Much Ado About Nothing: Green Day

As some of you may know, I went to Green Day’s gig at the Metro Arena last night. Green Day, along with bands like the Foo Fighters, is a band that has got me nodding and singing along to their tunes since my days in secondary school, so watching them live was a big thing for me. After the debacle of having missed the Smashing Pumpkins, I sure as hell wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

I got to the venue rather early – about an hour before doors were meant to be opened. And even then, there was a already a small crowd gathered. The reason I went early was ‘cause I wanted to be near the stage, and since it was a sold-out concert, I had to arrive in time to get my place secured. Which was a rather painful experience. The doors actually opened at 1830, and between that time and the performance of the opening act (1945), I had to endure the pushing from the cumulative strength of the people behind me, the screaming of infatuated teenage girls (‘I want your babies!!!’), the general annoyance of the teenagers around me, and the excessive amount of cigarette smoke. I sound like an old fart, don’t I? And at times I did feel rather old! The disadvantages of being in front mainly boils down to the fact that the sound ain’t exactly great over there, plus you’ve got to be relatively fit to endure it!

The opening act was New Found Glory. While I recognise a couple of their songs, I’m not really a fan. I would’ve preferred Jimmy Eat World, who’ll be opening for Green Day during the summer concert at Milton Keynes. And I was cursing them when they directed everyone to form a huge mosh pit and ‘go crazy’. After spending over an hour of defending my space, I wasn’t too keen on that. My muscles groaned in protest!

I’m guessing it must have been a blow to Green Day’s ego to discover that despite the success of their album, an album that was built around the premise that George W. Bush is an incompetent twat, he went on and won the election anyway. The songs are laced with lyrics such as ‘Sieg Heil to the president gasman’ (from Holiday), pointedly indicating a political agenda that might seem slightly diminished in the face of the Republicans’ victory.

Even if one would like to dismiss the lyrics as irrelevant (they are not – despite his victory, there is a lot we can do to point out that certain things will not be tolerated), Green Day’s music has come a long way from the rebel-without-a-cause punk of Dookie and Imsomniac to the introspection of Warning and social observations and critique of American Idiot.

They’ve been performing for years with the wrinkles being quite apparent at times, but they are definitely as energised as ever and all those experience on stage has probably helped them fine-tune their playlist. They’re still willing to get into silly costumes, and they even had a little ska session by performing a rendition of Lulu’s ‘Shout’. The jazzy bits with a saxophonist and trumpet player were pretty good as well.

Of course, the best part of the concert revolved around their take on their own songs. They started with the new album’s anthem ‘American Idiot’. It didn’t take long for them to get the crowd going. The mere sight of them was enough to thrown some folks into a frenzy and I swear I’ve never heard such high-pitched screaming and squealing. Sarah Brightman would be proud.

The next song was my current favourite, ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, a 10-minute song with various ‘chapters’ that plays along the album’s theme of being a mini rock-opera of sorts. It’s quite a sight watching the whole arena of at least 15 000 folks move along to the music, from gently swaying to the ballad-like 2nd part to the fist-pumping, mood-enhancing 3rd bit.

The lighting and pyrotechnics added flavour to their performance. At one point, Billy Joe sprayed water at the crowd with a high-powered water gun, and I was unfortunately shot right at the face, at which point he laughed. And I was left having to wipe my specs. Later on, they invited 3 kids on stage to perform (a drummer, a bassist and a guitarist – I obviously wasn’t one of those shouting ‘Pick Me! Pick Me!’), and those kids did pretty well. The guitarist was a lucky bastard, ‘cause he was given the guitar as a reward for his ‘efforts’. Pity the drummer.

I’d like to go on about the concert in even more detail, but I don’t think writing in too much detail would be of any use. And actually, last night was a blur at times. I got myself right up to the front, head-banging and jumping along with the rest of them. But besides the ‘high’ you get from the concert atmosphere, there was also the painful reality of having to deal with the endless pushing and shoving and kicks against the head that one receives when some idiot decides to bodysurf. I went home with a sore neck and a rather stiff back, which were thankfully gone this morning. Thank you Ibuprofen!

Suffice to say, all the classics were performed. There was a good mix of the ‘oldies’ e.g. ‘Basket Case’, ‘Longview’, ‘She’ and ‘Hitchin a Ride’ along with songs from the new album such as ‘Are We the Waiting’, ‘Holiday’ and ‘Wake Me Up When September Comes’. They ‘ended’ with a storming rendition of the anti-authority anthem ‘Minority’, which is one of their better songs imho. The encore included ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, arguably the best song of the new album, the evergreen ‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’, a rendition of Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ and their breakout song – ‘When I Come Around’. By that stage, I was only able to shout half-heartedly, and even then, I’m sure it came out as more of a whimper.

Did I enjoy myself? Hell yeah! I actually believed in the lyrics and sang along to my heart’s content ( I think I didn’t know the lyrics to only one song). I may’ve been exhausted, dehydrated and aching with a hoarse voice, but that happens after every concert and is all part of the experience for me. I got myself out of the hall and got Sweetie a t shirt before taking the dreaded journey home but I came to the conclusion that even if we have to endure another 4 years of bush’s totalitarian regime, at least we’ll be accompanied by some rather good music.