Location:
Riviera Theatre in Chicago, USA
Date:
November 24, 1997
Notes:
Josh Kaplan: "Inbetween the two bands, Adrienne and Joey walked across the stage. Joey threw a beach ball out to the crowd. Suddenly the lights went off. Then Green Day ran out and Billie struck a chord. Everyone went nuts and Billie went into Going To Pasalacqua. It was great. Everyone started moshing and singing along. The people up on the balcony stood up and sang along too. Green Day played for about two hours, which is a lot for them. During Longview's intro Billie motioned for the crowd to be quiet. He started whispering, 'The beautiful people,' and got the crowd to say it while he put his arms up and laid his head on his right arm, symbolising Jesus on the cross (or Manson for that matter). They extended a lot of their songs, like Hitchin' A Ride, Paper Lanterns, 2,000 Light Years Away and Knowledge. Billie had the crowd sing a lot for him. During Knowledge, he brought a fan named Bob and told him if he couldn't play, everyone would beat the shit out of him. He was awesome. Bob tried to go backstage when Billie said, 'There's only one way out, and you have to stand right there.' He pointed to the edge of the stage. Bob stood there for a while and Billie told the crowd to catch him. He finally jumped and Billie continued to play. During another extended song, Billie put down Blue and walked over to Mike's side and started spraying the crowd with water and beer. He then climbed up onto the balcony, where he gave a girl a hug and sprayed more water. Inbetween songs, Billie said, 'I bet all of you are fucked up right now. And all I have to say is I take full responsibility for this,' making everone cheer. Before Brain Stew, Billie asked if anyone wanted to hear some metal. Eveyone yelled. Billie said everyone had to play the metal game, where every time he hit a chord, people were to throw their arm up in the air. He had a practice run where he went, 'Ready, on the count of three. One, two, three,' and didn't play anything. Everyone threw their arm up anyway. Billie laughed and went into Brain Stew, which was awesome. At the end of the show, Tre smashed his drumkit, throwing the bass drum and his sticks into the air. He acted like he was going to throw the bass drum into the crowd, but didn't. All of the sudden, Mike threw his bass twenty feet up in the air, having it come down with a crash. Mike, Tre and Billie left, leaving their guitars out on stage, with the feedback pumping. The feedback lasted for about 5 minutes, then Billie came out and did a distorted version of Good Riddance."
"This was the seventh time I've seen the band play live, and I must admit, they put on one of the best performances I've ever seen them do. Early in the set, Billie Joe reminded us how long it has been since the band has played Chicago: 'It's been two years. Two years is too fuckin' long.' I couldn't agree more, as the last time I saw them was the show Billie Joe made reference to, two years ago on the Insomniac tour (with the mighty Riverdales), and it fucking ruled to see them live again. The crowd was pretty young. Let's put it this way: I'm 21, and I felt like one of the oldest in attendance - except for the parents, of course. Upon entering the Riv, we walked by the t-shirt stand. There are several Nimrod shirts for sale. My personal favorite is the gray one with the big yellow Nimrod circle on the front, with the Nimrod-style Green Day logo on the back. The band was also selling black t-shirts with the Nimrod CD cover on the front and the [back cover:] song-list (as seen in the CD) on the back. Two designs with weird looking cartoons and the words Green Day on the front with Nimrod on the back were offered, as were two colors of short-sleeved, collared 'gas station' style shirts and a long-sleeved tee with the towns on the Nimrod tour on the back. The long sleeved shirt was the only Nimrod tour shirt offered. Most of the tees were $15, the long sleeve was $27, Green Day baseball caps were $15, and earplugs were a buck. Opening act Superdrag was okay, but they couldn't compare to past bands I've seen open for Green Day, like the Riverdales, Tilt, and the Smoking Popes. Maybe that's just because I'd never heard any Superdrag before I went to the show, though. Between sets, the waiting music played was various Ramones tunes, among them: I Wanna Be Sedated, Pinhead, Teenage Lobotomy, Beat on the Brat, and Sheena Is A Punk Rocker. During the set-change, a banner displaying the Nimrod-style Green Day logo was lowered. This was the first time I'd seen them play with a banner behind them since the first leg of the Dookie tour, when they had the Dookie Dog banner. Also between sets, a woman brought out a young boy, who tossed a beach ball into the crowd. Now, I've never seen pictures of Billie Joe's wife or child, but I'm wondering if this was Adrienne and Joey. As they left the stage, the woman held the boy up to give a high-five to the roadie, so I assume whoever they were, they're close to the band. If anyone can confirm for me it was Adrienne and Joey, I'd appreciate it. After the last Ramones waiting music song - Blitzkrieg Bop - the house lights were killed, and Devo's Whip It blasted from the amps. Soon after, Mike ran onto the stage and towards his bass (his hair was brown, and he wore a gray sleeveless t-shirt), then Tre appeared behind his drums (with green hair, and wearing the gray Nimrod t-shirt available in the lobby), and then Billie Joe came out (He wore a black t-shirt, and his hair was black. Does he dye it blue and red and blond and stuff anymore?), ripping an A chord out of Blue. The band quickly launched into Going to Pasalacqua. Now, one thing I noticed differently about this show, is that Mike sang along with almost every song. Not just his back-ups, but when Billie Joe was singing the verses, Mike was standing there, chugging away on the bass, and singing along with every word. Maybe he does this all the time, but I'd never seen him do it before, and I thought it was very cool. Billie Joe let the crowd sing the final three words of the chorus to Welcome to Paradise, and he introduced Geek Stink Breath by saying, 'This is a song about drugs.' Next, he informed us, 'This next one is a brand new song, it's called Nice Guys Finish Last.' In what I considered one of the coolest parts of the entire night, as the final chord of The Grouch was fading away, Billie Joe stepped to the mic and said, 'That song was dedicated to Mr. Ben Weasel.' The band then played one more slowed-down refrain of 'The world owes me so fuck you' before finishing the song. During the opening of Longview, when it was just Tre on his toms and Mike playing the bouncy bass intro, Billie Joe leaned in close to his mic and started singing, 'The beautiful people, the beautiful people.' Mike soon joined in, and they sang this for a bit, then Billie Joe did a quick Marilyn Manson impression, then they got into the song. Frequently, Billie Joe stretched his mic stand as far as it could, standing on the very edge of the stage and up on the monitors, to get closer to the crowd. Before Brain Stew, Billie Joe asked, 'What do you guys wanna hear?' Someone up front must have answered the same way I did, for Billie Joe looked into the crowd and played the first few chords of At the Library before stopping and laughing. (BASTARD! I've STILL never seen them play that, one of my favorite songs, live!) He finally decided that we wanted to hear some 'metal,' and so he asked the crowd, 'Do you wanna hear some fuckin' metal?!' He continued to ask until we responded loudly enough, and after telling us we had to put our fists in the air every time he hit a chord, he started playing Brain Stew. Frequently, throughout many songs, Billie Joe encouraged the crowd to shout lots of hey's and such. It was a blast. After informing us all that, 'This next song was originally done by a band called Operation Ivy,' they launched into Knowledge. Mid-way through, before the last verse, Billie Joe then searched the crowd for someone who could play guitar. He finally found someone, and after asking him, 'Do you SWEAR to fuckin' GOD you can play guitar?' this guy was invited up, though Billie Joe warned him, 'If you can't, everyone here is gonna kick your fuckin' ass.' I myself have been playing guitar for about five years, and so I can safely say that the guy, Bob, did an awesome job finishing up Knowledge. Early in the set, I'm not sure where, Billie Joe said, 'I remember a lot of you. I remember when you were 14, and you came up to me and said, 'Hi, Mr. Billie Joe, I really like that song you do called Basket Case.' You were at the show with your parents. And now you're, what, 18?' Cheers from the crowd. 'And you're totally FUCKED UP?' Louder cheers. Billie Joe nodded. 'I just want to say I accept complete responsibility for that.' At another point, Billie Joe looked into the crowd and spotted someone's Mancow t-shirt. 'Mancow?' Billie Joe asked. He took on a sarcastic face and asked, 'Haven't you ever heard of Howard Stern?' Mike joined in, too: 'Mancow? We ran that guy out of the Bay Area, you can have him!' Rock 103.5 was handing out stickers. The fans were throwing them. Billie Joe asked for one, and he read Rock 103.5 into the microphone. Mixed response. Then he asked, 'Well, what do you think of it?' Loud boos. Mike laughed, 'Ha ha! They don't listen to your station!' Also, Billie Joe also asked, just as he did two years ago, if anyone in the crowd remembered McGregor's (and Dimitri the stripper). Also just like last time, no one did. The next-to-last song was introduced: 'This song is called Fuck Off and Die.' They ended their set with Paper Lanterns. During the breakdown, where they used to do the medley of Eye of the Tiger, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Fight For Your Right to Party, Sweet Home Alabama, or whatever the hell they felt like doing that night, Billie Joe put down his guitar and picked up a shirt that had been thrown onto the stage. He put it on over his t-shirt, and asked for more. The fans continued to throw stuff on the stage, and he continued to put it on. He must have put on six or seven shirts, as well as a baseball cap, before asking us, 'Do you like my new Chicago wardrobe?' He got Blue back, and then told us that he had to go take a pee, and so they finished the song and left. They returned a few minutes later (Billie Joe was back in his t-shirt, having ditched his new wardrobe while he pissed, apparently), and they opened with an awesome encore performance of Scattered. At the end of When I Come Around, they then proceeded to totally fucking trash the stage. Tre knocked his drums all over, Mike knocked over his amps. Mike and Tre then splashed water bottles all over the crowd (Billie Joe did this a lot during the show, too - most memorably when he climbed to the nearest balcony, ripped down the 'No Stage Diving, No Body-Surfing' banner and threw it into the crowd before spraying some water), and after finishing each bottle, Mike launched them into the crowd. He even got a few into the high balcony; I was quite impressed. He sprayed some beer bottles like champagne, too, and then casually tossed them back onto the stage. Through all of this, Billie Joe just sat before his amp, tuning down his strings and creating a lot of feedback. After Mike and Tre left the stage, Billie Joe continued doing this for several minutes before setting his guitar down, getting a new one, and then returning to his mike stand for Good Riddance. On the final chorus, he gave us all a nod and sang, 'I hope you've had the time of your life.' And then he finished the song and left."
