Green Day in
Toronto, ON
Show Details
Location:
Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, Canada
Date:
November 19, 1997
Notes:
Recordings from this show can be found [url=http://www.greendaycommunity.org/topic/87343-19971119-the-phoenix-theatre-toronto-ontario-canada/]here[/url]
Mike Long: "Yup, this is me at 16! Grabbed from a bootleg VHS, shot at the Phoenix in Toronto, and yes, this was planned before the show. Nice guys, yep! Three years later, I worked on the Warped Tour that they played on, ran into them many times afterward in various cities. Now they're on Broadway and stuff, I'm holding it down in the Hammer."
"Yeah, I was at the show, and I was 16, too. I remember you up there very well. So it was planned, eh? Cool. Tre Cool was walking up and down the lineup outside and my friend and I followed him to Mike Dirnt, who was just standing there signing green picks for people beside a large van. At one point in the show Billie Joe just held a chord at the end of a song, looking me right in the eyes. I'll never forget it. It was one of the greatest shows I've ever been to."
Toronto Sun: "In another time, Green Day's energetic singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong might have made the perfect court jester. He certainly showed he knew how to whip a crowd into a frenzy last night as more than 1,000 Green Day fans were treated to a rare and raw club show by the Berkeley-based trio whose muscular punk sound has sold 20 million albums. So maybe Armstrong's silly shenanigans - including the use of a Tickle Me Elmo doll to get a clap-along going, impersonating both Marilyn Manson and a heavy metal handbanger, inviting an audience member up on stage to play guitar, and dressing up in a half-dozen shirts, a toque and a bra thrown from the crowd - were inspired by the small room. Or maybe it was Green Day's mini-concert in the alley behind HMV earlier in the day. Whatever the reason, Armstrong was definitely pumped from the get-go as he, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool took the stage to the strains of Devo's Whip It. 'I am the Karate Kid!' he yelled after someone tossed up a T-shirt which he promptly wrapped around his head just two songs into the evening. Both older favorites Geek Stink Breath, Chump, Longview (which began as Manson's The Beautiful People) Brain Stew, Basket Case, and new songs, Nice Guys Finish Last, Hitchin' A Ride, The Grouch and Scattered, from their latest album, Nimrod, followed. But in the end it was Armstrong's seriously playful sense of humor, something getting harder to find in music, that set Green Day's performance apart from so many other shows this year. It definitely goes down as one of the funnest evenings of music, if nothing else. 'I remember some of you from about four years ago,' he teased the crowd at one point. 'You guys were like 14 with your mom and dad saying, 'I like your band.' Now you're 18 or 19 and you're completely fucked up! I'd have to take full responsibility for that!' My only regret is that Green Day didn't play more of the more interesting, experimental stuff from Nimrod. Here's hoping the band is saving that material for a bigger show, expected to return to Toronto next year."
Photos from the Show
Setlist
1. Going To Pasalacqua
2. Welcome To Paradise
3. Geek Stink Breath
4. Nice Guys Finish Last
5. Hitchin' A Ride
6. The Grouch
7. Chump
8. The Beautiful People (Marilyn Manson cover) / Longview
9. 2,000 Light Years Away
10. Brain Stew
11. Jaded
12. Knowledge (Operation Ivy cover)
13. Basket Case
14. She
15. F.O.D.
16. Paper Lanterns
