Concert Review—

Green Day: Second Generation, Not Second Class

By John Voket

I didn’t know what to expect as I escorted my 12-year-old son Hunter to the Mullen Center at UMASS in Amherst on the night of April 30. It was a dreary, dank and windswept evening, but a few hours of fantastic material from My Chemical Romance and headliners Green Day certainly took the chill off and left me with that warm after-show glow of satisfaction.

Following a tight, blistering but profanity-laced set from MCR, which saw more than a few parents throwing back dirty looks as they headed to their seats towing children much younger than my own, the trio who first jammed nearly two decades ago in the underground clubs around the San Francisco Bay Area hit the stage with their explosive hit, “American Idiot.”

For the next two hours the show brought together much of the material from the band’s latest offering (of the same name), with plenty of classics and album cuts from Green Day’s cache. Among the high points from American Idiot were the impressive and extended “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming” suites, the radio-friendly “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and their wistful new single, “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”

But it was the more familiar, time-tested selections that seemed to really get the crowd hopping. Fired up by the total commanding presence of front man Billy Joe Armstrong, the straight-on bass work of Mike Dirst and the scattergun drumming of Tre Cool, Green Day rocked the house with hits like “Longview,” “Hitchin’ A Ride,” “Brainstew” and “Minority.”

While Green Day is generally labeled as “second generation punk,” everything about this tour was first class all the way.

The group also threw in covers of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge,” with audience members picked to fill in (see accompanying story), the timeless party classic “Shout,” featuring a two-piece ska horn accompaniment, and the show closing anthem, Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”

Overall the show was never less than full-tilt high energy, but it was the awesome mix of Billy Joe’s vocals – possibly one of the best loud concert mixes I’ve ever heard – and a great, but not too over the top stage show that made me want to come back again for another dose of Green Day.

Fortunately for those who didn’t make it to this show,  the band is planning to pack the bowls at Giants Stadium in New Jersey on September 1 and Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on September 3, before descending upon Hartford for a Civic Center appearance just in time for my Mom’s birthday: September 9.