So it's kind of an odd balance one has to hit: pleasing the fans, trying to do new things, staying true to yourself but finding out how to stay relevant too.
I'm curious: did any of you have a chance to see them pre-Dookie (or even once it was released)? I do like Green Day and own the majority of their catalog, and I saw them once in 1992. I wanted to go to this show, but what stopped me was my one criticism of the band: they sound exactly the same as the did in 1992. Sure their lyrical subject matter is more mature and the recorded material is more polished, but the short of it is I don't feel like there's been much creative progression beyond that. I mean you can only do so much with power chords.
Maybe I expect too much in my old age.
Does this describe the show? Or do you think they have upped the ante over the last 25 years?
I think GD has definitely evolved. I think their pre-Dookie music is just fine but it sounds to me the same as all of those socal pop-punk bands like Adolescents, DI, Angry Samoans, Doggy Style, Descendants, etc. Dookie just happened to be catchy and well-produced enough to take off and sell a billion copies.
But consider that 10 years after Dookie, they put out American Idiot, which was another huge hit. And to me, there's a whole lot of space between Dookie and AI. For one thing, there's two songs on AI that are more than 9 minutes long -- and in my opinion, they're the high point of the album. And the subject material is very different. I think the "politics" of AI are as deep as a bumper sticker, but they're addressing different themes than getting high and jerking off.
Ultimately, they're a guitar-based trio playing loud rock. I personally think they've evolved and experimented a fair amount while not losing their sound, the end.
