After Covid shut the world down and postponed concerts all over, the Hella Mega Tour was the biggest show since 2019, and I was lucky enough to be there. This was also my first time at the new Globe Life Field in Arlington, but I'll get to that later.
I showed up "fashionably" late and completely missed the opening act, The Interrupters, but if you're touring with these guys you're doing something right so I wanted to mention them.
Apparently Weezer started their set with some of their new-er songs, I got there in time to hear some of their classics like "Beverly Hills", "My Name is Jonas" and one of my FAVORITES "El Scorcho". I was hoping they'd play El Scorcho just for the line "I asked you to go to the Green Day concert, you said you'd never heard of them" and trust me, after Rivers sang that line the whole band stopped and let the crowd react. It was fantastic. Not only were the songs great, the band was on their A-game. You could tell they were SO happy to be back in front of a crowd again, and like I mentioned in the beginning of this, Rivers made the announcement that this was the biggest show since 2019 (I think there were about 35k people in attendance). And a HUGE respectable shoutout to his new mullet.
Next up was Fall Out Boy, who I'll admit I wasn't really excited to see. Fall Out Boy was big during my high school years, so trust me when I say I had my fill of them back in the early 00's, or so I thought! Seeing them at Trees in Deep Ellum was WAY different than seeing them at a stadium. I was so proud to see them own the stage, and they had fire out the ASS! Pete even had a flamethrower on his bass, which was incredibly awesome. My favorite part was them playing throwback songs from their very first album, "A Little Less sixteen candles, a little more touch me" and "Grand Theft Autumn". Yes, I freaked out.
By the time my double vodka and 4+ beers started kicking in, Green Day hit the stage. Luckily, I filmed almost every song for 97.1 the Eagle's instagram so I was able to go back and really relive their show. Green Day brought the energy per usual, and showed why they were the ones headlining this amazing lineup of bands. They did mostly hits, I decided to use my bathroom break song on "Still Breathing" from their 2016 album, but seriously the bathroom break window was slim. Also an iconic moment, in straight Billy Joe fashion, he stopped down during their set, asked for the lights to show the crowd and said "Look around you, we NEED human contact".
Quickly I'll touch on this new venue, I was completely spoiled by iHeart, was in a suite WITH a bathroom and it was incredible. Parking wasn't horrible, although we paid $45 to get a spot near the stadium. If you want some drinks you're gonna pay a pretty penny. Two double vodka and sodas was about $50, and the beers were about $8 each. Sound? Expect some echo. I'm sure it sounded fine if you were closer to the stage, although not completely horrible.
TO CONCLUDE - It was hard to tell who had more fun at the Hella Mega Tour concert, the crowd or the bands. And THAT is the type of concert you want to attend.