yeah rock-it baby. that stamp on my hand isn't full but you can make out it's supposed to say rock-it. i got the stamp when i entered the licensed area where they sell alcohol and where all the kids weren't

what can i say about rock-it? what i can say is that it was fanfuckentastic. what made it fanfuckentastic? two words boys and girls. green motherfuckin' day.

the event started at 11.30am but me and my bunch of rockiteers only got there around 3pm cos the first few bands didn't seem too interesting. there were two stages and i initially wanted to catch the oz band little birdy at the smaller stage but the tent the stage was in was so packed that i just headed to the main arena and hung out in the licensed area. that place was an alcoholic wasteland with empty crushed cans and bottles of booze all over the place. piles of cans and bottles were everywhere. woe is me for not bringing my digicam along for fear of not being allowed to enter with it. there were digicams everywhere. oh well.

when we got there this hip-hop act scribe was on the main stage and the flairz were on the smaller stage. i didn't see the flairz cos it was packed there and i didn't really pay attention to scribe cos it was mostly huge bass sounds, requisite turntable scratching and one mc giving it up one time. and also cos most of that time i was in the queue at the merchandise tent. how could i not buy anything huh c'mon. my bounty at the end of that were a green day american idiot 2005 tour t-shirt, another green day tee with a picture of a flying guy dropping bombs ala dookie and a green day book bag. they cost a fortune but i just shut my eyes and said get me those things and tried not to think much about it. i only wanted to get a tour tee initially but the other things were nice and the bag was (relatively) cheap.

so we got a beer and hung around watching/listening to shihad formerly known as pacifier, a hard rock band. they weren't bad but again i wasn't paying too much attention to them. prob cos the bass was so resounding that it drowned the guitars out. or maybe it's cos i wasn't standing too close to the stage.

we then went to the boundaries of the arena to sit cos the boundary is sloped up so you can see everything. after a short break simple plan came out to play. they were alright, they had presence. i mean i paid more attention to them than shihad. no dis to shihad though. they started off with shut up and ended with i'd do anything and in between played quite a few songs including worst day ever and something like you are the worst whatever. the lead vocalist proclaimed pretty stock remarks like "we love perth the best" or something like that and "why are the girls here so hot?". the highlight of the set was when they stopped playing cos people were getting flattened at the front of the crowd and the lead guy was like if you see someone fall pick them up everybody just back up a bit and he got a bottle right smack on his chest. the nice guy routine took a break there as he warned whoever to "stop throwing those fucking bottles...or i'll come down there and fuckin' kick your ass". to which i think the guitar player said "he will too. he's tough." confirm highlight of the set. well so much for simple plan.

and then after another break and watching some fights around the place and security guys chasing the troublemakers around which was really very amusing, grinspoon came on. they didn't say much but stopped a song also to tell people to not flatten those in front. grinspoon were good though. they just came out, played their songs, and rocked the shit out of the place. no fuss at all. the australians really dig grinspoon. they were all singing along to most of their songs, and i felt envious of this show of local support. compare it to local scene in singapore, nothing to say man. nothing to say.

finally after many toilet trips and fights and attempted sneak-ins into the arena and high people falling and slipping down the sloped area, it happened. green day were on stage. with a flourish billie joe greeted everyone and they started things off with american idiot. by this time i had moved down closer to the stage so that i could move around better. and i went insane. to actually see them on stage rocking it out after about nine years of wishful thinking. i went fucking nuts. i danced i punched the air i pogoed i screamed the words. i think that's about as close to elation i can get. as expected, after reading so much about their performances, bille joe was hyper as fuck and running all over the goddamn place and being a pretty good showman too. he led the crowd in (too) many call and responses. with his 'i say heyyyyyy oh!". when i first heard him yell that out i had shivers running down my spine cos the only time i ever heard it was on a bootleg cd of a live performance and that was years ago. then after american idiot they did jesus of suburbia and holiday to which bille joe said "this song is for george fuckin' w bush" or something and a few more songs from the latest album. then the fucking highlight for me of the set, which was in itself amazing, was when they ended a song, i can't remember which, and tre cool immediately went into the drum intro to longview. longview gene longview! immediately i thought about sec 1 recess times when i would scream the chorus of longview to gene, who i hardly knew then, and he would think i'm some spaz nutcase but eventually get into green day as well. i was grinning and laughing like a maniac and then mike dirnt finally came in with the bassline. holy fucking shit that was just fucking amazing. then they did brain stew, then basket case then the unexpected, they did knowledge, the operation ivy cover. i thought they stopped doing that song totally but when i heard it i went crazy too. then as usual they got three guys up to form a band and play knowledge and the guitar guy got to keep the guitar he used. then i can't remember what songs came next and they left the stage and then came back (of course) for the encore. they launched straight in boulevard of broken dreams which the crowd went mad about. then they did another one or two songs i can't remember and then finished everything off with a cover of we are the champions.

crazy man crazy. here are some photos my cousin took. she was in the front near the mosh pit so she got pretty decent shots.




hey oh billie joe. here's him being theatrical and pointing to some imaginary object in the air. mike's behind him.




explosions on stage. lots of pyrotechnics went off during the performance. the stage looks cool don't it.




a pretty damn good picture of them doing hitchin' a ride i think. look at that won't you. green fucking day right there on stage.




billie joe giving the finger i think while some guy shows him some love and blocks most of the view.




a blurry pic of billie joe on one of the video screens flanking the stage. that blurry thing could only be billie joe.




a photo of mike on the screen. intense baby intense.

yeah well at the end of the night, i'm splashed with beer and have a piece of chewing gum stuck on my left sleeve. but whatever it was worth it. one or two more photos can be seen on my cuzzin's site. today i'm wearing the american idiot 2005 tour tee. and i can't describe the feeling of wearing the tour tee when the tour is still actually ongoing. well that's it. end of my rock-it ramble. i've seen green day. i've been totally rocked out by them. i'm a happy boy.