Experience of A Lifetime

[Rebel07]

First off I wasn't sure where to post this, so I searched editorial and all of them were here. :wink:

I've been really wanting to share my insane story with everyone for a while now, I actually wrote this for one of my writing classes, so here it is in detail

I swear I should have bought some lottery tickets that day cause lady luck was with me for sure

I woke up on August 12th, 2009 at 4am to “Having a Blast” blaring in my ear. I was so anxious for this day to begin. I had already won the Idiot Club contest to be Green Day’s photographer for the show, which I was only a little bit excited for. Later at the venue I was to go to will-call and get my photo pass, which allowed me to take my camera into the venue and take pictures the whole show. It also granted me access inside the barricade with the security guards to take pictures during the first two songs.

We arrived at the Sprint Center around 7am and there began our 12 hour wait. We were pretty much the first ones there. Lucky for us the hot summer sun was on the other side of the venue for most of the day. So it didn’t start getting too hot until about 3pm. While we waited Katie and I listened to some Green Day to suit the mood of the day and we did a little walking around the Power and Light District. Down and across the street, I noticed a bus with Green Day on the side along with the Verizon Wireless logo. I guess you could say I did my homework a few days before the show and I knew that around 4pm, a guy named Chris came out and gave out soundcheck passes to a few lucky people.

In the afternoon, when more people started showing up, this woman next to us in line, decided to investigate to see if there was a better entrance into the venue. My friend Katie and I decided to follow her and see if she found anything. We soon discovered that there was a back entrance that no one was at and she went to will-call and asked them about it to see if they were actually going to open those doors. The answer was yes and so we decided to slowly make our way over there. We went one person at a time so that no one suspected anything.

My mom had to work the day of the show so she wasn’t going to show up till around 3pm. I kept calling her and bugging her so she’d hurry because we needed to get our tickets at will-call and they opened at 3pm and we couldn’t without her because she paid for them with her credit card and she had to show it and also if there was any chance of getting soundcheck passes, we had to have our tickets. So Katie and I decided to go to the parking garage and put our bags and our phones in her car. As we walked back to the line, we saw my mom waiting at will-call so we ran over and greeted her. We talked about how our day had been so far and how excited we were. Will-call soon opened and we finally had our beautiful tickets in our hands. During this we were also in the process of migrating all of us to the back entrance and so far no one in our group had gone. So after we got our tickets, Katie and my mom went to the back. I went over to the rest of the group and they didn’t have any clue about this, so I told them discreetly. I was starting to get nervous and anxious because I needed to head over to the Green Day bus to see if the sound check stuff was going on. So I took off to the bus alone with no phone.

When I got there, there were a group of kids standing around. It was kind of awkward when I walked up so I just said hi and sat down on the curb. It was about 10 minutes till 3pm and I was starting to get insanely nervous because I thought that Chris would come out in 10 minutes and I would get a sound check pass and I would be by myself. I really wanted my mom and Katie to be there. And stupid me, I put my phone in her car so no one could call to find out where I was. I soon asked someone if they had a phone that I could use so that I could call my mom. As it was ringing my mom came up behind me and asked me where the hell I had been and that they were all getting worried. She also told me that she was on her way to her car to put Katie’s car keys in there. I was extremely happy that she was there. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more relieved, we got the news that Chris is taking his lunch break and won’t be out until 4pm. It was now about 3:30pm so we now had plenty of time to run to the parking garage and get my phone! So lucky that she had Katie’s key! We didn’t have time to go all the way around the back of the venue to get Katie and plus I didn’t want to because if I got Katie, everyone else would have followed.

Mom and I were finally making our way back to the bus and right as we were getting there, Katie was crossing the street. So I finally had the two people that mean the most to me with me! It was about ten till 4pm and it was the longest 10 minutes of my life. A couple minutes after 4, Chris came out and he had what looked like hundreds of sound check passes in his back pocket. A girl and her mom were in front of us and Chris asked them how many in there group, and they said 2 and then he gave them passes. Then he looked at my mom and asked her the same question and she said 3. Then Chris said that he had a really full list today so we would be the last ones.

Chris turned around and said follow me guys. We were absolutely freaking out. We could not believe how lucky that was. We followed Chris across the street back over to the venue and we got to go inside the “VIP” ropes. There were a lot of people already there that had won their sound check passes in advance from Verizon. Again we waited, and this time the sun was beating down on us and it felt like it was 3000 degrees. But it really didn’t phase me much at the time. We finally got to go inside the venue in the air conditioning! Then we had to wait even more. Finally at around 5pm, Chris got the word that Tre and Mike were on the stage and were all just waiting on Billie Joe. As soon as he said that to us it kind of sunk in what was happening. I just looked over at Katie and my mom and we all had huge smiles on our faces. Within 5 minutes they let us go and we had to go down some stairs and sit in the first 3 rows of seats. I almost fell down the stairs multiple times because I couldn’t take my eyes off that stage; there were my heroes, right there in front of me. I was one of 39 people that got to be there. They played King for a Day, American Eulogy, 21st Century Breakdown, and Scattered. It was over before I knew it. Afterwards, we got to go into the VIP room and get free food, drinks and t-shirts.

When I got emailed the week before the show about the photography contest I was given Green Day’s tour managers cell phone number just in case I had any problems getting the photo pass. So since I couldn’t go back out to will call to get it, I texted him and told him that I got into sound check so how do I go about getting my photo pass. He texted me back and told me he’d have someone bring it to me. So within about 5 minutes someone came in the room and said “Katie Grogan” and held an envelope up and I ran up and got it. Inside were my photo pass and a note from Green Day’s tour manager. The note was basically instructions on where to go and just to have fun.

Still in the VIP room we were soon told that we were going to be the first ones let back onto the floor, so everyone could get to the front where we wanted before the people outside got in. When we were finally let out Katie and my mom ran to the front and got exactly where we had planned to be while I went off to the side and got inside the barricade where I soon got to make so many fans jealous. Before the day of the show, I was thinking the photo pass thing wasn’t going to be that cool but it ended up being an incredible experience.

So while I was in the barrier I kept walking around and talking to random people and dealing with a couple of security guards that kept giving me trouble. But I was so excited for Green Day to come out. Finally the opening band Franz Ferdinand came out and played for probably 45 minutes. They were actually really good, even though I don’t really get into their style of music. During Franz, I sat down on the outer part of the barrier right in front of Katie and my mom. The singer smiled at me like twice and at the end of their set I got the drummers drum stick which is awesome because it says his name and says Franz Ferdinand on it.

I was soon freaking out once again while they were unveiling Green Day’s stage set-up. I couldn’t believe I was there and all the things that had happened so far, how could I be anymore lucky? I started thinking back to the first time I saw Green Day. It was back in 2005 and I was only 13. I went with my mom and we were in the front for that show as well. I got to touch Billie’s hand during Are We The Waiting at the show. It WAS the best day of my life but Green Day hadn’t even played yet and this day was starting to take its place as the best day of my life. While I continued to be deep in thought and talking to people. Soon a drunken pink bunny graced the stage. He did the YMCA and chugged two beers.

Within 5 minutes of his disappearance “Song of The Century” started to play. It was just a recording of it but soon the whole venue was filled with cheers and everyone singing along. Then after it was over the intro to the song “21st century breakdown” began. My stomach dropped! The place filled with cheers while I turned my camera on. When I looked back up, there they were again right in front of me; I couldn’t possibly be any closer unless I jumped on stage. Billie Joe smiled at me when he sang the first line of the song, and a little bit later on while I was taking pictures of Mike, he looked down at me and made a goofy face. From “21st Century Breakdown” they went straight into “Know Your Enemy”. During that Billie Joe ran out into the crowd and when he got back on stage, he pulled a woman from the front up on stage. She was probably in her 50’s and Billie made her stage dive. It was pure chaos. When “Know Your Enemy” ended, the guards were told to get me out of there.

=

I went back over to where Katie and my mom were, and I jumped over the barrier and got right in the front with them. So I went from being inside leaning on the stage to the front row. I wore 3D glasses with the lenses popped out to try and make myself stand out and because I knew that Billie takes goofy glasses during “Are we The Waiting” and wears them but when the time came he took Beth’s (**nobodylikesyou**) handcuff glasses instead.

Green Day ended up playing for almost 3 hours. I was so exhausted but I wanted them to play all night because I was truly having the time of my life.

The highlight of my whole night and the icing on the cake was during the show right after they played “Jaded”. Mike came down the catwalk and played the legendary bass line to their first single “Longview”. Billie came back out on stage and asked who knew the words to the song, because he was going to pull someone up to sing it. I had already known about Billie doing this because I read some reviews of past shows and so before Longview started, I started to unload my pockets and give everything to my mom to hold for me “just in case”. I also had my Flip video camcorder with me that I was filming a lot of the show with and I gave that to Katie. So after Billie asked who knew it, Katie and my mom started screaming their lungs out. I wasn’t screaming at all because I figured he couldn’t hear us so I was just waving my arms around like crazy with a big smile on my face. Katie and my mom were screaming “her” while frantically pointing at me. Billie pointed at a girl close to us and asked “her?” and Katie screamed “NO, HER!” and then Billie looked right at me and said “her?” and we all starting nodding and screaming some more. The next thing I hear is Billie saying ok bring me her right there. And before I knew it a guard yanked me out of the crowd and hoisted me onto the stage. The security guard groped me when he picked me up and I was like WTF?! But when I looked up and saw Billie Joe standing right in front of me with his arms open, I completely forgot about the violation and ran to Billie and gave him a massive hug. He then looked at me and asked “Are you ready?” I very excitedly said yes! I figured I would have been nervous and would have forgotten the words. But when I turned around and saw more than 10,000 people staring back at me, a person came out of me that I didn’t know existed. I was running on pure adrenaline and honestly don’t remember a lot of what happened! I do remember the sound of Billie’s voice in my ear telling me the lyrics and I remember seeing some kids I knew in the crowd. I remember combing the crowd for a few of my friends that were with us and then turning around and running up the stairs that the drums were on. While I was singing I looked at Tre while he was drumming and he had a massive smile on his face and then I turned around to see Billie at the end of the cat walk motioning me over. The next thing I knew his face was right next to mine and we were sharing the microphone. I seriously thought that I was in a crazy dream and that if I wasn’t about to puke then I was waking up haha. Sometimes Billie has three people sing the song. But he let me sing the majority of the song and actually gave me the opportunity to sing the rest. When he asked the crowd if I should finish the song, everyone cheered. But then he asked me and I said “I hope so” And then he asked if I was out of breath and I said yes so he said okay let’s get someone else. I honestly probably would have barfed if I stayed up there because I was out of breath from running around the stage, my mouth was dry, and I was completely overwhelmed.

He told me that I was f****** great, by the way and before I left the stage I asked him if I could have a guitar pick and after he said sure, he started laughing. I really wish I would have finished because I really wanted to give Mike and Tre hugs too but I guess there is always next time

As soon as I got back into the front with Katie and my mom, who were both filled with joy and excitement, I kept asking myself what had just happened. It felt like I dreamt it. Good thing I have the video of the whole thing to prove and to watch over and over again.

So I left the Sprint Center that night with sound check passes, my photo pass, a Franz drum stick, a free t-shirt, Billie Joes guitar pick, 2 hugs from the god himself, and a head full of incredible unforgettable memories. Just another thing to thank Green Day for.

CLICK HERE to see some of the pictures I took <I'm uploading more soon, cause I took probably 200 pictures o_0

CLICK HERE for the video of me on stage

CLICK HERE for all the videos I took at that show

ps, sorry its so freaking long, there is just a lot to the story lol

[Stuart&Ave]

Wow, you had a great time! It's funny 'cause I've seen a video on youtube of somebody singing Longview like 4-5 days ago and as I was reading your story I had the impression that you were the girl actually that person! You were very good. Thumbs up for singing all the lyrics (to the show I went, nobody from the three persons he pulled up knew all the lyrics)!

[Rebel07]

Wow, you had a great time! It's funny 'cause I've seen a video on youtube of somebody singing Longview like 4-5 days ago and as I was reading your story I had the impression that you were the girl actually that person! You were very good. Thumbs up for singing all the lyrics (to the show I went, nobody from the three persons he pulled up knew all the lyrics)!

how ironic lol thanks! i'm just glad i didn't pee my pants up there haha

[Punk Rock Love]

Wow, that's fucking awesome! So cool that Billie does that. You did great; I would have fainted!

nice videos too.

I NEED TO SEE GREEN DAY LIVE. They look so amazing...

[Rebel07]

Wow, that's fucking awesome! So cool that Billie does that. You did great; I would have fainted!

nice videos too.

I NEED TO SEE GREEN DAY LIVE. They look so amazing...

thanks and yes you do lol it will change your life

[Ally]

The video of you on stage is awesome. I swear i would have just stood there is shock if that happened to me!

[Abbey.]

how extremely cool of you to share your story. your photos are gorgeous and it was touching to hear billie's comments to you during longview.

[RobyRoom]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your experience with us

[Rebel07]

how extremely cool of you to share your story. your photos are gorgeous and it was touching to hear billie's comments to you during longview.

thanks so much and its true, so many little things that Billie does, they do mean a lot!

[04rebhop]

That was such an interesting read! Sounds like you had an amazing time! Thanks for sharing. Haha maybe I'll get up there in June. Doubt it though, as my coach doesn't get to the stadium until 2:15. Oh well nobody can stop me from dreaming, eh?

[ANJI]

Wow! Really enjoyed reading your experience!

[BadgerLALA]

Wow that's awesome. I'm happy that you could have this opportunity

[jenni]

Wow! It's really incredible! I'm glad for you!

[Rebel07]

Wow! It's really incredible! I'm glad for you!

thanks jenni!

I really don't think that anything will ever top this, but I can dream

[Katarina.]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing all of this with us. Green Day's amazing

[Rae'n'shine]

What a great story! I'm happy you got to experience that!

Your story reminded me what it felt like to wait in anticipation and I got flashbacks of my own show. Oh, wonderful memories...

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

That was such an awesome story! =D I'm very happy for you.

And thanks for sharing the story.

[karma1215]

That was a great story... I have a recording of your clip ironically enough on my Ipod... thank you for sharing your story. Cheers and yes you did an incredible job.

[Robin105]

That's such an amazing story! I wonder if it's possible for someone in the stands if there close enough to get onstage. I can't do the pit after what happened.

[Rebel07]

That was a great story... I have a recording of your clip ironically enough on my Ipod... thank you for sharing your story. Cheers and yes you did an incredible job.

haha thats awesome! i have it on mine too just in case i run into someone that likes green day lol

That's such an amazing story! I wonder if it's possible for someone in the stands if there close enough to get onstage. I can't do the pit after what happened.

thanks! and what happened?

[Isabel]

Awwh that's an awesome editorial, Katie!

[Prisca]

ps, sorry its so freaking long, there is just a lot to the story lol

Don't apologize! I'm sure we'd all write equal length, hell some might be even longer!! Nonetheless, it was a wonderful read. I always enjoy reading fans experiences.

[Rebel07]

Don't apologize! I'm sure we'd all write equal length, hell some might be even longer!! Nonetheless, it was a wonderful read. I always enjoy reading fans experiences.

haha yeah i know, this is actually shortened a bit. I took a few things out that weren't TOO important

Awwh that's an awesome editorial, Katie!

thanks!

What a great story! I'm happy you got to experience that!

Your story reminded me what it felt like to wait in anticipation and I got flashbacks of my own show. Oh, wonderful memories...

i know lol, everytime i read someones else stories it always takes me back.

i'd do anything to be able to go back to that day!

[Rebel07]

What a great story! I'm happy you got to experience that!

Your story reminded me what it felt like to wait in anticipation and I got flashbacks of my own show. Oh, wonderful memories...

i know lol, everytime i read someones else stories it always takes me back.

i'd do anything to be able to go back to that day!

double post, wtf?

[jenni]

thanks jenni!

I really don't think that anything will ever top this, but I can dream

Sorry, I think it could be topped! Imagine this: you go on stage (again), start to sing Longview (again) and then at the question "Are you out of breath?" You answer "No" and keep singing, and go to see Mike and Tre and meanwhile you get a spectrum from Mike and Tre's drumstick... and finally, you go back to BJ, have a hug/hugs/kiss and a spectrum!!!