Location:
Vans Warped Tour, Stone Pony Lot in Asbury Park, USA
Date:
July 16, 2000
Notes:
"I went to the Asbury Park show. It was great. The first band I watched was The Deviates, they were good. Next was Showoff, they rocked, too. Then AFI, MXPX, Papa Roach, and finally Green Day. They had drawn the biggest crowd, and Billie Joe let a kid named Pat come up and play Knowledge and made him stagedive afterwards. Before Green Day's set I was hanging out waiting for MXPX. Then I looked about 300 yards away by the buses and saw Billie. I ran and threw my bag full of goodies from all of the tents. When I got there, I was like, 'Where the fuck is he?' Then my sister was like, 'Oh my God, it's him!' We got to meet him and I got a really good picture."
Kristen: "I proceeded to wait outside from 6am in hopes to catch a glance of the boys, especially Billie Joe - whom I've been in love with for half my life - and out came Tre. He was cool and did take a picture with me. Then Mike came out, kinda signed a few things and went away. I sadly didn't get to meet him. An hour later Billie Joe was walking out of the bus right in my direction. I was so amazed. He came right up to me and I was like, 'Hi, Billie! I was wondering if it'd be OK for me to get a picture with you.' He said, 'Well, to tell you the truth, I was just about to go watch a couple of the bands play (he rested his hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes) but I promise you I will be back.' Seconds later, he was gone backstage. Overwhelmed that my life dream had come true I cried my eyes out, but managed to stop before he came back. On his way back a huge group of fans stormed him. I was thinking, 'Oh no, I'm not gonna get to talk to him!' He looked right at me and I was like, 'Billie, you promised...' When he came up to me and signed my shirt, the one I was wearing, asked, 'Am I fulfilling my promise?' with a huge smile and I asked him if I could hug him because he was just the coolest and this was the greatest thing ever. He hugged me and it wasn't like a cheap little hug. No, Billie Joe held me for a few seconds. He was so great. I'm the happiest girl alive. BJ is the man! The boys rocked out again - closing this time with one of my favorites, Going To Pasalacqua."
"Ever since I found out Green Day was coming to Asbury Park for Warped Tour I've been waiting for the day to come. It turned out to be probably the worst and best day of my life. I went with my friends Dan and Glenn. We wanted to try and meet some bands, so we got there at 9 AM but it didn't open till 12 AM. So, we were able to sneak in as a guard was distracted by a tour bus. After 20 minutes we were thrown out because you had to have a backstage pass. Green Day wasn't playing until 6:30 PM, so we watched other bands. Green Day was playing after Suicide Machines. While they were playing me and Dan went to get a good spot for Green Day. We were about 20 feet away. It was great. My friend Glenn got kicked in the head by a crowd surfer real hard and went to sit on the side. First Tre ran out and did a little dance thingy, and everyone went crazy. Then Mike ran out and grabbed his bass, and finally Billie came out. He ran across the stage and grabbed his guitar. Then they started playing Welcome to Paradise. Then all hell broke loose, people were falling left and right and getting trampled and shit. I was getting knocked all around but I didn't care. This was Green Day. But the crowd was getting really dangerous, people from the front were being pushed up from people in the back and people from the back were crowdsurfing to the front. But all the people in the front were all squished together and no one had room to move their arms to keep the crowd surfers moving along. So the people crowdsurfing were just on top of people, barely moving anywhere. When people around me started falling over I made a desperate attempt to stay on my feet but in the process I lost one of my shoes. I couldn't see it anywhere and was not going to attempt to look around and find it. I sadly realized that I had to get out of the crowd. So it took a minute but I did it, some big kid threw me towards the front and I was able to scramble the rest of the way until a guard grabbed me. Holy shit, now I was right next to Billie Joe, I took some pictures but the guard made me leave, because space between the barrier and the stage was getting really crowded with people that were taking pictures and just jumping up and down screaming. I walked away with only one shoe, really pissed off, beacuse they were just starting their second song, Hitchin' A Ride. I had been waiting to see Green Day for so long. They have been my biggest inspiration since 5th grade, my favorite band since 2nd grade, and now I finally get to see them live and I only see one song. Now it has been the worst day of my life as I also realized I will have no chance in the world of getting to play Knowledge with them, plus I had only one shoe. I watched the some more from much further away but I couldn't see that good. After Hitchin' A Ride was over, Mike was like, 'Hey, is this a punk show?' 'Yeah!' 'Quit that jock shit, and pick people up!' They went on to play Geek Stink Breath, Longview, Brain Stew, Jaded & Knowledge. I couldn't watch anymore, I went to go sit down somewhere. They played Knowledge with some kid, then they went right into Basket Case, and finished with Going to Pasalacqua. They ran off stage and everyone was asking for encore. Now that I think about it Tre didn't light his drums on fire either. So now Green Day was finished and it was officially the worst day of my life. I was sitting down and then I saw them, they were coming from backstage and going to their bus. Most of all the Green Day fans were at the stage so there wasn't a lot of people. I tried to get a picture of them but they had the guards moving them along. Since there wasn't a lot of people, Billie said, 'Alright, if you guys stay calm I'll come back over here.' A bunch of people were just hanging around, but mostly everyone were watching the Bosstones. So all three of them walked passed the guard guy and were hanging out over by a tent. But Tre was on the other side of another fence, the area where their tour bus was, where everyone was waiting for Billie to come back. I went to take a picture of Tre and he looked into the camera and gurned. Then he hopped onto the tour bus. A few minutes later he opened the door and threw his socks out. They were on the other side of the fence, but I don't think anyone really saw them beacuse most people were waiting for Billie. So I asked the guy sitting outside the tour bus to hand them to me, but he didn't. Then Billie came over and signed my blue Hot Wheels Green Day shirt and then I took out my camera and asked Billie for a smile so he looked over at me and made a funny face. Mike eventually came over and I shook his hand and he was like, 'Hi! I'm Mike, damn glad to meet you!' He said that to everyone else, too. So they left and went in the tour bus. Most people were still waiting around but after they did not come out for a while, mostly everyone left. I decided to stay because I had nothing better to do with only one shoe and I wasn't going back into the crowd for anymore bands. Dan came over and found me after the Bosstones, and so did Glenn. They wanted to see NOFX so I waited by the bus as they went to go watch them. While NOFX was playing I decided to walk around and buy some more stuff. I only bought some pins. After NOFX was over Dan and Glenn found me again and we left. While we were waiting for my dad to pick us up, Dan wanted to see the socks, so I took them out of my backpack. They were inside out and Dan turned right side in. It read 'NOFX SOCKS' on one side and 'NOFX SUCKS' on the other. So next time I see Green Day I'm gonna wear them and I'm gonna show Tre I got his socks."
