Last night when Jake (above with his wife Abby) and I got back from dinner, I had an IM waiting for me from Zach. Turns out Jimmy Eat World was in Atlanta last night with Green Day and so he hooked me, Jake and Abby up with floor tickets and VIP passes. The last time I saw Jimmy was in Jersey at the Continental Arena, but the Phillips Arena in Atlanta was SO much bigger, it was pretty amazing.
The show itself was absolutely amazing. It was the first time I’ve ever seen Green Day and I have to admit, they put on what was probably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Whenever anyone asks what my favorite show has been, I always tell them Incubus in Boise (and I still think that I liked that music best) but as far as the whole-package-deal, Green Day and Jimmy Eat World were amazing. Green Day’s music, sound, lights, fire-bursts (whatever those things were) were all just quality.
There were two parts of the show that I thought were the best. At one point they brought a 10 yr old kid up on stage and let him handle the water hose that Billy Joe (lead singer) had started spraying the crowd with. That was one.
But the best part of the concert was when Billy Joe announced that they were going to “make a band” and they needed volunteers. So they started picking people out of the crowd. So they got a 17-yr old bass player, a 16-yr old drummer and then a 13-yr old lead guitarist, a kid named Jojo. It was hilarious. And they told them what chords to play and then the band sang the song. It was pretty sweet – after they played, Billy Joe gave Jojo his guitar, and they had the bass player do a stage dive! There was something so great about the fact that they just gave these “kids” the instruments, in front of 10-15,000 screaming fans of Green Day.
Not that I’m going to try and philosophize about a concert experience, but watching this world-famous band trust these three random kids enough to have faith in them, give them a chance to exercise their talents and giftings and take a step back from the front of the stage, made me wonder something about the church. What would happen if we did more of that in our churches? If we stood back, and gave more people chances, chances to lead, to sing, to preach – to take a step back and give other people the chance to practice and live into their giftings…I don’t know – it was just cool to see the guys of Green Day let these kids have this experience.
Anyway, we hung out in the VIP room for awhile and then just hung out with Jimmy Eat World after the concert till around 12.30am. I had an interesting talk with Jim (the lead singer) about Israel-Palestine stuff (which I now realize is going to be something that I talk about a lot now with random people, because…it just comes up) and Pat Robertson. Anyway, it was a great night – thanks again Zach!