Green Day @ Tauron Arena, Cracow (21/01/2017)

It took me some time (one week and two days to be exact) to fully accept the fact that I've seen my first favourite band live for the second time. I do realize it's quite late to post it, but I really wanted to wrap up all of my memories from this day because I have a bad tendency of forgetting how good things were in the past. Moreover, the emotional aura that hasn't left me yet woke up a whole lot of creativity in me, so instead of posting bunch of the same looking pictures, I decided to turn my Instagram story from that day into GIFs. At least I can provide you some visual pleasure (relatively, cause creativity ≠ skills) if you're not so keen on reading this shenanigans, ghost-written by my inner teenager who's wildly in love with Green Day. But let's agree on one thing: Green Day show was awesome as f**k.

I must admit that the ticket prices were high enough (70€ for a standing ticket) to hold me back from the purchase. But two weeks before the show, my friend found out she unfortunately couldn't go and she sold me her seated ticket.
I arrived at the venue as early as I could, due to the fact Tauron Arena is the biggest venue in Poland – I knew it wasn't just a gimmick right after I walked for about 15 minutes just to get to the queue. Eventually, I found my friends there we still had to find our seats... Couple of stairs later, we sat our butts and got uncomfortably excited for the show to finally begin.

Supporting band, The Interrupters impressed the heck out of me! Tons of my friends are totally crazy about them and I'm not even surprised why. They were so contagiously energetic the only reason I hadn't start my white girl dancing was the tight spacing between the seats (and judgmental parents of the kids having fun in the pit). Besides, I'm a sucker for SKA punk so my lovable reaction was pretty much predictable. 

The changeover was really quick. I was chatting with my friends and suddenly, Bohemian Rhapsody comes on, meaning only 10 minutes left to come back from the toilets so you won't miss anything. Believe me, hearing this song with almost 20,000 people singing along gives you the biggest chills possible. Absolute feast for ears. After this musical masterpiece, Blitzkrieg Bop from The Ramones came on and so did the Pink Bunny! The realest MVP of the whole show. Check out this article if you're wondering why is he so special?

And then, ladies & gentlemen, Green Day came up on stage!!!(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

They started their set with Know Your Enemy and the total rampage has begun. People started to mosh (even at the very front seats, as I was informed later), scream and sing along. Said judgmental parents started took out their phones which weren't Nokias 3310 and recorded every single thing they saw. When I noticed it, I already knew I'm going to love every second of this whole performance.

Like it or not, Green Day got effin big throughout the years. Arena tours, Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame and what not... Peeling off this posh layer, they're still best friends from Oakland that want to play punk rock and be doubtlessly passionate about it – doesn't matter if it's 924 Gilman Street or freaking Wembley. And thankfully, they still haven't gotten out of their angry political "phase" and the audience is still aware of that. They confirmed that during Holiday: when Billie Joe shouted "NO TRUMP" and all the woke people followed. Truly a spectacular moment. Obviously, they can still make you feel like a total Pepe. When they played Boulevard Of Broken Dreams acoustically it was hard to keep myself from crying like a baby... WHY U DO DIS GRIN DI?  Those are the reasons I still love this band after 13 years.

Now off to my favourite part of the entire show. In the middle of the set, Billie Joe asked who was the old-school Green Day fan. I raised my hand up high. Even though my first encounter with this band happened in 2004, I've always been more connected with their older stuff rather than with anything after 21st Century Breakdown. To the point... the old-school stuff happened! The backdrop changed and I heard first chords 2000 Light Years Away, which is probably my favourite song of them. Alright, I lost my s!@t when I heard that and judgmental parents could shove it. Green Day didn't forget about Dookie stuff either - When I Come Around was another tearjerker of the night, followed by Burnout, which almost everyone my age (n/a these married with children Facebook friends) can relate to, and She, dedicated to all of the women who marched for their rights across the US streets. The lack of Insomniac jams was compensated by Scattered from the Nimrod album and a very nice performance of one of the Polish fans. The band called him on stage, so he could rock the place playing Knowledge on guitar. That's a dream come true and I'm still drowning in jealousy.

tl;dr: Lots of great things for every dad in the venue.

I forgot to mention that the whole tour is called Revolution Radio Tour. Not that it was the only reason they did this tour or anything and it's a quite important information... As the name says, it promotes their newst realease called Revolution Radio. Love-hate relationship with the new songs, really. When I've heard Bang Bang for the first time, I've fallen in love pretty much instantly. Same thing with Revolution Radio. But the other tracks... Not my cup of tea and I got a little bit disappointed with them. Although, they played a few new songs that evening and I kinda liked them – especially Youngblood, which has an enormous All Time Low vibe I couldn't stand it at first.  Still Breathing is my biggest let down. I know it's rather an unpopular opinion but sorry, I can't get convinced to this song. You can't like everything that's hyped.

Green Day has a 2.5h long set but I wouldn't mind another hour –  we all know that it isn't energy consuming at all, so fans have right to be greedy about it ;) Jokes aside, this night and every other night must've been stressful for everybody involved in making this show. The production is astounding, I would rate it 11/10. Sound & lightning techs from Green Day crew are my new superheroes – I haven't noticed a single mistake and considering the size of the venue, you must be extra skilled to maintain this madness.

There were two encores: one with American Idiot and Jesus Of Suburbia, and the second with Ordinary World (need to see this movie) and Good Riddance with a guest appearance of confetti galore.

Summing up, this was one of the best shows I've ever attended, despite all my hate for "big shows". Right after I left the venue, I couldn't believe that it actually took place. What can I say, the tickets were worth all the €€€ and I regret not spending them on standing tickets, like I did when I first saw them. People in the pit definitely had time of their lives.

If you still wondering whether to go and see them or not, cause Green Day are bunch of sell outs, I think you should go and rate the new Green Day yourself. This is an investment worth investing and it returns fastly, with revoked love for this band.

Have you ever seen Green Day live? Or maybe you're still waiting for their show? Share you memories with me :)