A few weeks ago we published a feature on ‘The Secret Gigs You’ll Wish You Could’ve Witnessed’ one of which was back in February last year when, “US pop-punk veterans Green Day decided to throw a surprise club show in Sydney at the eleventh hour.”
Crashing a gig that was being performed by Fremantle blues rockers Red Engine Caves, Green Day announced it on Twitter a mere half an hour before they Captain Cook’s stage, making it a truly special night for the lucky few hundred switched-on fans who got there in time.
Red Engine Caves got in touch to let us know they were in fact the band whose show was crashed, so we asked the killer trio to tell us about the surreal night when ‘Green Day crashed their gig’. Check it out below, and Perth crew: don’t miss the band when they play Whipper Snapper Distillery on June 13th. For more info visit their Facebook page… you never know who could show up!
We were packing up the van to head to the first date of our East Coast tour, a headline slot at The Captain Cook Hotel and get a phone call from a random number – it’s Green Day’s manager asking if they can use our gear as they’re planning a secret gig.
He said we absolutely couldn’t tell anyone about it as its not confirmed, so we try resist the temptation of jumping on our phones to let everyone back in Perth know about what the fuck just happened.
Leaving the house drunk and late as usual, we have the singer/babe Elfy from Angry Beige, the band opening for us, messaging us freaking out as we’ve missed the sound check by a mile. Someone in the car has a brain wave and remembers the cymbals we left on the couch back at home so we do U turn on freeway and race back to Bondi.
We finally get to the venue and load all the gear in, ask the sound guy what the deal is with this Green Day show – he’s not even sure what’s happening.
Two songs into our set, and we’re playing to an extremely over capacity full house and there’s people lined up down the street. They’d announced it on social media and literally within minutes the place was overflowing with bodies.
After our set, we go backstage with our guitars and there’s fucken Green Day, just chilling out on the couch, all three of them. They introduce themselves and we just hung out while their roadies set up the stage. They’re all pretty cool guys.
They go on stage and people are just losing it, like chicks are crying and shit.
Mid set, Billie Joe pokes his head through the curtain – “Anyone got a spare guitar?” he just snapped one of his strings, so grabs Ricky’s guitar and walks back out. There was this huge ice bucket full of beers just sitting there – so we help ourselves and finished them off between us, then the bar manager walks past and let us know that we just drank the whole of Green Day’s rider. Haha woops.
When they finished playing we hung out with them for a bit, just talking about music and stuff, meanwhile there are a million cameras flashing and people banging on the window from out on the street.
Out in the bar, there’s smashed glass everywhere, all the windows are completely fogged up and every other surface is dripping wet with human sweat and possibly other body fluids, the whole place was trashed and the crowd cleared out onto the street to try catch a glimpse of the band before they bailed.
They left through the back door to make a run for it back to their cars and were greeted by a sea of paparazzi and psycho fans who had circled the building. Once in their cars, there were people chasing after them down the street screaming, like proper rock star shit.
The next day we get an email from their manager saying that Billie Joe liked us so much that he wants to offer us a record deal on the label that he owns, not a bad start to the tour.
Upcoming Show
Saturday June 13th
Whipper Snapper Distillery
139 Kensington Street, East Perth
Facebook event
