So I went to see Green Day play in Mannheim on Wednesday. First time I’d seen them since they co-headlined Edgefest 1998 in Saskatoon (along with the Foo Fighters). I was a bit surprised at how much had stayed the same. Green Day still looks and sounds like Green Day; they haven’t undergone any radical transformations in style. I think almost any of their newer songs wouldn’t have seemed out of place on their 1990s albums.
The arena was packed and the fans sang along to almost everything, including the tracks from their newest album. (How did they learn them all so fast?) All told the band played for about two and a half hours.
Commonalities between the 1998 and 2017 concerts:
[ul]
[li]Lots of material from Dookie and Nimrod, including “Basket Case”, “Longview”, “When I Come Around”, “Hitchin’ a Ride”, “King for a Day”, and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.[/li][li]Billie Joe playing his Stratocaster, “Blue”.[/li][li]Lots of moshing![/li][li]When playing their cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge”, Billie Joe inviting someone from the audience onstage to play his guitar part.[/li][li]The set ending with Bille Joe’s solo rendition of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.[/li][/ul]
Things I saw in 1998 but not 2017:
[ul]
[li]Several songs from Insomniac (at least “Brain Stew/Jaded” and “Geek Stink Breath”; maybe others). (Nothing from that album was played in 2017.)[/li][li]Lots and lots of crowdsurfing. There was hardly any stagediving and crowdsurfing in 2017. (Maybe the audience is getting too old for it?)[/li][li]Billie Joe encouraging everyone to smoke up (and the crowd happily obliging). Almost no smoke in 2017, though some of that may be down to the concert being held indoors.[/li][li]The band playing “King for a Day” in their underwear.[/li][li]The band setting fire to the stage at the end of the concert.[/li][li]Someone spontaneously dying right in front of me. (No kidding!)[/li][/ul]
Things I saw in 2017 but not 1998:
[ul]
[li]Much older audience—most people were in their 30s. Not so many teenagers.[/li][li]Some guy (or girl?) in a pink bunny rabbit costume warming up the crowd between the opening band and the main act.[/li][li]Lots of newer material, obviously. They played six songs from their new Revolution Radio album and seven from American Idiot.[/li][li]A new mosh technique where a couple dancers would completely clear a large circle in the crowd by spinning around. They’d start doing this during a relatively quiet moment in the music; when the music got loud again, everyone at the edges of the clearing would rush into it and start moshing. Billie Joe even directed this activity at one point.[/li][li]The girl from the audience who played guitar in “Knowledge” got to keep the guitar.[/li][li]The band playing “King for a Day” in silly costumes, and ending it with a medley of “Shout”, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, and “Hey Jude”.[/li][li]In the middle of “Longview”, Billie Joe invited someone from the audience to sing lead vocal. The guy was so excited that the first thing he did after getting on stage was to give Bille Joe a big kiss on the lips. He then ran over to Mike Dirnt and gave him a bear hug from behind. He sang the part well enough, albeit with a noticeable German accent. At the end of the song he ran back to kiss Tré Cool, knocking over of his cymbals in the process.[/li][li]Professional pyrotechnics punctuating a lot of songs.[/li][li]Two encores.[/li][/ul]