boyfriend Mat. But hang on, you would think he would be happy right? So far he has insisted he’s not coming, that he has no desire to go to a concert, and when I rang to announce the front row tickets I got a “is that all you rang me for??”

Doesn’t matter – nothing can ruin the mood I’m in. FRONT ROW!!! Why can’t it be April 29th already?

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Now I hate to say that it wasn’t all about her music. As you may or may not know, Missy recently “sort of” came out about whether or not she is a lesbian. That really doesn’t bother me, as long as she’s happy then that all that matters. What bothers me is when people make such a big deal out of it. It proved to be a recurring theme of the night, most unfairly to Missy since that wasn’t the point of the evening.

After the first song, Missy came up to talk to the crowd a bit, say hello etc. Before she even had time to say a word a chick a few rows back stood up and screamed “I love you Missy! Congratulations for coming out!” There was a bit of a nervous laugh through the crowd, and Missy laughed a little herself and said “um, thanks. It was a bit overdue I guess”. For the rest of the night the girl in the crowd continued to scream “I love you Missy! I want to marry you!” etc etc. It grew to be bloody annoying, and I’m pretty positive you could see that for every time she yelled it again Missy grew more embarrassed.

Finally, at one point when she’d yelled it again another girl in the crowd yelled out “Well I love your drummer!” (who is Terepai from the Whitlams, and definately good looking) which lead others to yell out “I love him more” etc etc. Missy, who was on her way from one side of the stage to the other sat down and said “OHH!! My drummer, I thought you said my brother! I love my brother too!” and laughed, then launched into a song. I really felt for her, that she was there to show us her talents, to engage us with her music, and yet her personal life seemed to take such a front line.

But boy was her music amazing. The quality of her voice, the passion, everything about it drew me in. I am in awe of this Australian who wrote a song in school (the Sound of White) with just so much emotion, dealing with religion, death, comfort. And the way she sang it, you could feel every single word. Wow.

Going back to the beginning, I was too late to see the first support band “The Wings of Buffalo”. They didn’t receive a favourable response from the group I was with, but I’ll leave my judgement for later. I walked in towards the end of Tim Rogers, and only got to see him play a song or two, but he seemed to have a good vibe going. I still find it bizarre to see someone I used to watch on tv when I was 12 while they played Cathy’s Clown. I haven’t heard his new album yet but I’ll definately be having a look into it.

Then Missy came on and the roar was stadium like. Something you would hear for the Foo Fighters, in a sold out Brisbane Entertainment Centre crowd. It was loud! Missy took us through a ride of lows and highs, and told us about her love for the Australian outback, and Broome where she wrote a few songs from her latest album, “On a Clear Night”.

It was a great concert, and I’ll be on the lookout next time she tours – she’s worth every cent and more. Speaking of which she noted that she’d spoke to her friend about still being in shock that people come to see her sing. Matey, if you ever read this , you’re the one being ripped off because you are worth a helluva lot more than $65. You are phenomenal. On another note, why the hell are you reading my blog??

Final note – she is stunning in person. She is very slim, I just never realised just how little she is *grin*

Official site for Missy – http://www.missyhiggins.com/
Photos from the concert here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/justifiedmusings/

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