Green Day at home
Green Day - one of my top five favorite bands, played their own back yard in Oakland at the Coliseum on Saturday. Catfish and the Bottlemen, a U.K. band, opened for them with a short set, of under 30 minutes. Catfish rocked the stage, yet the audience wasn't as taken with them as they were when I saw them at BottleRock Napa at the end of May this year. At BottleRock, the audience seemed to know every word and be true Catfish fans. My opinion of Catfish - great band, very much in the style of a slightly more rock n roll Arctic Monkeys or Kooks. I think we'll see a lot more of them in the U.S. in the coming years.
Green Day hit the stage at 8.30 with "Know your Enemy," "Bang Bang," "Revolution Radio," and into a frenzied "Holiday". In true Green Day style, the guys rocked the stage to the adoring audience, made up of mostly families. From grandparents to young kids. I was there with two school aged boys 12, and 14, and their dad, who is a solid music lover. The 12 year old, a true Green Day fan, the 14 year old more into trap/rap/and EDM. This was the 12 year olds' first Green Day live show....that alone, enhanced the experience for me, being that he loves Green Day as I do and it was his very first time seeing them live. Nothing better! After the concert he said that was the best gig he's seen....and this was by no means his first big concert. At the early age of only 12, he's seen some monsters in music already, to compare. The 14 year old was not so enamored with the performance and was quite bored in the last half hour, not at all suprising.
Green Day did what Green Day does in their shows...give it their all! Halfway through, Billie Joe scoured the audience for a young guitarist to come on stage and play guitar. That lucky guitarist of the night, a 19 year old girl, played a song and did well. She then gets to take the guitar home with her.
The Coliseum was about half full, with 25,000 attendees. Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, Mike Dirnt were on fine form that night. They never disappoint! Billie Joe was in his element, being that this was their home town show and they were obviously loving every moment of being there. Talked about Oakland and the Bay Area throughout the show. Sadly, for reasons I'll never know, I was not given a photo pass this time, so you will have to refer to the last Green Day show I shot, "Not So Silent Night" put on by Live 105, in December 2016, for photos. Being on assignment for BAM magazine must have been overlooked by the Green Day publicist, because BAM (standing for Bay Area Music), has been very good to our home town boys for the past twenty years. Perhaps next time I see Green Day, the blog will be accompanied by photos taken at the gig. But for now, check out the following link, and you can see a picture gallery from last December:
https://www.altermanimages.com/single-post/2016/12/12/A-Not-So-Silent-Night-Live-At-The-Oracle-Arena-Oakland
Green Day played for two and a half hours, with 26 songs, ending in my one of my all time favourites, "Good Riddance"...all in all, excellent performance by the guys from NorCal! I may be partial, because I love their music, but I will always recommend catching a Green Day show, at least once! For me...once would never be enough.
