After delaying this epic concert a whole year, the Hella Mega Tour finally made its way to my neck of the woods!
I don’t usually refer to concerts by their tour name, but the Hella Mega Tour is deserving of that honor because it not only brought me one awesome band, but three! Those titans included Weezer, Fall Out Boy, and Green Day! Now obviously I’ve seen Fall Out Boy a good number of times, but this would be a real experience with Weezer (I saw them perform at the APMA’s many years ago), and my first time ever seeing Green Day! I don’t think you have to be a hardcore fan of pop punk to enjoy this concert. I mean, can you think of the sheer number of hits these three bands have combined?! It’s sort of wild. Thus, it makes sense that they managed to pack an arena of wild and passionate fans.
My sister and I did miss the opening band, The Interrupters, but we did catch Weezer’s set from start to finish. They played hits like “Island in the Sun,” “Pork and Beans,” and “Beverly Hills” among many others. The band didn’t do much on the stage, but that’s just fine by me because they sounded excellent! I would say the only real downer for their set was that it rained during the back half of it. Lucky for us, we brought ponchos, so we still got to enjoy the evening dry…just wrapped in plastic. They closed out their set with the always popular and I do believe their first hit, “Buddy Holly.” It’s obviously a crowd-pleaser because the thunderous applause and cheers went on for quite some time.
Up next was Fall Out Boy, and man oh man did they deliver! I don’t know if the one year delay had any influence on their set list, but they played all the hits and my sister and I were so pumped! They started with “The Phoenix,” and then worked their way through several others off of that record with my favorite being “Save Rock and Roll.” Even more exciting was the amount of songs they played off of From Under the Cork Tree – loved hearing “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me” live! And of course, they couldn’t complete a set without playing the song that really started it all for them, “Saturday.” It really was the perfect ending for their set. Truthfully, I was bummed they had the shortest set list, but I’m sure time-wise it all worked out equally. Anyways, they were incredible and I hope to see them again with some new music soon.
Finally, Green Day took the stage and immediately opened with “American Idiot.” Seems kind of fitting in the world we are living in right now. Similar to both Weezer and Fall Out Boy, they mainly stuck to the hits which means we got to hear “Holiday,” “Basket Case,” and “Hitchin’ a Ride” in all their glory. Green Day definitely had the most fan interaction of anyone that night, which even extended to them inviting a fan onstage to help play an Operation Ivy cover track. He completed his brief stint with a stage dive! I mean, if Billie Joe Armstrong tells you to stage dive, you have to do it, right? Another cool moment was seeing an arena full of cell phone lights during “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Billie Joe sure knows how to command a crowd! Anyways, their set was very high energy and very fun.
Overall, this was a great show, and I hope they get to finish out the tour before the delta variant of COVID and anti-vaxers ruin everything for us all again. If you do go, please wear a mask and try your best to stay safe, but also as important – have fun! They’re not calling it the Hella Mega Tour for no reason 🙂