Location:
Vans Warped Tour, Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, USA
Date:
July 30, 2000
Notes:
Recordings from this show can be found [url=http://www.greendaycommunity.org/topic/89784-20000730-central-florida-fairgrounds-orlando-florida-usa/]here[/url]
"So as we waited, I sang along with the old Sublime songs, and finally, after Santeria was ending, I saw Billie peep out of the equipment van, and the crowd went wild. About 2 minutes later, Green Day appeared on stage, and started with Welcome To Paradise. If you didn't get beat up or smashed with a wall of people, you could hear it. Well, they played a few more lovely selections, and then took requests. 86 was played, then they asked again what they should play. It got really quiet and I yelled, 'All By Myself!' Mike said, 'OK! All By Myself it is!' But it sucked because Tre couldn't remember how to play it, so they played Dominated Love Slave instead. VERY cool. That's when Billie said (about All By Myself), 'Well, it's kind of a personal song ... about my mom.' Well, that was the last request, after they called a kid up on the stage to play Knowledge for them. Billie had broken one of his guitar strings, so the kid had five to play on. One of the funniest parts was when Billie said, 'Hey, put your shirt on. Yeah, I'm wearing mine, so you can wear yours. We aren't Blink-182, you know. You can keep your shirt on. But we like it when guys show their dicks.' Right on, Billie! Since they played 30 minutes longer than they should've, I knew that the end was nearing when Billie played Good Riddance, after Tre torched his drumset. So I pushed my way through the crowd and waited outside the fence by the tour buses. And waited, and waited. An hour goes by, and most everyone had left (traitors!), but low and behold, Mike shows up and comes up to us waiting and says, 'Alright, whaddya want, eh?' And he threw guitar picks into the waiting bunch. I got one, and I asked him to sign that, since I was a bass player. 'Bass, huh?' he says. Then we start talking about basses and he went and got a bass he was going to give to the Distillers' chick bassist. It was funny because the top of the bass was burnt from Tre's drumset. 'Pretty nice,' I said. He's really down to earth and signed my shirt I bought too. But what sucked was he was getting kinda mad because he told me he can't connect with the fans anymore. I'm thinking, 'WHAA-AAT?! You just played an awesome show!' But I dunno what was wrong. A few minutes earlier, I had seen Billie chatting with some fans, and then he disappeared, so I asked Mike if Billie and Tre were going to be out signing, and he said, 'I don't really know. I don't think so.' Aw! What was I gonna do?! I had a comrade beside me and we said, 'Let's go look by the buses.' So we looked through the fence and spied on Billie chatting with some fans. But! We didn't have backstage passes, and he was backstage and we weren't. Everyone had left that was waiting, but we were determined to get our shirts signed and meet the guys. Hm, wait! There was a hole in the end of the fence! We noticed that after we saw a guy sneak in through there. We side-step over to the hole and notice a 15-ish boy guarding it. 'Hey, wanna let us backstage?' I asked. 'No, I can't.' 'Why? C'mon, we're just two chicks wanting to meet the band.' So after some cheesy flirting, the kid says ONE of us can go back and see them. I quickly snatch the girl's stuff and run through the hole. 'I'll be back!' I look around. No Billie, no Tre. Uh oh. I look around some more. There they are! They were chilling under a tent with some band members from Long Beach Dub Allstars. I go up to Billie and ask him to sign my crap, but he got distracted and walked away. Grrrr.....wait! There's Tre! I walk over and say hey and ask for his signature on my shirt and the girl's pic she gave me. Too bad I used all my film when they were on stage! Well, I go over to Billie for a second attempt, and finally he stops talking to this one chick and says, 'Hi! What can I do for you?' I show him my stuff and he signs it. 'Can I have a hug?' I ask. 'Alrighty.' So I got to hug him too! I run back to the fence, quickly, so no one notices that I am lacking a pass, and the girl asks, 'Did you get anything?' 'Yes! All of 'em!'"
