Revolution Radio
Though my concert year began in a familiar place, with Erin & Her Cello at Rockwood Music Hall on 2/10, tonight was the next show on my list. I went to see Green Day at the Barclays Center. And I wasn’t going to let the remnants of a blizzard spoil the night. Oddly enough, the same thing happened during my last concert at Barclays in December 2013. On that Saturday night, I went to see the Queens of the Stone Age at the end of the…Like Clockwork tour. The only difference is that it snowed all night before turning to rain upon arriving home.
The love of Green Day goes back a bit further. It was the early hours of 1999 as MTV’s New Years Eve Live came to an end. Billie Joe Armstrong, the bands frontman was on stage alone performing Time of Your Life (Good Riddance) visibly drunk and somehow he pulled it off. The combination of song and circumstances left me captivated. One of the first non soundtrack albums I bought was their highly underrated 2000 album, “Warning”. And then without fail, the rest of their catalog became wired into my brain. Their 1994 album,”Dookie”has an especially found place in my heart as I take comfort in the adolescent frustration over the course of the album all these years later. I’ve come to the conclusion that the first verse of the song Basket Case personifies me to a T due to a tendency to be melodramatic at times.
I’ve wanted to see the band live for quite a while. I didn’t have a bank account around the time of “American Idiot’s” release in 2004, so I couldn’t see them at The Bowery Ballroom. Flash forward to 2012 and the last time they were in Brooklyn for the “Uno, Dos & Tre” tour and it was sold out. On the release date of their recent album, “Revolution Radio” they performed at Webster Hall but I wasn’t a winner in the lottery to be able to purchase tickets. Then I heard about tonight’s show and was determined to make it happen and did so before leaving for Spain last October. It turned out that my colleague in the call center wanted to go but it was sold out. I didn’t know she was interested in going thus I kept it to myself. I feel bad in doing so but live music is one area where the selfish side of me comes out.
I was on pins and needles watching the blizzard fearing the concert would be cancelled. But thankfully, the show went on as the snow departed. After a long day of snow related chaos to and from work, I was ready to go and made my way to Brooklyn. The nights opening act was the Florida punk band, Against Me!. Front woman Laura Jane Grace set the table early by playing as much punk rock as one can in 30 minutes while professing her adoration for Green Day.
A little before 9, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody rang out and the entire arena sung along unprompted. Then that was followed by the appearance of a pink dancing bunny leading through The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” before Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold” ushered the band in to rapturous applause. The main set went all over map, starting with “Know Your Enemy” from 2009’s “21st Century Breakdown” and touching all points back and fourth through their catalog and a few covers sprinkled throughout before ending with”Forever Now” and “Still Breathing” and from Revolution Radio. Two encores followed, the first, American Idiot & Jesus of Suburbia. And the second encore with Billie Joe alone on acoustic guitar with “Ordinary World”and “Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)”.
In the end, it was a great show. You can’t beat a strong song catalog, stage presence, audience participation and a hint of pyrotechnics. A 2 1/2 hour tour de force of music and unity in these troubled times. My one quibble is that “Somewhere Now” that opens Revolution Radio should’ve been part of the set list at the start, book ending Forever Now later in the night. I left Barclays tonight exhausted, enthralled, sweating and hoarse from singing and went gently into the cold and windy night. And not regretting my decision to go tonight by a long shot. By chance, I wasn’t the only one I knew at the show last night. Not long after I arrived home, I would find out that my high school friend and fairy blog mother, Stephanie Infante as well as my friend Ed were both at Barclay’s but didn’t run into either of them. It’s hard to find people in a crowd of roughly 18, 000.
With tonight in the history books, it’s time to look ahead. After the busiest period at work comes my next shows. First up is one I didn’t think that I would ever see, Midnight Oils “The Great Circle” tour at Webster Hall on 5/13, then it’s Sigur Ros at Forest Hills Stadium at the end of their North American tour on 6/17 before ending the first half of the year with U2 and the 30 anniversary tour for the album “The Joshua Tree” at Met Life stadium on 6/28. Before the Emerald Isle calls in October, there’s one last stop, Depeche Mode’s The Global Spirit tour at MSG on 9/11. And who knows what else will come along the way.
Tonight reaffirmed one of my core beliefs, that live music is a force for good in the world!
