Last night, Saturday 19th December, will go down as the best night of my life. I don’t imagine anything will ever top that.

I flew to Auckland on an early morning Jet Star flight, arriving just on 8am. Took the airport bus into the city, had a delicious Eggs Benedict at the Waterfront Cafe for breakfast, then spent most of the day people watching from a spot by the water. Grunge had definitely come to Auckland, the metros must have wondered what hit them. Plenty of Green Day and other band t’shirts & black jeans wandering around. About 3pm my friend Vicky and her husband and friend arrived, and I met up with them in their hotel room at the Sebel Suites. Great views over the Viaduct Harbour! We had a few red wines, then walked to the Vector Arena about 7pm. Vicky and I were insane with excitement.

When Green Day took the stage at exactly 8.30pm (now that’s what I call professional), the crowd went nuts. We’d manage to score ourselves a spot right at the back of the mosh pit, so we weren’t too squashed, and in fact were only about ten or so people deep back from the stage runway, so got some awesome close ups of Billie Joe. Just to be in the same room as his presence is something I can’t even begin to describe. It was incredible. They put on an amazing show, complete with pyrotechnics, confetti, a toilet paper throwing machine, water pistols, t’shirt bombs, and heaps of crowd participation, including bringing fans on stage. The crowd were simply awesome. It was a really good mix of generations and everyone was happy and excited and really well behaved, even the mosh pit was just people bouncing in sync and no drunken idiots pushing and slamming into each other. The atmosphere was incredible, I have never experienced anything like it in all the concerts I’ve been to. Billie Joe was our GOD. When he said “Get your hands in the air”, I don’t think there was one person in the sold out venue that didn’t do as they were told!  On the floor we could look up and see all the seated people (who were NOT sitting) swaying and clapping their hands in time with us, holding up their lighters and phones during the slower songs, it was just magic. And Billie Joe?  Every bit as hot and gorgeous in real life, the man is just beautiful.

It wasn’t just the highlight of my year, but of my life. Best concert ever. Best Live Act ever, without question (U2 can go kiss my ass). As Vicky said, “Who cares about Santa?” This was our Christmas.  The full set list (below) was just awesome! Surprisingly only 7 songs from the new album, but lots of great old stuff, which made us all very happy. They played ‘Give Me Novacaine’ and ‘She’ and a little bit of AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, the Beatles ‘Hey Jude’ (which is summed up the best in this review: ‘quite frankly, who the hell needs Paul McCartney’) and some other covers which just rocked and were  better than the originals (in my humble opinion).

When Billie did the long held note of “Hey-Oh” and we responded in kind, his reaction to our effort was:
“Louder than Australia” (we screamed loud)
“Louder than Europe” (we screamed louder)
“Louder than America” (we just went mental)

Shoulda made a DVD, Billie!

I don’t have the words to express just how good this band is live. Phenomenal at the very least. I have a new life goal. To see Green Day again at one of the outdoor stadiums in the UK somewhere. Vector Arena was good, a much better venue than I expected, but an outdoor gig with around 65,000 other fans would kill it. I can’t imagine going through life without seeing them again. I missed the 2005 American Idiot tour, and I don’t want any more regrets.

So, the set list:

1. Song Of The Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. East Jesus Nowhere
5. Holiday
6. The Static Age
7. Give Me Novacaine
8. Are We The Waiting
9. St. Jimmy
10. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
11. Burnout
12. My Generation (The Who cover)
13. Dominated Love Slave (Tre Cool)
14. Geek Stink Breath
15. Hitchin’ A Ride
16. Welcome To Paradise
17. When I Come Around
18. Iron Man (Main Riff) (Black Sabbath cover)
19. Crazy Train (Main Riff) (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
20. Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover)
21. Brain Stew
22. Jaded
23. Longview
24. Basket Case
25. She
26. King For A Day / Shout / Break On Through (The Doors) / Hey Jude (The Beatles)
27. 21 Guns
28. Homecoming

Encore:

1. American Idiot
2. Minority

Encore 2:

1. Last Night On Earth
2. Wake Me Up When September Ends
3. Good Riddance (Time of your Life)

Afterwards, I queued for about half an hour for a tour t’shirt, then we walked back to the Viaduct and hit some bars. The men in Auckland are a strange breed. I was getting a few winks and smiles, and one guy actually dared to slide closer to me at the bar to try his luck. He was actually quite nice, and he (and his friends) were disappointed to find I was only in town for the one night. Apparently a curvy redhead in a black rock t’shirt and jeans, with panda eyes from where the eyeliner had run, and hair a complete mess from being sweaty then doused in water to rehydrate during the concert and left to dry naturally, is quite a turn on for them. Bizarre. Must be a refreshing change from all the skinny stuck up blondes.

Of course, there being no future in it, I left him sitting there when we moved on to try and find another bar that would let the guys we were with in without having a collared shirt (for fucks sake Auckland, we’d come from a rock concert, loosen up). We ended up back in the hotel room with kebabs at 3am, then I took the bus back to the airport and hung out til my flight at 6.40am was called. The flight into Christchurch was so rough, wind shear all over the place, I found myself thinking, well, if this is my Last Night on Earth (like how I snuck that in there?), I’ll die happy. Managed to make it home in one piece, fed the dog, fell into bed and was so exhausted I managed to sleep all day (usually impossible for me), until 7pm! I’ll probably be up all night now, having finally showered and washed my hair (my god, where did it all go, there’s nothing to squeeze out), but what the hell, only 3 days of work left.

And oh so totally worth it. Photos to come as soon as I can steal them from Vicky, including an awesome shot of Billie Joe which shows just how close we were.

Just added to my Mighty Ape Wishlist: Rebels Without a Cause – the Green Day story. Must have. Oh, and just found out via Twitter about the new release on iTunes of The Green Day Collection, 174 songs including B-sides and live versions. Drool.

Billie Joe Armstrong once said that everyone has that one band who just changes their life. Green Day, you are that band for me.