Green Day @ The DNA Lounge, San Francisco - 4/9/09

In case your thinking to yourself, "Green Day, at the DNA Lounge? What The Fuck?!", let me clue you in. The band has now done two club shows in S.F. this week, as kind of a "warm-up" for their upcoming tour. Tickets for both shows did not go on sale until literally hours before they were scheduled to hit the stage, and both sold out in less than five minutes. Word on the street is there may be more of these shows to come, but you didn't hear it from me...

Before I get started here, I have to be honest and say that until fairly recently, I was not a huge fan of Green Day. At the risk of sounding like a "punk rock elitist", I grew up listening to bands like G.B.H, Broken Bones, 7 Seconds, and D.R.I. So when I first heard Green Day my immediate reaction was, "That's not punk", and I never really gave them a chance. Very close minded of me, I know. But as the band got bigger and bigger I found myself digging more and more of their music, and by the time American Idiot was released, I was a total fan. Then, while watching Live 8 in 2005, I caught their rendition of "We Are The Champions", and was pretty much blown away. I realized that not only are these guys talented musicians and performers, but they totally transcend the "pop-punk" label that I had slapped on them. I was EXTREMELY disappointed in myself for never seeing them live, especially during the 924 Gilman days, and promised myself that I would finally see them live the first chance I had.. Last night I finally had that chance....

Considering all the hype surrounding this show, you would have thought that Green Day would have opened with a song that the entire crowd would have recognized. I mean if you pack 700 people into a small club and keep them waiting for almost two hours while the excitement built to an almost overflowing level, why not give them a song they know and love right out of the gate to push them over the edge, right? Not this band. Being as unconventional as they are, Green Day walked out onto the stage and immediately launched into the title track off of the soon to be released 21st Century Breakdown, and proceeded to rip through the entire album, front to back. Now you know a band has confidence in their new material when they can do something like that. And I'm not sure any other band on the planet could have pulled it off as well as they did. As far as the songs, let's just say that this record pretty much picks up right where American Idiot left off. Every song was not only full of hooks, but was the perfect combination of pop, punk and rock. There were so many elements and influences in the new songs that it was hard to label any of them, which is something you don't find too often these days, I'm afraid. And the Saxophone? It worked quite nicely, thank you. With two additional guitarists and a keyboard player, Green Day as a six piece worked quite well, and every song seemed to have a sense of depth that I had not heard from them before. Watching them up there was strange because in a way you could tell that they were still working out the kinks of the new songs, but at the same time they were so fucking tight as band that you would have thought that they had played these songs live thousands of times. The hour and fifteen minute set blurred by so quickly that it was hard to pick a favorite, but I would have to say that "Horseshoes and Handgrenades", complete with Billy Joe Armstrong diving into the crowd, was my personal highlight of the evening. At least until the second set.... After about a five minute break, the band returned to the stage for the second half of the show, and to be honest, it may have the most memorable set of live music that I have seen this year, and I've already seen Amebix, Fucked-up (both with Jello Biafra joining them on stage), and Meshuggah, just to name a few, in the last few months. Yeah, hearing  "Basket Case" "Burnout" and "She" was cool and all, but what made it for me was the total spontaneity of the second half. When the band started taking requests from the audience, and someone called out "Blood, Sex, and Booze", Billy said, "Yeah, I'll play that", and he, Mike, and second guitarist Jason White immediately switched out their instruments to play it properly. Can you name another band that would do that on the fly? Neither can I. There was also a girl pulled up out of the audience and onto the stage to sing "The Grouch", and she totally nailed it. Davey Havok of AFI also made an appearance on stage with some back-up vox on "Going To Pasalacqua". A pretty fuckin' rockin' version of "Minority" followed. The whole set was another hour and fifteen minutes fueled by the band's punk-rock roots, adrenaline, and showmanship, and I was left with not only a whole new level of respect for the band.

Rather than try to think of something witty to say to close this review, I am just going to tell you that Green Day's new album, 21Century Breakdown drops on May 5th. You need to go buy it. In fact, you can go here, and pre-order the record collector geek version. I did. They will also be launching a tour later this year, and you need to go see them.

Oh, and before I forget, major thanks to a friend who once again hooked me up, and to his friend, Tour Manager Doug, who, being one cool mofo, made sure that we were walked into the venue before the doors even opened. Music geek friends are good friends to have.....

And on a final note, please go read Hard Rock Chick's review of the show. Not only is she a much better writer than myself, but she knows her shit. And while I normally won't link to bad reviews, both the San Jose Mercury News and The SF Weekly have very lame reviews of this weeks shows, and it's pretty obvious that the writer's of these reviews are not fans. Way to phone it in guys!

I am so stoked on this band right now...

Comments

[Daryl Darko]

I'm enthused by your gracious acceptance of a band that I too used to call "not punk". Sounds like amazing times to be in the city right now. Can you imagine what this summer is going to be like? Keep up the great work, Ray!

[Peter Wohlers]

Hear you on the 'wannabe' kind of sentiment. I used to think about how Green Day was a way to bring the joy of the Dickies or the Buzzcocks to the present day music fans. The maturation of their art really has transcended my greatest expectations. I was bummed to miss tix for the Independent or DNA shows, but last night's show at the Fox was amazing. And I thought the same thing. Ballsy as hell to just play the new album front to back as a lead-off, but I was mesmerized. Amazing.