August 18, 2021

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The Hella Mega Tour, featuring Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy along with The Interrupters, made a stop at the Historic Columbus Crew Stadium on Tuesday.  This tour is a pop-punkers dream and fans of all ages were in attendance.

 

Opening with a blistering version of "American Idiot," the band was off and running. 

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"Boulavard Of Broken Dreams" and "Welcome To Paradise" were played early in the set.  A nice cover of the Kiss classic "Rock and Roll All Night" was the surprise of the evening.

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Billy Joe Armstrong is still a bundle of energy as he prowls the stage.  A few times during the show he screamed out “O-H!” and the crowd responded with a resounding “I-O!”  There were a lot of other call and response chants led by Armstrong that evening.

 

Mike Dirnt did a great job holding down the low end and Tre Cool is fun to watch behind the kit has he exaggerates his arm movements and makes funny facial expressions.

 

The trio has three other musicians with them on stage to fill out the sound.  It is great that you have live musicians creating live music on stage.  No tracks with this group.

 

The band played several hits like “Basket Case” and “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” as well as some deep cuts like “Hitchin’ A Ride” and “St. Jimmy” to satisfy all fans.

 

Green Day’s set came to a close with Billy Jo taking center stage to play “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” while confetti cannons and fireworks officially ended the show.

 

Fall Out Boy also came out on fire.  Literally.

 

Huge flames and pyro shot across the stage as the band played “The Pheonix.”  Even Pete Wentz had a flame thrower attached to the end of his bass that would shoot flames into the sky.

 

Singer Patrick Stump and the rest of the band sound great live.  However, they just aren’t that interesting to watch.  Pete Wentz looks like he’s just going through the motions and rarely smiles or interacts with his bandmates.  The same can be said for guitarist Joe Trohmen who rarely leaves his spot on stage.

 

But the songs are what keep the audience engaged and the crowd happily sang along to “Sugar, Were Going Down,” “Uma Thurman” and “It Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race.”

 

The fifteen song set came to a close with “Centuries” and “Saturday.”

 

Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo has totally changed his look.  Sporting a long mullett, blue jeans, red Chuck Taylor’s and a black studded leather jacket, he looked like a character from Wayne’s World. 

 

After opening with “Hero” from the new Van Weezer album, the crowd started rocking when the band launched into “Hash Pipe.”

 

Cuomo was very grateful for the audience coming out and seeing them.  He recalled that he came to the Crew Stadium to watch the US men’s soccer team win their World Cup match in 2001.

 

The band is very tight and has many catchy songs like “Beverly Hills,” “Undone- The Sweater Song” and “Island In The Sun” that are easy to sing along to.

Of course the band had to play their 2018 unexpected smash cover of Toto’s “Africa.”

 

Weezer closed their fun set with two songs from their first album, “Say It Ain’t So,” and “Buddy Holly.”

 

Los Angeles based ska punk band, The Interrupters opened up the show with an energetic eight song set that included a cover of Billy Elish’s “Bad Guy.”  It was a great way to start an evening of pop-punk bands. 

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Photos and review by Greg Drugan

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