Green Day in
Philadelphia, PA
Show Details
Location:
J.C. Dobbs in Philadelphia, USA
Date:
January 16, 1993
Notes:
Incomplete setlist
Tom Sheehy: "January 16, 1993: Green Day. The turnout was huge."
James: "Bigger than we had ever imagined. We had to turn people away."
Harry Jenkins: "This was my 1st Green Day show, their 1st in Philly. Too bad it was WAYYYY oversold & they only got to play about 5 songs. Weston & The Deviators also played."
Phawker: " I did Green Day there. It sold out like a motherfucker. We let in over 460 people (capacity was 190). These kids kept saying, 'I just drove up from Maryland' or 'I just drove down from Boston - you have to let me in!' Some girl standing in the very back had an epileptic fit and someone called 911. The cops came and shut the thing down in 15 minutes. For 15 minutes Green Day made about $2,000 from the door and about $2,000 from merchandise sales."
Frank Pearn, Jr.: "Last Saturday, Dobbs was packed threefold, as teen-agers and twenty-somethings crowded to see the Next Big Thing, a California three-piece called Green Day, on its first visit to the City of Brotherly Love. (Rumors were circulating that representatives of Geffen Records, the label that signed the last big thing, Nirvana, also were in attendance.) How crowded was it? People were actually paying to enter Dobbs' second floor to watch Green Day on a video screen! However during the third song of Green Day's melodic (not grungy) punk set, a young girl had a seizure. The show was halted as she lay on the ground. The owner of the club dialed 911 and within a half-hour, an albino policeman arrived. His first question as he entered the club was, 'What's the capacity of this place?' A quiet came over the crowd, which soon realized that the show was over for good, especially after a young, slogan-crazed "anarchist" broke the silence by yelling N.W.A.'s famous song title, 'Fuck the Police!' Not a good move. Green Day attempted to thwart the decision by playing one more song even though the sound system had been turned off. Chants of 'Hey, ho! Let's go!' and 'Bullshit!' from the crowd also proved of no use. The crowd's civil disobedience was short lived and the crowd dispersed in an orderly fashion, without any refund. At least the band and club owners had a green day. Lehigh Valley band Weston, one of three opening acts, made an impression on the crowd with its onstage silliness. 'Look Ahead Young Pennsylvanians, There's A Future Ahead and It's Yours,' a Weston original about the Keystone State starting a war with Maryland and eventually taking over the United States capital, drew the most smiles I've seen in a punk-rock show in a while. Maybe it had something to do with the description of Pennsylvania looking like a shopping bag turned on its side."
Photos from the Show
Setlist
1. Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover)
