Green Day in Las Vegas
Pro tip: When someone asks if you'd like to see Green Day at a private event in Las Vegas, the answer is always a unhesitating "YES!" Even if your flight out of town is at midnight.
That's pretty much the full version of how it went down on the evening of January 10, 2024, closing out what I believe was my 12th time covering CES. That's the Consumer Electronics Show — the annual tech pilgrimage in the desert that is equal parts vaporware and the future of things to come. (OK, probably more of the former than the latter.)
CES is ridiculously huge. Much of it takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and its four massive halls, but a lot of it also happens in the various hotel ballrooms and suites throughout town. And there are 75,000 or so people in town for the show, in addition to whomever's left over from the New Year's celebration.
Back in the old days (for me, anyway) — I'm talking 2010 to 2015 or so — we'd spend all week in Vegas. Land on Sunday and hit the ground running for a couple days of pre-show press events, then mop up once the floors opened to the public. One year we didn't fly out until late Friday, and that was definitely too much time on the ground. Budgets are tighter these days, though. So we tended to cover things with minimal people, and at minimal expense. Sunday through Wednesday became the norm. Just enough to get the job done, but you probably could have spent one more day working.
The major companies at CES also are known to put on some major parties, or concerts. Until now I'd avoided the latter. But I wasn't going to pass up Green Day. I was in eighth grade when Dookie was released. Being in a band in high school meant fooling around with Green Day standards because they were easy and because they were fun. The Woodstock 1994 mud fight was legendary. And American Idiot deserves all the accolades it's received over the years.
So, yeah, I was going.
Corporate events can be a little weird — including the buffet set up on the show floor. I'd met up with some friends. We ate, and camped out on the rail. I may be old. I may forgo the pre-show drinks of my younger years. But there was no way I was watching this one from the back.
I won't apologize for how many times my phone was in my hand. This one deserved stills and some video. I would have killed to have my mirrorless with me, but that's not the sort of thing they really allow into shows. So my iPhone 15 Pro it was. And it delivered.
The timing of the show — a mere nine days before the release of the Saviors album and the media blitz that came with it — also led to an Instagram Reel getting more than 1 million views. I still think that had more to do with the pithy caption than anything else, and I think the algorithm picked up on the commenters who got the joke and ran with it. Plus all the saves and shares. My kids asked what I got for it hitting a million views and were surprised to learn that the answer was "Not a damn thing."
The band sounded exactly as good as you'd have expected, especially since the lineup had doubled from its trio form. I was standing right between Billie Joe and Mike Dirnt, close enough to get great shots of the them, and a few good ones of Jason White at stage right. Tre Cool was harder to see, and Jason Freese (brother of uber-drummer Josh Freese) was hidden to the front row for pretty much the whole show. I loved Kevin Preston getting some stage time, though, especially for St. Jimmy. The sound was full. It was still fun. It was still pissed off, even all these decades later.
Don't let anyone tell you that a corporate gig can't still be one hell of a show.
