Green Day is currently in Cleveland, Ohio, not by choice, but because if they refused to leave California, they wouldn’t be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The official ceremony is on Saturday, but last night, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool played a career-spanning, 35-song show at the House of Blues, their first concert in more than two years.
Cool sat out the first part of the set because he was swapped out with John Kiffmeyer, the original drummer who left the band in 1990, only to be replaced by, yup, Cool. Green Day’s Pete Best, who played with Armstrong and Dirnt while they were still Sweet Children, filled in on “At the Library,” “I Was There,” and other little-heard early cuts. Kiffmeyer probably has regrets, but it’s good that he and Green Day are still on friendly terms, 25 years later.
