Details
Location:
Tower Records in New York, NY
Date:
November 11, 1997
Notes:
- Recordings from this show can be found [url=http://www.greendaycommunity.org/topic/87341-19971111-tower-records-new-york-new-york-usa/]here[/url]
- "We waited on line for, like, ever. When we finally got in, it was about another half an hour before Green Day took the stage. The first song they played was Nice Guys Finish Last, then they played Hitchin' A Ride. After the first chorus of that song instead of singing Billie put down his guitar and grabbed a can of red spray paint. He painted Nimrod all over Boys II Men and Foo Fighter adds. Then he walked across the counter to view the people outside who didn't get in. He spraypainted Nimrod and Fuck You on the window and mooned the people outside. He then picked up his guitar and finished up Hitchin' A Ride. Then Billie declared that it was a riot and signalled all those outside to break through the doors and riot. Then he broke into The Grouch. Then he said, 'This is an old song,' and played Brain Stew. After that and a short drum solo they played Jaded. Then Billie said, 'This isn't Tower Records anymore. It's a Green Day show and you're all free to do whatever you want.' They played Knowledge. Then Chump, Longview and Basket Case. Afterwards Tre knocked over his drumset and threw the bass drum to the floor below. The highlight of the show was probably when people threw clothes, like gloves, hats and sweatshirts to Billie and he put them on. It was a great time overall ... for free!"
- "One day after an in-store appearance that left some $7,000 worth of damage at a New York record store, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong called the adventure 'good fun.' Speaking with MTV News after the band's sold out show at New York's Roseland Wednesday night, Billie Joe said the point of the band's destructive spree was to spice up the kind of appearance that can be less than thrilling. 'It was just good fun,' Billie Joe said. 'Those things give you the perfect opportunity to make a complete fool of yourself.' As we first reported on Wednesday, the band left their mark on a Tower Records store in downtown Manhattan with spray paint and an instrument-tossing bit of destruction. 'We stopped by K-Mart before and picked up spray paint. The whole point was to deface the whole store.' The band very nearly did. According to Tower manager Hedi Kim, Billie Joe's more noteworthy acts during the in-store include painting the words Fuck you and Nimrod on the store's windows, and sending a bass drum hurling from the second floor of the store and crashing into hundreds of CDs. In Kim's estimation, the damage to the CDs alone falls in the $4,000 to $7,000 range. 'It turned into chaos,' Billie Joe said of the in-store. That chaos will wind up costing the band's record label, Warner Bros. as Kim says she will be sending the company a bill for the damage."
- "Green Day trashed the Tower Records on Broadway in New York City Tuesday night (Nov. 11) during a 45-minute in-store performance. And, proving once again that star power can sometimes keep one out of trouble, no charges were filed against the rambunctious and destructive band. While playing an eight song set to a crowd of approximately 400 fans, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong spray-painted the title of their latest album Nimrod on store walls, stood on top of three CD racks - destroying them, while tossing CDs to the fans. Then crowd surfed to a window where he spray-painted the words Fuck You, dropped his pants, and mooned the crowd of about 100 outside, according to Jessame Hanus, Tower's Assistant General Manager. Drummer Tre Cool also took part in the destruction by tossing a bass drum. Ironically, the crowd didn't pose a problem, says Hanus, though several police were on hand both inside and outside the store to control disruptive fans. No one was hurt during the ruckus, and the crowd disbursed immediately after the show upon being told that Tower had canceled the album signing which was to follow. Hanus says that Tower Records closed the store following the event in order to clean up, and opened as usual on Wednesday morning (Nov. 12), but the spray-painted words - Nimrod and Fuck You - still remain. 'Everyone had a great time,' is the official comment from Jim Baltutis, Green Day's publicist. A representative at Tower estimates the damages to total approximately $50,000."
- MTV: "NEW YORK - 'You can start a riot,' Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong encouraged the crowd gathered at New York City’s Tower Records Tuesday evening for an in-store performance. 'It’s your prerogative - you can do anything you want,' added Armstrong. '’Cause you’re not at Tower Records, you’re at a Green Day concert!' Green Day certainly believed that, judging from the destruction the band caused the Broadway Tower Records store during their 45 minute performance: Billie Joe spray-painted Nimrod in black and red on store walls, showered beer and water over CD racks, and bodysurfed over the crowd to reach the window, where he spray-painted Fuck You on the window and then pulled down his pants to moon the crowds gathered outside. A store manager forcibly had to wrestle a 200-pound monitor away from the singer, who attempted to throw it over the staircase landing where the band played. Despite the rescue of the monitor, Green Day drummer Tre Cool managed to hurtle a bass drum over the ledge. 'That was rented,' commented one Reprise Records representative, looking down at the floor where the drum lay in pieces. 'The label will be paying for that.' 'The label will be paying for all the damage [to the store],' added the representative, who preferred to remain anonymous. 'I bet it’s a couple of thousand - maybe less.' 'Not that many CDs were ruined, though,' he said optimistically, looking down at the floor where a broken CD rack spilled damaged CDs across the floor. No one was hurt at the concert. The 200 or so people who attended the 7 p.m. show, some having stood outside in the New York cold since noon, were exuberant once allowed into the store, and crammed onto the main floor to slam-dance through such Green Day hits as Nice Guys Finish Last, Longview, Chump and Hitchin’ A Ride. Those not allowed in, another hundred or so fans, watched through the windows from the street outside. 'This is pretty rowdy,' said department manager Paul Chesik, looking concerned as he watched adolescent boys slam into each other on the floor of the store. A security guard entered the exuberant crowd only once, barked at the kids and then left - the slam-dancing quickly resumed and continued until the end of the eight or so song set. It was the first Green Day concert for Ivan Venture, 10, who said his parents won’t allow him to spend his allowance money on Green Day concerts. 'I’ve been listening to them since I was 7,' said Venture. 'I’ve memorized all the words to Basket Case.' Venture was attending the show with his friend, Patrick Sheehy, 11. The buddies are such huge Green Day fans that they’ve covered Brain Stew in their own band, Invasion. 'We played at P.S. 3, the talent show,' said Venture. Venture and Sheehy were among only a handful of lucky fans who managed to have their CDs signed by Armstrong - the scheduled after-show CD signing was abruptly canceled, presumably due to the chaos of the concert. 'The store couldn’t handle it,' a grinning Tre Cool said later. Drinking Becks and relaxing after the show, the band didn’t seem particularly fazed or concerned with the destruction they had caused - most likely it was just a mild night of antics for the Berkeley, Calif.-based band. Wednesday morning the store was ready to open as usual, after a cleaning crew finished sweeping up. However Fuck You and Nimrod remained spray-painted on the windows and walls, kind of a punk 'mark of Zorro,' if you will, or just the group’s distinctive way of saying, 'Green Day Were Here!'"
Setlist
1. Nice Guys Finish Last
2. Hitchin' A Ride
3. The Grouch
4. Brain Stew
5. Jaded
6. Knowledge (Operation Ivy cover)
7. Chump
8. Longview
9. Basket Case
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