American Idiot

When I bought my first Green Day album "Dookie" I hid it from my friends because they weren't considered true punk rock. Too pop, too mainstream, I mean come on it actually got radio play. Totally not cool enough. But I was hooked on "Basket Case". As much as I loved the anger and the angst and the frustration of the real thing, let's face it, but the time I got to it, it was already 10-15 years old and these boys were my peers. And their songs were seriously hitting the mark. They got the ennui, the frustration, the boredom, the sheer hopelessness, but they did it with humor too. They got that us suburban punks were pretty much as ridiculous as the shitholes that we lived in and it was just as much about us as it was about the society that made us. And Christ, Billie Joe was beautiful!

I went on to buy an earlier of album of theirs next, "1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours", which I thought was more legit as it was on an independent punk label from up north and made before anyone knew who they were, and thus the obsession grew. Because see, what people don't really get, is that a lot of their songs are about love. I tapped in to this romaticism I found in Billie's lyrics. I am the queen of the unrequited love affair and was living a life of driving by guys houses at this time of my life, just damn near exploding at all times with my need and my love and my dreams of a true love that would get me out of my miserable home. And Billie Joe seemed to know exactly how I felt. He became a pretty consistent companion in my rounds.

Over the years they stayed with me off and on, always a fan but you know life goes on. When American Idiot came out, it was like re-discovering them all over again. This album was big, it was loud and the lyrics still seemed to express my feelings in a way no one else, least of all me, was able to. Not only that, but my boys, my little punks had made a concept album, a rock opera. Now I cut my teeth on Tommy by The Who and I love concept albums, but here was one written for me, about my time and my world, not something that was already legendary before I was born. I'm not saying it's in the same league as Tommy, I don't claim that, and I'm not saying that Green Day will take their place next to the gods of rock n roll by any stretch of the imagination. It's just the intimacy of it. This one was mine.

This week, I very luckily was invited to go see the musical that was made from American Idiot. When they announced that they were doing this musical and it was going to Broadway, that old punk in me that hid that first album was screaming loud and clear. WTF?! A fucking musical! Man, how much more of a fucking sell out could they be? But I still wanted to see it even if I acted like I didn't. So when my friend emailed me that she had tickets to see it in LA, I jumped at it. We took off work early, ate an amazing meal in some chichi restaurant and settled in to our amazing center stage orchestra seats. And it rocked. The three guys that the story revolved around seriously could have been any of the guys I ran with in high school. It's so weird to have what you thought was your subversive little pathetic world played out on stage before you. The music was not diluted or censored, the choreography was edgy and raucous and rough. Yeah there was some shit that I was like "um, no" about. But for the most part, I loved it and best of all it brought me back to my boys again. And dude, the lead guy was hot! I might have to go see it again when it comes to the center.

OMG, I love you Billie Joe!!!!