I’m pretty out of the loop as to what music’s really popular these days but my eye caught this Coachella live stream on YouTube last weekend and I figured that would be a great opportunity to catch-up on the latest. Well, turned out I was wrong. Ha! Right as I tuned in, Green Day was playing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a long time Green Day fan and like a lot of their stuff, but this wasn’t quite what I’d imagined a 2025 punk rock show would look like. I guess you can’t blame them since they’ve been around for a hot minute already, but after Billie Joe Armstrong started whipping up the crowd with a ‘Heeey-ho!’ during one of my favourites – ‘Hitchin’ a Ride’ – I quickly decided I’d seen enough. Never mind all the hand-clapping I’d seen up to that point (bear in mind I’d tuned in for about 10 minutes only). Funny enough, seeing this show reminded me of the one time I saw Foo Fighters in 2015, which I thought was highly disappointing due to the never-ending intervals and crowd participation. Seriously, just cut it out and cramp another 4 songs or so into the set. You’re a punk band, right? Surely you have plenty of short songs that can replace those lame dragging guitar ‘solos’ midway through each and every song. Sigh… At least we still have the recordings to enjoy.