Show: Green Day
Date: April 18, 2013
Venue: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
City: Los Angeles, CA
Green Day
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Katie J. Norris
As fans poured into the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the roar of the stadium almost became deafening. And in attendance, was an incredible age range; from the folks that rocked out to Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod in their young teens, to their own kids who are now in their pre-teens. With a jungle of laser lights crisscrossing in all directions, and Green Day’s signature drunk pink bunny hopping around and hyping up the excited mass of people, the show gave way to an electrifying start.
The light grid that served as a backdrop flashed “GREENDAY” and the band started right in with songs from their new trilogy of albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!, including their recent radio hit, “Oh Love.” Lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong was an extraordinary showman—as always. He was a springboard of energy revving up the audience with rock and roll flare gestures, all while impressively power-belting his lyrics and jamming out his guitar accompaniment. Mike Dirnt, on bass guitar and vocals, was egging on the crowd from his side of the stage while Jason White, guitar and backing vocals, had his own strong stage presence as well. Tre Cool, on drums and backing vocals, was just as animated and entertaining behind his drum set as any member that stood before him.
A bit of giddy nostalgia ran through the vast majority of the adult audience as Green Day launched into a good 45-minute set of their most popular hits from their older albums. It was a bit of a surprise that the band still played those tunes as if they had just written them the week before. None of those hits from over a decade ago felt stale or washed up, and the audience was thrilled to sing along at the top of their lungs.
A clean acoustic-sounding guitar played the familiar intro to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” sending the stadium of people into a cry of approval. The mosh pit on the floor in front of the stage became increasingly more noticeable. The number of grown men without shirts running hard circles into the concrete floor grew exponentially until a visual human hurricane dominated a quarter of the area. “Welcome to Paradise” allowed the lighting operator to show off some of his tricks with cues from Armstrong during the choruses. The two were quite in sync and made it look like a magic trick.
This show would not be complete without Armstrong hosing down the entire floor section with an industrial water gun followed by a rapid-firing double-roll toilet paper gun in the middle of the show. Of course, the t-shirt gun was next. With the force comparable to a military weapon, that must have been the most powerful cotton-shooting machine ever created.
“Brain Stew” inspired the band to get mischievous on stage, throwing around their equipment and pulling off basic stunts. For their classic hit “Longview” Armstrong picked a tall, curly blonde-haired kid out of the crowd to come up on stage and sing. The band stayed cool as the kid went a little nuts running all over the stage. They let him scream a drunken “I love you!” to his girlfriend in the crowd and hug Armstrong with a death grip. The band let him finish and set him up for a running start to stage dive back to his spot in the audience.
The rest of the show was Halloween costumes, a medley of rock songs from every era, and another twenty minutes of hits. The show ended with a grand sing-along of “Minority” and I can guarantee you not a single fan left unsatisfied after Green Day played over two hours worth of music. Who would have thought with the release of Dookie that almost 20 years later the band would be playing songs from over ten albums to sold-out arena audiences? Me either. So go see them!