A Fire Inside, Asking For It, what ever you think AFI stands for, think again. My new meaning for them is now : Always Fucking Intense. This was the band that steered me into all kinds of different rock music, without them I'd probably still be listening to Smash Mouth. I entered the Cricket Amphitheater in Chula Vista, CA as they started their first song. Davey Havok (Vocalist) has a refreshing look, short hair! And there are still all the same original band members after all these years. Keeping it classy, they had an off-white curtain draped behind them with the drummer, Adam Carson banging on a glittered gold drum set. Davey was at the top of his game, and there was no way I was going to be stuck in seated aisles. So after precise timing, I hopped the barricades and ran into the pit, to join the rest of the fans... or so I thought. Not many people were getting down to A.F.I but I sure was! Of course they had to play homage to "Girls Not Grey," which was the first song from them that was heard on the radio. "Dancing Through Sunday" was a definite fist pumper and I have to say this was one of my favorites of the night, especially when Jade Pudget (Guitarist) ripped out a solo with just one hand. They also "Miss Murder," another huge hit of theirs which they dedicated to Green Day. A.F.I played such a clear-cut rendition of every song it was so much better than listening to the album. Most songs were played from, Sing The Sorrow, Decemberunderground, and some songs off their new album Crash Love. They ended with "Love Like Winter, " and I hoped that people would join in with me when I was screaming "A F I ! " so that maybe we could get an encore, but no one did, sadly.

From my recent experience with Green Day, I was expecting a very political and serious kind of set, with the release of their chart-topping American Idiot album in 2004. which was filled with themes mostly set on the negative affects of the bush administration, the war in Iraq and the media's influence on the American people. Don't get me wrong, those things are important to talk about and to address, but I was scared that Green Day had lost their punk-rock funk that came with the carelessness that they portrayed in their earlier albums. I was so wrong.

A guy in a pink bunny suit came out with two bottles of Miller Lite in his hand, and walked around drunkenly pounding beer and worked on getting the crowd up and excited, after he failed miserably at doing the YMCA dance, he left the stage and 10 minutes later, the intro for their newest album 21st Century Breakdown,"Song Of The Century," boomed out into the crowd and as it ended, Billy Joe Armstrong and the rest of the crew stormed on stage. At this time the pit was getting pushed towards the stage without mercy. You really had to earn your place and had to fight to not get pushed back. What was surprising was that there were ladies twice my age holding their ground, not showing any fear of getting trampled on or pushed around. Green Day has some dedicated and tough fans thats for damn sure, and after this show I know why. "Nice Guys Finish Last," "Platypus," were first at bat. I have never seen so much interaction with the crowd at any rock show that I've been to. Billy isn't one to keep to himself on stage. He was grabbing props from the crowd and wearing them with pride. Like a pair of extremely oversized 70's Elvis sunglasses that he threw on and just stood their for a few minutes with a goofy expression on his face. With his bleached blonde tips and tight red and black striped pants, I had a feeling this show could be one of the most entertaining I've been to. "Holiday," "We Are The Waiting," "American Eulogy," and "Jesus Of Suburbia," were just some of the few songs to be played.

 He had mentioned during the set that they were recording a live album, and said that he had a feeling that most of the songs that were going to be placed on that record were going to be from this San Diego performance.  He kept the crowd involved by having us shout back "Hey ho!"  and screaming to the audience "Lets get crazy San Deigo!" The occasional, and always surprising pyrotechnics went off behind the drummer. During the performance of "Paper Lanterns" he ask for all his fans to come on stage, this is where getting trampled was worth it, as long as you could make it to the stage. The mobs of fans desperately tried to climb on anyone to crowd surf to the safety of the CSC workers and onto the stage. Those who made it up on stage ran up and hugged Billy, grabbed mics and sang into them and shook the hands of the band members and most definitely rocked out. Billy also brought out his embarrassed wife on stage. After the end of "Paper Lanterns," he broke out into "HItchin' A Ride" and the 20 something fans were then escorted off stage, but this wouldn't be the last time the fans got to take over the stage. He dragged up a few fans up  and ask the youngest, a kind about 9 to stage dive. Not only that but two fans got a once in a lifetime opportunity to actually sing, and play a whole song of theirs, ON STAGE. While the bass and drums played the very famous melody for "Longview" he asked the crowd if they knew how to sing the song. "You! You know how to sing this song? Alright this guy right here come up and sing this song!" Billy said as he pointed to this guy. "Now I'm going to need someone to play the guitar to this song," he said as he traveled to the other side of the stage. "You know how to play the guitar for this song? You swear? Alright come up here!" He said to the kid who had all the people around him pointing at him. The two fans killed it on stage, while Billy danced around stage. He ended up giving his guitar away to the kid who played the song and to the singer, well he was given a bra that was thrown on stage, and was encouraged to stage dive. I never did get to make it on stage, but I will never forget this performance for the rest of my life, it was easily the best rock shows I've ever been to.

They even did covers which included about 2 seconds each of "Iron Man" (Black Sabbath) and "Master of Puppets" (Metallica). Then longer versions of "Rock and Roll," (Led Zeppelin) "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love," (Van Halen) "Baba O'Riley," (The Who) and "Highway to Hell" (AC/DC) were played. They even played "Shout!" (The Isley Brothers). During their whole two and a half hour set they didn't stop for breaks or for a sip of water, and even did two encores. The first one they came back to play "American Idiot," and " 21 Guns" and for the second encore Billy played acoustic versions of "Wake Me Up When September Ends," and ended with the most timeless of their songs ever created, "Good Riddance."  Theirs no way in hell any other performance can top this one.

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