David Medsker reviews some of the Lollapalooza headliners at ESDMusic.com, including Green Day.
Green Day, Saturday, Parkways Foundation Stage
We spent most of the day on the north side, but after seeing the gigantic crowd that had gathered for Lady Gaga the day before, we decided to pass on Spoon in order to guarantee us a good spot for Green Day’s set. Imagine our surprise, then, when we hit the softball fields about an hour before they were set to go on stage…and the crowd that had gathered was a fraction, as in a fifth of the size, waiting for Gaga at this time the night before. Wow. Did not expect that at all.
We settled on a spot in the grass to the left of the stage, just in front of the mixing board. About 15 minutes before the band took the stage – and while Slightly Stoopid was still playing on the adidas stage – the sound system started playing assorted disco songs, and someone in a rabbit costume came out with a beer bottle, pretending to be drunk and climbing all over the stage. They even led the crowd into doing the biggest collective “YMCA” in history. Is this really Lollapalooza? The Village People and “YMCA” dancing? Odd.
Still, the greater issue for us was that Green Day was stepping on the toes of what was technically their opening act. We thought they’d be more considerate than that.
Chicago music critic Jim DeRogatis probably trashed Green Day’s performance at Lolla. (We’d look it up, but frankly, we can’t be bothered.) He’s fond of saying that punk should only be played in clubs and dive bars, not in arenas, though it should be noted that DeRogatis is a member of a punk band himself, and the press release that came with their last album was the most pretentious bunch of horseshit we’ve read in years. Anyway, we can see what he had a problem with in Green Day’s set, namely the classic rock break where the band played snippets of “Iron Man,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Sweet Child ‘o Mine,” and “Highway to Hell.”
Personally, we thought it was awesome.
We’re sorry we missed it. In case you missed it, you can satisfy your Green Day fix a little by checking out this list of Green Day Deep Cuts.
Get ticket information and tour dates at the Green Day website.
