Good Charlotte at the Warfield
I tried to get to the Warfield in San Francisco late enough to see all of Good Charlotte and miss the openers, but I didn’t realize there were three. I missed The Dose and Knuckle Puck, but Sleeping with Sirens was just starting when I got there.
I found my friend Elyse at a railing a level up behind the pit, so I hung with her there until Good Charlotte came on.
I can’t decide how I feel about Sleeping with Sirens. Their music is fairly fun, I don’t hate it, but it’s not exactly my cup of tea either. I recognized a few of their songs, like “Better Off Dead.”
I got a little bit of second hand embarrassment at how they handled getting booed. Frontman Kellin Quinn like… tried to show off? At being booed? They like… halted the set so he could belt out in superiority. Okay but OBVIOUSLY you’re more talented than the asshole booing. You’re onstage, he’s not. What’s the point in showing off?
“Try to do it better than me.”
“YOU just got booed.”
The booing is rude and unnecessary, but come on, just keep playing and ignore them please.
I ran down into the pit when Good Charlotte hit the stage.
I was mostly there for nostalgia’s sake. I was never huge into Good Charlotte (I was more of a Simple Plan girl back in the day), but they’ve had a ton of hits that I can’t deny I love.
They played a few (newer probably?) songs I didn’t recognize.
They talked a lot between songs. There was one speech about how girls are gonna save the world which obviously made me very happy.
Joel Madden was wearing a Dodgers jersey and someone in the crowd told him to take it off. (Obviously we’re San Francisco, we hate LA.) He talked about how his son gave him the jersey to wear on tour, so he refuses to take it off. Cute.
They asked if it this was our first Good Charlotte show, and most of the hands in the audience went up. They were very clear that they wanted to make sure it was a great first Good Charlotte show for all of us newbies. They also asked how many of us were introduced to them by our parents, or the reverse of that, if we’ve put headphones on our own kids introducing them to Good Charlotte.
There was one girl there that couldn’t have been older than 20, so she fell into that “parents introduced me” category I’m sure.
They played a lot of throwback songs, and kept asking us where we were certain years. Oh my god I felt so old.
When I think Good Charlotte, I think 13 year old girls. But this show had so many big dudes in the pit. I was… really surprised by that. At one point, there were two pits on either side of me, which was kinda scary. And super unexpected at this show, I thought.
One of my favorite parts of the night: I turned and saw my friend Frankie beside me in the pit at one point. She’s a friend of a friend, really. I only met her because she’s friends with my good friend Alanna. Aside from her, we’ve never really hung out that much. But she was VERY excited to see me.
Frankie (to her friend): “I met Lindsay at a My Chemical Romance show!”
Me: standing there awkwardly shaking my head no cuz I’ve literally never seen MCR before
Frankie: “No? I thought we met My Chem together. I don’t remember, she goes to a lot of shows.”
I LOVE that that was her thought process. Everyone assumes they met me at a show even when they didn’t and it’s SO GREAT. But also no one remembers how they know me lollll
Generation RX
Self Help
The Anthem
The Story of My Old Man
Keep Your Hands Off My Girl
Girls and Boys
Riot Girl
Prayers
Predictable
Hold On
Little Things
The Young and the Hopeless
The River
Dance Floor Anthem
I Just Wanna Live
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
The band thanked us for supporting them because they’re able to support their families playing music because of us. It was cute. It was a fun show. A great first Good Charlotte show, as I’m sure they’d be happy to know.
