Green Day
"Walking Contradiction" and "Going to Pasalacqua"
Live on Saturday Night Special in 1996
RANDOM THOUGHTS... This is probably my favorite Green Day late-night TV performance of all time. It originally aired in 1996 on a short-lived Fox TV show called Saturday Night Special, produced by Roseanne Barr. Special filled in for MAD TV for six weeks opposite NBC's Saturday Night Live, and Green Day appeared in the sixth and final episode. It's pretty apparent that the people behind the scenes at the network wanted the band to play "Walking Contradiction," which was their single at the time (from the album Insomniac which was released the previous year). It's also pretty apparent that Green Day wanted to play something else. Let's be honest, "Walking Contradiction" is a catchy song with a fun music video, but it's a mid-tempo rocker and probably not the most exciting tune in their catalog to play. So Green Day did what any punk rock band would do when "the suits" tell them what to play: They did whatever the fuck they wanted! After going through the motions with a couple verses of "Walking Contradiction", Billie hocks a loogie high in the air and the band launches into "Going To Pasalacqua", a little-known ditty off their very first album, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (albeit, a personal favorite of mine and many other GD fans I know). And they rock the shit out it! I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say they're on some sort of uppers. Which, by the way, is awesome. Hey, this is rock and roll, not the Olympics! The more performance-enhancers these guys are on, the better! Anyway, they kick it into high-gear (initiated by a great Mike Dirnt leap at the 1:42 mark), play the song they want to play, and gloriously trash the stage at the end of the performance. Billie beats the hell out of his Strat and Tre treats his drum kit like it owes him money. In the carnage, a crash cymbal rolls into the crowd and a guy holds the Zildjian over his head like the goddamn Wimbledon trophy! Hell yeah, I'd do the same thing! And at the very end, as his guitar feeds back relentlessly on live TV (I bet the show producers loved that!) Billie turns to the crowd and takes a sarcastic bow. Rock and roll, baby!
"Walking Contradiction" and "Going to Pasalacqua"
Live on Saturday Night Special in 1996
RANDOM THOUGHTS... This is probably my favorite Green Day late-night TV performance of all time. It originally aired in 1996 on a short-lived Fox TV show called Saturday Night Special, produced by Roseanne Barr. Special filled in for MAD TV for six weeks opposite NBC's Saturday Night Live, and Green Day appeared in the sixth and final episode. It's pretty apparent that the people behind the scenes at the network wanted the band to play "Walking Contradiction," which was their single at the time (from the album Insomniac which was released the previous year). It's also pretty apparent that Green Day wanted to play something else. Let's be honest, "Walking Contradiction" is a catchy song with a fun music video, but it's a mid-tempo rocker and probably not the most exciting tune in their catalog to play. So Green Day did what any punk rock band would do when "the suits" tell them what to play: They did whatever the fuck they wanted! After going through the motions with a couple verses of "Walking Contradiction", Billie hocks a loogie high in the air and the band launches into "Going To Pasalacqua", a little-known ditty off their very first album, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (albeit, a personal favorite of mine and many other GD fans I know). And they rock the shit out it! I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say they're on some sort of uppers. Which, by the way, is awesome. Hey, this is rock and roll, not the Olympics! The more performance-enhancers these guys are on, the better! Anyway, they kick it into high-gear (initiated by a great Mike Dirnt leap at the 1:42 mark), play the song they want to play, and gloriously trash the stage at the end of the performance. Billie beats the hell out of his Strat and Tre treats his drum kit like it owes him money. In the carnage, a crash cymbal rolls into the crowd and a guy holds the Zildjian over his head like the goddamn Wimbledon trophy! Hell yeah, I'd do the same thing! And at the very end, as his guitar feeds back relentlessly on live TV (I bet the show producers loved that!) Billie turns to the crowd and takes a sarcastic bow. Rock and roll, baby!
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