Sunday May 17th was an historic night.
By Middagh Goodwin
The word EPIC would be quite appropriate for what happened. Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time and the stars align. I was given the heads up that tickets for a benefit show for AK Press were going on sale at 9am Saturday May 16th. A fire had destroyed two buildings displacing residents and destroying AK Press and 1984 killing two people. $20 was nothing to support a great cause and see a couple great bands Bobby Joe Ebola & the Children McNuggits and Enemies with a special guest.
It is who the special guest ended up being. MR&R leaked speculations on who the band was and tickets sold out in 9 seconds…yes that is right 9 seconds. Green Day was going to be coming home to 924 Gilman for the first time in 22 Years(Sept. 6th 1993). It was surreal. Billy Joe a few years back had paid for a total upgrade of the Gilman’s sound system and yet his band was not allowed to play there. Billie Joe even announced at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame “we come from this place called Gilman St. It’s a club in Berkeley.” and yet they were banned because of the club’s “no major label band” policy prohibiting them to play.
With a unanimous vote to allow them to play the benefit, Green Day was poised to come home. All the rules had been thrown out for this one special night. Will call tickets only, a major label band playing a venue that was smaller then most stages they currently perform on and an introduction by Jello Biafra, this was this really happening.
Green Day hit the stage for a nearly two hour performance and through out the night noting that Gillman was special and like a church, They performed a set with many classic tracks like “2000 Light Years Away”, “Kristy Road” and “Only You”. A very surreal highlight for myself was when they brought Tim Armstrong(Rancid/Operation Ivy) up on stage to perform “Knowledge” by OpIvy. I stood there next to Matt Freeman(Rancid/OpIvy) and Lawrence Livermore(Look Out! Records) while Davey Havok(AFI) was in the pit with 200 plus other people singing along…”all I know is I don’t know nothing” but I do know that this night was historic.
When I got my tickets(#4 and 5) and saw how fast they had sold out I made a Bruce Springsteen comment, remembering how quickly the Born in the USA tour sold out. This show was special like Springsteen returning to the Stone Pony or Jane’s Addiction playing the Roxy.
$11,000 was raised and even much more on the Go Fund Me page because of all the press that this show has garnered http://www.gofundme.com/akpressfire give if you can.
(Sept. 6th 1993)
Setlist:
99 Revolutions
Holiday
Know Your Enemy
Welcome to Paradise
2,000 Light Years Away
Private Ale
Christie Road
Paper Lanterns
Only of You
Stuart and the Ave.
She
Going To Pasalacqua
Burnout
Knowledge
Longview
Basketcase
When I Come Around
Are We The Waiting
St. Jimmy
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
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Minority
Middagh Goodwin
Beat Happy! Music
209-981-2311
beathappymusic@aol.com
