If I wasn’t already crazy-in-love with Green Day (the band, not the band members!), I wouldn’t have loved the two nights at Madison Square Garden any less. I would have been even more bowled over, by the realization that until that moment I didn’t know that there existed anything so perfect — so bawdy, goofy, brilliant, emotional, and intoxicating — as a Green Day live performance.
If all they did was play their songs, it would still be a fantastic show, because their music is so fantastically good, and so great live. And the music is of course at the core of the show. Even the screwups, the songs that only get a couple lines out and then Billie Joe can’t remember the rest, like Castaway on Monday and Stuart and the Ave. on Tuesday, are just another delightful part of the rollicking ship. But Billie Joe’s presence in itself is like a force of nature.
There’s a review of Monday night’s show on Consequence of Sound, which, annoying and whiny as it is — is she actually complaining that Billie Joe doesn’t launch into speeches about health care reform, or that he’s so captivating that he can get 20,000 people to scream on command? — captures the whirlwind one-man carnival that is Billie Joe’s stage presence. And it gets in a few remarks that are right on the money. One of my favorites: “Resistance is futile. The guy’s too much fun for anybody to not have any.” And in spite of herself, the reviewer couldn’t not see Billie Joe’s sweetness: “His obvious and generous affection towards them was truly refreshing. Green Day may wail about alienation, but in this room on this night, it was a share-the-lovefest.”
Much of the review is dripping with the kind of hipster irony that is so prevalent in music writing, and that so many critics love to condemn Green Day with. God forbid one might be so uncool as to appreciate a band’s music unironically and from the heart, with the same pure joy with which it is offered up. (I can see hipsters going to the circus and scoffing because there were clowns and trapeze artists: “How predictable!”)
But even cynics are captivated by Billie Joe and co.: “Jesus of Suburbia — bombastically adolescent, cheesy, symphonic, unapologetic and hopeful — encapsulated all that was good and goofy about Green Day Monday night. Including the obvious fact that Billie Joe Armstrong really is the messiah of mall-friendly rock.” I think “mall-friendly rock” is supposed to be a bad thing, so it’s a backhanded compliment, but I’ll skip the irony, thank you, and take the remark at face value. Yep, he’s the messiah of music that is pure and heartfelt, and that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is.
I think people are confused by Billie Joe’s complete lack of pretentiousness. He is fiercely intelligent, but he openly mocks self-importance. His antics can be wonderfully stupid, and they certainly borrow from decades of showmanship — from vaudeville, the circus, preachers, rock-and-roll showmen, underground hardcore bands, and from that kid in the back of the class who cracks everyone up by farting or showing his ass (I used to teach high school and I would always get myself in trouble by finding that sort of thing hilarious…) — but they are genius. Who else can conjure up that much silliness in two and a half hours and still keep 20,000 people screaming and laughing for more? If you haven’t seen it, this video of the little story he told on Monday night is pretty damn cool.
I think there’s a lot to be said about losing yourself in the surge of the crowd, being one tiny dot among thousands, regardless of where you are in the venue, near or far. I don’t much enjoy reading reviews where people brag about how close they were (or what special thing happened to them) and I don’t want to to do that here. When people are called on stage or get whatever other perk, I am genuinely happy for them, and for myself too, because it’s part of the show and I get to enjoy their experiences too. I didn’t have any perks (unless maybe you count being one of several people who held groped Billie Joe’s legs when he stood on the barrier) but on Tuesday I was so close it was, I have to admit, pretty fucking awe-inspiring. There was one girl between me and the barrier, right at the center of the catwalk, but she was very short, so I could see everything.
When he’s five feet away, the thought that crossed my mind was not that Billie Joe is beautiful or larger than life, which he is, of course, in his Billie Joe kind of way, but that he is a strange, amazing little man. He’s always keeping you on the edge of your seat (regardless of the fact you’re actually standing), even if you already know his pranks and know to expect them. But he’s so sweet and spontaneous that the audience can make him laugh too.
And then there’s that incredibly beautiful voice. When he sang Macy’s Day Parade, Say I Love You (or whatever the song that is called, from the movie Heart Like a Hand Grenade), and Good Riddance right in front of me it was just so beautiful. He had gone from jet-fueled court jester to being all soulful-big-blue-eyes. The spotlight behind him gave him a white halo of curls. I don’t think I have words to describe it. You can see a video of it here, shot from the side. (I can’t believe some fools were talking during those songs…)
I’m sorry to say that videos don’t do Green Day’s live performances any kind of justice. Being there is absolutely irresistible, and exhausting in the most satisfying way. For days afterward, a little smile just creeps over your face (like when you’ve had sex that was so good you’re embarrassed to look anyone in the eye…).
~Setlists for July 27 and July 28 on Punk News.
~Photos from July 28 on Brooklyn Vegan.
July 31, 2009 at 8:19 am [ Category: Personal, Concerts ]
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