The Green Day performance on Sept. 14 in San Diego left the attendees with a lot to talk about. From the moment that Billie Joe Armstrong took stage, the audience was thrusted into three hours of the most intense, exhilarating punk rock to come from the modern era.
Well-known for projecting his Southern California-influenced, anti-conservative sentiments throughout many segments of the band’s live shows, Armstrong decided to abstain from doing so for this performance. He opted for a “break” from the madness of politics. The band wanted its performance to be remembered, not their political opinions.
To allow for some context, in the band’s shows leading up to the Chula Vista performance, Green day had been notorious for showing their political views by rewriting political songs from their repertoire to match modern-day politics. These song include: “Bang Bang” and “ Holiday,” both of which were performed at the show.
At the American Music Awards (AMAs) earlier this year, the band decided to improvise a chant during the instrumental section of “Bang Bang” screaming, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!”
The unanticipated chant definitely shocked and inspired people. Armstrong tailored “Holiday,” a song that conveys the band’s disillusionment with the war with Iraq at the AMAs to make the entire audience sing, “Pulverize Donald Trump Tower,” as opposed to, “Pulverize the Eiffel tower.”
The band has even gone on record to re-tailor one of their top songs, “American Idiot,” from denouncing former president, George W. Bush, for his conservative leadership, to the current president. This was as evidenced by Armstrong.
“I’m not apart of Donald Trump’s Agenda” instead of the “catchier,” more-friendly line, “I’m not apart of a redneck agenda.” he declared.
With a band making headlines for their outright defamation of the current president, it was a pleasant surprise when Armstrong started the show by assuring the audience of promises to focus on love, peace, and equality.
Before the beginning of just about every song that they played that night, Armstrong took a moment to stop the band.
“Now that’s what we are talking about! This is what it is all about!” he yelled.
He then went on to mention that coming together and loving music has been, and will be, what unites the country in our time of separation and disparity
The presence of the LGBT community at the concert was indisputable. It was a breath of fresh air to experience Armstrong’s adamant drive to assure safety and love for fans of their music-regardless of who they are.
During the performance, Armstrong called a member and advocate of the LGBT community on stage, had them play a song with the band, and then proceeded to give the teen his guitar.
He prompted Green Day aficionados to cheer.
¨No Racism! No Sexism! No Fascism! No Homophobia!” chanted the audience.
People come from all different types of backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, orientations, along with Armstrong himself, firmly contend that Green Day shows should be a place for all of the freaks/outcasts of the world to come together with the common interests of love, compassion, and of course, music.
Darius Rahmanian ◊ Oct 4, 2017 at 7:02 pm
Its okay to have opinions on concerts and the message they send, but at least put it into the opinion section. There are ten more paragraphs dedicated to politics than to the actual concert itself. No doubt a student reading would have wanted a over view of the songs and the atmosphere rather than an opinionated glorification of the politics. espoused during the concert. Music is an important part of the counter culture, but it does not mean anyone who plays music and hates the supposed “fascist” establishment has a doctorate in political science. Is it not hypocritical in any way that they say “pulverize Trump tower” and promote violence against people with different political ideas but then say they are preaching “love,peace, and equality”. Does “love,peace and equality” reach out to others with different ideology? Apparently not according to Green Day. This is the concept I have gotten from this “review”. That the counter culture Green Day presents is simply just another rant at Donald Trump to gain publicity and appeal to their “freak and outcast” fans who oppose Trumpo with a passion.
The sentence “It was a breath of fresh air to experience Armstrong’s adamant drive to assure safety and love for fans of their music-regardless of who they are.” completely counter acts a previous statement, “The unanticipated chant definitely shocked and inspired people. Armstrong tailored “Holiday,” a song that conveys the band’s disillusionment with the war with Iraq at the AMAs to make the entire audience sing, “Pulverize Donald Trump Tower,” as opposed to, “Pulverize the Eiffel tower.”
It is just flawed logic by another hippy dippy “love and equality for all but not for anyone who has a different opinion”. This ladies and gentlemen is the worrying state of american youths and their supposed influences.
Joey Babcock ◊ Oct 5, 2017 at 2:16 pm
The title has since been changed to reflect the content better.
Sam Bodnar ◊ Oct 6, 2017 at 5:54 pm
I am with you Darius!