Maybe if it was 2001 I might be excited about Green Day debuting some new songs, but after the atrocity that was 21st Century Breakdown I’m not really that bothered. A couple of years ago me and my old band and some of A Loss For Words who were in the van at the time listened to the entire Green Day discography on a 7 hour drive from Stoke to Aberdeen. Man, 21st Century Breakdown was so long and so terrible. I think that was the only time I managed to get all the way through it and I needed the support of 8 other people to do it. It was like a chinese water torture or something.
Green Day probably used to be my favourite band, but – much the same with new Blink 182 songs – when new Green Day songs come out I’m not really that assed about them as they’re inevitably too polished and boring when compared to when Green Day used to write cool songs about doing speed and having $ex with girls with peculiar names when they were still in their 20’s and not pushing their 40’s. Sure, the new Green Day songs will probably sell a bunch of records and make Green Day and Warner Brothers even richer but I’m guessing I’m not gonna be that into them.
Even so, when I heard that Green Day had played 15 new songs randomly at a last minute, fan club members only show in California I was still interested, I’m not gonna lie. It’s a pretty cool way to debut new songs I guess. Apparently they played a show at this cool sounding venue called the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa California last week and played all these new songs. The Tiki Bar probably sounds cooler than the fact Green Day played some new songs there though – I went on their website and their burgers sound really good. There isn’t much else on their website though, I was hoping for some pictures but all there is really is this picture of a mask:
Anyway, back to the new Green Day songs. There are a couple of versions hanging around Youtube but they’re fairly crappy quality and you can’t really tell what they sound like and if they’re gonna be good or not. I’ve included the most famous one below. It’s called Amy and is apparently a tribute to Amy Winehouse. Geez, that’s topical:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRiI6qpug4w
Green Day also released the names of the new songs, which doesn’t really accomplish anything I don’t think? I never really understood why when a band released a new record and there was a lot of hype about it, you would read press releases saying stuff along the lines of ‘Green Day release new song names. Confirmed song names on the new Green Day album are ‘Wild One,’ ‘Oh Love’ and ‘Nuclear Family.’ Like what does knowing the name of a song do for anyone? It doesn’t really shed any light on what the song is gonna sound like or even really what the lyrical content is gonna be like. Anyway, if you’re one of those people that gets excited by new song names then here’s the setlist from the show:
‘Nuclear Family’
‘Stay The Night’
‘Too Young To Die’
‘Oh Love’
‘Carpe Diem’
‘Crushing Bastards’
‘Little Boy Named Train’
‘Trouble Maker’
‘Sweet 16’
‘Wow, That’s Loud’
‘8th Avenue Serenade’
‘Ashley’
‘Gabriella’
‘Wild One’
‘It’s Fvck Time’
‘Stray Heart’
‘Last Gang In Town’
‘Amy’
‘Goodbye To Romance’
‘Welcome To Paradise’
‘Burnout’
‘Murder City’
‘J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva)’
‘Only Of You’
‘Hitchin’ a Ride’
‘St. Jimmy’
‘Minority’
The encore sounds pretty good though, I mean J.A.R. is one of the best Green Day songs and they’ve never played it live when I’ve seen them. It’s because it wasn’t on any of their records (except International Superhits) but on the soundtrack to Angus instead. Check it out below if you’ve never heard it – inevitably way better than those new Green Day songs:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x30jgxnfBzM
Follow timw_brap on twitter @timw_brap
Follow Sick Chirpse on twitter @sickchirpse
