Green Day in
Petaluma, CA
Show Details
Location:
Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, USA
Date:
January 2, 1991
Notes:
Incomplete setlist
John Kiffmeyer played drums
Jon: "BAD RELIGION at the Phoenix Theater, Petaluma CA. Against the Grain tour, Green Day opened."
Flipside #71: "Bad Religion, that 'heavy metal band' from LA that causes riots played at the Phoenix Theater with Green Day and Chronic Decay on the, I think, 2nd of Jan. ...I saw Green Day play to some 400 responsive folks..."
Venster: "Yes, I can confirm that Green Day opened for Bad Religion at the Phoenix Theater, because I am the guy who produced the show with my friend 'Big W'. I was the one that asked Billie if he would like to play a show with Bad Religion, and he was really excited that I asked him. I knew Jay [Bentley] (the bass player of Bad Religion) from when I was working in Los Angeles and got him to ask the band if they would play a show for me at the Phoenix. The show was a birthday party for my friend's then-girlfriend and it was freaking awesome! And, no, I do not remember anyone really booing any of the bands. If anyone got boo'd, it would have been Green Day because they were not considered 'punk enuf' by most of the scene."
Billie Joe Armstrong: "But then we started playing with Tre, and John would come down from Humboldt and sort of steal the gig away. Like there was this big gig with Bad Religion - we were opening for them at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma - and John comes down and suddenly takes the gig away from Tre. And I was like, wait a minute, Tre has been working with us for months, and you come down to play this one gig. That doesn't seem fair to Tre, who by then was becoming a good friend of ours."
Michael Saunders: "Green Day always stopped playing and ranked on boneheads... This time, Kiffmeyer came down off the drum riser like the alpha dog and got the crowd to chant the fools right out of the theater, 'Losers go home!' Awesome."
Mike Dirnt: "It was awkward. I remember the drama backstage. We had really gelled with Tre at that point. Tre was our guy. We not only blended with him as a friend and hit it off on all sorts of levels, but we were just really starting to make strides playing a lot of shows with him. And our drummer came back down and was like, 'This is my band! I want to play the show!' And it was really tough. It was a big show for us. So being the mediator that I've always been, I ended up calling the deal and saying, 'OK, fine. John, you can play the show. But Tre gets all your cash.' Neither one of them was happy."
Photos from the Show
Setlist
