IM-ing WITH KYLE (13 YRS OLD!) ABOUT THE GREEN DAY CONCERT

Over the weekend, I went to see Green Day at PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey with my wife, my cousin, and her son Kyle.  It was Kyle's first rock concert.  I was interested in his impressions of the show and I figured discussing it via IM would be the best way to share the conversation (with the permission of Kyle and his parents of course). I was a bit jealous: I remember how exciting my first concert was (Rush at the Brendan Byrne Arena on the Grace Under Pressure tour in 1985). Anyway, I haven't been to a Green Day concert in about a decade, since the  Warning tour, when they were not as happening as they are now (the next album, American Idiot, changed their fortunes considerably). These days they are bona fide arena headliners and they really embraced it (the show was extremely sold out, meanwhile Live Nation employees were selling discount tickets for a number of upcoming shows). Kyle's next concert will have a hard time living up to this one.  Anyway, our IM conversation:

4:02pm Me: so how did you like your FIRST ROCK CONCERT?

4:02pm Kyle: IT WAS AMAZING

4:03pm Me: what was your favorite part?

4:05pm Kyle: when people were getting pulled up on stage (during "Longview") that was cool

4:06pm Me: what year were you born in again?

4:06pm Kyle: 1997

4:06pm Me: so it doesn't bother you that the songs from "dookie" are older than you are? some kids don't like "old" music, right?

4:06pm Kyle: well...those kids have no taste in music

4:07pm Me: ha ha ha good for you

4:07pm Kyle: it doesn't bother me at all "2000 light years away" is one of my favorite songs

4:07pm Me: wow, that's even older than "dookie" I think

4:07pm Kyle: yeah i think it is from "kerplunk"

4:08pm Me: so you don't buy the full albums though, you just download whichever songs you like?

4:08pm Kyle: well i use only itunes giftcards and i buy the full albums when i have enough

4:09pm Me: but you don't care about owning the actual CD, right?

4:09pm Kyle: when i have the cd i don't buy it. I import it into itunes

4:10pm Me: right, me too. did you know the song "who wrote holden caufield"? that was the one when the singer from AFI (Davey Havok) joined them on stage

4:10pm Kyle: no never heard of it

4:11pm Me: so does that make you want to check for it in the itunes store?

4:11pm Kyle: well now i am curious so i will check it out

4:11pm Me: by the way, do you know who holden caufield is?

4:11pm Kyle: no, am i supposed to?

4:12pm Me: your mom would know - he is the main character in a book called "Catcher In The Rye" that you will probably read in school in the next 2 or 3 years

4:12pm Kyle: oh yeah...she mentioned that during the concert

4:12pm Me: so did you have any expectations for what the show would be like from watching Green Day live DVDs - or even from the scenes in rock band?

4:13pm Kyle: i expected it to be awesome but i also expected it to be adult like

4:13pm Me: what do you mean by that?

4:13pm Kyle: like cursing and such

4:13pm Me: there was a lot of cursing!

4:13pm Kyle: yes yes there was but i dont mind it

4:14pm Me: what did you think of the crowd?

4:14pm Kyle: drunk smoking losers

4:14pm Kyle: but that might be harsh

4:15pm Kyle: but they were drunk and smoking

4:16pm Me: how did you like it, compared to American Idiot the Musical?

4:16pm Kyle: it was more authentic maybe because it was actually green day not actors

4:20pm Me: Green Day used to be considered a "punk rock" band - does "punk rock" mean anything to you?

4:20pm Kyle: no not really i think of green day as an alternative rock band

4:20pm Kyle: unless that is the same thing as "punk rock"

4:21pm Me: what does "alternative rock" mean to you? what rock band is not "alternative"?

4:22pm Kyle: well i look at aerosmith or guns n' roses or ozzy osbourne as rock

4:22pm Me: that's a good observation

4:22pm Kyle: i look at green day as alternative

4:23pm Me: "alternative" generally means that something was influenced by punk rock - punk rock rebelled against rock and roll bands in the '70s and '80s. kids felt that rock and roll had gotten too big. so it was ironic when bands like Nirvana and Green Day started getting just as big

4:23pm Kyle: yeah

4:23pm Me: some bands could not deal with it - like nirvana. billie joe and the green day guys really seem to enjoy playing on a huge stage

4:24pm Kyle: yeah i know as they said "This is the most F***ing fun we have had on this F***ing tour!!"

4:25pm Me: ha ha, that's right. when they started playing all of those rock covers like Satisfaction, how did you know all of those songs?

4:25pm Kyle: well

4:25pm Kyle:guitar hero

4:25pm Kyle: :)

4:25pm Kyle: but i knew about the stones before gh

4:26pm Me: I am a big fan of guitar hero even though I don't have it! if it turns people on to those songs (satisfaction was a hit like six years before I was born!)

4:26pm Kyle: wow

4:26pm Me: anyway, thanks for IMing with me. what other bands do you want to see in concert, maybe we can go with you and your mom to another one

4:27pm Kyle: i like aerosmith,

4:27pm Kyle: i like bruce springsteen

4:27pm Kyle: pretty much rock in general

4:28pm Me: those are both great. Bruce isn't touring this year - too bad you'll be away during that aerosmith concert.  what about KISS?  are they on rock band or guitar hero?

4:28pm Kyle: oooooh i like kiss as well and yes

4:28pm Kyle: I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT

4:28pm Kyle: AND PARTY EVERYDAY

4:29pm Me: any last thoughts on the green day concert?

4:29pm Kyle: IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME AND BOSTON CAN'T BEAT THE NJ, NY AND SURROUNDING AREAS' CROWD!!!!

4:30pm Me:  ha ha great. OK, thanks for IMing with me and tell your mom I said hi.
4:31pm Kyle: ok

4:31pm Kyle: bye

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SHOWTUNES! (REALLY)

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I will

veer slightly from my usual comfort zone and talk about showtunes, albiet ones that are pretty rocking.  That's because The Tonys are this weekend. And while I'm not a Broadway guy, this year's Best Musical nominees are pretty rocking.

First is Green Day's American Idiot: The Musical which I saw a few months ago.  I enjoyed it, but the story didn't knock me out. I liked the music.  To me, there's something inherently funny about a musical - people just breaking into song.  The Simpsons have been genius at parodying this (see below video).  Still, if you can get over that, you can have a good time at a musical. In the case of American Idiot though, it was more like a cover band or a musical revue.  I guess I had higher hopes for it, but I have to admit I had fun. So, I'll be playing some songs from the cast recording, as well as some of the original versions, and also Green Day's new version of "21 Guns" with the cast.

Fela! On Broadway is the stage adaptation of the life of Nigerian musical legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Look him up, his music is very different from western rock and pop, it is very funky. I have a song from the cast recording and a Fela original.

The Million Dollar Quartet is about the four Sun Records legends who recorded together... once. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not sure how they turned this into a show - or if it is just another review. Either way, the source music is mind blowing, hopefully they do it justice.  I don't have that soundtrack yet, hopefully I can grab it in the morning.

Memphis: A New Musical is, as it says, actually new.  Which seems to be a new concept for Broadway - I'm not an expert but all of their shows based on things we've already seen and heard? I have a few songs.  I read that Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan wrote a lot of the songs.  It's pretty impressive. You can hear his Elton influence, but Elton was influenced by Memphis soul and R&B.

Well, I'm not a Broadway expert, so if you're listening, call in and help me out!

Anyway, here's one of my favorite showtunes, courtesy of The Simpsons.  "See My Vest." And by the way, I'm an animal lover, this is just a parody, I'm not endorsing Mr. Burns' wardrobe and neither were The Simpsons' writers.

REVIEW: AMERICAN IDIOT ON BROADWAY

I haven't seen very many Broadway shows since I caught The Who's Tommy nearly two decades ago. I remember thinking that the Broadway renditions of the songs were goofy. Worse, they even changed the storyline to have a more optimistic ending. I'm not a big showtunes guy, and I prefer rock and roll.  But I remember thinking that maybe Broadway isn't really the right venue for rock and roll.  And while Jersey Boys, about The Four Seasons, has done quite well and is supposedly quite good, most rock and roll-based stage productions have tanked.

Green Day's American Idiot is the first time that a Broadway production has been based on recent music: American Idiot came out in 2004. I was wondering how different this would be than Tommy, or the other revue-ish rock-based musicals. Pretty different, actually. You walk in, and they provide magic markers to write on the walls of the lobby.  You gotta love that. The band actually played on the stage, not from a pit. And it was rocking. Musically, the songs stuck pretty much to the original arrangements, the vocal arrangements were of course very different and very Broadway. (A good preview is the "21 Guns" single by Green Day with the cast). If you can't get past that, you wouldn't like it. The same goes for the plot - it didn't go too far, and the characters weren't super developed, but you can get stuck on that point.  Or, as Larry Flick would say, you can have a twinkie and go for the ride. I decided to go for the ride.  I had a great time. The American Idiot songs were fun, and there was even an awesome b-side ("Favorite Son") as well as two tracks from 21st Century Breakdown ("21 Guns" and "Know Your Enemy"). The story wasn't how I pictured it when I listened to the album (I thought of it as a future totalitarian government vs. punk rockers) but I didn't write the play.  I didn't get hung up on anything though, and I had a good time, which is probably the right way to approach something like this.

I took my young 13 year old cousin Kyle, and his review was much more succinct than mine. "Best. Play. Ever." I'm looking forward to taking him to see Green Day in concert this summer, which I think I will prefer. Still, I'll give props to the cast and crew of American Idiot, they brought rock and roll in a semi-legit way to the Broadway stage which is no easy feat.

AMERICAN IDIOT: THE MOVIE?

I just got my tickets to see Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway just a few hours ago. And now I've read that Tom Hanks is considering adapting the story for the silver screen.  Well, I guess it worked for ABBA's Mamma Mia. Well, Mr. Hanks will probably do the story justice.  He definitely "gets" rock and roll. I never saw That Thing You Do, which he produced, but it was based on The Dave Clark 5, and his speech about them when they got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year sold me on his rock and roll credentials. He was also one of the producers of this summer's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concert, and he was part of the Monty Python performance at George Harrison's tribute concert earlier this decade.

GREEN DAY ANNOUNCE SUMMER TOUR

Happy to hear that Green Day is touring the U.S. this summer.  Gothy punk band A.F.I. is opening. Get the dates at the band's website. I'm looking forward to seeing both the band in concert, as well as American Idiot on Broadway in the next few months.

SPIDER-MAN UPDATE

The Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark official website (for those of you who don't know, this is the Broadway production featuring music by Bono and The Edge that is the bane of my existance and probably Larry Mullen's as well) says that the show starts previews on February 25. But Alan Cummings, who was so great as Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and who is playing The Green Goblin in this mess, tells The New York Times that that is not the case. You want to see a cool music production on Broadway? Try Fela, about the life of Fela Kuti, or the upcoming Green Day inspired American Idiot. I say this as a huge U2 fan, this Spider-Man thing is just corny!

GREEN DAY'S "AMERICAN IDIOT" COMES TO BROADWAY

Green Day's official website has announced that the stage production of American Idiot begins its Broadway run soon. Previews start March 24 with the show officially opening on April 20. I am normally not a fan of rock and roll and Broadway mixing, and I usually don't think it works.  I remember going to see The Who's Tommy when it was on Broadway, and felt it was really watered down. I haven't gone to see any productions featuring Elton John's music, and I wasn't interested to see the John Lennon Broadway show. (To be fair, I don't like Broadway much anyway, so it's not like I'm going to shows without rock star involvement). And don't get me started on U2's Spider-Man disaster. But I have a feeling that this may be pretty good (although the new version of "21 Guns" by Green Day and the cast of Berkeley production of American Idiot is very... Broadway). So, even though I am not a Broadway person, I may be getting tickets for two shows: American Idiot and Fela.

BEST OF THE 00's: GREEN DAY

In the '90s, I liked Green Day, but found them a bit overexposed and annoying. I became a fan at the exact moment where it seemed that people had lost interest: their 2000 album, Warning. I saw the video for "Minority" (which inspired my posting name on this very blog) and I was sold. Even if you are white, suburban and middle class, you can feel like you don't fit in, and "Minority" is all about that. Warning had some other great songs, like "Warning" (although how they avoided getting the crap sued out of them by The Kinks - the song sounds exactly like "Picture Book" - I don't know).

I saw them on that tour - they had scaled down from arenas to large theaters and it was a bit more intimate.  There were probably less fair weather fans at the show, it was great. But after that, they went on a "co-headlining" tour with blink-182, who had clearly copped some of their schtick from Green Day, and did it in a more safe and less punk way. Green Day played before blink. Green Day seemed to be going the way of lots of other Lollapalooza vets: even though they were just in their thirties, they were going to be '90s nostalgia.

And then: American Idiot.

In a democracy, questioning your government is a duty, and even a patriotic one if you do it without malice. American Idiot, recorded and released during bush's reign, is an against-all-odds classic. In the age where no one was making very political statements, it was a big one. In an era where "the album" was dead, it was a concept album in the spirit of Tommy. And when very few rock bands were getting hit singles, American Idiot was all over the radio. The tour started out in clubs and ended in stadiums.  Green Day was the most relevant band in the land. The band who used to sing about being stoned and being bored. They ended up collaborating with no less than U2 (on "The Saints Are Coming") and with The Simpsons (covering the show's theme for the film, which they appeared in, animated style).

Following it up must have been a bitch, so the band came up with a new identity, The Foxboro Hot Tubs and released my favorite album of 2008, Stop Drop and Roll, a classic garage rock album.

21st Century Breakdown has been one of my favorite rock albums of 2009, although something of a letdown after American Idiot and The Foxboro Hot Tubs. Still, this is a band that will remain relevant for years to come.

GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND COMING IN 2010

Green Day has consistently done cool stuff in recent years. They fight the power with a concept album American Idiot, make a classic garage rock album under the alias Foxboro Hot Tubs (my favorite album of 2008), tour arenas and stadiums when few rock bands can do it, and are coming to Broadway, the cool way. (By the way, thier new version of "21 Guns" with the cast of American Idiot will be out on iTunes on December 22, but you can hear it at the band's website now.  It is kind of moving; it's very "Broadway," but I kind of like it).

Now, the band have announced that they are going to have their own Rock Band game out next year. Read more about it at MTV.com.

Not enough Green Day for you?  Of course not! Well, in case you missed it, on iTunes, the expanded version of 21st Century Breakdown has covers of The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" and Social Distortion's "Another State Of Mind." There are two bonus tracks on the "Know Your Enemy" EP ("Lights Out" and "Hearts Collide") and there's a new live EP Last Night On Earth (Live In Tokyo).

GREEN DAY RECORD NEW "21 GUNS" - WITH "AMERICAN IDIOT" CAST

This is pretty cool: Green Day is recording a new verison of their single "21 Guns" with the cast of the Berkeley production of American Idiot. It will be a digital download available soon. Green Day has also started announcing summer concerts (all in Europe) on thier website.