Greenday Live
by Justin Sablich, SUNY Cortland, November 12, 2004
Blue Cross Arena – Rochester, NY. November 5th, 2004.
As the lights dimmed and the flags rose to the sound of “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” the three members of Greenday triumphantly took the stage, absorbing the adoring cheers with a king’s swagger. And can you blame them? Their revered “punk-opera” American Idiot debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and has strengthened their grip on modern punk’s throne.
The atmosphere was set for a classic rock-opera performance with the band, which included an extra guitarist, pianist, and percussionist, identically dressed in black while red and black “bleeding heart” flags, reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “crossed hammers,” hovered the stage behind them.
It seemed logical for the band to play the album in its entirety in the tradition of past conceptual epics like The Who’s Tommy or Floyd’s The Wall. But as I soon found out, Greenday wasn’t about to fall inline with some of the greats that their latest album has earned comparisons to.
After opening with the first three tracks from their new album, anything other than the whole of American Idiot would have been a shock. An energized Billie Joe Armstrong was even more fired up than before Election Day.
“This song means so much more to me now than it did five days ago,” he said of “American Idiot” to a crowd dominated by screaming teenagers who probably hadn’t put much thought into the events of November 2nd. And it was this fact that probably led to the shift in song selection that was about to take place.
After thrashing through “St. Jimmy,” the punk-opera came to a screeching stop with an all-too familiar bass line that assaulted so many a subconscious back in 1994. Yes, “Longview” was the last song I thought I’d be humming during my drive home from Rochester. This set the crowd into a frenzy and opened a time warp that included “Brain Stew,” “Basket Case,” and “She.”
I held onto a slight disappointment for the few songs following the “Longview” incident. After all the hype and deserved acclaim of “American Idiot” I was quite anxious to see how it would translate live. But a highly entertaining Billie Joe soon stole any frustration I had.
It was clearly apparent that Billie Joe knows how to own a crowd, a craft he’s honed to perfection after years of extensive touring. He can change from the tough punk, who demands pumping fists and chants of “oy!” to a teasing heartthrob with a puppy-dog face.
And mind you, this can happen all in the same song, as it did during “Hitchin’ a Ride.”
At another point, in the middle of covering Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge,” Billie Joe asked, “who here knows how to play the drums?” He then successfully built a band out of audience volunteers and gave away his Fender Strat to a grateful young fan for playing the three chords asked of him.
After some more onstage antics that included the horn player scampering about in a bumblebee suite and Billie Joe getting literally crowned during “King for a Day,” things got a bit more serious.
“Don’t let these old people tell you what to fuckin’ do … some of these bastards are a bigger threat than Saddam was,” Billie Joe shouted during “Minority,” hoping to graze the young minds of moshing boys and screaming girls with some political gunshots.
But he wasn’t done having fun. One of the four encores was a cover of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and it gave Armstrong a chance to impersonate Freddie Mercury, black moustache included. And he didn’t do such a bad job with the vocals either.
The evening ended with Billie Joe all by himself performing “Good Riddance.” I left the arena feeling pleasantly confused by Greenday’s performance. I wondered why they would choose to play so many of their early hits in place of what is arguably their best album e\yet. But it didn’t take long to figure that it was probably because they know who their audience mostly consists of and the majority of them don’t have George W. Bush on their mind.
At this stage of their career, Greenday can pick and choose from a large and successful back catalogue to form many different versions of a great concert. You then mix in American Idiot and there is no limit to what they can do live. No matter what songs they play, as long as they’re enjoying themselves in the process, the people in attendance will, too.
DESIGNER: Heather Cheetham, New Media Design, SUNY Cortland, USA
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