http://youtu.be/NYVnnGfAQhM

Green Day

L.A. Sports Arena 4/17/13

It was a beautiful day in downtown L.A. on a Thursday night.  I sat on an offramp watching street vendors slang bootleg Green Day shirts with a cool breeze on my face.  My lil bro Mitch was sitting in the passenger seat staring into the great abyss with teenage angst.  He was seeing Green Day for his second time.  We saw them together back in 2008 when they were on their 21st Century Breakdown tour when he was 12.  I personally have been following Green day since they came out with their album Dookie which gained them widespread popularity .  This lil’ three piece, which started from humble punk rock beginnings, was quickly catapulted into rock stardom after their album American Idiot.  Since then, they have taken to their roles as rock stars as Tigers take to their stripes.  They have dealt with claims of selling out and not staying true to there core audience.  Other hardships have included children, aging, public rants, drug and alcohol problems.  Today, we see more mature Green Day and a post rehab Billy Joe Armstrong full of warmth and gratitude.  Almost 20 years since my first Green Day show I am back in the crowd, ignited with passion, to see them for the umpteenth time with a nostalgic heart and an aging body.

The opening band was “Best Coast.”   They had an indie sound that was pleasant at first but became repetitive towards the back half of their set.  A person in a bunny suit shot TP on them which gave the crowd something to stay engaged.  Green Day took the stage promptly at 8:30p.m.  Billy Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt ran onto stage, grabbed their instruments and went straight into “99 Revolutions.”  99 Rev’s is also the name of the Tour and the song comes from the album “Tre.”  “Tre” being one of three albums that were released over a series of months for the current tour.  The albums are as follows: Uno, Dos and Tre (as in Tre Cool, their drummer).  Very clever.  The diverse crowd cheered and swayed as Billy lead them like a symphony conductor does their orchestra.  Green Day continued to play some new songs off their new albums Uno, Dos, Tre, mixing in 21st Century Breakdown, American Idiot, Dookie, Kerplunk, and many more.  As always, they played to their crowd.   They picked a kid no more than 7 years old to sing and stage dive.  This was accompanied by such theatrics as squirting the crowd with water and the ever popular T Shirt gun.  Songs “She” and “F.O.D.” were amongst my favorites and almost all songs turned into sing-a-longs.  Billy Joe demanded lots of crowd participation and takes a super long breakdown towards the end of the set.  He lays on the ground and mixes classic rock classics like “Hey Jude” to the Jazz of “King for a day.”  My preference would have been to hear a couple more old songs than listen to Billy Joe act like Sting.  Long “Eee Ohhhs” and “Eee OOhhhh Ahhhss” by the crowd I can only stand for a short while.  The encore songs were “American Idiot”, “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Brutal love” which were filled with energy and passion.  Lighters and Cell Phones lit the place while the Arena was like a living organism.

At the end of the day, it was an amazing concert.  I wouldn’t say it was the best Green Day concert I’ve ever seen, but still damn good.  Mostly because I miss the Green Day shows where they would light their drum kit on fire and smash their guitars.  I miss the shows where kids were vomiting in the mosh pits and I got a black eye.  I think most of all, I miss the punk rock attitude that the concerts used to have.  Then again, that was a long time ago.  With the crowd mostly being Adults in their 40′s and 50′s with their kids, it’s a much different scene than I remember.  However, they are the ones who can afford the expensive tickets, 45 dollar concert T’s and 100 dollar sweatshirts!  “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Cheers,

-Step Rocket-

Staff Writer.