99 Revolutions Tour - Tour Identity Crisis and NY Times Dead-On Review

[Riotgrrl_GD]

I know it was out of their control, I'm just saying it was annoying, like I said I would probably actually be mad if they had made any Texas dates in the first place other than SXSW and El Paso

No offense, but, 2 dates wasn't enough for the 1st leg of a world tour? How many states had ZERO?

Some people (most families, in fact) are not OK with F-bombs every 10 seconds. There's nothing wrong with that. As far as Twilight and Angry Birds go, Green Day does not make all the decisions. They have a sea of people and companies around them all trying to push their will onto one group of guys. There are contracts, record labels, etc... And perhaps, just maybe, they like Angry Birds. There is nothing wrong with that either.

Um, excuse me, teenage girls listen to One Direction and Rihanna. That's a far cry from Green Day.

But... really, a good portion of what Green Day has put ou tin the last 10 years caters to teenagers... Just sayin' Give AI another listen.

[musso_kn]

But... really, a good portion of what Green Day has put ou tin the last 10 years caters to teenagers... Just sayin' Give AI another listen.

You see, I don't understand this. Dookie technically 'catered' for teenagers more than American Idiot. It's the ultimate teen album. Who else would have been listening to Green Day in 1994? Even if you don't think the socio political elements of the lyrics on American Idiot are well executed, you have to admit, politics is never aimed at 15 year olds.

The band has a 'young' sound but they've always appealed to the youth. They don't 'cater' for anyone, though.

[brianbags]

Here's what I think it comes down to. How many people at these shows are real fans? Like know all their songs including the new ones. I would say like 25%. So GD has to decide between pleasing the 25% and upsetting the 75% with playing new songs. It's a tough decision. I have a bias because I am a real fan and love all their songs especially the new ones...but I still think you have to please the 75%. Even though they aren't real fans.

[Ryan]

Here's what I think it comes down to. How many people at these shows are real fans? Like know all their songs including the new ones. I would say like 25%. So GD has to decide between pleasing the 25% and upsetting the 75% with playing new songs. It's a tough decision. I have a bias because I am a real fan and love all their songs especially the new ones...but I still think you have to please the 75%. Even though they aren't real fans.

Honestly...I think it is way less than 25% of the people there that know the new songs. It's also tough to designate somebody as a "real" fan. Technically, somebody who loves Green Day whenever they come on the radio, yet hasn't gone out to buy any of their CDs is still a "real" fan because they love the music, they just are at a completely different level than others. I said it before in this thread, but I think about 2-5% of the people at their shows could be considered "die-hard" fans.

[stories and songs]

My friend and I were in the car today and a band she likes came on the radio. Her exact words: "I went to their concert a few years ago! I was kinda bummed though, because they only played new stuff and didn't play the music that got me into them in the first place."

I'm fairly certain this is how most people think. New songs are wonderful and are fun to hear live for the first time, but so many people come for the oldies. SO many people, especially when a band has been around as long as Green Day has. I'll never quite understand the setlist hate when it seems to me that Green Day is doing the absolute best job possible of mixing old and new and trying to please as much of the audience as possible. But I just thought I'd add her comment, because it most definitely related to this whole debate.

[Awesompawsome]

No offense, but, 2 dates wasn't enough for the 1st leg of a world tour? How many states had ZERO?

But... really, a good portion of what Green Day has put ou tin the last 10 years caters to teenagers... Just sayin' Give AI another listen.

I mean Texas is a big state, as you could see I'm only thirteen and I have school right now and I'm in Dallas, the Austin show wouldn't have worked because of how far and inconveiniant it is from Dallas, and El Paso is like a full 12 hours away and it was a club gig that sold out incredibly fast from what I heard, I wish they'd come to north Texas, because their Austin shows are pretty far but El Paso isn't like in the same state, and when you look at it if say Vermont doesn't have a show but NY does and it's near Vermont then great you could go, Texas is such a big state I think a El Paso, Austin, and Dallas is what it would have NEEDED but idk I'm just 13 which isn't enough to say anything from what I hear on GDC

[brianbags]

Honestly...I think it is way less than 25% of the people there that know the new songs. It's also tough to designate somebody as a "real" fan. Technically, somebody who loves Green Day whenever they come on the radio, yet hasn't gone out to buy any of their CDs is still a "real" fan because they love the music, they just are at a completely different level than others. I said it before in this thread, but I think about 2-5% of the people at their shows could be considered "die-hard" fans.

You're right, I shouldn't be defining "real fans" like that. But you got the point. Is a "die hard" someone who knows all their songs, or what?

[Guest]

Even if you don't think the socio political elements of the lyrics on American Idiot are well executed, you have to admit, politics is never aimed at 15 year olds.

Exposing teenagers to politics is actually a major aspect of punk. The Clash, Bad Religion, Sex Pistols, hell even Rise Against all do politics. You ask any 15 year old punk what their favourite bands are, and I'd be shocked if one of those wasn't mentioned.

American Idiot got me interested in politics

[justcause]

This is beautiful - it made me tear up! I feel the same way. What they are doing right now is nothing short of amazing and very, very brave. I have such an overwhelming pride in being a Green Day fan, more now than ever.

Thank you, and I wanna say that I've appreciated all of your heartfelt, thoughtful posts in this thread.

[Iain]

I still don't care about the setlist; I'm going to sick of the criticism. I don't have anything against a point of view, but this is arbitrary in my opinion. I went to a great show, the setlist was great and there were a few unexpected numbers in there, I liked it! I paid, I saw, I loved. And that's all that matters to me, I had the fortune to see it when a lot of others don't, and I'm really grateful for that.

What I'm not grateful for though, was for the cuntwash of a crowd that night. But we'll get to that later.

[GDInsaniac]

The thing that bugs me the most is the structure of the setlist. I know how they are formatting it, and its very predictable. We all know that the most recent album will have a song played first and Know Your Enemy will be played at the beginning. We know that King for a Day will be played towards the end when all the costumes come out, then minority as a closer to the set. Then all the old stuff put in between. Then the first encore AI and JOS. That structure has been around for a while now, and i think its time they rearrange songs in the setlist. Do something unexpected. I saw them in providence, and i didnt look at a single setlist for any shows for the trilogy before the show hoping to be surprised with what they play. however, i was able to predict alot of the show. But Its still green day so i cant be mad what they play, i guess i just wish that the setlist was more varied and different for each night. fresh, and unpredictable.

[Awesompawsome]

(last night whenever I told brutal kid he sounded like a thirteen year old it was only because he kept bringing up naive teenagers, not because thirteen year olds are bad lol )

Yaaaaaay : :)

[musso_kn]

Exposing teenagers to politics is actually a major aspect of punk. The Clash, Bad Religion, Sex Pistols, hell even Rise Against all do politics. You ask any 15 year old punk what their favourite bands are, and I'd be shocked if one of those wasn't mentioned.

American Idiot got me interested in politics

Sure, teenagers can be and get interested in politics. But it's an 'adult' topic and I just don't understand how anyone can say American Idiot, although it lyrically steers off the political track and starts talking about novocaine and death, can be said to 'cater' for teenagers when Dookie opened with the lyrics "I declare I don't care no more..."

What I'm not grateful for though, was for the cuntwash of a crowd that night. But we'll get to that later.

Please enlighten us.

[porksoda]

Here's what I think it comes down to. How many people at these shows are real fans? Like know all their songs including the new ones. I would say like 25%. So GD has to decide between pleasing the 25% and upsetting the 75% with playing new songs. It's a tough decision. I have a bias because I am a real fan and love all their songs especially the new ones...but I still think you have to please the 75%. Even though they aren't real fans.

While that's definitely a valid point, there are two things to consider. First, the whole point of this Trilogy was Green Day saying, "Fuck it!" and doing what they wanted. Cuatro shows a clip of Billie saying, "Fuck the past! Think about the future!" They went in and bragged about this idea of doing it whether anybody liked it or not, and now they're failing to deliver on that promise. This "75%" you speak of probably only know the hits, but that also means that they probably don't know songs like "King For A Day" or "Disappearing Boy" or "Letterbomb" either. They may be big for some of us, but I'm thinking in terms of casual fans like you mentioned, and my friends who only know Green Day from the radio wouldn't know those songs. They could easily drop them in favor of a few new songs. I mean, their set list now is almost identical to the one they've been using for the past 4 years, save the few Trilogy club shows. I was at the Fox Theater show in Pomona, which was definitely a more intimate setting than an arena, and definitely had more die-hard fans in it, and they barely deviated from their 21st CB set list.

Secondly, when a band puts out a new album, they go out and promote it. I've seen tons of bands tour for their new albums, and they play a decent mix of their new stuff and their hits. They have to, it's how you promote new records. Green Day seem to be ignoring the Trilogy, and I doubt this is how it is, but it's almost like they don't want to talk about it right now. This leg of the tour seems like a warm up, and it feels like they're on autopilot, kind of what the article mentioned. And at the risk of sounding redundant, I think we'd all be less disappointed if the set lists didn't look like the set list from Awesome As Fuck, even if they didn't play a bunch of new stuff.

Also, I know there's a lot to consider regarding Billie's state and rehab, but I was just simply responding to the quoted statement.

[The Green One]

I really don't get the hate for the setlists lately. I agree that we are hearing too little new songs, but I don't think they should play more than, say, 8 trilogy songs. You could, however, play different trilogy songs in the same slot.

I'd do it this way regarding the songs (this is not the order in which they are played):

1. Oh Love - No rotation on this one in my opinion. Being the lead single of Uno (and most likely the most well known song of the trilogy), I think it deserves a permanent slot.

2. Stay The Night/ Let Yourself Go/ Other Uno song - Stay The Night is a fun listen, but it doesn't have to be in the setlist permanently. I'd say rotate it with Let Yourself Go (which gets the crowd going wther you know the song or not), and put another Uno song in this spot once in a while for surprise (and letting us have some more live tracks of Uno).

3. Stray Heart/ Fuck Time - Both of these have the same feel to them and although I think Stray Heart will get a bigger crowd reaction, Fuck Time will get people invested as well.

4. Another Dos track (SWTRLF, Makeout Party, Lady Cobra, Wow! That's Loud) - Just to get another oen of Dos here, because the album is too good to only have one song on the setlist IMO.

5. X-Kid/ Other Tre track - X-Kid is a pretty good choice to play live, but you could switch it with another Tre song every once in a while. The song does really deserve it's place in the setlist though.

6. 99 Revolutions - In my opinion, this song could be rotated with some other trilogy tracks, but since the tour is called 99 Revolutions, it's not realistic to expect them to rotate it.

7. Brutal Love - Great song, great closer, should absolutely be a permanent song.

(8. Acoustic trilogy song (Amy, Drama Queen) - This should only be done if they bring back the acoustic encore. If they do, a trilogy song before Good Riddance would be nice.)

I'd also like to add Dirty Rotten Bastards to the list, but at the moment, it doesn't really fit in the setlist. They could rotate JoS, Dirty Rotten Bastards and Homecoming though.

[Guest]

Sure, teenagers can be and get interested in politics. But it's an 'adult' topic and I just don't understand how anyone can say American Idiot, although it lyrically steers off the political track and starts talking about novocaine and death, can be said to 'cater' for teenagers when Dookie opened with the lyrics "I declare I don't care no more..."

In my opinion, there aren't many Green Day songs that a teenager wouldn't identify with

[musso_kn]

In my opinion, there aren't many Green Day songs that a teenager wouldn't identify with

Which I sorta agree with. But what I was saying my original post was that they've always been that way, they've never catered for anyone, but if they have changed then it's only to a more mature style (ok, not the trilogy, but you know what I mean.

[scottrowan200]

Imagine if they do fuck time and all crowd does grab and pull and stuff and they could extend it and replace king for a day

[michael1989]

It's more the fans' fault than Green Day's. Obviously the band want to play a concert that the majority of people can enjoy. If people aren't getting into the new stuff, then they're not going to saturate the concert with that.

Having said that, if I buy a ticket to a concert I make sure I listen to most if not all of the bands albums before I go ESPECIALLY the latest album they've put out. I don't know why people would go to a concert without listening to a band's new material.

[brianbags]

While that's definitely a valid point, there are two things to consider. First, the whole point of this Trilogy was Green Day saying, "Fuck it!" and doing what they wanted. Cuatro shows a clip of Billie saying, "Fuck the past! Think about the future!" They went in and bragged about this idea of doing it whether anybody liked it or not, and now they're failing to deliver on that promise. This "75%" you speak of probably only know the hits, but that also means that they probably don't know songs like "King For A Day" or "Disappearing Boy" or "Letterbomb" either. They may be big for some of us, but I'm thinking in terms of casual fans like you mentioned, and my friends who only know Green Day from the radio wouldn't know those songs. They could easily drop them in favor of a few new songs. I mean, their set list now is almost identical to the one they've been using for the past 4 years, save the few Trilogy club shows. I was at the Fox Theater show in Pomona, which was definitely a more intimate setting than an arena, and definitely had more die-hard fans in it, and they barely deviated from their 21st CB set list.

Secondly, when a band puts out a new album, they go out and promote it. I've seen tons of bands tour for their new albums, and they play a decent mix of their new stuff and their hits. They have to, it's how you promote new records. Green Day seem to be ignoring the Trilogy, and I doubt this is how it is, but it's almost like they don't want to talk about it right now. This leg of the tour seems like a warm up, and it feels like they're on autopilot, kind of what the article mentioned. And at the risk of sounding redundant, I think we'd all be less disappointed if the set lists didn't look like the set list from Awesome As Fuck, even if they didn't play a bunch of new stuff.

Also, I know there's a lot to consider regarding Billie's state and rehab, but I was just simply responding to the quoted statement.

Agreed. To clarify, I want them to play new stuff just as much as anyone (I've complained enough about it in the tour threads lol), but I've realized that most of the fans there want to hear the hits. I don't think it would be a good idea to upset the majority.

And I watched Cuatro last night and they are being completely hypocritical about their new stuff. They were so proud of all of it, they said it in so many different ways. But they're not playing it now.

[Ryan]

The thing that bugs me the most is the structure of the setlist. I know how they are formatting it, and its very predictable. We all know that the most recent album will have a song played first and Know Your Enemy will be played at the beginning. We know that King for a Day will be played towards the end when all the costumes come out, then minority as a closer to the set. Then all the old stuff put in between. Then the first encore AI and JOS. That structure has been around for a while now, and i think its time they rearrange songs in the setlist. Do something unexpected. I saw them in providence, and i didnt look at a single setlist for any shows for the trilogy before the show hoping to be surprised with what they play. however, i was able to predict alot of the show. But Its still green day so i cant be mad what they play, i guess i just wish that the setlist was more varied and different for each night. fresh, and unpredictable.

But you have to remember that 95% of the people there probably had no idea what was coming next. That's really what this whole discussion has revolved around...the fact that we, as the die-hard" fans probably account for less than 5% of the audience at their shows. Everybody else doesn't follow every move Green Day makes and, therefore, has no idea what to expect.

This leg of the tour seems like a warm up

Because it is!! Geez man, did you read the Rolling Stone interview with Billie? Remember when he said he's scared out of his fucking mind to take the stage sober and he has no idea how he's gonna do it without having a nervous breakdown? Well this is how he's gonna do it. Until he feels comfortable and confident that he doesn't need his "liquid courage," expect the sets to look like this. They know this set inside and out, therefore there is a lot less pressure on Billie and the band. Once he realizes that the energy of the crowd is enough to keep him going, I fully expect them to open things up a little bit. With what Billie has gone through, the last thing he needs is to load in the Trilogy songs, have the crowd be completely lifeless, and then feel completely insecure and relapse. And yes...it is that easy for it to happen that way.

[CoronerChik]

But you have to remember that 95% of the people there probably had no idea what was coming next. That's really what this whole discussion has revolved around...the fact that we, as the die-hard" fans probably account for less than 5% of the audience at their shows. Everybody else doesn't follow every move Green Day makes and, therefore, has no idea what to expect.

Because it is!! Geez man, did you read the Rolling Stone interview with Billie? Remember when he said he's scared out of his fucking mind to take the stage sober and he has no idea how he's gonna do it without having a nervous breakdown? Well this is how he's gonna do it. Until he feels comfortable and confident that he doesn't need his "liquid courage," expect the sets to look like this. They know this set inside and out, therefore there is a lot less pressure on Billie and the band. Once he realizes that the energy of the crowd is enough to keep him going, I fully expect them to open things up a little bit. With what Billie has gone through, the last thing he needs is to load in the Trilogy songs, have the crowd be completely lifeless, and then feel completely insecure and relapse. And yes...it is that easy for it to happen that way.

You took the words right outta my mouth!

[Riotgrrl_GD]

You see, I don't understand this. Dookie technically 'catered' for teenagers more than American Idiot. It's the ultimate teen album. Who else would have been listening to Green Day in 1994? Even if you don't think the socio political elements of the lyrics on American Idiot are well executed, you have to admit, politics is never aimed at 15 year olds.

The band has a 'young' sound but they've always appealed to the youth. They don't 'cater' for anyone, though.

I think the politics were absolutely aimed at teens/early 20's! Even the videos from AI and the musical star teens/early 20's and revolve around issues from that age range. And... I don't see anything about Warning or Nimrod that's youth centered so, I disagree, but that's ok

[Gwen Stacy]

Geez man, did you read the Rolling Stone interview with Billie? Remember when he said he's scared out of his fucking mind to take the stage sober and he has no idea how he's gonna do it without having a nervous breakdown? Well this is how he's gonna do it. Until he feels comfortable and confident that he doesn't need his "liquid courage," expect the sets to look like this. They know this set inside and out, therefore there is a lot less pressure on Billie and the band. Once he realizes that the energy of the crowd is enough to keep him going, I fully expect them to open things up a little bit.

Exactly. We just need to wait for Billie to be a little more comfortable on stage again and for the crowds to get used to the trilogy songs. No need for us to get into a hissy fit just yet

[musso_kn]

I think the politics were absolutely aimed at teens/early 20's! Even the videos from AI and the musical star teens/early 20's and revolve around issues from that age range. And... I don't see anything about Warning or Nimrod that's youth centered so, I disagree, but that's ok:)

As if songs like Minority don't 'cater' for teenagers. It's anthem felt most strongly during youth surely? But whatever., I guess we should just disagree.