Green Day - September 28, 2005 - Portland, OR - Another Review

Green Day has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years. With their often sophomoric lyrics and simple music I sometimes felt listening to them was the equivalent of reading a Calvin and Hobbes book instead of spending my time with more "literary" works. But, like Calvin and Hobbes, there's a lot of good stuff in Green Day's works and what the heck, I like them!

American Idiot put me over the top as far as my level of enthusiasm for Green Day. I think the album is fantastic and it finally inspired me to see them this past Wednesday, September 28 here in Portland, inside the large brick that is Memorial Coliseum. Billy Joe must be the reincarnation of an old time carnival barker---he really knows how to work a crowd. And I mean that in a good way.

They opened with three from American Idiot: the title song, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Holiday." For a minute I thought they were going to play the entire album in order, 2112 style, but then they launched into some of their older songs like "Longview," "She" and "Basket Case," punctuated by encouragement from Billy Joe for the crowd to sing along and wave their hands in the air (presumably as if they just don't care). The more well known songs were punctuated by huge bursts of flame from the rear of the stage, a ten-foot tall "Green Day" sign that descended from the ceiling, and/or huge sparkler-like eruptions from the lights above. I haven't seen pyrotechnics like that in years and apparently they're still popular because the crowd loved it.

Sidenote: the crowd. It was a strange mix of people. I think the average age was 18 but I don't think there were any 18 year olds in the crowd. There were tons of youngsters, say 12 to 14 years old, boys and girls, and there were also lots of old fogies like me, in their 30's or older. At least some of these were parents keeping their eyes on the kids but I saw several older couples rocking out in their own right. And there were enough of us to fill up the beer garden nicely.

The large percentage of youngsters was evident in two ways. First, before the show started, there were two huge screens, which displayed messages that concertgoers sent to a dedicated number. Most of them were pretty inane, "Green Day rocks" or "I love Jennie," that sort of thing, but it still beat most of the between-set music I've heard over the years. Second, during the slow songs the crowd almost unanimously held up open flip phones instead of lit lighters. It struck me how different that was from the Nine Inch Nails show I'd seen just days before, a show that featured an older and more mono-black clad crowd.

Anyway, back to the show. At one point, right in the middle of the song (I've forgotten which one, sorry) they stopped and Billy Joe said, "Alright, I'm going to form a new band right now." He asked for a bass player, a guitarist and a drummer and the more agile members of the crowd climbed atop their friends to try to catch his attention. He asked each potential band mate how long they had been playing and made them swear they knew how to play the appropriate instrument. He chose as his drummer a young, short-haired guy sporting a "Fuck Bush" banner, a tattooed girl for the bassist, and a large young boy for the guitarist. The kid couldn't have been older than 14 but he claimed he'd been playing for 11 1/2 years. Billy Joe took a chance and called him up to the stage anyway. After a brief lesson on what he wanted them to play Billy Joe started singing again and the new band kept playing. The drummer and guitarist definitely did know what they were doing and the guitarist was really getting into it, even moving up to the front of the stage and adding little flourishes to the chords Billy Joe had shown him. The bassist followed instructions but she was obviously so excited and amazed to be playing on stage with Green Day that she looked like she might burst at any moment. They finished the song and the kids moved to the back of the stage. Billy Joe thanked the drummer and the bassist and showed them off. The guitarist started to walk backstage, guitar slung over his shoulder, when Billy Joe saw him and said "Hey!" The kid walked toward Billy Joe and BJ turned to him and said, "You get to keep the guitar." The kid fell to his knees on stage and I thought he might have to be helped off stage in his excitement and shock. I'm sure he'll never forget this show.

But yes, the show. The band was quite energetic and played a lot of older songs in the middle of the set, including going to the way back file for "2000 Light Years Away" from Kerplunk. After that some roadies brought out huge squirt guns attached to hoses and Billy Joe started dousing the crowd. Then he stopped and called a young girl on stage who couldn't have been more than eight or ten but was already sporting a Green Day shirt. He gave her the squirt gun and then went into another song (sorry, I don't remember the order of the songs but suffice to say they played all their hits except Warning, which I did miss). She seemed to be having fun but was somewhat intimidated, and who can blame her?

Billy Joe mentioned Portland a lot and I thought it was just the typical sucking up to the home crowd, but in between one of the numbers he explained that their first gig outside the Bay area was at the classic Satyricon here in Portland, which also helped launch Nirvana and is where Kurt Cobain met our home town tart Courtney Love.

All these antics might make it sound like there wasn't much actual music but don't get me wrong, they played for two hours and they played quite well. The crowd was very into it, complete with crowd surfing and singing along and hand waving. They went back to songs from American Idiot toward the end, including the obligatory "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." The band ended the main set with a surprising medley of "Shout," "Stand By Me" and "We Are the Champions" then left the stage to loud applause. They didn't wait too long to come back out for the encore, which featured "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and ended with a moving version of "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" which Billy Joe played and sang on his own after the rest of the band had left the stage.

All in all it was a thoroughly entertaining night for anyone willing to let their hair down and just have fun. Green Day's lyrics will never be mistaken for Shakespeare but the band puts on a great show.