CONCERT REVIEW: Green Day Wow’d the Crowd at CenturyLink Center Omaha

August 13, 2017 Robert Chadwick Concert Reviews Comments Off

REVIEW BY DAVID TAYLOR AND PHOTOS BY ROBERT A CHADWICK | Go Venue Magazine

It has been eight years since Green Day has played in Omaha (2009). They have always loved the heartland and on Saturday, August 12, 2017, they marked their return to the CenturyLink Center with a bombastic show that made everyone had a great time.

Catfish and the Bottlemen from Wales, UK opened up the show. They had a very energetic live performance. They opened up with “Cocoon”, a very upbeat, catchy song. They had this coffee house, indie rock, pop rock sound to them. Lead singer/guitarist Van McCann had a very energetic stage presence, running all over the stage and lifting his guitar quite a few times. There were a good chunk of the crowd that knew their music, which is good for an opening band. They finished their set with “Tyrants”, which really showcased Bondy Bond’s lead guitar playing, that made me thoroughly impressed. The crowd seemed to enjoy them. Very different sound than Green Day, but they turned out to be a good opener.

Finally, it was the return of Green Day. They kicked off their almost 2 and a half hour set with a bang, performing “Know Your Enemy”, even pulling someone out of the crowd to help sing the bridge of the song and then went stage diving into the crowd. Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer/guitarist, is one of the greatest frontmen of all time, so much energy onstage and so humble, preaching about we should all be equal and still have a good time. He really loves crowd participation, as well, asking the crowd many times to repeat his “hey-hos”. Currently, on tour in support of their latest album that came out in October of last year, Revolution Radio, the new material they played went well with the older material, the same grittiness as their earlier albums. Mike Dirnt, bassist, plucked the strings with aggression and ferocity. Drummer Tré Cool is completely underrated, killing it on every drum fill, so glad he has a mini solo in “Bang Bang”. They brought out more people to help out on some songs including a girl to help sing “Longview”, a guy to play guitar on “Welcome to Paradise” and on their cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge”, they invited a 10-year-old kid to play guitar, claiming he’s been learning guitar for two years, but unfortunately wasn’t good enough to play three chords, so they invited someone else to play guitar, but the kid remained on stage and at the end, got to take home the guitar, which was really awesome for him. One of my favorite parts of their set was when they perform “King for a Day”, in which they tend to dress up and goof around onstage, with a saxophone solo from Jason Freese, including the opening to George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”, then right after that, go straight into a melody of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and ending with a sing-along of “Hey Jude”. They performed two encores, one with the full band, performing “American Idiot” and “Jesus of Suburbia”, and the other with just Billie Joe and an acoustic guitar, performing what I think are two of their most popular songs, “21 Guns” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. What a fun show that Green Day put on. So much pyro and fire, from both the production and the band. The energy in that arena was through the roof. I am very glad that Green Day came back and put on one of the best shows I’ve seen.