welcome to paradise

quickie blog entry before i get back to work...

Okay this is what I'm gonna blog about. Green Day.

I been checking their setlist on their current international tour. They been playing 28-32s per night. That's insane, considering how energetic their shows are (Billie Joe is easily the most energetic front man I've seen live. and I've seen nearly every big mainstream contemporary rock bands of the past decade or so. No Doubt, Strokes, Stripes, Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Weezer, Blink, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Offspring, Interpol, Oasis, Muse, Jet, Vines, Hives, My Chemical Romance, Creed, Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, etc. I'm missing Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers to complete thist list....but yeah Billie Joe tops all the frontman here in terms of energy level and interaction with the crowd).

I've been baffled at how expensive tickets are. In fact I want to write a feature on this for the paper--where do our ticket prices go? I want a percentage breakdown, how much goes to the band, how much to the venue, how much to the promoters? Every international act that comes to HK charges 650 HKD now.

650 HKD is acceptable for a band with an established history and reputation, like Oasis, Coldplay or Green Day. I mean whether you like their music or not--you gotta admit that they are big and they have been around and they have done this and that.

But 650 for fucking Mika? I mean dude aint even mainstream. 9 out of 10 HKers have never heard of him. I'm not saying mainstream = good and not mainstream = bad, but how can a non mainstream artist charge that much? Green Day compared to Mika in terms of fame and accomplishment is like Mariah Carey compared to....Taylor Swift. Or let's use a movie example: it's like Brad Pitt to that Patterson guy from Twilight.

Would it make sense if both shows charge the same amount (or if both actors charge the same price per film)?

650 for Green Day is a far, far better deal than 650 for Mika, when you consider that GD will be playing 30 songs, and it's not like it's fillers-- they have at least 10-15 instantly recognizable hits. Of these 10-15 hits, 3-6 of them can be considered modern iconic classics. At least to Americans.

So yeah. Considering their big library of hits, energy, stage presence, Green Day show will be awesome.

You can NOT like their music, it's okay. But you CAN'T deny they were the voice of a large crowd of kids/teens in the 90s or that they helped take a genre of music mainstream (pop punk) My friend Mike Liu (you know the music snob who thinks he's the master of music. He is to music what I am to NBA) has been clowning me on facebook for liking Green Day still. Only I aint backing down cause guy don't know what the hell he talking about.

Here are some videos of Green Day on letterman. It's nice to see Billie Joe's looks change throughout the years while Letterman looks exactly the same.

These videos spans over 15 years of Letterman performances. They're not in chronological order cause fuck it, I'm lazy.

1997

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRIL7qaIin0 2004

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_mbNivkGww 2009

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Ne411Gya0 1994

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jEaLL-VdDI 1994

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePgLUYFp5o4

2000

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZewPAlUbb4 2004

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixd8Gps2zn8