Location:
Rock City in Nottingham, England
Date:
August 26, 1998
Notes:
Incomplete setlist
"...And then, to an intro tape, it's the Green Day. Heroes. 'Green Day, Green Day'. Ah, I don't think I've heard a chant like that for a band since the triumphant days of Maiden in the 80s. And they're off and running. Billie appears to be having a ball. Game show host. Or rock star icon. Whichever, he's nicked a Metallica speech for between songs, whether his tongue is totally in cheek or not. It's fun. Only owning the Dookie album, I didn't recognise all the new songs, or at least non-Dookie songs. But it went down well, though of course not as well as Longview, or Basket Case etc. But that's OK. We get the people in costumes playing trumpets, snippets of Beautfiul People, Green Day becoming the metal band Green Death and ripping out all of 10 seconds of Master Of Puppets and the intro to Iron Man. Ah, I know. I should get pissed off at this juncture. Taking the piss out of metal, just acknowledge you're influenced by it, like pretty much most modern punk. You know my rants by now. But I'm going to restrain. I mean, if they are taking the piss, well, why? I mean, if you give up your hatred for something so much, then they are winning. Whenever you have to direct your hate towards someone or something, they win. And you're the loser. And yep, I'm a loser quite often! The crowd is encouraged to sing-a-long-a-Billie at most opportunities, plenty of rock star posturing, and the kid is dragged out of the crowd to play guitar. Geek Stink Breath, 2,000 Light Years Away are titles I remember. She comes into view, and there's like 2000 happy punk kids, rejoicing in their triumph. Time Of Your Life is perfectly positioned as the final song of the night, and anarchy can return to the streets once more. All in all, a fun packed evening. Just as music should be. The amounts of sweat that walked out at the end is testimony to that. But wait a minute. Aren't Green Day making a pantomine out of punk? Sold out. Making a mockery. After all, there were more elements about this that were like metal in the '80s. The intro tape, the sing a long, the almost rehersed bits, how spontaneous was it all? 'That's not punk,' I hear you purists cry. They sold out a 2,000-seater. That's not punk. Keep it pure, keep it anarchaic. Keep it underground. Uh, so like if the punk rule is that you can't do any of that, then surely the punk band that does so is being MORE punk than anything. After all, it's two fingers to the establishment when the establishment is the punk police. Does it matter that they had fun? No, since when was that an offence. Playing to all those people, sell out? How? I mean, 2000 people out of, what, 55 million in this country? That's hardly majority. It doesn't matter if punk bands play to 10,000 people, it's still fighting against the majority, against mainstream. Some don't think punk should be played to so many. It's not a problem how many they play to, it's only a problem that you lose the intimacy. It's a problem only when some of the people don't share the same ideals as the purists. And that's not the band's fault. It does piss me off seeing so many people here tonight that just won't go and support other lesser known punk (or any other style of music) bands and as much as I'll rant about it, in terms of attitude it's my problem. That's what annoys me. But it's not the band's fault, and it's not a sign of sellout. The band doesn't control its audience. I mean, how many punk bands would want me as a fan? Cos I'm not pure! I'm not punk! I'm metal, ain't I? The two don't mix, that's why they all have to have the 'let's take the piss' section. But no band controls me. They could make the most punk album ever, and if I like it, they have no control over that. So that doesn't make them a sell out. Oh, you don't like the music. Ah, so that's it. But music is subjective, we all like different things. So it can't actually be used as an argument for punkness or sell out. Green Day are doing things on a different level. They are doing it on their terms. They are doing some things that will piss off the purists. What could be more punk than that?"
