On Saturday, Nov. 19, Good Charlotte took the stage of The Ritz in Raleigh to a crowd of enthusiastic fans. And by enthusiastic, I mean there was sweat flying and the crowd was pushing, yelling and crowd-surfing. It was awesome.
Twins Joel and Benji Madden made it a point to acknowledge how long the fans in the crowd have been listening to and supporting their music. Many members of the audience, including myself, have been listening to Good Charlotte since middle school and high school. In the words of Benji Madden at the show, we’ve been through a lot of shit together.
The openers, Big Jesus, Hit the Lights and The Story So Far did a great job in warming up the crowd. I’ve been vaguely familiar with Big Jesus’ ambient rock sound since finding out they would be opening for Good Charlotte, but hearing them live was a very unique experience.
Hit The Lights and The Story So Far were what really opened up the pit, and even though I got kneed in the head (which is probably the most punk rock thing that’s ever happened to me), through a combination of pushing and being pushed, I was able to get up to the barricade by the time Good Charlotte came out.
Being able to scream along to songs that I’ve been listening to for years that had a part in defining such a big period in my life while being just feet away from the people who wrote them was an amazing experience.
Their set was opened with “The Anthem” and was packed with all of their most popular songs, going back to the songs they wrote when they first started Good Charlotte in the 90s.
