Green Day announced their Revolution Radio World Tour in late August and I was shocked to find out that the first leg of the tour would be played in clubs and smaller venues in only 12 cities. One of those cities being Upper Darby, PA at the 3,000 seat Tower Theater, only 5 miles from my home in the next town over, Havertown. It was surprising that tickets went on sale only a week after the tour announcement and less than 3 weeks before the show. Usually you have to wait months for the concert after buying tickets but with the show being so close it kept you at a high in the weeks leading up. For a popular band such as Green Day, playing small venues comes at a cost as it is harder to get tickets and not as many fans can get in. However, if you can get in, the show has more potential to be a great show and a great show was an understatement.
When the day of the concert came, it was dreary, cold and wet. Not a good day to wait in line outside but it was definitely worth it. The opening act Dog Party is made up of two sisters, Gwendolyn and Lucy Giles. During their set, Lucy commented on how her favorite band is The Ramones and you could hear the influence with their simplistic, pop-punk sound that made a lot of noise and rocked hard. They were a perfect opening act as their set was short and sweet as they rolled from one song to the next with minimal dialogue to the crowd between songs. They capped off their set with an exuberant cover of Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl." With Green Day being from Berkeley, CA, they seem to like promoting fellow California bands by bringing them on tour and having them open as Dog Party is from Sacramento and Best Coast, who opened for Green Day when I saw them in 2013, is from Los Angeles.The house lights went down and over the speakers came Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and before you knew it everyone was singing along. Green Day's mascot Drunk Bunny came to the stage to further warm up the crowd with the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" theme blasting through the theater.
The crowd was ready and so was Green Day as they hit the stage jumping right into the machine gun beat of "Bang Bang." They continued to show off their new album Radio Revolution with the song by the same name. The set spanned across their whole career, playing songs from nearly every album, including deep cuts "2000 Light Years Away" and "Christie Road" off the first album, 1992's Kerplunk. All of the hits were covered and I was ecstatic to hear "Welcome to Paradise," something that they surprisingly didn't play the first time I was them. As always, Green Day brought some fans on stage to help sing "Know Your Enemy" and "Longview." After a hug and a plea from Armstrong, the young fans whose dreams came true reluctantly stage dived back into the sea of people.
During "Basket Case" part of the ceiling fell on stage almost hitting bassist Mike Dirt. You can see it at 2:10 of the video below. Afterwards, Armstrong told the crowd "I think parts of the ceiling are coming down, welcome to a Green Day concert!" The crowd erupted in response. Near the end of "Minority," Armstrong took advantage of being in front of an audience to make a point. "No racism, no sexism, and no homophobia," he told the crowd to a roar of agreement. Armstrong would go on to put in his two cents on the 2016 election, "Get out and vote, and vote for love, alright." Green Day's political agenda would continue with Armstrong's Anti-Trump chant at the American Music Awards a little less than a month later.
The encore was almost identical to when I saw Green Day on April 3, 2013 with the only difference being "Ordinary World" instead of "Brutal Love." Although the encore was similar, nearly three and a half years after seeing Green Day for the first time, it looked like a different band. A rather forgettable concert at the Ludacris Center, a 10,000 seat arena on Temple University's campus, had poor sound quality and wasn't nearly as intimate as the Tower Theater. Because of the tight quarters, the crowd seemed more electric than usual. Both the band and the crowd fed off one another, trying to match each other's energy and bring it to a different level. Being so close, you could make out each chord and each beat, see the sweat and spit from the band, and even read the lips of Dirt saying something to the effect of "Oh, shit" during "Hitchin' a Ride." Punk is meant to be seen in a small venue and Green Day is the definition of punk. To see them in their element was something special.
Setlist:
Dog Party:
1. And I Did
2. Peanut Butter Dream
3. Jet Pack
4. Whoa
5. Sapphires
6. Rebel Girl (Bikini Kill cover)
Green Day:
Intro:
Bohemian Rhapsody
Blitzkrieg Bop
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1. Bang Bang
3. Know Your Enemy
4. Holiday
5. Letterbomb
6. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
7. Longview
8. 2000 Light Years Away
9. Welcome to Paradise
10. Christie Road
11. Burnout
12. Scattered
13. Hitchin' a Ride
14. Waiting
15. Are We the Waiting
16. St. Jimmy
17. When I Come Around
19. She
20. King for a Day
21. Shout / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction / Hey Jude
22. Still Breathing
23. Minority
Encore:
24. American Idiot
25. Jesus of Suburbia
26. Ordinary World (Acoustic)(Billie Joe solo)
27. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (Acoustic)(Billie Joe solo)
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