“We’re a little shy at first, but once we get going guys, we go wild,” Joel Madden, lead vocalist of Good Charlotte, said during the concert.
Madden and the other members of Good Charlotte, Dean Butterworth, Benji Madden, Billy Martin and Paul Thomas, performed for hundreds of fans on April 17 at the House of Blues on the Atlantic City boardwalk.
“I loved them in high school, it was really great to reconnect with their music,” Carolyn Sweeney, a sophomore education major, said.
The band came on around 9 p.m. with a performance of their newest single, “The River.” Fans got into it right away and began singing along to the hit song.
Security had to step into the audience on more than one occasion as audience members got so into the music that they began brawling.
“Some jerk elbowed me in the back of the head,” Victoria Marshall, a junior at Toms River High School South, said. “I felt like I was in a riot or something.”
Despite the unruly audience, Good Charlotte sang some of their classic songs including “The Anthem,” “Girls & Boys” and “East Coast Anthem.”
Benji Madden performed acoustic versions of “Emotionless” and “Where Would Be Now.”
“When you’re in love, you just want to sing songs about being in love,” Madden said when addressing the audience.
Many in the audience speculated that he was speaking about his latest girlfriend, Paris Hilton. Hilton is a good friend of Joel Madden’s girlfriend, Nicole Richie. Richie and Madden recently had a child together. Joel and Benji are also twin brothers.
“They make great parents,” Benji said when speaking about his brother and Richie.
The band played a two hour set and ended with their biggest single, “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.”
“I sing this song because I wrote it!” Joel said when addressing critics who bash him for performing the song. “I love making music, and I love making money making my music.”
The crowd left the House of Blues with smiles on their faces and a ringing in their ears.
“It’s been two days since the concert, and I still can’t hear,” Sweeney said.
