This reviewer was left feeling awfully old at the end of Green Day’s two hour-plus show last night at the ACC. Part of it may have been my less-than-enthused attitude about sticking it out for a show lasting until — gasp — 11:30 p.m. (a time that, in my younger years, qualified as early evening). But for the most part, my aged feeling stemmed from the band’s disconcerting transition from continuously relevant to, well, nostalgia act.
You see, Green Day’s rise coincided with my musical awakening. Dookie was the first album I owned, and they were my first taste of live music (not counting Raffi). And yet, hard as it was to accept, Thursday night had more to do with who they are than who they once were.
Rather than coming off as edgy and unpredictable, Billie Joe Armstrong and co. were decidedly paint-by-numbers, pairing familiar songs with some too-cute intro lines. Before launching into “Holiday,” Armstrong rhetorically asked if the crowd was “ready for a war.” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” even included a hold-the-mic-to-the-crowd participation bit.
The gimmickry, while sometimes fun, also seemed played. I mean, c’mon — T-shirt cannons? There was a day when they would have gotten booed out of Edgefest for that one. The spray hose seemed equally unnecessary, even if the crowd of nearly 14,000 ate (drank?) it up.
Its not that the show was bad, per se. Armstrong’s voice was pitch-perfect crisp (most notably during a rising-to-the-occasion rendition of “St. Jimmy”), quashing any doubts about his capacity to perform post-rehab. His energy did seem to sag at points, but hey, that’s what happens over the course of a marathon 150 minutes. Good thing Tre Cool was game for a few standout guitar riffs.
You could dispute some of the song choices (a cover medley of “Hey Jude,” “Satisfaction” and “Shout” should not occur at the expense of unplayed hits like “Time of Your Life,” “21 Guns” and “Basketcase”), but an entertaining encore that included “American Idiot,” “Jesus of Suburbia” and the show-closing “Brutal Love” at least offered a satisfying ending.
Still, there was an inescapable sense of a set that was too neat, too tidy, too put together. Also absent: any meaningful political or social commentary, a-la their American Idiot period (save for a few generic, pandering references to Canada “having it right”).
Armstrong’s enthusiasm aside (he really did seem happy to be performing again), this show just felt a little hollow. The last time I came away from a live offering with that sense was seeing a practically fossilized America a few months ago in Oakville. I truly hope that’s not what Green Day has become.