I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 20, 2021] Green Day: Hella Mega Tour: Green Day / Fall Out Boy / Weezer / The Interrupters [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

I loved Green Day’s Dookie when it came out.  I also really liked American Idiot (and a bunch of stuff in between).  But it was pretty wild when my teenage son became a big fan of Green Day (especially American Idiot).  I’ve never seen Green Day live before–which I’m guessing I now regret since they were fantastic live.

The most interesting thing to S. and myself was that they opened their part of the set by playing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the speakers at full concert volume.  Not Green Day playing it, but the actual original version.  And the crowd went utterly bananas.  Singing along at full volume.  The lights even went bright and dim accordingly.  It was a pretty amazing moment to hear an entire arena singing along to a song.  And it really got everyone pumped.  It was a pretty genius idea and I’m surprised more bands don’t do it.

They followed this with Ramones’ “Blitzkreig Bop” which went over although not quite as well, but it segued into a kind of mashup of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Blitzkrieg Bop”, and “We Will Rock You” played behind a series of clips from Green Days shows old and new.  It was clear they were preparing for A SHOW.

They came out on stage to lights and video and started out with two songs from American Idiot.  And the crowd was berserk.  “American Idiot” and “Holiday” was like a one-two punch of wonderfulness for my son.  And there were fireworks and explosions and big lights and it was a great start.

I never knew that Billie Joe Armstrong was such a great and engaging front man.  I was especially delighted that he acknowledged that many of the fans there were from New Jersey.  I mean, sure we were in Philadelphia, but there were lots of NJ folks there and he really won us over by dividing the crowd into the Philly and NJ sides to see who could be louder.  This was especially cool for my kids, I think.

The beginning of the show was heavy on “newer” songs (songs from this century anyway) with “Know Your Enemy” and the brand new “Pollyanna” (there was nothing from the Father… album) and then one more from Idiot.

I enjoyed that at one point (while my son and I were filming a bit) Billie Joe told us all to put our phones down–“we’ve spent the last 16 months looking at our phones, now we’re out together, let’s put them away.”

And then they jumped back to Dookie for “Longview” and “Welcome to Paradise” and of course the crowd went nuts for these.

Although the set was heavy on the new and the old, they did play a song or two from most of their albums (none from the Uno Dos Tre trilogy).  They had an extended jamming version of “Hitchin a Ride” and then they surprised me by doing a remarkably great cover of Kiss’ “Rock n Roll All Nite.”  I’ve no idea why they did it, but it sounded better than the last time I saw Kiss do it and they even had a roadie or someone dressed like Gene Simmons appear briefly.

I was also pretty surprised when at some point I realized that someone was playing a guitar solo and it wasn’t Billie Joe (he had been playing them earlier).  Later in the show he introduced everyone and while Green Day may be a trio, live they are a sextet: Jason White plays lead guitar and sings backing vocals, Jason Freese who has been with them since American Idiot on piano and saxophone and Kevin Preston who plays guitar and sings backing vocals.

One of my favorite Green Day songs is “Brain Stew” so I was super psyched when they played that.  After another dip into Idiot with “St. Jimmy” Billie Joe started playing the riff to “You Shook Me All Night Long” which I didn’t think they’d actually play.  They didn’t, but it worked as an intro to “When I Come Around.”  It was hearing these older songs that I realized how essential Mike Dirnt was to the great sound of those early songs–the bass was practically a lead instrument.

At some point during one of the quieter songs, everyone held aloft their phone lights and Billie Joe had them turn the stadium lights out and I was pretty amazed at how bright the lights looked (especially from the field seats that we had).

They didn’t play much from 21st Century Breakdown (which I thought was pretty popular, but maybe not).  In fact I’d forgotten entirely about “21 Guns” which sounded quite good amid the rest of the songs–a kind of breather that segued into the stomping “Minority.”

Tre Cool got to play a little drum solo before they started the Operation Ivy song “Knowledge.”  But what blew my mind (although I guess they always do this so it didn’t blow anyone else’s mind) was that he called someone up on stage to play guitar with them.  In fact he called two.  The first was a young boy who played a few chords and then left.  And then they brought up a slightly older girl who totally rocked the Op. Ivy song.  I found out later that the girl was the daughter of a friend of a friend, so that’s kind of cool.  That’s a pretty awesome moment for her.  She stage dove back in to the crowd and they began the classic sing-along (which we did) intro of “Basket Case” followed by a bit more from Dookie with a rocking “She.”

All through the show Billie Joe was exhorting and cajoling fans to scream, jump, reach for the skies, etc.  He even had a few extended moments where he felt the crowd wasn’t loud enough and I marveled at the stage presence of someone who can stand in front of 35,000 people and disapprove of them.

I realized at some point that I clearly don’t know what Green Day fans want/expect because I was sure that they’d end with “Longview” or “Basket Case” but the show was far from over.  Because when they started playing “Wake Me Up When September Ends” a song I got so sick of that I didn’t ever want to hear it again, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it (I probably haven’t heard it in five years) and I was sure that that was the set ender.

But I was way off.  And I was really surprised when they played a song from Revolution Radio–the uplifting “Still Breathing.”  I don’t know how popular this song was (I pretty much missed all of this album), but it surprised me to have  this song be so close to the end of the set (unless it’s a COVID jab).  I was less surprised by “Jesus of Suburbia” which they stretched out and jammed for about ten minutes.

And that’s when Billie Joe came out with an acoustic guitar and started playing “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” which I can’t even believe I forgot existed as that was one of the most overplayed songs ever.  But it sounded really good live.  I’d also forgotten that the song starts out quietly but gets much bigger by the end, and the stage show got bigger accordingly with lots of lights and confetti.  In fact, the show ended with a full-on fireworks display, which was pretty damn cool.

I am much more of an indie club fan than a arena show fan, but I do love a spectacle, and the Hella Mega Tour was a big time spectacle that I won’t forget and I don’t think my kids will, either. This might have been the largest show I’ve ever been to.  I did once see the Cure at Giants stadium, but I don’t have much memory of that.  And Phish was apparently 36,000 people, but I was very far from the rest of the crowd.

Oh, and I’ve since tested negative as well.  Maybe live music is a viable thing in 2021.

SETLIST

1. American Idiot ⊄
2. Holiday ⊄
3. Know Your Enemy §
4. Pollyanna [new]
5. Boulevard of Broken Dreams ⊄
6. Longview ♣
7. Welcome to Paradise €/♣
8. Hitchin’ a Ride (extended version) ⇔
9. Rock and Roll All Nite (KISS cover)
10. Brain Stew ≅
11. St. Jimmy ⊄
12. When I Come Around ♣ (preceded by snippets of You Shook Me All Night Long & Ziggy Stardust) )
13. 21 Guns § (ended after solo; band went straight into Minority after guitar solo)
14. Minority ⊗ (extended version)
15. Knowledge (Operation Ivy cover) (preceded by a short drum solo; with a fan on guitar)
16. Basket Case ♣
17. She ♣
18. Wake Me Up When September Ends ⊄
19. Still Breathing ®
20. Jesus of Suburbia ⊄
21. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) ⇔