Green Day
By Kevin C. Johnson
Post-Dispatch Pop Music Critic
06/21/2001
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Credit punk rockers Green Day with turning the traditional concert format on its ear -- though not necessarily the way fans might have heard about.
During an early stop in Milwaukee during the band's brand-new tour, Green Day opened with ``Welcome to Paradise,'' ``Hitchin' a Ride,'' ``Church On Sunday,'' and ``Longview'' before singer Billie Joe Armstrong told the crowd the band was done with the set list and began taking requests.
But just a few days later, when the concert came to The Pageant Wednesday night, the concert varied vastly as that format was abandoned during the two-hour show. Still, the band delivered an exhilarating set aided by a pair of winning set pieces that literally pulled the crowd into its show.
Early on, Armstrong recruited a young man from the crowd to perform the band's ``No Pride'' alone on acoustic guitar. Though the fan wasn't much vocally, he did impress musically. He turned and smiled midway through the
song when the band joined in. Armstrong also said he wanted to start a new band, and recruited a guitarist, bassist and drummer from the crowd for another song. He dubbed them the St. Louis Losers, though they were anything but.
The concert was a must-see even without these segments. The band, whose popularity has fluctuated wildly over the years, managed to sell out The Pageant as an intimidating sea of fans packed themselves onto the floor, transformed into a huge mosh pit (refuge was found upstairs in the balcony). Green Day's Armstrong, drummer Tre' Cool, and bassist Mike Dirnt sent pulses racing, as they always have, in their demonstration of how much noise can be made by a three-piece outfit. The band's chords remain fairly simplistic yet obviously effective, providing a comfortable home for Armstrong's screaming-style singing (he doesn't spit the way he used to). Some of the aforementioned songs and others like ``Basket Case,'' ``Minority,'' and ``Waiting'' were bratty power punk the way it's meant to be, with occasional detours into ska-punk that recalled the better, harder side of No Doubt.
By the time Armstrong got around to his solo acoustic guitar spotlight on ``Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)'' near the top of its encore, the lyric ``I hope you had the time of your life'' was true for many in attendance. By that point, ``Warning,'' the title track from the band's latest CD, felt anti-climactic. But the band nicely backed that lull with early hit ``When I Come Around,'' which came complete with confetti canons
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© GREEN DAY ANARCHY
www.greenday.fr.fm
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