In front of a packed house, Green Day rocked St. Louis for the second time this year. Their Revolution Radio Tour came to St. Louis on Aug. 14 at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater.
Green Day played a smaller show back in October at the Pageant. The show was originally scheduled for September 2016, but the band had to postpone until October 2016 due to illness.
Green Day still creates an electric show, even after 30 years in music. The night was filled with hits from every decade of Green Day’s long career. They played songs like “2000 Light Years Away” from their 1991 album Kerplunk! all the way to “Still Breathing” from their 2016 album Revolution Radio.
The band came out firing by playing their hit song “Know Your Enemy” from the album 21st Century Breakdown. During the song frontman Billie Joe Armstrong brought a young woman on stage to help sing part of the song with him. In rock star fashion, the young woman leaped off the stage into the crowd to make her exit. This would be the first of a few times Armstrong would bring a fan on stage to help with a song.
When the band played “Longview,” an older song from the classic 1994 album Dookie, Armstrong would bring another fan on stage to help with vocals. The fan knew the lyrics perfectly and delivered an exciting performance for the crowd. Just like the first fan, the only way to exit the stage was to dive off the stage into the crowd. This time though Armstrong asked for a drum roll from the drummer, Tre Cool, before the fan was allowed to make the leap into the crowd.
During the performance of “Knowledge,” Armstrong made a request for a guitarist in the crowd. A young man answered the call and came onto the stage to help play the song. The fan gave an amazing performance and blew away Armstrong’s expectations when he asked for a guitarist. At one point, the fan ran across the stage in Angus-Young-like fashion and even delivered his own guitar solo. After the song, Armstrong gifted the fan the guitar he had been playing on stage.
The whole show Armstrong’s main message he was trying to get across was a one of peace and equality. During a take on Eric Idle’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” he laid on a dark stage and talked to the crowd. He told the crowd, “Because in America, we’re all brothers and sisters. You watch the news and you just get disgusted at what’s going on. I’m tired of it. I’m sick of it. I (expletive) hate Nazis.” He then went on to remind the crowd, “There’s certain things in this world that are worth hating and that is racism and that is fascism.” Armstrong concluded his talk with the
Armstrong concluded his talk with the crowd by saying, “(expletive) look out for each other man. Stick up for the little guy. Stick up for the person that should be stuck up for because everybody needs a little bit of tender, love, and good health care.” The band would continue by playing parts of the songs “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and “Hey Jude” by the Beatles.
At one point, Armstrong referred to the show as “A night about a new America. about love and compassion and truth and no more lies, no more conspiracies. We’re leaving it all at the door.”
Halfway through the song “Holiday,” Armstrong would once again make comments to the crowd yelling, “ No racism. No sexism. No homophobia. No Donald Trump. This is America.” The crowd responded very well to the comments, especially when he yelled, “No Donald Trump.”
Throughout the show, Armstrong stayed connected to the crowd at all times by bringing people on stage, having conversations with the crowd, or changing the lyrics in his songs. During the song “Youngblood,” from the album Revolution Radio, he told fans they would be switching the lyric “(expletive) I’m from Oakland” with “(expletive) I’m from Missouri.” He also switched up the lyric “the representative from California has the floor” from the song “Holiday” with “the representative from St. Louis has the floor.”
During two points in the show Armstrong mentioned to the crowd to put their cell phones away. Towards the end “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” he told the crowd “Why save something for later when you can experience it now.” Later on during the show, he asked for the lights to be turned and then he said, “I don’t wanna see your cell phones, I wanna see your faces.”
Green Day ended the show by playing the song “Forever Now” off their new album Revolution Radio. The crowd was restless after the band left the stage; still cheering and hoping that the band would return for some extra music. Billie Joe Armstrong wasted no time getting back on stage after hearing the fans.
The band came back strong for the encore by playing their hit song “American Idiot.” Armstrong didn’t sing the beginning of the song, but instead let the audience sing the start. The band then played the nine-minute song “Jesus of Suburbia.”
Billie Joe Armstrong by himself came out playing an acoustic guitar and told the crowd, “I ain’t done yet. I can do this all night.” He then immediately broke into the song “21 Guns.” Armstrong decided to save the best for last by ending the show with an electrifying performance of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”
Alex St. Peters
astpeters@lc.edu
