Reprise
The guys of Green Day are on a loooong world tour,
having played more than 90 concerts since October. They
stop at Andrews Amphitheatre Sunday.
Green and cool
Green Day holds
By John Berger
rock steady in a shifting
musical mainstream
Special to the Star-Bulletin"I think we're the last good rock 'n' roll band left -- the last real one. Nobody's as good as us. If you want to (challenge us) step in line, but bring a lunch because it's a long line."
Green Day's Tre Cool didn't mince words as he squeezed another phone interview into another hectic day on tour. The band -- Cool (drums and percussion), Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals, baseball bat) -- has been touring since October. It was Wednesday in Australia when Cool called from Sydney. That made it several days and a very long flight to go before Green Day's afternoon concert Sunday at Andrews Amphitheater.
Cool was burning up a few minutes of precious down time between sound check and Green Day's 92nd concert of the tour.
"The climate for us is real different (these days) but it's just cool. Mainstream music has turned into more like a Puff Daddy type of thing. It seemed like it was going in the right direction and then it took an (expletive) on us," he says of the changes in pop music since Green Day exploded on the charts with the album "Dookie" in 1994. The album sold more than 9 million copies, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 113 weeks. Next came "Insomniac" in 1995, selling more than 2 million copies and peaking at No. 2.
Not bad at all for a punk band out of Berkeley. Dirnt and Armstrong founded the trio in 1989. Cool signed on a year and two drummers after that. It's been straight ahead for Green Day since. The band's current album, "Nimrod," finds resident lyricist Armstrong as imaginative as ever; all three share credit as composers.
"We come up with ideas and other bands emulate them. A lot of bands rip us off and ride on the old coattails, but we keep writing new songs. Billie Joe is probably the best songwriter around right now," Cool explains.
It reads like bragging, but heard in conversation, the tone of his voice suggests otherwise: If you're into our music, you understand where we're coming from, it says. If you're not, well, maybe you'd prefer the latest Puff Daddy imitator.
Among the new ideas on "Nimrod" are loony ragtime undercurrents on a catchy gender-bender anthem, "King for a Day." And there's the baseball bat.
"It's on a song that only got released on the Japanese version. They get an extra bonus track 'cause otherwise they're buying imports."
Someone informs Cool that it is almost showtime in Sydney. He politely relays the message. Sorry, have to go, he explains. Give his regards to true believers in Hawaii.
"I want all the kids to come out (Sunday), roll a bunch of joints, bring a bottle of something, and have a good time."
Green Day
In concert: 2 p.m. Sunday; gates open at noon
