Green Day / Prima Donnas

With a very early advertised starting time of 7pm, I am a little gutted when the Prima Donnas came on around 20 minutes late, pushing Green Day’s starting time of 8pm back by 25 minutes. The band do a great job of lifting the crowd up for the main band, but speaking to the kids down front, some have been queued up outside since 8am, so it’s clear that they are more bothered about the East Bay punks turned rock gods.



The matching borderline mullet style hair dos from the band named after the Italian meaning for ‘First Lady’ do have the style of glam rock without the make up, with leopard skin jackets and huge sunglasses a plenty. The grimy sound of their softly sleazy rock is made all the better by singer and guitar slinger Kevin Tyler Preston’s on stage presence and showmanship, forever pointing into the crowd and trying to swirl the atmosphere. Watch out Foxboro HotTubs, he may be pushing his way to the front...!

As mentioned, Green Day took to the stage late at around 8.25pm. This made me a little sad as an old, old school fan I had noticed that past setlists on this tour had included the odd song from one of the first two albums, say ‘2,000 Light Years Away’ or ‘Going To Pasalacqua’, and I knew without a doubt that these tracks would now be left out to make way for the newer songs. This is what the crowd here tonight want, though I selfishly just wanted to hear something from my youth. I will get over it. Probably!


From the first minute the pink bunny scrambles onstage and downs two beers, the crowd are ecstatic. Then when Tre Cool zooms across the stage all hell breaks loose. It’s like being with Beatles fans in the sixties. Mike Dirnt is a bit more laid back sliding smoothly across the stage. You think that the sound can’t get any louder, but when Billie Joe Armstrong enters stage right I am instantly deafened. From that point on the crowd do not calm down one bit.

The stage set up involved a small run way into the pit area, with only a metre or so between crowd and band. This allowed many of the fans to be pulled on stage through different parts of the set, a visibly shocked kid for ‘Know Your Enemy’ a girl to swing her arms for ‘Are We the Waiting’ a young boy called Max Armstrong (“Say hello to my brother!” Says Billie).



The most amusing part is where a kid comes on stage to sing ‘Longview’ and does a very good job of it. However before he takes to the mic Billie spies his chest length long hair and says “Can I cut your hair?” After a nervous glance at his friends he agrees and someone from backstage runs on with some scissors (children; don’t run with scissors). Billie promptly chops the lad’s hair to chin length and he passes over the mic.

The setlist does vary with many of the new tracks from ‘20th Century Breakdown’ played first, followed by a couple from ‘American Idiot’ and the odd one from ‘Dookie’. ‘Welcome to Paradise’, although labelled and the “fuzzy old stuff”, sounded like the ‘Dookie’ version to me, and not like its first airing from ‘Kerplunk’. I may moan but I much prefer the rawness of the old tracks, but that is because I grew up with these songs shaping my musical taste after years of being trapped by boy band pigswill. Now the new album is doing that for so many of the younger generation (and their parents). How can I complain? And the crowd are truly hysterical.



There is a little wander from the norm as the band launch into Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ for a few seconds. Then during ‘King For A Day’, as on the AI tour, we are treated by the Isley Brothers’ ‘Shout’ and Ben E. Kings’ ‘Stand By Me’, and also by a little saxophone tribute to the Benny Hill theme! The band at this point have made this song the ‘silly hat wearing song’, as a witches hat, cowboy, fake ears and a sombrero (Tre Cool , wearing this and a red bra and singing a bit of Katy Perry is hilarious) fit in well with Armstrong’s crown and cape.

Add to this the amazing fire and pyrotechnics shows, industrial (!) water pistols and bog roll (yes bog roll) guns and state of the art video displays and you have one hell of a 2 hour 40 minute show. That’s it, whether you like Green Day or not you must admit you can’t get a better night of live entertainment, the band do it all. The fun element, crossed with some really good songs that attract all ages, and now have strong messages to them, show that this band are huge because they deserve to be.



As the second encore hits, Billie takes to the stage alone to do a stripped back acoustic medley including ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ and ‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’ and thanks the crowd for helping them celebrate 21 years. Here’s to another 21.

Setlist:-
Song of the Century
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Holiday
Give Me Novacaine
The Static Age
Are We The Waiting
St. Jimmy
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
Murder City
Hitchin A Ride
Welcome To Paradise
When I Come Around
Iron Man/Rio/Crazy Train Jam
Brain Stew
Jaded
Longview
Basket Case
She
King For A Day
Shout/Stand By Me/I Fought The Law/Teenage Kicks/Satisfaction
21 Guns
American Eulogy
====
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
Minority
====
Last Night On Earth
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Good Riddance

FUTURE GIGS