Location:
Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, USA
Date:
November 13, 1995
Notes:
Incomplete setlist
Inquirer: "At the Civic Center on Tuesday, the Bay Area band played for barely more than an hour. Did any of the preschool to high school kids, bounding about like overdosed chocoholics, feel gypped? No way! 65 minutes? That's twice as long as the 14 bursts of three-chord, manic tunefulness on Insomniac, Green Day's faster, harder, maybe even better follow-up to last year's 10 million- selling Dookie. (And for the parents in attendance, well, the show was over by 10 p.m., leaving plenty of time to tuck the precocious punkers in.) Like any act that bursts from an insular scene into the mass marketplace, Green Day has incurred the wrath of more-miserable-than-thou purists. Well, let them eat Dookie! As was abundantly apparent at the Civic Center, Green Day's chief crime is this: It puts the fun back in rock and roll. Though Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool aren't exactly a bunch of Pollyannas. 'I must insist on being a pessimist,' sang Billie Joe, his brown hair splotched with magenta, in the opening Armatage Shanks. (Cool did green-haired duties for the evening.) And the prototypical Armstrong lyric is the self-mocking query from Basket Case: 'Do you have the time to listen to me whine?' But while Insomniac reflects a real world closing in, Green Day strikes back with an irresistibly melodic, hyperspeed attack that's the antithesis of sludgy grunge. And on Tuesday, its locked-in, powerhouse rhythm section wasn't to be denied. Billie Joe led the crowd in mock arena-rock celebrations, pumped his hips a la Michael Jackson, and had everybody flipping the bird to the world. And for an encore, he switched instruments with Cool; he banged the skins as the drummer sang Dominated Love Slave, punctuated with a smashed guitar. The only snag was the overzealous security. No knapsacks, binoculars or umbrellas (on a nasty night) were allowed in, apparently at the band's request. It cost $1 to have items checked, and a huge logjam at the end of the night was the result."
Courant: "Inside the Springfield Civic Center Monday night, oblivious to the season's first snow outside, Green Day hit the stage running, tearing through its speedy songs at an even speedier-than-usual pace. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, when he wasn't riffing relentlessly on his powder blue guitar and shouting into the microphone, shaking his head like a film off its sprockets, was leaping into the air. Bassist Mike Dirnt, keeping the same breakneck pace, kicked backward at the same time, occasionally doubling over or exploding into flying kicks. Drummer Tre Cool was a bit more anchored to his drum set, yet his arms flailed the underpinning beat. The difference between this fall's Green Day appearance and last fall's is that they have another hit album and twice as many familiar tunes for the young crowd, which twitched and rippled in delight en masse when they came up. Armitage Shanks and Brat opened the set, just as they open the new album, Insomniac. Four songs in was the current single, Geek Stink Breath, whose lurid tooth-extraction video is currently grossing out viewers ('At least we hope so,' said Dirnt). And sprinkled throughout were the hits from their 8-million selling breakthrough, Dookie. Welcome to Paradise was the first of them, by way of introduction. Later came Longview in the same segue from Chump that occurs on the album; Basket Case followed by She; and in an encore that began with drummer Cool on guitar doing a messed-up country song, the finale, When I Come Around, whose loping beat is just about the slowest thing the band does. It was a set that lasted less than an hour, but it was a model of concentration. They still played nearly 20 songs. Things got craziest during one of their oldest songs, 2,000 Light Years Away, during which Armstrong donned a mask and quoted The Crazy World of Arthur Brown before imploring the crowd to 'lead a nice, clean, straight life and start listening to Hootie & The Blowfish.' Not a chance. Local malls have nothing on Green Day; Armstrong's crimson-dyed hair and Cool's bright green seemed to anticipate the Christmas season. The band's intensity and focus seems sharpened by nightly performances and a new inspiration - families back home. And it comes in sharp relief on the comparatively simple stage set - so small it was tough to see all three members from around the huge banks of speakers flanking it. Unless you were right up front, of course. And those up there, in the first all- general admission arena show in the region in years, were too busy moshing (or protecting themselves from moshing) to take much note. Green Day's punk ethos includes not only spartan staging, but bringing along favorite bands from their old record label, Lookout, to open. This year, it's the Riverdales, a trio who have taken up the Ramones' traditions, down to the countdowns, before that classic punk band even retires."
