Location: Ljubljana / Arena Stožice / Slovenia
Date: Tuesday, 06.06.2017
The American giants Green Day last set foot on Slovenian soil way back in February 1998, and first two years earlier, when the mega-successful Dookie had them at the peak of their fame (up to that point). Later albums never matched the success Dookie set in motion, but they stayed relevant to their fans anyway, right up until 2004’s American Idiot shot them into the global-phenomenon stratosphere. With that socially critical record, an allegory of Bush’s America, they broke record after record, took the number one spot on the Billboard chart, won a Grammy for Best Rock Album and played their longest tour up to then. American Idiot soon came to life as a Broadway musical too, and last year Green Day dropped their current studio album Revolution Radio, which they’re presenting on this tour. With all that success, the true spirit of punk (let’s save the debate over whether Green Day ever really had it for another time) honestly fades away completely, but it’s still clear that in the age of Donald Trump’s USA, Green Day are once again as topical and relevant as they were in the American Idiot days.
Die-hard punks, thanks to their much smaller commercial footprint, were therefore better served by California’s Rancid than by Green Day, and Rancid ran onto the stage right on the announced time. The cult band, who reminded the mainstream in the early nineties that something called punk still exists, played here for the very first time in their quarter-century career and won people over with their pretty raw-sounding punk. Rancid tugged at the nostalgic heartstrings above all with a setlist made up mostly of tracks from the cult … And Out Come the Wolves, a loud and punchy sound and just the right amount of grime, which, next to the polish of present-day Green Day, was real manna for the ears. Under the lead of the energetic Tim Armstrong, Rancid colored the first half of their set with die-hard punk tracks, interrupted by the new Ghost of Chance (from the new album Trouble Maker, out tomorrow on Epitaph), while the second half, once a keyboardist joined the guys on stage, came across as much more ska-flavored. After a good forty minutes Rancid said goodbye with their biggest hit, Ruby Soho, having warmed up the Ljubljana crowd just enough for the stars of the night.
While waiting for both bands, it was great to hear genre-appropriate warm-up music (Bad Religion, NOFX), and the nicely packed hall exploded with excitement when the eternal Bohemian Rhapsody boomed out of the speakers, announcing the start of Green Day’s set. But before Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool climbed on stage, a bouncing pink bunny entertained and delighted the crowd during the Ramones anthem Blitzkrieg Bop, and the long-awaited trio ran out to the sounds of Morricone’s Ecstasy of Gold. The crowd’s frenzied excitement almost blew the roof off the hall, and Green Day greeted Ljubljana with the anthemic Know Your Enemy from the current album. Billie Joe won the hall over in the first seconds of the show and didn’t let it out of his claws until the very end, with calls against homophobia, racism and, of course, The Donald, too. The charismatic, in-great-spirits frontman pulled a fan onto the stage within the first few minutes, sang a few lines with them, and then watched them stage dive off the stage. The energy in the hall stayed high the whole time, and the fever pitch was raised even further by pyro and fire elements that only amped up the show and the explosiveness of what was happening on stage (and below it). The view of the amazing atmosphere in the hall from the red stand was, at moments, truly goosebump-inducing! Thanks above all to the wild Armstrong, these youthful forty-somethings won over even those of us who only came to the show out of nostalgia. The ringleader won Stožice over with plenty of thank-yous in Slovenian, by draping himself in the Slovenian flag, by firing free T-shirts out of a t-shirt gun, and most of all with the sweet moment when he invited a girl from the crowd up on stage and hung a guitar around her neck for a few chords, which she then got to take home. Green Day broke up the opening string of newer tracks with the ancient 2000 Light Years Away from the album Kerplunk, and then had no trouble pushing the temperature higher with hits like When I Come Around, Minority, Basket Case, She and King For a Day, plus a medley of classics, Shout/Satisfaction/Always Look on the Bright Side of Life/Hey Jude, during which half the band rolled around the stage. Green Day wrapped up the first part of the show with Forever Now, and in the encore they almost literally exploded with American Idiot, which the crowd helped Armstrong sing with special zeal. They also surprised with the ballad-like Jesus of Suburbia, and in the final encore only Armstrong said goodbye to the crowd, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. First he served up Ordinary World from the current album, and then, for the very end, an expected but gorgeous rendition of the evergreen classic from Nimrod, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).
The vast majority of people in the hall truly had “the time of their lives” for those two hours, and Green Day probably won over the skeptics too. Punk, not punk, who cares: with their energy and positivity, Green Day proved they’re one of the better live bands around right now.
author: Rok Klemše
photos: Nina Grad
RANCID:
1. Radio
2. Roots Radical
3. Maxwell Murder
4. Ghost of a Chance
5. Telegraph Avenue
6. East Bay Night
7. Olympia WA.
8. Nihilism
9. Time Bomb
10. Ruby Soho
GREEN DAY:
1. Know Your Enemy
2. Bang Bang
3. Revolution Radio
4. Holiday
5. Letterbomb
6. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
7. Longview
8. Youngblood
9. 2000 Light Years Away
10. Hitchin’ a Ride
11. When I Come Around
12. Minority
13. Are We the Waiting
14. St. Jimmy
15. Knowledge
16. Basket Case
17. She
18. King For a Day
19. Shout Medley
20. Still Breathing
21. Forever Now
— encore 1 —
22. American Idiot
23. Jesus of Suburbia
— encore 2 —
24. Ordinary World
25. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
