My Friend Opened for Green Day at the Brass Mug (January 29, 1993)

[Waste]

My friend opened for Green Day at the brass mug, his band was called "Dogs on Ice". I recently heard how he opened for them so I called him, he said once they finished, he later heard them play 2,000 Light Years Away.

"...After that, they played the Brass Mug and there were way too many people there for the Mug."

"...The place was packed beyond belief. That night, the crowd helped the Brass Mug with a little remodeling by tearing down a good portion of the ceiling tiles."

"1993: Green Day plays the Brass Mug in Tampa. Tampa singer Joe Popp and his punky trio opens the show. The tiny bar, which normally books local bands, is packed with fans standing on pool tables."

tomorrowbandfla: "There were so many people there that we pushed Billie Joe and Mikes cabinets flat against the back wall. They basically played on either side of the drum kit with the crowd 6 inches from them packed like sardines - front to back of the entire bar."

Kim Dicce: "The drop ceiling was completely demolished from the pit. And of course Carl the owner ... at that time almost had a heart attack when he saw it. But he was so greedy we were sold out and these desperate parents were coming that afternoon trying to buy tickets and he’s like 'Sell more tickets sell more tickets'. We are so lucky that nobody died that night! ... But yes Green Day were pretty much just getting big at that time. So anything after that was kind of a different experience."

Joe Popp: "Life can be full of coincidences. Circa 1993 I was playing in a punk trio called Dogs On Ice in Tampa, Florida. We had some minor local success and even signed to a small label out of San Francisco run by Jello Biafra's graphic artist [Winston Smith]. We were doing as good as any local band could hope to do, but thought that maybe we would get a big break after learning we were going to open for our punk idols - Green Day. The show was scheduled at a scrappy hole in the wall called The Brass Mug - sort of the CBGB's of Tampa. I remember the evening vividly. Green Day had not been signed by Reprise yet, but were doing great on Lookout Records. As we pulled into the club in our oxidized blue Ford Econoline, a rougher, more road worn van pulled into a space close to ours. It was them - yes, Green Day, all the way from the notorious punk rock mecca - 924 Gilman Street. The band we listened to constantly and read so much about in the pages of our bible, the 'zine Maximum Rocknroll. We greeted them, and they seemed bigger than life. Tre Cool asked if any 5-0's were rolling because he had to "take care of some business", and Mike Dirnt asked our bass player for a string, which he provided. The Mug was filled beyond legal capacity that night - at least 400 in a place that regularly drew 40. We took the stage with anticipation and rocked a pretty good set to the enthusiastic crowd. We felt good. Then Green Day took the stage. They transformed the seedy club into a whirling vortex of energy. It didn't matter that the sound was crap or the ceiling was low. They played with such tightness and fervor that I knew great things would come to them. My opinion of my band admittedly dropped drastically when I witnessed a new musical paradigm first hand. Weeks later their Dookie album was released on Reprise. Dookie sold millions of records and proved to be the record that lead them to stardom. My band went the way of most: we broke up."

Edited September 16, 2021 by Waste

[The Grohl]

Wow this is pretty cool! I'd be freaking out if I found out one of my friends opened up for a band like Green Day! Thanks for sharing!

[pacejunkie punk]

Cool story! Dookie came out a year later (not weeks as he remembers it) but this was captured during that window when it became clear they needed a major label to get them into venues that could accommodate their growing audiences (and distribute more records). Their trajectory was headed up, up, up.

[Waste]

1 hour ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Cool story! Dookie came out a year later (not weeks as he remembers it) but this was captured during that window when it became clear they needed a major label to get them into venues that could accommodate their growing audiences (and distribute more records). Their trajectory was headed up, up, up.

Yeah I saw on GDA that when Green Day was gaining popularity my friend's band lost all popularity and broke up, lol.

[pacejunkie punk]

54 minutes ago, Waste said:

Yeah I saw on GDA that when Green Day was gaining popularity my friend's band lost all popularity and broke up, lol.

It’s funny when you think about it, because you always hear stories of how many people were inspired to start bands because of Green Day, you don’t hear as many stories from the people that heard them and said Welp, and packed it in 😄 I wonder what the ratio is of bands that quit versus bands that started.

[Waste]

1 hour ago, pacejunkie punk said:

It’s funny when you think about it, because you always hear stories of how many people were inspired to start bands because of Green Day, you don’t hear as many stories from the people that heard them and said Welp, and packed it in 😄 I wonder what the ratio is of bands that quit versus bands that started.

lol yeah

Edited September 16, 2021 by Waste
Typo

[Waste]

8 hours ago, The Grohl said:

Wow this is pretty cool! I'd be freaking out if I found out one of my friends opened up for a band like Green Day! Thanks for sharing!

No problem! I saw that you are a GDA staff member, if you want to they played 2,000 light years away for an incomplete Setlist!

[amberwhite]

Wow! I remember Dogs on Ice!  I have them on a cassette somewhere. I loved "Malajusted ".

[Waste]

18 hours ago, amberwhite said:

Wow! I remember Dogs on Ice!  I have them on a cassette somewhere. I loved "Malajusted ".

That's so cool!