364 Days to Go... A Date with Green Day

Marquee at the St. James Theater

Welcome to day two of my year long journey.

Tonight's 20-something adventure: enjoy some of the best music of your teen years on Broadway.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have actually seen this show once before.  I almost considered it "cheating" on the challenge because of this fact.  My rationale, though, was that this performance would be different because it featured Billy Joe Armstrong - front man for Green Day and the real driving force behind this play.  I could not have imagined how right I would be.

The performance was just as good as the first time.  The music moving, the dances energizing, the story poignant to our generation in a way that you can't quite describe with words alone.  What I was most amazed to see, though, was the how the simple presence of BJA affected the audience.  The songs were all too familiar, but something about the merging of those lyrics with that familiar face and voice brought out the maximum amount of emotion.  His appearances effectively brought us all back to the days of listening to Green Day records in our high school bedrooms. 

After the show, he performed a solo version of Basket Case from the Dookie album (easily one of the cornerstone records of my adolescence) that had the entire audience crooning along.  It made me think about fame and about music.  About how crazy it must feel to have this massive crowd of strangers all intimately familiar with your life and work.  To have them looking up to you - or at least at you - for answers about life and emotion and community.

On our walk home, my boyfriend raised an interesting question.  Do you think movie stars or musicians are "bigger"?  My gut response was movie stars.  It doesn't get any bigger than Will Smith or Angelina Jolie.  Those are your "A-listers" who have the most power in their Hollywood circles.  They enjoy an elitism that most musicians do not.

He, however, argued in favor of music based on the experience we had just had.  After some thinking, I have to agree.  Music transcends generations and sticks with you in a way that a movie never could.  I can name countless songs and artists from my mothers youth, my youth, my present.  We still perceive many of these talents as  insightful, groundbreaking, tragic, or familiar.  I can scarcely say the same for films and actors from generations gone by.  Sure, there are exceptions.  We all know Marilyn Monroe and Jimmy Stewart and Vivian Leigh.  I would dare say, though, that few civilians are fanatical about any one of their bodies of work.  By contrast, we are often loyal to musicians for years.  Collecting every record, memorizing every word.  We are able to get close to our musical idols at their live performances and become further convinced that they are familiar.  That we are the same.  You'd be lucky to ever cross paths with Nicole Kidman.

The whole thing has redirected my attention to a long buried item on my life's to-do list: "Learn to play a musical instrument".  I'm not counting that 6 months of piano lessons when I was 7 or the 2 years as a saxophone player in the middle school band.  I want something with more of a rock'n'roll edge - like guitar or drums.  Something that makes you want to jump and shout and dance.  Lucky for me I have 364 days of new things ahead.  Add it to the list...