Horseshoes and and Handgrenades - Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Alright, I fess up. Since Green Day’s Twitter has been going atwitter, I’ve paid a bit more attention to their Twitter feed. For a while there it was only Tweets about contests, with the occasional personal zinger thrown in. After a really bad case of Twitter spam a few months ago in their feed, I stopped getting the tweets sent directly to my phone due to the glitch. I only recently started them again (after I remembered that I had turned them off in the first place), but now I don’t get them regularly on my phone. And there’s been so many lately!

We have no idea what started the Twitter chatter, presumably mostly from Billie Joe (or someone tweeting for him), and goodness only knows how long this trend will continue, but let’s hope for a bit longer at least. For a band to go from 1 to 2 personal tweets a month to like a billion (alright, I’m exaggerating) a day… OK, about 10 in ONE WEEK, means that a bunch of people would notice at the same time.

When it first happened, the Twitterverse of Green Day squealed like boys and girls, and you know how much I hate squealing (it’s not very punk), so I didn’t squeal externally, though I did let out an internal squee, and then got a bit embarrassed by some of the responses (my own internal Tweets as well as others’ external ones) to Green Day. Not mine, I would never Tweet, “You have a cute ass, Tre,” or “BIILLIIEE!” so I did a Twitter facepalm that didn’t come out quite as funny as I had hoped, haha. The knowledgeable Abbey tweeted to me that a few squees in the Twitterverse by teenies is probably OK, and I think she’s right! Abbey has been sending the funniest Tweets to them for months now, just crazy funny stuff.

Anyway, I tweeted to @greenday a few times that I would love to hear one of the few songs from 21st Century Breakdown that I’ve yet to hear: “Horseshoes and Handgrenades.” I’ve been fortunate to go to a lot of shows over the past months, but I wasn’t at the Fox Theater performance in Oakland back in May 2009, nor at the smaller performances in New York City at the Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, and a performance for a small group at PC Richards (very small crowd) that didn’t go over very well for some reason. I don’t know what they played at PC Richards, but the set was short and according to folks who were there, the crowd didn’t really know the music and there weren’t many hardcore fans. Green Day tended to play the entirety of 21st Century Breakdown during those first shows. UPDATE: “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” has only been played at the Fox Theater show from talking about it with a friend yesterday.

There’s a video of an interview with the band from last year where they are asked which song that they would like to hear on the radio, and Tre said, “Horseshoes and Handgrenades.” [SEE VIDEO HERE @ 15:30] I would, too!

Of course, I don’t expect to get a response nor actually hear Green Day play the song on the tour, but it would be great to hear the powerful songs on 21st Century Breakdown that rarely get played: the angry and defiant, “Horseshoes and Handgrenades,” the melodic and sad “Restless Heart Syndrome,” and the stringed, fast, and exotic Latino-flavored “Peacemaker” and “¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl),” both reminding me a bit of “Misery.” I’m not quite sure about the last songs I haven’t heard, “Christian’s Inferno” (it acts more as a story bridge in the album than a stand-alone song to me) and I’d like to hear “See the Light,” but I’m not sure how well that would work live. Not sure if anyone else would want to hear it, either. I’ve seen one video of it from last year at a small club in Paris, but the Youtube video was taken down. It’s a song that means a bit to me, as I try and strive to actually ‘see the light,’ but often fail.

I’m going to the show in Hartford tonight, and I most particularly want to hear “Horseshoes and Handgrenades,” for the lyrics, and the combination of Mike and Tre’s bass and drums. The sound of boots hits the ground, and Tre’s drums pound out a steady beat with Mike’s bass really getting a workout through the song. One of the things I don’t hear enough of in 21st Century Breakdown is Mike’s bass, and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” highlights well the work that he and Tre do on Green Day albums as a team.

On top of that, how can you not want to hear a song that, as Cool says in the Absolut interview, “comes out of the box with the words ‘I’m not fucking around?'” And live, no less? Anyway, here’s to hoping that sometime during this tour, the boys will throw in gems from 21st Century Breakdown while everyone screams for “Geek Stink Breath,” “One of My Lies,” or any other number of “rare” Green Day songs. Though if they want to throw in a “F.O.D.” or “Dominated Love Slave” or any of the others, I won’t complain. Oh, and yes please, again, to “Letterbomb.”

“Horseshoes and Handgrenades” – Green Day

I’m not fucking around
I think I’m coming out
All the deceivers and cheaters
I’ve think we’ve got a bleeder right now
Want you to slap me around
Want you to knock me out
Well, you missed me kissed me
Now you better kick me down

Maybe you’re the runner up
But the first one to lose the race
Almost only really counts in
Horseshoes and hand grenades

I’m gonna burn it all down
I’m gonna rip it out
Well, everything that you employ
Was meant for me to destroy
To the ground now
So don’t you fuck me around
Because I’ll shoot you down
I’m gonna drink, fight and fuck
And pushing my luck
All the time now

Maybe you’re the runner up
But the first one to lose the race
Almost only really counts in
Horseshoes and hand grenades

Demolition, self-destruction
What to annihilate
The age-old contradiction
Demolition, self-destruction
What to annihilate
This old age

I’m not fucking around
I think I’m coming out
I’m a hater
A traitor
In a pair of Chuck Taylors
Right now
I’m not fucking around

G-L-O-R-I-A [x4]