A Godless Green Day
Aubrey Clark
August 03, 2009
A Godless Green Day
I have to admit that I have finally reached the "old fogey" stage of life. I know this from the constant reminders from my children and the number of cracks I hear when walking up the stairs. However, the straw that broke the camelīs back came last Friday night when my wife and I attended a Green Day concert.
We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the concert. We were sure that we would be the oldest people there and that turned out not to be true. In fact, a good half of those attending were in their late 30īs or early 40īs just like us. It was actually pretty cool to see a concert that parents and children could both attend. Of course, the children were horrified that their parents were there, but it was still pretty cool.
Once we got into the arena, we grabbed a couple of $12 dollar beers, gasped at the t-shirt prices and grabbed our seat. Unfortunately, neither one of us had brought our glasses; which caused us to misread our seat locations. This resulted in us having to be moved to our real seats during the warm up band. Again, more signs of our old fogeyness, with respect to my wife who still looks beautiful and cool at 37.
The warm up band was pretty good and we soon found ourselves standing up and really getting into the whole concert experience again. After all, Depeche Mode and Cheap Trick were the cool bands the last time we went to a concert.
After the warm up band left the stage the anticipation of Green Day taking the stand was amazing, just like the good oleī days. Hell, we even grabbed a couple more $12 beers during intermission.
We made it back just in time to see Green Day taking the stage. Then, the lights went down, the stadium began to roar and a back stage explosion of lights produced Billie Joe Armstrong whaling on a guitar only like he can. It was amazing. My wife and I leaped to our feet and began jumping up and down screaming and yelling just as much as any of the kids around us, probably more.
The lights dimmed again, without pause, song two erupted and was even louder and better than the first song but this time with pyrotechnics. Again the old fogies were screaming, yelling and dancing in the aisle. Unfortunately, we didnīt recognize either of the first two songs because they were actually recorded in this decade. Nonetheless, it was electrifying.
Then song three, this time they paused for the obligatory "how are you doing Atlanta" and the ceremonial dropping of the F-bombs. It was just like at the Cheap Trick concert, only this time I had an ID to buy beer, at least a legal one that is.
Then something happened that I had never witnessed at any concert I have ever attended. Billy started dropping the G-bomb, and by that I mean the God bomb. He began an across stage stride calling the crowd much like a Christian preacher does "can I get an Amen, Hallelujah" and other church like phrases. Then he said something that stopped me and my wife in our tracks.
"God isnīt here tonight, were going to show everyone what a Godless country we really are". Huh? My wife and I kind of looked at each other in disbelief. I mean even the "Devil Themed" bands of the 70īs and 80īs steered clear of directly poking the Big-G.
We sat through the next song, willing to shake it off, and then the next pause Billy left the generality of God, focusing on Jesus while still mocking Christian preachers. Only this time the screen behind him was flashing religious symbols themes. We immediately left. Old fogey move? Iīll let you be the judge.
Donīt get me wrong, weīre not perfect people, nor are we "picture perfect" Christians, but we do believe in God, specifically Jesus. The vast amount of Americans professes a faith in one religion or another. I donīt care how you picture God or how you worship him, Iīm pretty sure heīs not cool with being mocked in front of thousands of people.
When we left, we talked about what had just happened. We didnīt know whether to be ashamed of ourselves or proud of ourselves, but we did come up with these two questions.
Why is it politically correct to only ridicule Christians? I mean why not ridicule Muslims? Why not Buddha? Why not Tom Cruise? Why only Christians? The next question we had was "do people really buy Green Day albums for their God Bashing overtones? "I think not.
I believe that people buy Green Day music because the band rocks! So my question is, if it doesnīt help the bottom line, why do it? Why take the chance of alienating a section of your fans? It makes you think; bad marketing, or do they have an agenda?
I have to admit that I have finally reached the "old fogey" stage of life. I know this from the constant reminders from my children and the number of cracks I hear when walking up the stairs. However, the straw that broke the camelīs back came last Friday night when my wife and I attended a Green Day concert.
We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the concert. We were sure that we would be the oldest people there and that turned out not to be true. In fact, a good half of those attending were in their late 30īs or early 40īs just like us. It was actually pretty cool to see a concert that parents and children could both attend. Of course, the children were horrified that their parents were there, but it was still pretty cool.
Once we got into the arena, we grabbed a couple of $12 dollar beers, gasped at the t-shirt prices and grabbed our seat. Unfortunately, neither one of us had brought our glasses; which caused us to misread our seat locations. This resulted in us having to be moved to our real seats during the warm up band. Again, more signs of our old fogeyness, with respect to my wife who still looks beautiful and cool at 37.
The warm up band was pretty good and we soon found ourselves standing up and really getting into the whole concert experience again. After all, Depeche Mode and Cheap Trick were the cool bands the last time we went to a concert.
After the warm up band left the stage the anticipation of Green Day taking the stand was amazing, just like the good oleī days. Hell, we even grabbed a couple more $12 beers during intermission.
We made it back just in time to see Green Day taking the stage. Then, the lights went down, the stadium began to roar and a back stage explosion of lights produced Billie Joe Armstrong whaling on a guitar only like he can. It was amazing. My wife and I leaped to our feet and began jumping up and down screaming and yelling just as much as any of the kids around us, probably more.
The lights dimmed again, without pause, song two erupted and was even louder and better than the first song but this time with pyrotechnics. Again the old fogies were screaming, yelling and dancing in the aisle. Unfortunately, we didnīt recognize either of the first two songs because they were actually recorded in this decade. Nonetheless, it was electrifying.
Then song three, this time they paused for the obligatory "how are you doing Atlanta" and the ceremonial dropping of the F-bombs. It was just like at the Cheap Trick concert, only this time I had an ID to buy beer, at least a legal one that is.
Then something happened that I had never witnessed at any concert I have ever attended. Billy started dropping the G-bomb, and by that I mean the God bomb. He began an across stage stride calling the crowd much like a Christian preacher does "can I get an Amen, Hallelujah" and other church like phrases. Then he said something that stopped me and my wife in our tracks.
"God isnīt here tonight, were going to show everyone what a Godless country we really are". Huh? My wife and I kind of looked at each other in disbelief. I mean even the "Devil Themed" bands of the 70īs and 80īs steered clear of directly poking the Big-G.
We sat through the next song, willing to shake it off, and then the next pause Billy left the generality of God, focusing on Jesus while still mocking Christian preachers. Only this time the screen behind him was flashing religious symbols themes. We immediately left. Old fogey move? Iīll let you be the judge.
Donīt get me wrong, weīre not perfect people, nor are we "picture perfect" Christians, but we do believe in God, specifically Jesus. The vast amount of Americans professes a faith in one religion or another. I donīt care how you picture God or how you worship him, Iīm pretty sure heīs not cool with being mocked in front of thousands of people.
When we left, we talked about what had just happened. We didnīt know whether to be ashamed of ourselves or proud of ourselves, but we did come up with these two questions.
Why is it politically correct to only ridicule Christians? I mean why not ridicule Muslims? Why not Buddha? Why not Tom Cruise? Why only Christians? The next question we had was "do people really buy Green Day albums for their God Bashing overtones? "I think not.
I believe that people buy Green Day music because the band rocks! So my question is, if it doesnīt help the bottom line, why do it? Why take the chance of alienating a section of your fans? It makes you think; bad marketing, or do they have an agenda?
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