The American Dream Is Killing Me

I’m back from Vegas! It was a whirlwind of a weekend and I was very happy to finally get a full night’s sleep after an action packed few days.

On Thursday I flew in for the Green Day club show on Fremont Street. I was EXTREMELY fortunate to get into this show - 800 capacity and I ended up on the barricade. Wow. The weekend continued with When We Were Young fest on Saturday, where I saw about 10-12 bands partial or full sets.

Ended the weekend at TwitchCon, which got me thinking - should I be live streaming? I’m not sure if there’s a strong writing community there, but after drinking the kool-aid at the con, I started to feel a little like I’m missing something but not being on Twitch. Something for me to think about.

Do y’all watch streamers? Would you tune in if I tried it out? Send me a reply - let’s talk about it.

Missed last week’s newsletter? Read it here

🖤 Elisa

IT’S NOT A PHASE

Things found on the interwebz this week:

• Blink-182 released their new album & announced a stadium tour for the summer → Pitchfork

• Green Day dropped a single and announced a stadium tour too! → Entertainment Weekly

• At WWWYF, Something Corporate teased something for 2024 with Jack’s Mannequin and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness → Link 

FROM THE PIT

Thursday night was the ultimate once-in-a-lifetime kind of show. Thanks to friends, I was also able to finally get up and close to Green Day’s first touring van - the Bookmobile! Its an incredible piece of punk history, I can’t believe that not only I got to go inside, but also rode around up and down the Vegas strip in it!

Anticipation around the venue was palatable through the afternoon as fans showed up, including those who scored tickets to others on their phones refreshing the ticketing page hoping to get lucky. The band requested fans dress up as zombies and the theme made for a fun Halloween atmosphere as we waited for the show.

Once inside, my friends and I ran for the barricade and managed to hold those spots for the night. This show was the biggest band I’ve ever seen play a small club and I can’t believe I was front row for it!

Green Day has a lot going on at the moment so the show served two purposes - #1 the anniversary celebration of Dookie, and #2 the reveal of a new song and summer tour announcement.

The set started with the band performing Dookie in full, the stage decorations all matched the album art. After the Dookie set, the band played for over an hour longer - including lots of tracks that aren’t part of their usual setlist like “Geek Stink Breath”, “Warning”, “Last Night On Earth”, and “Homecoming”.

Also in the second half of the show, the band debuted their new single “The American Dream Is Killing Me” - which has a catchy chorus that’s been stuck in my head all weekend. I’ve seen Green Day several times before, but this evening was a truly special treat unlike I’ve ever experienced.

See the full setlist → Setlist.fm 

Next up was When We Were Young Fest 2023! I had a blast last year running around between stages but this year I took it at a slower pace - the heat was brutal compared to last year and definitely factored into my energy levels for the day.

I was most excited to see Something Corporate - I never had the chance to see the band before in the original lineup, despite having been a fan since their album “North” was released in 2003. I may have cried. Just a little.

I saw too many fun sets to list here, and the night closed out with banger sets from both Blink-182 and Green Day. I sang and danced along, lost in how much I love hearing their songs in a full crowd.

Some of the lineup scheduling confused me - Thrice and Simple Plan should’ve been main stage bands. Both bands regularly headline major tours and other fests, I was incredibly bummed they played up against the last acts of the night on the main stage.

Overall, I had a great time. Yes, the heat and crowds made the day difficult to navigate, I saw so many people get sick or pass out, but I double fisted Liquid Death cans all day long to keep hydrated. I thrive in the live music environment and I really try to not let these things get in the way of a full day enjoying the bands that I love.

While crowding and slow entry are issues I hope improve, one thing this fest does very well compared to others that I’ve been to is the amount of food and drink stalls available, concession lines never felt unreasonable. And you can’t beat real restrooms - even for general admission!

I’ll be back next year, that’s for sure!

DIARY ENTRY

Okay, so I finally got my copy of the coloring book and it looks great! I had fun putting this together and it was so cool to finally see it finished. And I hope y’all tag me when you’ve filled the pages in!

CHEER UP EMO KID

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