Wow, very tired this morning, but had a chance to hear the new Green Day album last night. Well, by that I mean, I got to see Green Day live in a small San Francisco club play their new album end to end and more, for what was basically a 2.5 hour concert for $20. But started at 10:30p, went until 1, couldn't fall asleep until after 3, and had to wake up at 6 to get to work, so that part wasn't fun.

Since it was a special event, a lot of people were crazy with the cellphone pics during the first song "Welcome to Paradise." But after that song, Bille Joe asked Tre to come to the front of the stage, all three band members posed at the front of the stage, and he told everyone with a cell phone to take a picture of them. Everyone complied. Then he said, now put those stupid things away, this is a rock concert. Very nice, after that security would tell people to put their cameras down. The guy next to me kept sneaking pictures, though, adequately documenting the experience he wasn't having.

I ended up like two rows away from Billie Joe for the whole show, so definitely my best spot ever at a Green Day show. And, I probably shouldn't say this on a youth site, but the crowd skewing older (the club is 21+, and the crowd was probably a bit older than that) was *so* much nicer than seeing them play the American Idiot tour where all the youngins wanted to mosh and crowd surf all night.

A small mosh pit formed by the end of the night, seemingly against everyone's wishes who was up near the stage by me, but we held pretty tight and mostly kept it behind us. Having positioned myself behind a cute guy, being pushed against him wasn't totally disagreeable.

The new stuff is pretty tight, and I think it's going to have a few monster hits on it, probably making them a huge tour this summer. But, I'll probably skip it, since I already had such a great time, seeing them play a warm-up date after a few years off the road, in front of an intimate hometown crowd just as a dress rehearsal was good for me.

And I already have a ticket to see, yes, the "American Idiot" musical, too being put on Berkeley Rep this fall. With music from the American Idiot album, and being directed by the amazing Michael Mayer (he directed Spring Awakening, too).

Good times. Well, once I pull through this work day on like no sleep... :-)