Kevin Bronson on March 11th, 2013

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By Pamela Wilson

Billie Joe Armstrong, in his first public performance since he entered rehab in September, greeted his fans on Sunday night as if they had been the ones who left. “Welcome back,” he told the crowd as Green Day began its “99 Revolutions” tour at the Fox Theatre in Pomona.

As anyone in the line around the block could tell you, Green Day’s fans never went anywhere. They came to this show to let Armstrong know they support his efforts to overcome a substance-abuse issue – which derailed a tour that had been slated to start in December. But Green Day’s fans also have been waiting a long time to celebrate the trifecta of “¡Uno!,” “¡Dos!” and “¡Tré!,” the band’s exciting trilogy of albums released late last year. When opening band The Stitches asked the crowd, “What do you want to hear next?” the resounding response was, “GREEN DAY!”

When front man Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool entered the stage to the strains of Ennio Morricone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” it was as if they were challenging their fans to accept them unconditionally. And the set started off strong, with a pounding “99 Revolutions” from “¡Tré!” Armstrong seemed fit and healthy, and he quickly had the crowd where he wanted them. “Hands in the air!” he shouted, and every hand in the room shot skyward.

After five tracks off the new albums – plus “Know Your Enemy” from 2009’s “21st Century Breakdown” – Armstrong declared, “I’m a little bit uncomfortable right now,” but he recovered as soon as the band launched into familiar territory, “Holiday” from “American Idiot.”

“Do you want to see a fucking explosion?” Armstrong asked the crowd, in the only overt reference to his meltdown on a televised concert in September. “Or do you want to see a fucking celebration?” From this point on, it was 2004 all over again. The remaining 16 songs were all from “American Idiot” or earlier, and no mention was made of the six-month hiatus or the lead singer’s troubles – other than a slight change in the lyrics of “When I Come Around”: “I’m a loser, a drug user so I don’t need no accuser.”

There is no arguing that Green Day gives a hell of a concert, with energetic crowd-pleasers like “She,” “Minority,” “Letterbomb” and “Basket Case.” Despite some minor technical issues, this was as great a Green Day show as one could expect. But where was the unexpected? Where were the new songs this tour is ostensibly promoting? There are 37 tracks on “¡Uno!,” “¡Dos!” and “¡Tré!,” It would have been exciting to hear just a half-dozen more of them.

Perhaps after the absence Armstrong needs to find his stage legs, so to speak, sticking with the tried and true. But during the last song, the epic “Jesus of Suburbia,” he seemed to really mean it when he sang, “I don’t feel any shame, I won’t apologize.” ’Nuff said. It’s Green Day. Take it or leave it.

Photo by Cristina Benitez