Green Day, The Interrupters @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 3/5/2017
Epic is the only word that can be used to describe this super arena show from Green Day. As far as concert experiences go this is right up there with the best of them. The show sounded great, was visually spectacular, engaging and packed full of songs that everyone knew and sung… even the new stuff.
Opening the night was Californian ska punk band The Interrupters who were perfectly suited to warm the crowd. A half an hour to win over the crowd isn’t easy but no doubt will benefit from playing in front of some big crowds on this tour. With a nod to their heroes such as Rancid and Operation Ivy they went down a treat.
The band everyone was waiting for wasn’t far off and there was a real sense of anticipation and excitement building in the room. I still remember seeing Green Day play to a packed Thebarton Theatre back in 1996 and what a journey this band have had. More importantly the crowd wasn’t just the die hards that were following them back then but a young and excitable new generation of fans were are right in to them now.
Green Day are in the envious position of having so many great songs, what do you pick that best represents the band? What gets left out? What are the fan favourites? Of versus new? The set list I thought was a pretty good representation of the Green Day discography but there were some notable omissions.
Opening with Know Your Enemy followed by Bang Bang it was full throttle from then. If you knew the words and could sing there was a fair chance you would get pulled up on stage to share vocal duties. Revolution Radio was great and Holiday with the ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi’ got the crowd revved up. Anti-establishment, anti-politicians, anti-Donald Trump were strong themes that ran through the set with Letterbomb being the inspiration to fans to be leaders of the resistance in the free world.
There was a brief pause in Boulevard Of Broken Dreams where Billy Joe asked a fan down the front what they were doing with their phone. Selfie? Video? Photo? Who knows but Billy Joe’s sentiment was that if your looking through a camera you weren’t looking at him and being in the moment. This is a constant source of frustration at live shows watching people constantly on their phones like some manic addiction.
Longview was a great moment in the set for the Dookie fans and another member of the crowd got their moment to sing. Not bad! 2000 Light Years Away off Kerplunk was superb. Hitchin’ A Ride morphed in to a happy birthday sing-a-long to Mike Dirnt who turned forty five. More crowd pleasers with When I Come Around,Minority, Basketcase and She kept the energy and flow of the show going. I really dig the Operation Ivy cover Knowledge which was amazing and one lucky fan got play part of it and walk away with a guitar for their efforts.
The covers jam featuring Shout, Always Look On The Brightside Of Life, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Careless Whisper and Hey Jude was a heap of fun which saw the good going off for more. It was hard to believe the set came to an end with Still Breathing and Forever Now.
The crowd were treated to two encores with the first featuring American Idiot and Jesus Of Suburbia sending the crowd in to hyper drive. At this point the show was doesn’t done with just Billy Joe returning to play acoustic versions of Ordinary World and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) before taking their final bows. What a show! Epic! There is no way on Earth anyone could have walked away disappointed with what they saw. If you’re living on the East Coast beg, plead, barter, borrow and do what you have to so you can get a ticket to Green Day live!
Live review by Rob Lyon