Green Day |
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Mon. December 01.1997 10:53 AM EST |
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Live: Green Day's Proof Is In the PunkFrontman Billie Joe Armstrong put on his best punk face and took blame for the crowd's behavior. by Addicted To Noise Chicago correspondent Matt Carmichael |
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The show was filled with moments of self-mocking; Armstrong declared his guitar solos are "bad-ass." Photo by Matt Carmichael. |
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CHICAGO -- Climbing the stage, tearing at the props, shouting at
the crowd, Billie Joe Armstrong moved like a man with something to prove
Monday night. And he did -- have something to prove, that is. On his band's current
Now they play shows to sell records it seems, not pay the rent. So on this tour more than others, Armstrong and his Green Day crew have some questions to answer. Can Green Day still rock, or have they passed their punk prime? Frontman Armstrong's response came a third of the way through the set at The Riviera theater, during the song "2,000 Light Years Away." After anointing the crowd with rhythmic splashes of bottled water, he got a lift from one of the security guys and climbed up into the closest opera-house style box. After further baptizing the patrons dancing there, he tore down the banner that warned concert-goers of dire consequences should they decide to mosh or stage-dive. Then in a final act of punkness, he threw it into the hungry crowd and jumped back down to the stage to continue the song. And with that, Green Day had made their case. By this point, the 2,000 people who packed the theater were all ears. The energy was running so high that security helped five people escape the pit before the band even went on. Green Day delivered a 20-song set filled with solid punk skills and poignantly prickly songs. The set list was culled mostly from Nimrod and their breakthrough disc Dookie, but was framed by cuts from their debut, 1,039/ Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. The show was filled with moments of punk self-mocking, from Armstrong planting his tongue in his cheek and declaring that his guitar solos are "bad-ass," to drummer Tre Cool amusing himself during the opening of "F.O.D" by sliding the length of the stage on a dolly, to the audience participation segments. Armstrong led the crowd through some heavy-metal head-banging techniques and then, during an Operation Ivy cover, he invited a random member of the audience to jam with the band. The lucky fan, who went by the name "Bob," performed quite well, but was a little hesitant to leave the stage after Armstrong, pointing to the crowd, told him, "There's only one way off this stage." As Cool did a drum roll, Bob did more of a trust-fall than a stage dive, and, subsequently, Green Day dove into "Basket Case." As the set closed with "Paper Lanterns," Armstrong strutted around the stage collecting clothes that people threw to him. He shouted, "More! More!" and they obliged. Then, apparently layering for the Chicago cold, he donned six shirts (putting a leg through the sleeve on one), a sweater and a sweatshirt, two hats and a necktie -- which he tied himself. While there was a steady age gradient in the crowd, getting older the farther back from the stage you got, there was no shortage of young fans on the floor and passing overhead. When Green Day broke into "When I Come Around" during the encore, the audience came back to life for one final peak before the show ended with the current single, "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)." Outside the venue a line of mini-vans, Volvos and sports utility vehicles lined up along both sides of the street to pick up the youngest generation of Green Day fans. While the members of Green Day might all have kids of their own now, their music and their performance -- and their fans -- show no signs of aging. In a moment which has been repeated through Green Day's current tour, Armstrong told the fans that he remembered some of them from shows four years ago, when the kids were 14 and got dropped off by their parents. "Now, you're like 18 and you're completely fucked up!" he said. "I'd just like to say one thing: I take full responsibility for that." Judging by the cheers of this year's crop of new fans, history will repeat itself. |
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