Photos by Randall Vasquez
What the world needs now is love, compassion and understanding. Or a good dose of Green Day on their Revolution Radio tour. The iconic ‘90s band came to Toronto’s Budweiser Stage with a show that served as a needed, temporary antidote to the current stream of news.
Before Green Day, Welsh band Catfish and the Bottlemen played a short, 5 song set to warm up the crowd. They played with purpose and rocked out, but offered little in the way of the stage banter that would have given their show some added dimension.
With its punk roots and style, Green Day embraces the right to be completely over the top. They have mastered the art of spectacle and community, fusing them together to create a uniquely Green Day experience. The show started with the lights dimming part way and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody flooding the amphitheatre. A genius move, because everyone knows the words and no one can resist singing it… there’s nothing like a sing along to bring people together! From there the inebriated pink bunny came to the stage and danced to Blitzkrieg Bop – a shtick that fans adore. Then, to the strains of the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Green Day showed their faces. The build-up was epic.
The band kicked off the night with Know Your Enemy and, right out of the gate, called a fan up on stage, enforcing the notion that this would be a show with a lot of audience participation. The next two songs, Bang Bang and Revolution Radio, were off the latest album and the lightening and pyrotechnics were designed to impress. But it was four songs in, with Holiday, that lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong made the first of many socio-political statements. Asking the lights to be turned off, Armstrong wielded a spotlight and summoned the crown to yell, “No racism!”, “No sexism!”, “No homophobia!” followed by a “Fuck Donald Trump!” Later in the night, Armstrong proclaimed that the evening was about love, equality, compassion and unity and that they left the BS at the border. The sentiment was well-received.
The three core members of Green Day, Armstrong, along with guitarist, Mike Dirnt and drummer, Tré Cool, have balanced their mammoth success with their punk-rock hearts. They can preach love (which feels like a very anti-establishment stance these days) while rockin’ with unbound energy. They packed the show with a stream of hit songs, drawing from all parts of their career. There were early songs like 2000 Light Years Away and mega hits like Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Welcome to Paradise and When I Come Around. It was a celebration of music and life, peppered with nuggets of hope – like when Armstrong declared that “everyone deserves dignity, tender love and good health care” or when he announced “Canada, you are the leaders of the free world.” There were heartwarming moments too – like when Armstrong called for a guitarist to come up and play. He pulled up a 9 year old boy, who may well have known the three required chords, but was overwhelmed enough that he needed a quick lesson. As the lad tried to hand back the guitar after rocking the stage, Armstrong melted thousands of hearts when he looked at the kid and told him that the instrument was his to keep.
Green Day graced the crowd with two encores filling fans’ plates to overflowing. The crazy, beautiful, fun night drew to an end with the anthemic American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia. The icing on the cake? Armstrong came to the stage by himself, acoustic guitar in hand. He played 21 Guns and Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) acoustically; letting the audience raise its collective voice, in community and in thanks. Dirnt and Tré Cool joined him for a final bow. The night’s exuberance filled hearts with joy and hope, showing us the best of what music can do to make the world a better place. Who doesn’t want that?
