Green Day in
Sydney, NSW
Show Details
Location:
Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia
Date:
February 8, 1996
Notes:
Incomplete setlist
Adam Baker: "So Green Day came here to play in support of the Insomniac album. They announced an instore at HMV in Pitt St in the city. So along I went with a mate and we lined up with the masses of other kids. We got through about an hour after it started. When we finally got through to the band I noticed that they had used the texta/markers and written all over the TV screens behind them. Very punk. Or try-hard punk. I'm not sure. I got my copy of Dookie signed. It was kind of rushed - the band were cool and having a good time with the fans, but the record company people were pushing people through really quickly. I had enough time to say hi, get my CD signed and take a few pictures. When the photos came back from the developer, I noticed the funny photo. It's not my Dookie cover that Mike is chewing in to - I'd say it was owned by the person in front of me. But I went and checked out my Dookie CD booklet that the band signed - and there is small teeth marks in the top corner! The record company people pushed us through so quickly that I didn't even notice!"
Kerrang!: "When the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned first hit the big-time, one catchphrase shrieked across the world: 'England's Screaming'. Tonight, at the second of two Green Day shows that sold out in as many hours, there was another kind of high-pitched howling going on. But this time, it was at the band. The trio unoffically voted most likely to have their own comic book, the biggest punks on the planet, are heart-throbs. In a prize piss-take, they began as they should have ended: a few big, dramatic powerchords, with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong gushing, 'Thank you, goodnight.' They'd been onstage no more than 10 seconds. From there, things got better. So much better, in fact, that it was almost ridiculous. The Californian punk princes had it all: machine gun etiquette set pacing, insanely addictive pop punk, vocals and harmonies that were clear and strong, and a tearing, metallic guitar sound that you wanted to take home for the night. They also displayed a killer grasp of dynamics, knowing precisely when it felt best to let some raw wiring work show and when to pull in the reins hard. Musically, these guys are already old souls way beyond their years. No, they aren't Poison Idea and have no connections with whatever Dead Boy Cheetah Chrome is focused on at the moment, but their sense of real rock action is as good as any band's. Not that anyone really noticed. You got the sense that every rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth punter was here for the experience, for the event, just as they'd been when Nirvana played the same venue in early 1992 while on the other side of the planet Nevermind hit the Number One spot. Offspring and Pennywise might well replace Slayer and Pantera as the soundtracks for US ice hockey and football matches, but not Green Day. They have greater glories to come, but still with full body contact."
Photos from the Show
Setlist
