Toni Dockter: Filosophy with a Fuchsia Flair

After 18 months of worldwide touring, Green Day brought it home for their last performance of the 21^st Century Breakdown Tour. Saturday night in front of the hometown crowd at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, Green Day gave it their all—I think for us as well as for themselves, too.

 

Last year at the beginning of this tour, Green Day played the Bay Area in San Jose last August.Both concerts were phenomenal. There were similarities: song sets, stratospheric energy level, exquisite musicianship, incredible crowd interaction, and most important: the belief that hard-driving rock-no-roll is a life-changing force to be reckoned with.

But there also was a big difference: tone. In literature, the tone of a novel is the hardest element to define. But it sets the stage from which to view the story. If the tone of a novel is dark and foreboding, then an incident is perceived differently than if the tone is light and humorous. The same is true of a concert.

The San Jose concert was more playful and more endearing—as Billie Joe’s Mom made an appearance as well as his siblings.

The Mountain View concert still had Green Day’s teenage exuberance and defiance, but it seemed more intense. The tone of the show had more of a sense of urgency about it.

Part of the change in tone was also due to the slight but perceptible change in lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice. Billie Joe still had the crystal clear soaring vocals on the songs. But last night there was a huskiness to his voice (not hoarseness)—or maybe it was just fatigue. Singing your lungs out at a fever pitch for 18 months would probably wipe out most singers’ voices.

In the San Jose concert I was struck by how hard Billie Joe worked to entertain the audience. The same can be said for the Mountain View concert. If you had never heard of Green Day and popped into one of these shows, you would at least walk away with respect for the effort and musicality displayed (whether or not you liked the songs) and would be energized down to your mitochondrial level.

And speaking of energy levels, I think Billie Joe could walk to the center of stage, stand there and do nothing but look at the crowd. And his internal energy molecules would still fly through his pores and saturate the audience and whip them into a frenzy. He has that kind of presence.

Also, a side note: Billie Joe sported a different hairdo for this show. He’s back to the attractive frosty-blonde look. He wore his signature cherry red low-rise jeans (with the black pinstripe)—which made it easy to moon the audience. From where I was sitting, his butt looked pretty good!

But back to the concert review…

The San Jose concert transpired as a cohesive totally kick-ass rock-n-roll jubilation.

The Mountain View concert seemed like a frenetic musical in three acts.

The first part was “the usual”—rip roaring execution of songs with Billie Joe running around the stage and screaming to the audience—like, “This is not effing L.A.! This is not effing San Diego! This is the Bay Area!! (I personally like that sort of thing. Also liked Billie Joe screaming out just about every town in Northern CA.)) To my ears, some of the songs were played at a faster tempo than usual—like “Know Your Enemy” and “St. Jimmy.”

The middle section of songs for me was the equivalent of a drum solo—more playing than singing. The songs were from early Green Day, which are not my most favorite tunes, and why I chose to visit the ladies’ room. (And stand in the t-shirt line.) But you could still watch the show on big screens and hear it loud and clear.

Speaking of loud, I thought the Mountain View show was noticeably louder than the San Jose show (and I was further away from the stage.) The extra loudness added distortion and made the lyrics/talking hard to understand.

The concert picked up again (for me) with a cover of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”—and never stopped cranking from there. I loved hearing Billie Joe sing, “It’s only teenage wasteland!” Excellent job. (Note: This song had the loudest sing-along, more than even Green Day’s own songs, and louder than the nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah of “Hey Jude.”)

Both concerts included the annoying “King for a Day.” I can’t figure out why that song and skit is so popular. (Note to GD: Ditch it.)

The Mountain View show had a better ending as the second encore included “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” a stellar song. Likewise, “Good Riddance” (“I hope you had the lime of your life”) is THE PERFECT song to end a concert. On this song in particular you could hear the strain in Billie Joe’s voice. (BTW, Ye Ol’ Hubby man thought his voice sounded tinny.)

Several times throughout the sold-out concert Billie Joe Armstrong thanked the crowd for supporting Green Day for the last 22 years. Maybe Bill Joe was feeling a little nostalgic, a little wistful; that this show represented the culmination of Green Day’s lifetime of work to date and it was the last show for a while.

As I said above, Green Day gave it their all last night. After two hours and forty-five minutes, I don’t know about Green Day, but I was exhausted! The Shoreline show shored up my love and devotion to Green Day. And I, like the rest of their fans, will stick with them for another 22 years.

Last night on Earth at the Green Day concert all 22,000 fans had the time of their lives.

This photographer takes much better photos than I do (ya think?)!

Here’s my review of American Idiot:

http://fuchsiawoman.com/blog/listen/green-day-american-idiot-album-of-the-decade/

Here’s my review of American Idiot the Broadway Musical:

http://fuchsiawoman.com/blog/listen/green-day-punks-out-broadway/

Here’s my review of 21^st Century Breakdown:

http://fuchsiawoman.com/blog/listen/green-day-21-century-breakdown-best-album-2009/

Here are some of my favorite Green Day song lyrics:

http://fuchsiawoman.com/blog/listen/inspirational-songs-cannot-live-without-them/