Green Day – Lima, Peru 2010 – 21st Century Breakdown

The place, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Stadium. The date, October 26, 2010.

I’ve always liked Green Day, and I’ve always heard that they actually put up really awesome concerts. So when it was announced that they would be playing in Lima, I bought my ticket and woke up when September ended to see them rock the place up.

Around 8pm, rockabilly band Vaselina played as the opening band. At best, they got apathy and a few laughs or a very minor reaction from the crowd. Ten minutes before the concert began, the Drunk Pink Bunny appeared when Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough played in the stadium as background music, who then danced to Village People’s YMCA. That was actually funnier, more entertaining and more interesting than Vaselina, drawing a nice crowd-reaction. Shortly after the bunny left the stage, it was concert time. Green Day kicked off with the first three songs from the 21st Century Breakdown album, plus East Jesus Nowhere and Holiday. Things got much better as the concert progressed.

Crowd attendance-wise was big, but didn’t really fill the stadium. Metallica had a bigger audience in the UNMSM stadium. The fans, all ages – families, punk, emos, etc. Some were old-school fans, but most seemed to be “radio hits fans” as well as fans who started to like the band because of their last two albums, or the Rock Band game.

I should tell everyone reading this; Billie Joe Armstong is easily the greatest showman I’ve ever seen in a live concert (for now). The man shows loads of energy and passion when he plays his songs and really makes you feel like wanting to celebrate and have a great time.

As for highlights of the concert, I can tell you that some of the spots here were pretty much the same as in other Green Day concerts from the 21st Century Breakdown tour – fans singing Longview, exorcism spot during East Jesus Nowhere, covers, etc. However, the biggest standout moment from the entire concert, in my opinion, would be when they played American Idiot. Billie began to snap throughout the song.

“I can’t wait for Steve Jobs to die of fucking cancer! Barack Obama can die in fucking hell too! The technology is fucking ruining everything! The technology is ruining everything! Technology will destroy civilization! Do you wanna live? Do you wanna live? Do you wanna live? Do you wanna fucking live? Do you wanna live? Do you wanna live? Do you wanna live? Do you wanna fucking live? You wanna die! We are too fucking screwed! Is that what you want or do you wanna fucking live? This is alive! We are fucking alive! We are live! Viva Lima!”

Too bad for those who paid the expensive tickets (G zone) since they couldn’t jump around like crazy and celebrate like BJA wanted to because many assholes spent most of the concert standing and filming it, which wasn’t a exciting sight to observe. But in the E zone, there was a mosh pit that grew throughout the concert and peaked big during American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia. It was cool.

As for the setlist, it was actually great and seemed pretty balanced, despite American Idiot having the most songs played. Top 5 Songs that got most of the crowd singing were Basket Case, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, American Idiot, Wake Me Up When September Ends and 21 Guns. All in all, amazing concert. Green Day is really one of those bands you might want to see live before you die.

Setlist

  1. Song of the Century
  2. 21st Century Breakdown
  3. Know Your Enemy
  4. East Jesus Nowhere
  5. Holiday
  6. Nice Guys Finish Last
  7. Give Me Novacaine
  8. Letterbomb
  9. Are We the Waiting
  10. St. Jimmy
  11. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
  12. Burnout
  13. One for the Razorbacks / Geek Stink Breath
  14. Going To Pasalacqua
  15. 2000 Light Years Away
  16. Welcome To Paradise
  17. Hitchin’ A Ride
  18. When I Come Around
  19. Iron Man / Rock And Roll / Sweet Child O’ Mine / Highway To Hell
  20. Brain Stew
  21. Jaded
  22. Longview
  23. Basket Case
  24. She
  25. King For A Day
  26. Shout / Break On Through (To The Other Side) / (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / Hey Jude
  27. Extraordinary Girl / 21 Guns
  28. Minority
  29. American Idiot (Encore 1)
  30. Jesus of Suburbia (Encore 1)
  31. Christie Road (Acoustic) (Encore 2)
  32. Wake Me Up When September Ends  (Encore 2)
  33. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) (Encore 2)

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Rodrigo

YAM Magazine contributor, has a B. Sc. degree in Science/Pharmacy and is a very lazy person.

3 Responses

  1. September 6, 2013

    […] very short in length. I understand: the concert pretty much lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes, unlike Green Day’s Lima concert which had more songs and lasted almost 3 hours. My friends and I tried a Genocide chant, but […]

  2. April 19, 2014

    […] love Green Day — seeing them live was awesome — and I was looking forward to seeing the music video for Oh Love, the first single of their […]

  3. September 26, 2014

    […] not being really exciting [see: cameras & cellphones overuse] during the concert. When I saw Green Day live last year, Billie Joe Armstrong snapping during American Idiot was a sign confirming my thoughts […]

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