Discussion
Anyone else off to see Green Day at the Emirates today? Beautiful day for it. 3rd time I'll have seen them live and the support acts aren't too shabby either - All Time Low on first (eldest son loves them and saw them live at Slam Dunk on Monday), Kaisers on next and then Green Day.
Have a great day if you're going too (or even if you're not).
Have a great day if you're going too (or even if you're not).
I was there. What did you think? Was a good show as you'd expect from Green Day, despite a few meh tracks from the last 3 meh albums. But the sound was dreadful. May have been because we were sat pretty high up, but suspect they had to keep volumes with local residents in mind, and consequently it's the only live event I've seen where I've not been suffering tinnitus the following day.
And actually quite gutted that Time Of Your Life didn't get played.
Also a mention for the local policing. Their experience of 20+ similarly sized live (sporting) events there a year clearly little help - objective seemed only to be moving everyone away from the ground by directing towards Finsbury Park rather than Arsenal, but then only having about 2 officers at the former to police the many thousands that descended.
Still, can always rely on First Great Western to be more incompetent with their laughable management of "rail replacement buses".
Combination of the above meant 4 hours from the set finishing in North London to me getting back home near Reading.
Did enjoy Green Day, but the poor sound and transport cretins would definitely make me think twice about going back to the Emirates for similar events.
And actually quite gutted that Time Of Your Life didn't get played.
Also a mention for the local policing. Their experience of 20+ similarly sized live (sporting) events there a year clearly little help - objective seemed only to be moving everyone away from the ground by directing towards Finsbury Park rather than Arsenal, but then only having about 2 officers at the former to police the many thousands that descended.
Still, can always rely on First Great Western to be more incompetent with their laughable management of "rail replacement buses".
Combination of the above meant 4 hours from the set finishing in North London to me getting back home near Reading.
Did enjoy Green Day, but the poor sound and transport cretins would definitely make me think twice about going back to the Emirates for similar events.
SWAT78 said:
I was there. What did you think? Was a good show as you'd expect from Green Day, despite a few meh tracks from the last 3 meh albums. But the sound was dreadful. May have been because we were sat pretty high up, but suspect they had to keep volumes with local residents in mind, and consequently it's the only live event I've seen where I've not been suffering tinnitus the following day.
And actually quite gutted that Time Of Your Life didn't get played.
Also a mention for the local policing. Their experience of 20+ similarly sized live (sporting) events there a year clearly little help - objective seemed only to be moving everyone away from the ground by directing towards Finsbury Park rather than Arsenal, but then only having about 2 officers at the former to police the many thousands that descended.
Still, can always rely on First Great Western to be more incompetent with their laughable management of "rail replacement buses".
Combination of the above meant 4 hours from the set finishing in North London to me getting back home near Reading.
Did enjoy Green Day, but the poor sound and transport cretins would definitely make me think twice about going back to the Emirates for similar events.
I have to agree about the sound. It was rubbish, too quiet, no clarity and not a patch on Wembley 3 years ago. The set was good overall though and the crowd was excellent too, really involved and a proper singalong in places! The lad from the crowd singing Longview was really getting into it, and the girl dragged on stage to play guitar was pretty decent too. Not sure I'd have the balls to do it myself.And actually quite gutted that Time Of Your Life didn't get played.
Also a mention for the local policing. Their experience of 20+ similarly sized live (sporting) events there a year clearly little help - objective seemed only to be moving everyone away from the ground by directing towards Finsbury Park rather than Arsenal, but then only having about 2 officers at the former to police the many thousands that descended.
Still, can always rely on First Great Western to be more incompetent with their laughable management of "rail replacement buses".
Combination of the above meant 4 hours from the set finishing in North London to me getting back home near Reading.
Did enjoy Green Day, but the poor sound and transport cretins would definitely make me think twice about going back to the Emirates for similar events.
Oh and thank you very much Ticketmaster, you bunch of w
kers. We booked as soon as tickets went on sale and requested the best available seats - ended up in block 100 on the upper tier about as far away from the stage as it's possible to get. Best available seats my arse.4 hours to Reading is a joke. We drove yesterday and parked at a school about a mile away from the stadium. We were in the car by 11 and I think we drove past Reading before 12.20, getting back to Stroud by 1am. Loads easier than getting the train and tube. Wouldn't fancy driving into Central London in the week though as we saw some bloody awful driving.
Edited by Evil Monkey on Sunday 2nd June 18:19
Conian said:
As a big fan I was happy to pay for the 3 albums, but that did not inspire me to go to the tour.
Was the set list a massive disappointment?
Set list ok actually - not too heavy on the new stuff, mainly the classics, a couple of even older ones. Was just really surprised when they closed with something slower than I assume was from one of the newer albums, and that I didn't even recognise.Was the set list a massive disappointment?
Lost some points with the wife, and didn't help the lengthy exit times, by insisting that we didn't move at the end of the encore on my assumption that "There will be another one - they always play Time Of Your Life."
As the Monkey said, was actually a good show - got (I think) 4 people up on stage at various who were all quite good, apart from the tiny boy who looked terrified, and generally got the crowd going well.
But there were lots of people (around me at least) who were having a nice relaxing sit down / chat / toilet break every time any new stuff was played - I know they were touring the new albums, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the crowd would've been delighted if they'd played nothing from them. Didn't really do themselves any favours by getting the crowd going then playing something from new albums probably about every 4th song.
Poor sound quality and volume were much bigger negatives for me than the set list.
Setlist (from very precious bickering fans) posted here:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/green-day/2013/emira...
One other thing from me, because I've been to a lot of live music events but don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. Was a nice idea to play Bohemian Rhapsody immediately before coming on stage - I've never seen a crowd sing along so enthusiastically to a CD before, and made sure that everyone was already up for it before they even came on stage. And immediately took it back down a notch by kicking off with a new track...
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/green-day/2013/emira...
One other thing from me, because I've been to a lot of live music events but don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. Was a nice idea to play Bohemian Rhapsody immediately before coming on stage - I've never seen a crowd sing along so enthusiastically to a CD before, and made sure that everyone was already up for it before they even came on stage. And immediately took it back down a notch by kicking off with a new track...
I went.
All Time Low - I knew one of their songs. Didn't inspire me to become a fan.
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot is a singalong, but I still hate them. Their songs are dirges. The singer is a tool. The band is full of second rate Oasis wannabes. I couldn't care less about them at all, so I spent most of their set looking at birds and planes and helicopters and pretty much anything else. It was a nice enough afternoon.
Green Day - I thought they didn't necessarily play the strongest of their new stuff, but did play a healthy load of their best old stuff which balanced it out. BJ on form, Mike and Tre both well into it and I enjoyed seeing Tre come out high-kicking in a bra while BJ took drum duty.
Sound quality was... inconsistent. To my ears, the 'treble' settings seemed to fade up and down, or whatever the actual name is for 'what the tone setting on a Les Paul does'... Weird, and not brilliant but the atmosphere and 40/50/60,000 (?) people singing along helped.
Transport - what absolutely amazed and delighted me (I needed to get from the ground to St Pancras) was that nowhere in the pre-event emails, or the announcements in the Underground system, or the announcement in the stadium, did anybody mention Caledonian Road tube station. Walked there, went straight down to an empty platform, zero queuing, straight on the first tube and then it was just one stop to St Pancras.
Oh, and yes - I've seen them many times but it was my other half's first. Good Riddance - denied. Sad face.
All Time Low - I knew one of their songs. Didn't inspire me to become a fan.
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot is a singalong, but I still hate them. Their songs are dirges. The singer is a tool. The band is full of second rate Oasis wannabes. I couldn't care less about them at all, so I spent most of their set looking at birds and planes and helicopters and pretty much anything else. It was a nice enough afternoon.
Green Day - I thought they didn't necessarily play the strongest of their new stuff, but did play a healthy load of their best old stuff which balanced it out. BJ on form, Mike and Tre both well into it and I enjoyed seeing Tre come out high-kicking in a bra while BJ took drum duty.
Sound quality was... inconsistent. To my ears, the 'treble' settings seemed to fade up and down, or whatever the actual name is for 'what the tone setting on a Les Paul does'... Weird, and not brilliant but the atmosphere and 40/50/60,000 (?) people singing along helped.
Transport - what absolutely amazed and delighted me (I needed to get from the ground to St Pancras) was that nowhere in the pre-event emails, or the announcements in the Underground system, or the announcement in the stadium, did anybody mention Caledonian Road tube station. Walked there, went straight down to an empty platform, zero queuing, straight on the first tube and then it was just one stop to St Pancras.
Oh, and yes - I've seen them many times but it was my other half's first. Good Riddance - denied. Sad face.
I went with the missus. First time seeing them live but got all the live stuff from dvds and stuff. We both absolutely loved it. We were stood in line with the video screen on the right reasonably near the front. Sounded awesome, amazing to hear 70,000 or so people singing along to pretty much every song. I`d looked at the setlists before so knew what to expect. I think they need to involve the crowd a little bit more though!!
Getting back to central London was fun though. As others have said the Arsenal tube was a joke. Managed to get one of the last tubes (11.15pm) back with about 10 mins to spare. I think there was a 2 hour wait for the next ones.
Still buzzing from it to be honest. American Idiot has had a loud play in this house today, hope the neighbours enjoyed it!
Getting back to central London was fun though. As others have said the Arsenal tube was a joke. Managed to get one of the last tubes (11.15pm) back with about 10 mins to spare. I think there was a 2 hour wait for the next ones.
Still buzzing from it to be honest. American Idiot has had a loud play in this house today, hope the neighbours enjoyed it!
I was there....... first time i've seen them live and loved every second of it....... Couldn't get my head around the sound clarity, just put it down to the stadium and noise levels, and 60,000 people singing along !!! Not the best sounding gig i've been to, but more than made up for it with the songs, the atmosphere and the energy !!!!!
I saw them 20 odd years ago at the Top Spot Snooker Club in Huddersfield, their first UK gig. Must have been fifty in. It annoyed me when people bemoan that the band hasn't got any real punk rock roots when the reality is that they toured the European squat scene until they hit the big time.
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