Green Day in Madrid: good concert, poor organization

How was the Green Day concert? Well, a little more than half of the attendees will say. Sensational, even. He left us exhausted, to drag. How much fun we had, what contagious impetus the Californian trio transmitted and how we enjoyed the decibels well embedded in infectious songs.

With the rest of the public, what happened. That was another story. The concert was held in the parking lot of Madrid’s Caja Mágica, in a paved area, without stands: very long and narrow compared to the length of the terrain. What does this mean. It is advisable to be very careful with the capacity. A lot of people enter, of course, but the visibility of those behind is very limited. Aware of this, the organization installed a screen in the middle of the venue, when the stage was barely visible, which projected images of what was happening on the stage. A screen that if you stood in front of it completely covered the stage. Conclusion: thousands of people stood in front of this screen without seeing the real musicians. They sang at the screen, they shook their fist at the screen. Come on, they could have watched a video of the recital at home with a powerful sound system and would have saved the 100 euros of the entrance fee. Furthermore, the sound did not reach this stretch of zero visibility with the desired power.

A reflection, like this, without giving it too much thought: what if instead of selling 35,000 tickets (data provided by the organizer) 15,000 were shipped. With this basic idea, everyone who made a significant investment to pay for access would have witnessed the recital closer to the stage, to experience it intensely. But (alas), the income would have been cut in half.

Part of the problem was that the recital was sold as a festival (called Road To Rio Babel). It is possible that the 35,000 people distributed across four stages (as happened a week ago at the Tomavistas festival – this one -) would have been something else. But rather it was a Green Day concert to which six other bands (The Hives, The Interrupters, Lagwagon…) were added. But there everyone responded to the call of the Californian trio. The people, yes, behaved like blessed ones, because instead of rioting they got into festive mode and tried to enjoy themselves. “What do you do. “It is what it is,” someone said. Others, however, trumpeted his indignation: “If I know, I was left at home watching the Champions League final.” They were Madridistas. An audience of a wide range of ages. There was the fifty-something who vibrated in his early twenties with Dookie, the young people surrendered to the brio of the group and the forty-somethings with their seven, eight or nine-year-old children.

Musically, Green Day’s show was a furious release of energy. The trio performed their two most emblematic works in full: Dookie, that celebrates three decades in 2024, and American Idiot, celebrating 20 years.

Curly blonde hair, slim build, fresh voice. This is how the leader of Green Day, Billie Joe, appeared last night at the Caja Mágica: sporting an admirable youthful appearance at 52 years old. They started with The American Dream Is Killing Me, song of 2024, and then they dedicated themselves to pleasing the public by performing the emblematic Dookie from beginning to end. What is Dookie? Well, the album with which you could say that you were punk (something that always confers a certain transgression), but from the comfort of a middle-class family. Virulent music with a pop framework. It was also the album that twenty-somethings clung to after the blow of Kurt Cobain’s suicide (that same 1994): Dookie provided celebration in contrast to the hopeless message of the grunge.

It is true that when playing the album in order the surprise factor is lost, since the fan knows what is coming next. But is that Welcome to Paradise either Basket Case They have so much strength that it doesn’t matter if you know exactly when they are going to touch each other. The drummer, Tré Cool, who showed off dyed blue hair, was precise and fun; and bassist Mike Dirnt, who delivered a recital of Sid Vicious-style grimaces, powered his bomber style with his instrument. Three other musicians accompanied the official shortlist: two guitarists and a keyboard player, who entered and left the scene according to the requirements of the song.

Billie Joe inevitably likes him, as he acts as commander during the two and a quarter hours of the concert. Almost always with his blue guitar covered in stickers, he gives his instrument a serious beating, with that characteristic sawing movement. And he exhibits a wide range of effective gestures: he encourages the audience to repeat “oeees”, he plays the guitar from the back of his head, he brings a girl out of the audience to sing with him Know Your Enemy, improvise the chords Hombre de Hierro by Black Sabbaththe same thing makes a paranoid face with his eyes about to emigrate from his sockets that draws a smile of a good-hearted hooligan… After 45 minutes of Dookie and three transition songs, a huge hand appeared on stage with a grenade in the shape of a bleeding heart, identical to the cover of American Idiot, and they attacked the 2004 album. And they returned to the party with their most political album, where the trio proclaimed their boredom with the conservative policies of their country represented by the Bush administration. It was a non-stop bouncing recital, designed to physically exhaust people.

But it ended in a relaxed way. Billie Joe was left alone, who with an acoustic guitar played Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). At the end of the song there was a shower of confetti and they were joined by leader Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt, only for the three to say goodbye. A strange, but beautiful ending.

For 45 minutes, people had begun to file. Between how cool the night became and the difficulties of experiencing the concert up close, some decided to prematurely head back home.