Jimmy Kimmel: Green Day
Just a few short days before they were scheduled to perform, I found out I had won tickets to the concert portion of Jimmy Kimmel’s show starring my favorites, Green Day. So naturally, I spur of the moment decided to drive down to LA to see it. How often do you get free tickets to see your favorite band, even if it’s only a few songs?
I treated the experience like any other Green Day show, and got there super early, dragging my LA concert buddy Panda with me as always.
There were a few different lines to get in, but I was the first in my line and was told all day that we’d be the first line let it. They lied. I was not the first person let in. I wasn’t even close to the barricade. All that waiting and I might as well have gotten there at the last minute. Oh well. It is what it is.
But the line wasn’t a terrible experience, as I saw some friends Jenny and Bekki before we went in. Lines are half the fun for me. That paired with catching their entire soundcheck was pretty cool. I heard them play “Know Your Enemy,” “Bang Bang,” “Revolution Radio,” and “Forever Now” about a thousand times.
By the time they let us in the stage area, it was only 6pm but super dark out. It felt so much later than it really was.
The band also played “American Idiot” and “Holiday,” so it was a total of six songs.
Short set, but the drive was worth it for “Forever Now” alone honestly. (Here’s another one. Love this song.)
Jimmy Kimmel’s people told us not to use our phones for the first two songs, and part of me was ready to riot. Billie Joe is against phones at shows period, and for a six song set, I was too. But alas, it’s the digital age, and were you really even there if you didn’t livestream the entire set? Ugh. People.
The crowd was super weird in general. I kept trying to mosh, but no one was dancing or moving at all. It’s Green Day, you guys! What are we even doing?! Have fun! It just was not happening.
Just the fact that it was a TV show taping made it kinda weird. You could tell it was more about that than an actual show the whole time, and it was hard to ignore. And I was a little disappointed I couldn’t see the rest of the Jimmy Kimmel episode being taped. There were two different sets of audiences, and clearly Green Day was the audience that took priority for me.
Here’s what made TV.
2:48ish: Me and a Panda attempting to mosh on the left side
After the taping had finished, we walked about a block before running into my friends and fellow Idiots, Kat and Alberto, and we all headed to Denny’s for Idiotsgiving. That’s what these short trips are all about.
