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By: Troy Blanchard
Green Day :: 04.07.09 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA
Green Day's rise from East Bay punk club favorites to stadium-filling superstars always seemed to present a challenge to the band. For a group of homebodies that thrived on the intimacy and sense of community of their Gilman Street era, the band has worked hard to retain that close and interdependent relationship with their audience, as well as the sense of spontaneity and controlled chaos that fuels any great rock show – something that's suffered in the age of cell phone cameras and YouTube clips. For years the band at each show has brought on stage three lucky audience members to take over each instrument and vamp on a cover of Operation Ivy's "Knowledge," and Billie Joe Armstrong has always enjoyed giving the front row fans a Super Soaker shower. No matter how large the venue, no Green Day show passes without such close, playful interaction with the fans.
Nevertheless, the band sacrificed some of its punk randomness and free flow with the massive American Idiot Tour, complete with pyrotechnics, confetti showers and giant LCD screens. I saw three American Idiot Tour shows and for the most part they were top-notch but identical with only a few surprises here and there. After all that, how can you stay... punk? Well, announcing and playing a small venue show on the same day is a hell of a way to do it. The suddenness of the announcement ('live without warning') and the ensuing phone calls, texts, emails and general internet chatter amongst local fans lit a fuse on what would ignite a powder-keg three hour show in the heart of San Francisco.
Green Day staged a surprise attack on The Bay for both themselves and the fans. Growing tall from grass roots, Green Day may be one of the biggest bands on the planet, but they are doing it their way - and that means keeping it close to the source, which in this case means playing a tiny club in their backyard. Taking the stage just after 10 p.m., the band opened with the battle tested "Welcome to Paradise" before launching into a song-by-song rendition of the upcoming album 21st Century Breakdown (arriving May 15 and produced by Butch Vig). "We have a new album coming out, and we're gonna play just about all the songs from it tonight," announced Billie Joe. The band tore into the new album, playing with a definite sense of confidence and pride in their new material.
21st Century Breakdown does not depart from the sound or lyrics of American Idiot. It is very much the exciting next chapter in the continuing tale of punks, suburbia, religion and, of course, the roller coaster of growing up. Armstrong, taking his queues from Pete Townshend, offers a three-part structure to the 21st Century Breakdown story: "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints," and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" (more on this here). There is not much let up in the take-to-the-streets politics of the lyrics, and we again have punk presented in epic nine-minute collages. First single "Know Your Enemy" is a fist punching, one riff, ready-made anthem that captures the sense of confusion and bleakness of the day with its ambiguous question, "Do you know your enemy?"
"Viva la Gloria" opens with piano and Armstrong on vocals, a new sonic texture for the band, and finds the group in a melodic instrumental interlude with dueling guitar solo parts. "Christian's Inferno" is pure Ramones, while "Desperate" is the musical sibling to American Idiot's "Letterbomb." A standout was the start of the opus' third act, "Horseshoes and Handgrenades," a shorter, stripped down version of the "Jesus of Suburbia" punk epic. Other material echoed their earlier work like super hit "Blvd. of Broken Dreams" and the gypsy-rocker "Misery" off 2000's Warning.
After the world premiere of their new work, the band took a quick break and returned to the stage for what would be a revival hour for top hits and old school favorites. The band tore into "American Idiot" and "Jesus of Suburbia" with the same intensity of four years previous. The band then wove through their massive catalogue, all the way back to "Going To Pasalacqua" from 1991's 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours onto 1992's Kerplunk with "Christie Road" and "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?," as well as the seminal Dookie for "Longview," "She" and "F.O.D.," a song not played live for many, many years. The band also brought out the sentimental "Macy's Day Parade" and party-rocker "King for a Day/Shout." The band, with seemingly unlimited energy, capped off the night with polka-punk closer "Minority."
 Green Day |
The band that always sells out stadiums around the world came into a venue that held no more than 500 people. I was also lucky enough to have seen the group perform as the Foxboro Hottubs last May in the even smaller Stork Club in Oakland (a show also announced with similar sudden notice on an unsuspecting hometown fan base), and it's clear the band still seeks that small venue energy, excitement and spontaneous play-anywhere, anytime, any day spirit (seek out YouTube videos of the teenaged band playing at their Pinole Valley High School during recess for some vintage evidence). Unlike large venue Green Day shows, there were no children or emo-teens in attendance at this 21-and-over gig, which offered older fans a chance to not feel, well, old, at a Green Day show. For a band that can get Giants Stadium on its feet from its opening number until the house lights come up, The Independent served as a very, very loud punk club, complete with mosh-pit and crowd surfing, with the band free from reliance on timed pyrotechnics and lighting cues - several second set songs were spontaneous audience requests. To stay punk, sometimes it's good to play without any real rules.
Green Day, now numbering up to six musicians on stage, is a band that has only grown in skill, showmanship and raw power over their career. Watching one of the biggest acts in music play a show that would rival Springsteen in intensity, breadth and duration to a few hundred very lucky hometown fans was a true treat, particularly for a fan that first saw the band play Oakland in 1995 at the old Henry J. Kaiser arena. Green Day, in their rise to the top of the music world, has not gotten too big for a guerilla-style show with their core fans, and has found the best way to stay grounded is to still play anytime, anywhere, and give it everything you've got.
04.07.09 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA
Set I:
Welcome to Paradise
Act I: Heroes and Cons
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
Viva la Gloria
Before the Lobotomy
Christian's Inferno
Last Night on Earth
Act II: Charlatans and Saints
East Jesus Nowhere
Peacemaker
Last of the American Girls
Murder City
Act III: Horseshoes and Handgrenades
Restless Heart Syndrome
Horseshoes and Handgrenades
Drama Queen
Static Age
21 Guns
American Eulogy
See the Light
Set II:
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
She
Christie Road
J.A.R.
F.O.D.
Longview
Who Wrote Holden Caulfield
Brainstew [started it, but Billie Joe said "forget it"]
Going to Pasalacqua
Macy's Day Parade
King for a Day/Shout
Minority
JamBase | Yay Area
Go See Live Music!
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