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diversions
Green
Day saves concert from 'Disaster'
By Chris Lew
On-line Forty-Niner
The "Pop Disaster
Tour" was not so much a rock concert Sunday at Verizon
Wireless Amphitheater as it was a punk rock Mardi Gras.
An utterly insipid performance by Blink 182 nearly helped
the tour live up to its name but was not enough to taint a
wildly energetic set from Green Day.
Blaring sirens and flashing red lights announced Green Day's
entrance as the band kicked into "Welcome to Paradise."
It did not take long for lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong
to spice things up, insisting that the ushers let 100 more
fans into the pit before starting the second song.
"Hey man in the yellow jacket let them down here! I'll
talk full responsibility," Armstrong insisted. "This
is a f***ing punk rock show not a f***ing tea party. I need
f***ing bodies in front of me."
Between Armstrong hosing down the pit with a water gun, a
saxophone-playing Easter bunny, a horn-playing duo dressed
first as a mariachi band, later as a chicken and a bumble
bee, and canons blasting confetti into the crowd, it was a
full-fledged rock 'n' roll circus (not to be confused with
the worthless KISS album by the same name).
Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt ran all over stage and climbed
speaker stacks like exuberant kids given full-reign over an
amusement park, never letting the energy drop for too long.
A second guitar player and said horn section helped out on
a few songs, as the band plowed through 15 songs, including
1991's "2,000 Light Years Away" to 2001's "Waiting."
Where Green Day's antics accentuated a stellar musical performance,
Blink 182's antics were all they had going.
They tried to upstage Green Day with more pyros, more flashing
lights and more offensive between-song banter, but failed
in the end.
Blink's sophomoric ramblings about everything from having
sex with their grandfather, with pigs, and with everyone's
moms and about women excreting feces on their chest seemed
forced, as if simply playing into their stereotype of being
the foulest act in music.
When the band wasn't making fools of themselves with their
tired pre-pubescent humor, they were making fools of themselves
musically.
Tom Delonge's voice was God-awful, especially during the band's
signature song "All the Small Things." Mark Hoppus'
one-note delivery was slightly more tolerable.
The sole highlight came during "Reckless Abandon"
when drummer Travis Barker and his drums were lifted high
above the stage mid-song by cables attached to the drum riser.
The platform tumbled a full 360 degrees forward twice and
backward once while Barker, who was strapped in, pounded out
a minute-long drum solo very much in the vein of Tommy Lee,
who pulled the same stunt as drummer of Motley Crue in the
mid-'80s.
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