[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. (more…)
