With the release of their second album Kerplunk, Green Day had built up a considerable cult following and a reputation as one of East Bay’s finest punk bands. Selling over 50,000 copies in the US alone, the band toured extensively throughout 1992 and 1993 in support of therecord, even playing a handful of European dates, such was its underground success. Their final release before major label success with 1994’s Dookie, Kerplunk represented the band on the cusp of enormous global fame and recognition; after Dookie, Green Day’s world would never be the same again.
It was on May 28th 1992, during this extensive touring period, that the band played an in-house set which was broadcast by the legendary New Jersey station WFMU FM Radio. The performance offers a perfect retrospect of their pre-Dookie career, with a set predominately made up of tracks from their first two albums and early EPs.
The raw punk spirit which defined Green Day’s early sound is evident immediately as they start off at a frenzied pace with ‘Don’t Leave Me’ from their debut 39/Smooth, quickly followed by ‘409 in Your Coffeemaker’, which had originally graced their second EP Slappy. The third number of the set, the classic punk anthem‘ Welcome to Paradise’ is an indication of Green Day’s developing sound and a leap in their songwriting craft, originally recorded for Kerplunk, it also featured in a re-recoded version on Dookie, and went on to become one of that album’s huge hit singles. By way of contrast ‘Only of You’ appeared on their debut EP and offers a snapshot of the band’s very earliest work.
‘C Yo Yus’ played during the second half of the broadcast is a cover of fellow Californian punks, Fifteen, a band who had emerged concurrently with Green Day but sadly had little commercial success. ‘Knowledge’ was originally by Operation Ivy, another LA punk band who also used Ska influences in their music and who were seen as the protagonists of the LA Punk revival, having been playing this form between 1987 and 1989 when they split up. Members of Operation Ivy later formed Rancid. Both these acts had been label mates with Green Day on Lookout Records, the company who released Green Day’s pre-Dookie material.
Finishing the set amongst a clattering of broken strings, the band ends with a brilliantly shambolic ‘Words I Might Have Ate’, concluding a 67 minute performance which in retrospect could emerge as the finest all-in-one document of Green Day’s pre-Dookie period.
Tracklist:
1. Don't Leave Me
2. 409 in Your Coffeemaker
3. Welcome to Paradise
4. 2000 Light Years Away
5. At the Library
6. 80
7. The Judge's Daughter
8. Christie Road
9. Only of You
10. Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?
11. Going to Pasalacqua
12. 16
13. Paper Lanterns
14. C Yo Yus
15. Intermission
16. One Of My Lies
17. Dominated Love Slave
18. All by Myself
19. Knowledge
20. Words I Might Have Ate
